A bit of a doubler here on the old blog today as there's a couple of things on my mind at the moment.
So let's start with scrap vans. Is the emergence of the scrap van just a County Durham phenomonan, or are they region or even nationwide ? There certainly seems to be a huge number of them around our little it of County Durham and not a day goes by when there's not one in our street. Amazingly, when I was out for a run yesterday morning, I saw 3 of them and I was out just over an hour. Is there really that much scrap around that it's keeping them all in business, who knows ! I know that there's a lot of them around Easington Lane and that there possibly not the sort of people that you'd mess with, but I still don't see where the money is and they must cover an awful lot of miles. I'm not really that sure that many of the vehicles are quite that roadworthy either as they always look quite mature and seem to have various bits hanging off from all sorts of locations. There even seems to be a bit of an un-written rule about where you leave the scrap in your property so that its ok for them to take it - it's like County Durham's very own ebay, but without the technology !
It does seem a really strange little business and I'm not quite sure just how legit it really is and I'd love to know if its just a local thing or are they all over the place ?
And so we skip neatly from what seems to be a dodgy industry into something that's just money for old rope. In general, I hate being ripped off and I always find buying tickets for concerts etc a real pain in the arse. It's just a real money for money kind of industry that people just shouldn't accept in this day and age of price reductions, vouchers and special offers. I always try and avoid buying tickets via websites, especially Ticketmaster as I just think they are complete rip off merchants. There's a fee for just about everything they do and it really boils my water as they earn money for nothing. My last concert ticket experience was really good as I went to the box office at Newcastle Arena in person and didn't pay over the odds at all, although there was a small fee to pay with a credit card and I'll always try and do this wherever I can. I don't mind paying a small fee, but when you're looking at something over a fiver a ticket, it's just ripping people off.
So, when we were after tickets for the athletics at Gateshead Stadium in June, my first thought was to contact the stadium directly as the website for the event led you to the predictable Ticketmaster. Sadly, there was no way around buying the tickets other than via Ticketmaster and reluctantly, I ploughed my way through the website and much to my annoyance I've ended up with credit card fees, booking fees and the best one was that they even charge you extra to get your tickets. The best being that they charge you £1.50 to print the tickets off at home and that's their cheapest option. So hang on, I have to pay you £1.50 to print the tickets off at home on my own printer with the printer ink that I've paid for !!! It's just a total rip off and it really boils me as we shouldn't have to pay such crappy charges, but it won't put me off enjoying the athletics, but it will make me even more determined to avoid the rip off that is Ticketmaster wherever I can - let's hope they read this !!!
So let's start with scrap vans. Is the emergence of the scrap van just a County Durham phenomonan, or are they region or even nationwide ? There certainly seems to be a huge number of them around our little it of County Durham and not a day goes by when there's not one in our street. Amazingly, when I was out for a run yesterday morning, I saw 3 of them and I was out just over an hour. Is there really that much scrap around that it's keeping them all in business, who knows ! I know that there's a lot of them around Easington Lane and that there possibly not the sort of people that you'd mess with, but I still don't see where the money is and they must cover an awful lot of miles. I'm not really that sure that many of the vehicles are quite that roadworthy either as they always look quite mature and seem to have various bits hanging off from all sorts of locations. There even seems to be a bit of an un-written rule about where you leave the scrap in your property so that its ok for them to take it - it's like County Durham's very own ebay, but without the technology !
It does seem a really strange little business and I'm not quite sure just how legit it really is and I'd love to know if its just a local thing or are they all over the place ?
And so we skip neatly from what seems to be a dodgy industry into something that's just money for old rope. In general, I hate being ripped off and I always find buying tickets for concerts etc a real pain in the arse. It's just a real money for money kind of industry that people just shouldn't accept in this day and age of price reductions, vouchers and special offers. I always try and avoid buying tickets via websites, especially Ticketmaster as I just think they are complete rip off merchants. There's a fee for just about everything they do and it really boils my water as they earn money for nothing. My last concert ticket experience was really good as I went to the box office at Newcastle Arena in person and didn't pay over the odds at all, although there was a small fee to pay with a credit card and I'll always try and do this wherever I can. I don't mind paying a small fee, but when you're looking at something over a fiver a ticket, it's just ripping people off.
So, when we were after tickets for the athletics at Gateshead Stadium in June, my first thought was to contact the stadium directly as the website for the event led you to the predictable Ticketmaster. Sadly, there was no way around buying the tickets other than via Ticketmaster and reluctantly, I ploughed my way through the website and much to my annoyance I've ended up with credit card fees, booking fees and the best one was that they even charge you extra to get your tickets. The best being that they charge you £1.50 to print the tickets off at home and that's their cheapest option. So hang on, I have to pay you £1.50 to print the tickets off at home on my own printer with the printer ink that I've paid for !!! It's just a total rip off and it really boils me as we shouldn't have to pay such crappy charges, but it won't put me off enjoying the athletics, but it will make me even more determined to avoid the rip off that is Ticketmaster wherever I can - let's hope they read this !!!
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