arkon

I've noticed this too, so maybe the message is starting to get across. After all the first step in fixing a problem is identifying that it exists. The sooner the place wakes up to the possibility that things could be improved the sooner the place might be a less frustrating place to live for those of us that actually have some life in us.

Hutch what you might not realize or don't want to listen to is that I started a very successful company in the UK and although it had it's ups and downs, problems with supply and problems with getting reliable staff all in all it worked fine and was nowhere near as hard as doing the same thing here. The reason this isn't confined to my rural area and ABCDiamond you too seem to think it's mostly down to my area. Is that the business I have started here relies on supply from about 8 suppliers in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, they are the only ones that have my stock and they are all without exception pitifull. Whereas in the UK I could design a machine and rely on continuity of supply for the components here that is simply impossible and this is not an exaggeration. I can only guarantee supply to my customers until my batch of stock runs out, then there is a 4-16 week delay in getting more parts with at least 30% of the parts impossible to source again. Wait another few months then they buy in a another couple of a particular item and unless you are quick you miss out. Never in my wildest dreams could I have thought it would be this hard to keep my business in supply. I am now seriously having to contend with the idea of importing direct from asia on a mammoth scale to cut out the Australian middleman.

So when people on here say its all down to my area, maybe that’s true for all my farming, house and car requirements but for my main business 3 of the main cities now get involved and I see absolutely no improvement there in attitude or ability. Call it generalizing if you like it doesn’t bother me as I know it to be true. If I add some humour to my posts to relieve the tension and stress then so what that doesn’t make the problems any less real and the smart readers on here will know that.

MartinLuther

If a man were to walk into a pub half full of Brits and half full of Aussies and then shouted out that "All Aussies are stupid and have an IQ less than 18" then I would not be surprised that he received some personal abuse in return.

Hels

Heyyyyyy....lets put it to the test??

Arkon....go to your local on a Friday night at say, 9pm and call that out!!


Report your findings back in triplicate, please....(just incase we lose one or 2)

ABCDiamond

The problem is that, even though he did say that, he may not actually mean it, along with everything else he says. And if he really does believe it, I am sure I can dig up stats to prove otherwise

Personally I don't know what bits of his posts are correct, which bits are just exaggerations, or even which bits are wrong

But it would be interesting to see the result of an experiment like that

arkon

What surprises me most on here is that even when I make the joke so simple like the IQ < 18 people actually think I really believe this. I don't think it's possible for a human to have an IQ this low anyway and even my dogs probably have a higher IQ. But by people on here thinking I actually believe such a stat just must mean that it is indeed possible for someone to have an IQ this low. One thing I did discover when I was young and had a job where I did indeed work with low IQ'd people is that the best way to make a low IQ'd person teasy was to make fun of their IQ. Childish I know but I was a child at the time. The problem now is that I'm an adult on a mostly adult forum where too many can't see the wood for the trees and if you should dare say something bad about Australia out fly the name calling and personal insults.

As for not being able to tell the difference, the hundreds of PM's I get supporting my arguments would seem to indicate that a fair few people can indeed tell the difference.

I often get told by friends back in the UK that Australia just must be such a land of opportunity for someone that has some go in them, my answer is always the same..."you would think so wouldn't you!"

MartinLuther

You know jokes are really only funny the first time

ABCDiamond

Don't worry, we don't really believe what you say, you do realise we are joking with you, don't you ? You do don't you ?

arkon

Man I really sincerely would like to believe you........but..........

renth

Western Australia is, you could be set for life if you're prepared to work hard for about 5 years.

Hutch

How long do I have to wait until I'm on the receiving end of it? I've lived in Australia previously - and I spend two months of the year (all of December and January) every year out there, running two businesses. I've been hanging around waiting for some of this legendary bad service and you know what - all I experienced is either average, good or excellent. Like the time my son's toy fell underneath the train at Dapto station and 7 railway workers tried to help retrieve it - up to and including holding up the mainline Sydney train for us? Or maybe it was the pool guy who came out on Christmas day afternoon, because the filter packed up on us. Hmmm - maybe it was the guys at the foam shop who, when we gave them the dimensions of our son's oddly sized Ikea bed, cut a perfectly good single bed mattress up for us. Maybe it was the salesman in The Good Guys who, when I asked if an MP3 FM transmitter gizmo was any good admitted it was crap and suggested I buy the Belkin one from Harvey N's next door. No wait, I know - it was the guy in the surf shop, who leant me a surf board for two weeks when my own got broken.

I really have no idea why you and Arkon are having such a lousy time of it. I argue so vehemently because in my experience and that of my family's (hey what do they know, they're just Australian) we receive good service. Maybe you were horrible to defenceless animals in a previous life? Maybe your god just hates you. All I have ever done is try to provide some balance to Arkon's posts and point out that it's not a gulag.

Exile

As I've said before, there are a lot of great things about Australia and Australians in general. I have also experienced a lot of kindness and generosity here. Haven't been so lucky with customer service, and I know too many others like me for it to be coincidence.

This bit of your post makes me laugh though:

<<All I have ever done is try to provide some balance to Arkon's posts and point out that it's not a gulag>>

You must mean balance like this:


<<And if there was a classification for a new race based on being ignorant, blinkered, backward looking, sour-faced and one-step up the evolutionary ladder from dog shit, then you'd be the first member Arkon.>> Hutch, 5 March 2006


Also, why do feel the need to constantly refer to people with different views as arseholes? Or invent little derogatory stories as to why you think we have problems here? Don't presume to know us only from what we reveal on this forum.

That said, your latest post was civil. Well done. Hope it's a new trend.

And yes, maybe you are one of the chosen ones. Were you sent to the UK for punishment?

Is my **agenda** becoming clearer now?

arkon

Two months of the year every year? Thats no more than a holiday. Everything seems rosy when your either on holiday or in a holiday mood. Also How do you manage to run two businesses by only being here for 2 months a year? I'm not having a dig, But would really like to know as I wouldn't mind only having to put 2 months worth of effort in.

Hutch

Oh come come, if you trawl through the archives you can find much better examples of my pro-Arkon stance than that - you'll even find some good ones where Arkon weighs in first. You might even discover that my attitude towards him is largely down to the fact that he was highly insulting towards me from the get-go. Please ascertain the facts before making yet another assumption.

I call it like I see it.

Now for that - I am TRULY grateful.

Again - check the archives and you'll find that I'm very civil towards people that present decent arguments which aren't based on some deep-seated superiority complex. It's funny, but there's a certain kind of pompous, puckered-sphincter attitude that just rubs me up the wrong way ...

You know I sometimes wonder if I was. But then sending someone to the UK is a truly twisted punishment and whilst my parents have their moments, I don't think they'd be quite that vindictive.

Intelligenti pauca.

Hutch

I've spent longer periods in Australia in the past (a year and up), but since my son was born we restrict it to just Dec and Jan. The businesses can function equally well in either country - neither are geographically dependent and, in fact, the time difference between the UK, the US and Australia will be of great benefit when we move out permenantly this year.

arkon

From memory you fired first and thats why Mikestanton tried to give me the tip about who to avoid on here. I very much remember my first post as a newbie where I was innocently asking someone who was thinking about coming here why they were leaving because I thought the place wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The amount of stick I got for my first post was truly amazing and very nearly stopped me posting again. It was only all the supportive PM's that gave me the courage to continue even when you were all being so rude to someone you had never met and who had on posted a couple of posts. We all are a bit clumsy when we start off and to this day I still can't see why my 1st post caused so much offence from the rose tinted brigade and those with some kind of Aussie blood in them.