Model Railway Journal
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timbowales
Western Thunderer
Interesting comment as I used BACS to pay them?
alastairq
Western Thunderer
I used to 'hate' WHS!
One moved into my local town.....Even though there existed a locally owned newsagents who stocked all my literary needs ...[They even stocked Model Railroader!! Plus, some Hornby, oddly]...as it happened, a mere couple of doors down the main street.
Footfall into WHS was a fraction of that into the local newsagents....apparently.
So personally, I shall not be inconvenienced by the demise of WHS. [Not all of WHS is going....]
As for MRJ? I rarely if ever got my fix of decent model railway press from WHS. In more recent years, the way WHS positioned these more niche magazines meant, for me , being over 6 foot tall, havgn to almost stand on my head to get to any relevant magazines.
RM, or Brumm, etc, I ignore....
I get my MRJ usually from Titfield. The extra postage means I don't have to make unnecessary, or frequent but futile, trips into one town or another.
{I am a rural dweller....by choice, made long long ago...Today, rents seem cheaper out in the sticks...]
One moved into my local town.....Even though there existed a locally owned newsagents who stocked all my literary needs ...[They even stocked Model Railroader!! Plus, some Hornby, oddly]...as it happened, a mere couple of doors down the main street.
Footfall into WHS was a fraction of that into the local newsagents....apparently.
So personally, I shall not be inconvenienced by the demise of WHS. [Not all of WHS is going....]
As for MRJ? I rarely if ever got my fix of decent model railway press from WHS. In more recent years, the way WHS positioned these more niche magazines meant, for me , being over 6 foot tall, havgn to almost stand on my head to get to any relevant magazines.
RM, or Brumm, etc, I ignore....
I get my MRJ usually from Titfield. The extra postage means I don't have to make unnecessary, or frequent but futile, trips into one town or another.
{I am a rural dweller....by choice, made long long ago...Today, rents seem cheaper out in the sticks...]
JimG
Western Thunderer
We don't have a WHS in my town. We used to have a good newsagent who stocked a good range of magazines, but they closed down some years ago. One source of magazines now is the big Tesco supermarket in the town centre who have a pretty good range of magazines including most of the railway modelling ones, but not MRJ.
Jim.
Jim.
Based on SOME of the above posts, because something is satisfactory for YOU because you are able bodied you can enforce your choice on the disabled and elderly or impoverished seems inherently unfair. Disabled without a smart phone you can’t use car park meters or obtain train tickets. As a disabled person of pensionable age I pay my regular bills by standing order as I get a discount over paying by cheque. With no computer just about every communication I receive requires email response, this requires endless hours talking to strange call centres. Why do I not use a computer? The words POST OFFICE SCANDAL may give a clue
I bet most of you guys never check the calculations on the payments you make.
Computers down, power outages, a Putin anchor severs a cable and the world stops.
All your “Free” emails have shafted the Royal Mail to those who depend on it. A first class stamp is nearly£2 as local banks have evaporated my recent£25 premium bond is reduced to £23 in real terms . Denmark is about to suspend its mail service. How long before I cannot have a hospital appt because I do not have a computer?
I am not against progress and innovation but any system must be universal rather than optional to those that can afford it. Thinking how your decisions affect others does determine what society we live in, but minority groups are always at a disadvantage to the decisions of the majority.
I bet most of you guys never check the calculations on the payments you make.
Computers down, power outages, a Putin anchor severs a cable and the world stops.
All your “Free” emails have shafted the Royal Mail to those who depend on it. A first class stamp is nearly£2 as local banks have evaporated my recent£25 premium bond is reduced to £23 in real terms . Denmark is about to suspend its mail service. How long before I cannot have a hospital appt because I do not have a computer?
I am not against progress and innovation but any system must be universal rather than optional to those that can afford it. Thinking how your decisions affect others does determine what society we live in, but minority groups are always at a disadvantage to the decisions of the majority.
daifly
Western Thunderer
Mathematics a bit suspect there Col!
Dave
timbowales
Western Thunderer
Hear hear!
Our local council have now made garden waste services available only to those who are internet connected! I'm dreading what tyey are going to do with Council tax renewals shortly
daifly
Western Thunderer
alastairq
Western Thunderer
I completely agree with that statement.
We seem to have arrived at a society where ''presumption'' rules.
Why is it, that those who can afford the latest technology [and know how to use it]...get all the cheapest prices?
This seems all ariis abaht face to me.
The poorest, or least well equipped, end up paying through the nose....
It's as if society is saying, the poorest, or least well equipped, don't actually matter?
Often the first question I get asked when making a purchase is, ''have you got our App [whatever an app is?]?
My first response is always, ''well, firstly, I would need a smartphone! Will your company give me one?''
Lidl are worst for it [much as I like Lidl, in preference to all the others]
Virgin money went over to completely app controlled some years ago. Couldn't even communicate using my PC!
When I asked them to give me a smartphone so I could operate my account, I got short shrift. So I promptly un-ticked that box they still had, about paper communications.....Now they have to send everything to me through the post! I don't have any account with them [any more]...so don't actually 'pay' for the privilege...I leave that to the better-off customers of theirs.
