The "Complaints 'R' Us, complaint thread"

kyoto kid · April 2018

DanaTA said:

kyoto kid said:

DanaTA said:

kyoto kid said:

Chohole said:

Mistara said:

TangoAlpha said:

Complaint: got a letter from the governmint saying I won't get my pension for an extra two years.

is that legal?

Yes, the government changed the rules.

..happening on this side of the pond as well. Fortunately I am "grandfathered" in.

Pension and SS are not the same thing.

Dana

..essentially they are as being on SS I am considerd as being a "pensioner" by other nations.

Pensions are run by a company, not the government, and are offered only to those who worked for the subscribing company. The pension provider decides at what age you can start collecting your monthy payments. For some that can be as soon as you have worked 20 years and retire from that company. As such, some people can collect their pensions at a pretty young age. What the government decides is retirement age is different from that. How you are, or are not, taxed on that will depend on the government, but it doesn't mean you can't collect your pension. What other governments consider you is beside the point. You are not in those other countries. And that is pretty much a coloquial term, applied to anyone retired I would think. I imagine that they'd call a person who no longer works a pensioner even if he collected no pension and no SS or equivalent, but rather simply has his own "nest egg" that he stashed away over the years, or is wealthy as a result of his working life.

Dana

...aside from government positions there are few "true" private pensions anymore these days. The railroads are one a couple unions (I have a friend who collects one form Boeing through the Aerospace Workers Union) are another. Pretty much most other privately funded "retirement" plans have gone over to 401k's, where the employee must kick in a portion each month (not unlike SS, but with more risk) or simply ceased to exist.

...and yes I use the term colloquially.

kyoto kid · April 2018

...rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain. Fortunately not so much wind as was predicted (that part of the storm pretty much stayed out to sea).

Temperature dropped from 66° at midnight to 47° currently. Maybe the low 50s tomorrow then 70° on Monday before going back to 50s and rain the rest of the week, Playing havoc on the bones and joints.

DanaTA · April 2018

kyoto kid said:

DanaTA said:

kyoto kid said:

DanaTA said:

kyoto kid said:

Chohole said:

Mistara said:

TangoAlpha said:

Complaint: got a letter from the governmint saying I won't get my pension for an extra two years.

is that legal?

Yes, the government changed the rules.

..happening on this side of the pond as well. Fortunately I am "grandfathered" in.

Pension and SS are not the same thing.

Dana

..essentially they are as being on SS I am considerd as being a "pensioner" by other nations.

Pensions are run by a company, not the government, and are offered only to those who worked for the subscribing company. The pension provider decides at what age you can start collecting your monthy payments. For some that can be as soon as you have worked 20 years and retire from that company. As such, some people can collect their pensions at a pretty young age. What the government decides is retirement age is different from that. How you are, or are not, taxed on that will depend on the government, but it doesn't mean you can't collect your pension. What other governments consider you is beside the point. You are not in those other countries. And that is pretty much a coloquial term, applied to anyone retired I would think. I imagine that they'd call a person who no longer works a pensioner even if he collected no pension and no SS or equivalent, but rather simply has his own "nest egg" that he stashed away over the years, or is wealthy as a result of his working life.

Dana

...aside from government positions there are few "true" private pensions anymore these days. The railroads are one a couple unions (I have a friend who collects one form Boeing through the Aerospace Workers Union) are another. Pretty much most other privately funded "retirement" plans have gone over to 401k's, where the employee must kick in a portion each month (not unlike SS, but with more risk) or simply ceased to exist.

...and yes I use the term colloquially.

Government workers here get pensions. Politicians get pensions. I have a pension (enough to pay one of the smaller bills I have) from ILGWU, from the years I worked in the shipping rooms of a couple of garment factories. It's not much.

I think big business just keeps getting richer and richer. The owners don't have 401K plans, they get guaranteed money. And 401K plans are not always supplemented by the employer. When I worked at COMDEX (lastly known as Key3Media Events) they were great. They put in 3% of my salary whether or not I funded it, and matched my input dollar for dollar up to another 3%. So I was getting 9% put into it. But my next job didn't put anything in at all, it was all on me. Sadly, I had to cash in each of them during rough times.

