Achtung Fred Ist Verbotten

I spotted this classic bit of vandalism today on the Kirklee Bridge up in the west end.

I assume such an outstanding piece of workmanship could only have been constructed by a student as it seems to be beyond the usual level of ned capabitilies.

Poor Emo Blocks

I spotted this load of bricks looking all grumpy and emo at the back of Morrisons in Partick.

Poor think looks like it dreams of a better fate than being leaned on by students and jakes.

Snip Snap I Was having a Cra…

In an outstanding show of idiot power I’ve managed to snap the flushing handle on my toilet. I didn’t even press the thing that hard either; it just broke off as pressed it to flush the toilet. I hope this whole flat isn’t plotting to come down around my ears.

No I have no idea why I thought this worth a blog post. I must be strapped for material…

Zora Co Polski

Half a decade ago a man, who shall remain nameless, took out a loan with the dual purposes of paying off his mounting debts and establishing a degree of financial security so that he could escape a dead end job.  Unfortunately his plan backfired when the money cried out “spend me on TEH COMPU-TAE UPGRADEZ CHAMONE!”

Unable to tolerate being ordered around by his filthy lucre the man made his way to the famous FINNIESTON COMPUTER ZONE. His quest was a simple one: to find and purchase electronic bits and pieces to satiate the deadly upgrade monkey demon king that lived in his airing cupboard. Finally our intrepid hero discovered an obscure new computer shop called Zora Computers on Argyle Street.

This of course leads me onto the actual point of the story. Zora Computers, like so many who have tried to compete with Priceless Computing, has gone to that great computer bit drawer in the sky. The shop has lain empty for months, upon months, but all of a sudden a change has come upon it:

That’s right: it’s turned into a Polish grocer, and not just any Polish grocer: Najtanszy Polski Sklep Spozywczy. Now I don’t read or speak any Polish, but Google does and it reliably informs me that Zora computers is now “Polish Cheapest Grocery Store”. I don’t recall Finnieston having a vast Polish community. In my experience it’s mainly students and middle class professionals more than anything else. Still at least it’s one less closed and shuttered shop on that stretch.

A dziwne, czajnik ryb i nie pomyłka.

Clean Pants At Last

The great washing machine drought of 2009 has finally come to an end today!  The letting Agency has finally gotten around to replacing the old beat up wreck with a shiny new machine.

That doesn’t mean I rescind my previous comments however. It’s still unacceptable to be floating around for three weeks trying to get some kind of action, and it’s even less acceptable for them to spend three weeks lying about what they’re doing.

Still at least I can now complain in clean pants.

The New Funny Sign

I’ve been a bit disappointed lately by the sign on Sauchiehall Lane; it doesn’t seem to have been changed in months and it’s looking a bit decrepit now. Thankfully I have discovered a substitute in close proximity and here it is:

This board can be found on the corner of Bath Street and Elmbank Street outside The Griffin Pub and directly across from the King’s Theatre. The example above is far from the funniest example I’ve seen there. Hopefully I’ll manage to sneak past and photograph some better ones in future.

The Great Blizzard of Twenty-Ought-Nine

According to the Met Office last night was officially the coldest night of the winter so far. It was also one of the few times in recent memory that snow has actually fallen in any decent quantities on the West of Scotland.

I snapped a couple of photos with the camera phone on the way into The Work today showing the aftermath of yesterday’s blizzard.

I particularly liked these two snowmen that someone had put a lot of time in effort into:

Amazing to think they’ve just been chucked up on the pavement outside a chip shop on St. George’s Road. I’m annoyed I didn’t take my camera with me. It seems unlikely they’ll survive till tomorrow, but I’ll pack it just in case.

The Saga of Bjorn Washingmachinesson

I don’t know what’s going on with my letting agency, but I’m almost convinced they’re part of a psychological experiment designed to drive me mad.

It’s now over a fortnight since I told them my busted old washing machine had shuffled off the mortal coil, and they’ve still not done hee-haw about it. I’ve about reached the end of my tether with them as it seems clear they’re doing one of two things:

The various offices and their maintenance contractor are not actually talking to each other and information is being lost somewhere between them.

Or

They’re waging a Machiavellian war of nerves against me in the hopes that I get frustrated enough to get in my own repairman or even buy a whole new machine on my own.

The whole saga is getting more and more frustrating as time goes on.

Thursday 22^nd January – The washing machine produces an odd burning smell and stops spinning while loaded with two pairs of jeans. I crack the door open as I’m worried the whole thing will burst into flames. The jeans are soaking wet.

Friday 23^rd January – I phone the letting agents first thing in the morning and tell them the details. They tell me that a contactor will be out ASAP to take a look at it but that it will probably be Monday before they can make it.

Monday 26^th January – Arrive home after work and inspected the scene. No sign that anything has happened with the machine. It hasn’t been disturbed as far as I can tell, and there’s definitely no sign that anyone has had it out to look at it. Maybe they’re busy, I thought, I’ll give them to the end of tomorrow to do something about it.

Wednesday 28^th January – I figured that I had given them enough time and phoned up to find out what the hell was going on. The repair team at the agents told me that the job was with the contractor, but they would phone and check what was happening and give me a call back.

Thursday 29^th January – I’ve had no call back and so I decided to try the machine and see if they’ve maybe fixed it and not let me know. I load in a couple of tea towels and set it on the lightest setting. It fills up with water and sits there whirring away. The drum doesn’t move, and there’s an odd smell of burning rubber.