As it happens, I do have a smartphone....[it was almost as cheap as buying a Nokia brickphone...same company too!]......
I do all my banking [such as it is] using my PC.
I do all the requisite security updates, and don't have much in my accounts as it is....But, living solely off meagre work pensions as I do, I like to keep a daily check on proceeds.
Most stuff is paid by BACS or DD....Daily checks spotted how Sky tried to rob me blind, months after the contract ended...Purely a glitch on their behalf, no apologies, just a little bit of 'compensation' which wouldn't have got me much off the Peco website! However, if I hadn't made these daily checks, the whole thing could have gone on for months..and I don't have an income which could absorb such extravagences....
I am not computer-savvy, however.....Aside from Chrome, and a few old photos, I am fairly incompetent at using all the other stuff on my old PC.....I am hoping my family club together and get me a 'new' one when things microsoft go titzupp...
simond
Western Thunderer
I suspect you’d avoid that at present, the gas network seem to have dug up or be digging up all the roads from J10 except those to the south…. It is, according to my colleagues “chaos”.
simond
Western Thunderer
Yes me too.
simond
Western Thunderer
It’s simple economics.
Labour is expensive. (This is not a political statement!)
If people use smartphones, online banking, go cashless, business can rely on computers to do the work. This is much cheaper than paying people to do routine, mundane and potentially error prone jobs, particularly as the computers don’t make mistakes, don’t go to the loo, don’t want holidays, don’t demand pay rises, don’t go on strike, and work all day and all night.
if you want to stay in the last century, you will, I’m afraid, have to pay the additional people costs. The fewer people who want that, the fewer the costs can be spread over, and it will get to an unaffordable level. Indeed, for many businesses, it already has, hence the ”offshoring” that caused much anguish in the 90’s and noughties.
your call.
its tough for some, no doubt. But it’s just numbers.
Labour is expensive. (This is not a political statement!)
If people use smartphones, online banking, go cashless, business can rely on computers to do the work. This is much cheaper than paying people to do routine, mundane and potentially error prone jobs, particularly as the computers don’t make mistakes, don’t go to the loo, don’t want holidays, don’t demand pay rises, don’t go on strike, and work all day and all night.
if you want to stay in the last century, you will, I’m afraid, have to pay the additional people costs. The fewer people who want that, the fewer the costs can be spread over, and it will get to an unaffordable level. Indeed, for many businesses, it already has, hence the ”offshoring” that caused much anguish in the 90’s and noughties.
your call.
its tough for some, no doubt. But it’s just numbers.
Simond are you in the same world of at least some of us.?
What value is electronic banking to the visually impaired?
If you have had a stroke and need one good hand to hold a walking stick for support how do you hold and use a phone in a car park location?
Those who have lost their jobs go to the job centre and sign on for benefits……not political????
Have you EVER given a single thought to the overall pollution effect you are creating by using smartphones??????
I seek no more than to be kind and thoughtful to those around me.
What value is electronic banking to the visually impaired?
If you have had a stroke and need one good hand to hold a walking stick for support how do you hold and use a phone in a car park location?
Those who have lost their jobs go to the job centre and sign on for benefits……not political????
Have you EVER given a single thought to the overall pollution effect you are creating by using smartphones??????
I seek no more than to be kind and thoughtful to those around me.
simond
Western Thunderer
John,
I hope I too am kind and thoughtful, and caring of others.
My comments above are merely a reflection of “this is how it is & why”, I’m not offering a value judgement. You might infer from my posts over the years that I’m not altogether happy with some aspects of modern life, and in other aspects it suits me very well.
I would say, however, that the accessibility functions that smartphones can offer, including text to speech, and voice control, are truly amazing, and it is probably worth finding out if they would be of benefit to you, particularly if you’ve limited mobility.
I’m not sure that smartphones are the worst pollution problem we’re facing.
kind regards
Simon
I hope I too am kind and thoughtful, and caring of others.
My comments above are merely a reflection of “this is how it is & why”, I’m not offering a value judgement. You might infer from my posts over the years that I’m not altogether happy with some aspects of modern life, and in other aspects it suits me very well.
I would say, however, that the accessibility functions that smartphones can offer, including text to speech, and voice control, are truly amazing, and it is probably worth finding out if they would be of benefit to you, particularly if you’ve limited mobility.
I’m not sure that smartphones are the worst pollution problem we’re facing.
kind regards
Simon
simond
Western Thunderer
There was a case of an irate trawlerman writing his tax cheque on a fish.I also pay HMRC by BACS, but I’m sorely tempted to send them a wheelbarrow full of coins..
As far as I know that is legal, though I’m not sure that HMRC were obliged to accept it.
timbowales
Western Thunderer
We're suffering with an extreme case of thread drift here.......
adrian
Flying Squad
We're suffering with an extreme case of thread drift here.......
I was just thinking the same thing - almost tempted to post a link to the Samaritans. Whilst it's nice to have a gripe every now and again the world will move on for better or worse.