Dana

DanaTA · April 2018

kyoto kid said:

...rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain. Fortunately not so much wind as was predicted (that part of the storm pretty much stayed out to sea).

Temperature dropped from 66° at midnight to 47° currently. Maybe the low 50s tomorrow then 70° on Monday before going back to 50s and rain the rest of the week, Playing havoc on the bones and joints.

Spring Break: Weather Gone Wild!

Dana

kyoto kid · April 2018

...and I left the Midwest to get away from these day to day extremes.

Mistara · April 2018

tee heee yeah a bit aged. sonic screwdrivers, one's bigger

Richard Haseltine · April 2018

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

The amount does rise, recently it's been running ahead of inflation, but no it is not as much as is geenrally thought to be needed (I believe the advice is to aim for £25,000 PA, though I'm not sure if that includes a buffer for inflation).

LeatherGryphon · April 2018

atticanne said:

LeatherGryphon said:

Complaint: Tummy trouble.

Non-complaint: I finally found something to buy in the March Madness sale despite it being well into April.

'Nother non-complaint: I'm thinking about getting a take-out of liver & onions from a restaurant in the nearest village. They make HUGE meals. I mean the plates are large, the food is piled on, and the prices aren't bad. I don't know how they stay in business. The local fat people camp out there, but I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg. Regardless, the liver & onions is the only meal I ever get from there, the atmosphere is dirty 1960s, dark wood, dark lighting, red rug, Italian mood, floor to ceiling laticework booths, with red plastic upholstery on the benches, and candles in crackled glass vases sheathed in white plastic nets on the table. Stuck in time they are. But a liver & onions take-out meal from there with big baked potato, salad & bread, provides me with four quite satisfying meals over the next several days. And the liver is cut quite thick and there's three huge pieces of it, along with several pieces of bacon and an apple ring and drowning in piles of sweet cooked onions, and I LOVE liver & onions. All for $15

Do you think they could deliver an order to me? I love liver and onions. Nobody else in my family will eat them.

Anything's possible, but it wouldn't be for $15. Freezing, packing, shipping, etc. And besides, to my horror, when I picked up my meal last night I discovered that the price had risen to $16.50 So..., unless you're really desperate, it's more liverless nights for you. But just to affirm,... I've tested it again and it's still really really yummy.

I don't get liver & onions very often (about 2 or 3 times a year) but I think I get a hankering for it when my body says it needs a big injection of cholesterol. And I think liking liver is one of those things that is genetic. Like being able to smell asparagus. Either you do, or you don't.

LeatherGryphon · April 2018

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

Egads, that's about half what I get from my SS and I have to pay $175/month for MediCare and leftover medical expenses from that. I paid heavily into SS while working and in many of the later years reached the limit of what I could pay-in several months before the year was out. And even though I started collecting SS at 62 at a reduced payback rate I make enough to stay dry, warm, fed, and entertained. But with a 15 year old car, remaining mobile is yet to be determined.

I had a couple opportunities for pensions. I blew the first one when I left the company before I was vetted. I blew the 2nd opportunity when I left that think tank in 1995 at age 47 as a healthy bodybuilder/biker, withdrew my accumulated pension money, bought a new & bigger motorcycle, travelled around the US. Then visited Austraila and Europe a couple times, then rejoined the working sods for a few more years. So, I'm left with only my SS. It's my fault but I have no regrets. If I hadn't reached the bottom of the financial barrel I wouldn't have learned how to temper my desires and style of living and would have blown through my pension in way too short a period anyway. This way I had a great adventure, and I have stories forever. So far, I can make it on what the government hands back to me. If I'd waited until I actually retired to then decide to fritter away my pension money I would have been a crippled old man, too feeble to go on exhausting athletic adventures and would have joined the flocks of ancient people on cruise ships tottering to the free food table.

TangoAlpha · April 2018

Richard Haseltine said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

The amount does rise, recently it's been running ahead of inflation, but no it is not as much as is geenrally thought to be needed (I believe the advice is to aim for £25,000 PA, though I'm not sure if that includes a buffer for inflation).

It rises by about 2.5% a year. But it's still only around half the minimum wage.

Richard Haseltine · April 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

Egads, that's about half what I get from my SS and I have to pay $175/month for MediCare and leftover medical expenses from that.

