The All New Gripes Thread

[sonnetpete]

When I order an item, I get a tracking number which tells me which courier is handling the shipment.

Yes, I do.. however my post said 'method of dispatch your seller is going to use'. I.E. It would be nice to know in advance the courier and then avoid that seller if he uses.....perhaps Chronopost..

 

[pgh13]

Didn't realise you were taking one of the longer routes. How does the extra time taken to drive compare with the extra time of the crossing? And the extra time for officialdom...

If you're going for the western side of France then I can quite imagine that there's a saving. But if you're going south, or southeast as we do, then I worked this out some time ago that the short crossing is best for us.

Your logic works for your journey, but for us it's 6 hrs from Calais against 2.5 hrs from Caen, but the Caen crossing takes 6 hours, so end to end there isn't much difference in time. From Calais, there is extra fuel cost plus tolls also to consider. It's really just the dog's dinner that is Portsmouth that rankles.

 

[sonnetpete]

Your logic works for your journey, but for us it's 6 hrs from Calais against 2.5 hrs from Caen, but the Caen crossing takes 6 hours, so end to end there isn't much difference in time. From Calais, there is extra fuel cost plus tolls also to consider. It's really just the dog's dinner that is Portsmouth that rankles.

Not sure which way you're heading from Caen, but have you tried Poole - Cherbourg? Brittany Ferries say it's less then 5 hours on the ferry and I'd think Poole is less crowded than Portsmouth. If your 2.5 hrs car journey is to Brittany, there's always Plymouth to St.Malo or Roscoff. They are long crossings, the one to Roscoff overnight I think..

 

[pgh13]

Not sure which way you're heading from Caen, but have you tried Poole - Cherbourg? Brittany Ferries say it's less then 5 hours on the ferry and I'd think Poole is less crowded than Portsmouth. If your 2.5 hrs car journey is to Brittany, there's always Plymouth to St.Malo or Roscoff. They are long crossings, the one to Roscoff overnight I think..

Thanks for the suggestions. We're half way between Rennes and Angers, so Roscoff is too far out of the way. We tend to travel overnight and get a cabin when heading to France, which limits to Caen or St Malo. I suppose it's really the return journey where Portmouth is annoying; Maybe give Cherbourg - Poole another go

 

[sonnetpete]

We're half way between Rennes and Angers

Ah...somewhere around Chateaubriant? I used to find Cherbourg easy enough to get in and out of, though it's a bit of a slog before you get to the autoroute. Has been made easier over the past few years when they upgraded most of the main road from St.Lo up to Cherbourg to dual carriageway.

 

[Archive7]

Yes, I do.. however my post said 'method of dispatch your seller is going to use'. I.E. It would be nice to know in advance the courier and then avoid that seller if he uses.....perhaps Chronopost..

I asked Amazon if they can give me an option to select my preferred courier and their reply was that they have no control on which courier would take care of the shipment and that they let THE SYSTEM decides.
Looks like robots have the upper hand in such matters.

Edit:
Here is Amazon exact reply, FYI

"We would love to help you additionally and send the order with UPS, but carriers cannot be chosen manually, not even from the customer service interface, since the availability of a certain carrier at a certain time can never be 100% guaranteed - so the carriers are automatically chosen by Amazon. Certain countries have certain carriers that are often chosen and certain carriers are often associated with a certain shipping method"

 

[pgh13]

Ah...somewhere around Chateaubriant? I used to find Cherbourg easy enough to get in and out of, though it's a bit of a slog before you get to the autoroute. Has been made easier over the past few years when they upgraded most of the main road from St.Lo up to Cherbourg to dual carriageway.

Yes, about 20 mins from there. I've gone via Cherbourg, maybe, 4 times over the years and it was definitely improved the last time, a couple of years ago.

 

[sonnetpete]

Certain countries have certain carriers that are often chosen and certain carriers are often associated with a certain shipping method

But if they are sure that a 'certain carrier' is going to be used, why can't they tell the buyer which one? For instance, I'd rather find another seller or somewhere else to buy the item rather than suffer Chronopost..

 

[rolfw]

Your logic works for your journey, but for us it's 6 hrs from Calais against 2.5 hrs from Caen, but the Caen crossing takes 6 hours, so end to end there isn't much difference in time. From Calais, there is extra fuel cost plus tolls also to consider. It's really just the dog's dinner that is Portsmouth that rankles.

I use Newhaven - Dieppe, LDLines, five hour trip, usually the 11pm sailing on the way over, but exit from the ports is normally quite quick, they used to sail from Portsmoth to LeHavre, but no longer. LDLines is certainly more reasonably priced than the others, even better now I've bought myself a 2004 RAV4 to use rather than the van for most journeys.

 

[PaulR]

Hope the RAV4 has cruise control Rolf. I would hate to go back to life without it now.

 

[rolfw]

Hope the RAV4 has cruise control Rolf. I would hate to go back to life without it now.

It doesn't Paul, but apparently it is possible to retro fit, simply by buying the control, cutting a hole for it and connecting to the unused connector. May not get it done in time for my August trip, but will do it in the near future. I have it on my van and have to say that I use it all the time on the French motorways and dual carriageways, I have also added a HUD unit for showing the speed clearly in kilometres, works really well.

 

[sonnetpete]

I have cruise control on the Dacia but never use it. Maybe next year when we plan to drive down to Girona..

 

[Archive-8]

Is cruse control the same as overdrive?

 

[Lazarus]

No.

Overdrive was a torque conversion technique that had the same effect as an extra gear.

I had it on my beloved Spitfire 1500.

 

[sonnetpete]

Overdrive was a torque conversion technique that had the same effect as an extra gear.

I had it on my beloved Spitfire 1500.

Had overdrive on my MGB GT though the clutch slipped and I rarely got to use it. On the other hand, I'm still getting used to the fact the Dacia has six gears...

 

[Lazarus]

Five forward, plus reverse ....... ?

 

[PaulR]

...I'm still getting used to the fact the Dacia has six gears...

Doesn't stop me trying to change to a non-existent 7th gear from time to time though.

 

[sonnetpete]

Five forward, plus reverse ....... ?

Hmm, maybe I should have said 7 (reverse plus six forward)

 

[Analoguesat]

We are now 2 weeks into the school summer holidays up here. What this means in practise is that tesco is over run with yummy mummies and their bloody offspring all of whom seem to run riot - the ym's look on adoringly whilst the brats use the aisles as racetracks,& generally get in the way of grumpy old bastards like me who want to be out the damn shop as fast as possible. There was one toddler yesterday zooming around on a push along tractor thing two aisles away from where ym was chatting to her equally useless friend.

I got a dig in the ribs from the missus when I suggested under my breath the kids should go and play with the traffic on the A7

 

[Lazarus]

Do they wear pyjamas?