Friday 30^th January – I phone up the letting agent again, and they assure me that the instructions have been sent to the contractor, but they also admit that there’s no information on their system about the work being done. I ask them to check it out and give me a call back as it’s been over a week since the thing broke down and things are starting to smell in the flat. I take a break down in Ayrshire and my ever efficient Mum offers to do the washing for me to help out. I’m reluctant, but eventually agree and thank her for her assistance.

Monday 2^nd February – I check every minute detail of the machine to see if it’s been disturbed, but nothing’s happened at all that I can see.

Tuesday 3^rd February – I phone up and ask the letting agency what the hell is going on? They’re very apologetic of course and they check their system carefully. Seemingly the contractor has been out to look at the machine, last week, and found that it’s fine and working normally. No chance I say, and I tell them I’m going to try it that night and check. They say it might be the age of the machine that’s a problem, and the repair team say that they will consult with my property manager about the possibility of replacing the machine. I ask them to give me a phone back and make a point of giving them my mobile number, work number and home number so that they can get me. I try a couple of polo shirts in the machine when I get in from work, and it refuses to spin. The shirts are choked with washing powder and utterly sodden. I have to hang them over the bath to avoid flooding the kitchen with the runoff.

Wednesday 4^th February – Phone up again to complain about their utter lack of action. They tell me that my property manager is off sick that day and is the only one that can sign off on the replacement of appliances etc. I say I’ll phone back tomorrow, and again ask them to give me a call and let me know what the hell is going on.

Friday 6^th February – Still heard nothing from the letting agents. I phone up to try and get the property manager, but he or she is out at a property viewing. The person on the phone assures me that a message will be left and that the property manager will phone me back. When I don’t get a phone call I ask if I can leave work early and head down to their office in an effort to put the boot in. This is instantly scuppered by a comedy of errors on the part of my boss means that I don’t get there until after it closes.

Monday 9^th February – I phone up again and demand to know what the hell is going on, but I as much as get told I’ve phoned the wrong office. I ask the person on the end of the phone to get my property manager. They’re unavailable at present of course. I demand that something be done ASAP about the washing machine and they assure me that they’ll get right on it and phone me back. I give them my mobile number yet again and a promise that I’ll be phoning every day until the thing is fixed or replaced.

It’s lunchtime already, and three hours since I phoned the bastards. They better pull something fairly spectacular out of their ass before finishing time.

The Washing Rage

Well it’s been over a week and the letting agency hasn’t even managed to come out and take a look at my antiquated, broken down washing machine. It’s just this kind of behaviour that makes me all the more determined to start up that landlord review website that I posted about a while ago.

They’ve assured me that it will be handled as soon as possible, and that they’ll phone me back when they get hold of the repair contractor. That was yesterday morning though and I don’t hold out much hope of it being fixed this weekend.

The Mental Rental Review

In spite of Mr. McDowall’s warnings I think there is a clear case for the creation of a website that allows members of the public to review landlords and letting agencies. It would also contain information on all the landlords reviewed: contact details, hidden charges, checkout procedures and any other pertinent information. What I’m proposing is effectively a combination of a site like S1rentals with a feedback system like the kind found on eBay an it’s ilk. The letting agencies and landlords pay a fee to advertise their properties, but on the understanding that they can and will be subject to review by their tenants. It may even extend as far as reviewing individual properties: imagine if you knew in advance that the flat upstairs had laminate flooring and was occupied by the entire Russian folk and tap dancing team. It might make you think twice about moving into the flat in the first place. Sure this might make it impossible to let some properties, but then what’s to stop the landlord getting shot of the property or doing something about the problem.

Personally I think this would have several major benefits:

Firstly someone entering the rental market for the first time would have a place to go for information about their prospective landlord. They could see up front how good, or bad the company or individual was. They would also have access to information that’s not generally given by the letting agencies and landlords themselves. They’ll be able to see in advance if they’ll be charged a fee to extend their lease and if the landlord has a habit of increasing the rent by a fixed percentage every six months or a year. They’ll also be able to see comments from other users about

I also think that the presence of an independent review system would lead to the letting agents bucking their ideas up a bit. People would be able to see who the better landlords were, and as a result they would tend to favour them. People looking to rent out their properties through letting agents would be able to see the more reputable ones as well, and as a result the cowboys would either buck up their ideas or face being choked out of the market.

Naturally there could be downsides to this idea, and I think that Mr. McDowall’s objections are well founded. We live in an age where half the population are willing to sue over the fact that they only got two sliced gherkins in their Big Macs. It’s a big risk to create a forum that could easily degenerate into a forum filled with potentially libellous comments and information. The internet is a notoriously lawless place where people often feel free to say what they like, but I can’t find any mention of there being explicit protection for websites which act as a forum for comments by users. This page covers the subject in some detail for the United States, but the in the UK the law is typically vague.

I assume that there will be some implied, or even explicit legal requirement for someone running the website to police their users. Liable laws naturally exist to protect the reputations of companies and individuals from malicious intent, but would a website like the one I propose be liable itself for being the point of publishing for such information? In principle I don’t think so. I think the liability and criminal or civil penalties would lie with the individual responsible for posting them.

If the likes of eBay, Amazon and play.com can all include review systems both about individual products and third parties that sell through their sites why can’t there be a website that provides a similar service for the rental market.