Well, we don't have to pay for doctor and hospital visits, and those over the pension age don't pay prescription charges, so the conmparison isn't exact.

kyoto kid · April 2018

Richard Haseltine said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

The amount does rise, recently it's been running ahead of inflation, but no it is not as much as is geenrally thought to be needed (I believe the advice is to aim for £25,000 PA, though I'm not sure if that includes a buffer for inflation).

...here in the States, yearly SS living cost adjustments are pathetic and spotty. We didn't even have one last year. When we do get one it doesn't nearly keep pace with rising costs particularly, Medicare premiums (we have to pay for our healthcare even when we get old here). Starting next year, out of the 970$ per month (projected) I will receive, I'll have to come up with 134$ for healthcare (Medicare Part B) premiums (plus uncovered costs like prescriptions and inpatient expenses), not sure how I'm going to manage that on top of rent (which is about half my monthly benefit) and utilities.

This is why I say that these days, the "golden years" are a myth.

Mistara · April 2018

too cold to open windows. was April always this cold?

hug for warms

LeatherGryphon · April 2018

kyoto kid said:

Richard Haseltine said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

The amount does rise, recently it's been running ahead of inflation, but no it is not as much as is geenrally thought to be needed (I believe the advice is to aim for £25,000 PA, though I'm not sure if that includes a buffer for inflation).

...here in the States, yearly SS living cost adjustments are pathetic and spotty. We didn't even have one last year. When we do get one it doesn't nearly keep pace with rising costs particularly, Medicare premiums (we have to pay for our healthcare even when we get old here). Starting next year, out of the 970$ per month (projected) I will receive, I'll have to come up with 134$ for healthcare (Medicare Part B) premiums (plus uncovered costs like prescriptions and inpatient expenses), not sure how I'm going to manage that on top of rent (which is about half my monthly benefit) and utilities.

This is why I say that these days, the "golden years" are a myth.

Before last year's pathetic SS increase, I don't believe we had had an increase for at least two years. Last year's increase in SS monthly gross payment was offset by the increase in the automatically deducted MediCare fees. So my actual monthly net "take-home" amount was $1 less than the previous year. They just took my raise and gave it directy to the insurance companies and charged me a dollar for the privilege of watching them do it. (*sigh*) Meanwhile my grocery bill has gone up by about 15%. Although gas has gone down by about 11% But most importantly the average DAZ item price continues to creep ever higher, and the sales get ever less inviting. But on the plus side, not buying things from DAZ has saved me a lot of money this past year.

Mistara · April 2018

deciding if my aiko 7 needs a new luxury bikini

TSasha Smith · April 2018

A minor complaint that seems big to me right now. I got that feeling that I need to pee soon.

TSasha Smith · April 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

A minor complaint that seems big to me right now. I got that feeling that I need to pee soon.

I feel better but I said too much information, I think.

edit Original complaint should have been my Amazon music app refused to work correctly, but the other complaint seemed more important at the time.

kyoto kid · April 2018

LeatherGryphon said:

kyoto kid said:

Richard Haseltine said:

DanaTA said:

TangoAlpha said:

Amounts to between £122 and £159 a week -- equivalent to about $160-$210 US -- depending on the number of years of contributions and whether you opted out of something called SERPS (State Earnings Related Pension Scheme). But I won't be eligible for that for another 10 and a half years.

Gee, I hope your expenses are low when you get there. That's not very much. Especially considering that everything will likely be more expensive by the time you reach the goal. Yikes. I couldn't make it on that right now.

Dana

The amount does rise, recently it's been running ahead of inflation, but no it is not as much as is geenrally thought to be needed (I believe the advice is to aim for £25,000 PA, though I'm not sure if that includes a buffer for inflation).

...here in the States, yearly SS living cost adjustments are pathetic and spotty. We didn't even have one last year. When we do get one it doesn't nearly keep pace with rising costs particularly, Medicare premiums (we have to pay for our healthcare even when we get old here). Starting next year, out of the 970$ per month (projected) I will receive, I'll have to come up with 134$ for healthcare (Medicare Part B) premiums (plus uncovered costs like prescriptions and inpatient expenses), not sure how I'm going to manage that on top of rent (which is about half my monthly benefit) and utilities.

This is why I say that these days, the "golden years" are a myth.

Before last year's pathetic SS increase, I don't believe we had had an increase for at least two years. Last year's increase in SS monthly gross payment was offset by the increase in the automatically deducted MediCare fees. So my actual monthly net "take-home" amount was $1 less than the previous year. They just took my raise and gave it directy to the insurance companies and charged me a dollar for the privilege of watching them do it. (*sigh*) Meanwhile my grocery bill has gone up by about 15%. Although gas has gone down by about 11% But most importantly the average DAZ item price continues to creep ever higher, and the sales get ever less inviting. But on the plus side, not buying things from DAZ has saved me a lot of money this past year.

...where I live housing costs continue to skyrocket. Petrol is one of the criteria they use, but not rent as it's assumed most of our generation are home owners. More people became renters instead of home owners due the recession and the "American Dream" today means just being able to afford a roof over your head. Here rents went up an average of 11% (again) which means for myself I'm already 8% in the hole in a big way before other costs.

kyoto kid · April 2018

Miss Bad Wolf said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

A minor complaint that seems big to me right now. I got that feeling that I need to pee soon.

I feel better but I said too much information, I think.

...a former member here, Conniecat used to mention that a lot.

LeatherGryphon · April 2018

kyoto kid said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

Miss Bad Wolf said:

A minor complaint that seems big to me right now. I got that feeling that I need to pee soon.

I feel better but I said too much information, I think.

...a former member here, Conniecat used to mention that a lot.

If you have a free afternoon, ask a 70 year old man about pee problems.

kyoto kid · April 2018

...especially one who drinks a lot of tea.

LeatherGryphon · April 2018

Non-complaint: Just a short report to say that the liver & onions made another excellent meal today.

Complaint: However, again I'm confronted with a baked potato wrapped in aluminum foil. Note to cheap restaurant cook: I don't mind if you cook the potato in foil, although I really would rather you didn't, but don't send the friggin' thing to the table with the foil still on the potato. No, I don't want to remove it myself, and please, please don't cut it for me with the foil still on the potato because I really don't want to get a tiny piece between my teeth. I realize that aluminum foil was still new and exciting back in the '50s & '60s but it has lost its newness and is now sooo last century. Get a little bit of sophistication and drop the foil habit, please! Thank you for the excellent liver.

kyoto kid · April 2018

...on a more serious note. AsI mentioned I managed to pick up teh 5 device Norton for 19$ & change. Now comes the matter of install. As thre is no longer a DVD with the programme on it (only the activation key) one has to install from a remote server. This of course makes me a little concerned for at least from my perspective, going online without protection is about as sensible as dumping a bunch of Calcium Carbide in a bathtub full of water in a small enclosed room and then striking a match. Windows protection? Well I liken that to a screen door on an ISS airlock. I am told that there is a guarantee that if any infection hits it will be fixed, but what about rasomware? Not many fixes for that except payment and even then that is not a certainty you will get he proper decryption code.

OK so I'm being a bit paranoid but I do read tech journals and there are a lot of nasty things out there in the digital aether.

Now again my work system currently is being protected by the Norton security suite offered through the old ISP provider I had at the other location. That account has been closed for nearly a year but for some reason the Norton protection they offered is not only still functioning, but updating, even though I have been with with a completely different provider for the last six or so months which doesn't offer the AV service.

So my thought is to go ahead and install the new Norton on this system (which already has full protection) then bring up the second system and install one of the 5 nodes to it from this system. That way I will way I will have a second protected system to online with for any troubleshooting when old system is being taken apart to upgrade the various components (which includes installing W7 Pro so I can use all 24 GB of memory). This of course means wiping the C; Drive and doing a fresh install of not only he OS but all my programmes (the installers for which have already been backed up). This will also delete the Norton AV previously installed and require a clean install of it as well.

So, the question I have, would I be able to perform a clean install on the reformatted C: drive on the older machine form the other system (which has it installed) without having to so so online?

Mistara · April 2018

some days are Tea days, some are whiskey days

kyoto kid · April 2018

...Will you have whiskey with your water
Or sugar with your tea
What are these crazy questions
That they're asking of me

kyoto kid · April 2018

...so anyone else here having issues purchasing things over on Rendo? I keep getting my card rejected because of some sort of fraud warning.

Just did an order here and no issue whatsoever.

Mistara · April 2018

no rhymes for luksusowa

experimenting with ies lights in carrara. liking it so far

doh, forgot to turn on caustics

Aiko 7 wants to try on her new luxury bikini

LeatherGryphon · April 2018

kyoto kid said:

...on a more serious note. AsI mentioned I managed to pick up teh 5 device Norton for 19$ & change. Now comes the matter of install. As thre is no longer a DVD with the programme on it (only the activation key) one has to install from a remote server. This of course makes me a little concerned for at least from my perspective, going online without protection is about as sensible as dumping a bunch of Calcium Carbide in a bathtub full of water in a small enclosed room and then striking a match. Windows protection? Well I liken that to a screen door on an ISS airlock. I am told that there is a guarantee that if any infection hits it will be fixed, but what about rasomware? Not many fixes for that except payment and even then that is not a certainty you will get he proper decryption code.

OK so I'm being a bit paranoid but I do read tech journals and there are a lot of nasty things out there in the digital aether.

Now again my work system currently is being protected by the Norton security suite offered through the old ISP provider I had at the other location. That account has been closed for nearly a year but for some reason the Norton protection they offered is not only still functioning, but updating, even though I have been with with a completely different provider for the last six or so months which doesn't offer the AV service.

So my thought is to go ahead and install the new Norton on this system (which already has full protection) then bring up the second system and install one of the 5 nodes to it from this system. That way I will way I will have a second protected system to online with for any troubleshooting when old system is being taken apart to upgrade the various components (which includes installing W7 Pro so I can use all 24 GB of memory). This of course means wiping the C; Drive and doing a fresh install of not only he OS but all my programmes (the installers for which have already been backed up). This will also delete the Norton AV previously installed and require a clean install of it as well.

So, the question I have, would I be able to perform a clean install on the reformatted C: drive on the older machine form the other system (which has it installed) without having to so so online?

After the third read I think I understand what you're trying to do and what you're asking. And as far as I know, the answer is yes. But there is a caveat...

Since on machine #1 you already have a Norton security product of dubious state you may run into difficulty with installation. I believe the installer will ask if you want to remove the old product, but it may not, in which case you could end up with two products. My recommendation is to download (sorry, its the only way you can get it) the "Norton Removal Tool" (aka: "Norton Remove and Reinstall Tool") to clean up your system. If you have already downloaded your NortonSecurity product and have it in pre-install format on your drive you can run the removal tool to uninstall your old Norton version and abort out of the "reinstall" part of the process. You can find more information about the "Remove and Reinstall Tool" from the link below. You can try to let it do the "Reinstall" part but I've never done it so I can't say that it does exactly what you want: https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v60392881_EndUserProfile_en_us NOTE: See line item #5 on that page for note about Norton products provided by your ISP.

I highly recommend the removal tool for cleaning up the mess that multiple past versions of Norton may have made on your drive and your registry.

After you are satisfied that your new verison of NortonSecurity is up and running I believe you can use it as a source for installing on another local machine. Failing that, you could just manually copy the original installer over to the next machine and install it from that.

In any case, I think you do need to initially have contact with the network to activate your installed product. After that I don't believe it requires continual network contact except for virus definition upgrades. However, I may be wrong, you might be able to enter a key directly into a newly installed product and not have to register it at the Norton site, but I'm always online so I've never needed to worry about that.

I'm pretty sure you can do all this manually by copying the originally downloaded installation package, but if you have (or establish) a personal account on the Norton website you can do all of your Norton license assignments, license removals and license transfers from your account's control panel. No more calling up the help desk to have them transfer a license to a new machine for you. You're free to move your licenses around as much as you want to. They even work for the Android's Norton security product too.

kyoto kid · April 2018

...OK, I actually do have a copy of Norton removal tool. Needed to DL it as there were some difficulties a couple years ago when I I needed to fix the version I had on here back then.

So once the new version is installed on this system I'll then have an installer locally to transfer to the other one.

I just would like to do this without having to deal with someone for whom to English is a second (or third?) language and is under pressure to upsell me other services.

TSasha Smith · April 2018

I am trying to figure out how to deal with a LGBT+ type character in my story. The character is actually a hermaphrodite but I found out some people are offended by that term.

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