ebay
Jun 4th 2006, 2:26 am
#46
Ex BE ***** Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,773
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by iPom
But there are shop kids in the UK who can't do their 6 X table either! Just because it's Australian you're talking about dropped standards? Do you have any idea of the amount of UK kids who are illiterate? My sister teaches those kids every day and it's painful for her, but she believes in them.
I can't think that you were anything but derisory wiht your poor lass today. You think she's thick? How the hell do you know whether she was thick or not? You perform some sort of IQ test on her?
Or obviously as you know everything, you have the ability to bestow on her your judgement that she is thick? Did it ever occur to you that she might not have been taught? Or her home life's so crappy that her mum and dad don't help her learn, or perhaps she's just slipped through the system in school like many kids do, because the teacher's overwhelmed with stuff to do and the kid can probably look it up later.
Jeesus! You might try just being a little bit kind and forgiving of people. These problems aren't just in Australia. They're all over the UK too. You get shitty service there too, but your attitude, Arkon ... It's just gobsmackingly hyper critical of everything.
And yet if none of these things come up to your standards, what exactly have you done to put into your community some sort of assistance that might help people? I'm willing to bet absolutely none.
It's just too sad for words.
Your bad luck? Do you think none of us meet young girls at the checkout who don't seem so bright but we don't come here and condemn them for it?
I can't think that you were anything but derisory wiht your poor lass today. You think she's thick? How the hell do you know whether she was thick or not? You perform some sort of IQ test on her?
Or obviously as you know everything, you have the ability to bestow on her your judgement that she is thick? Did it ever occur to you that she might not have been taught? Or her home life's so crappy that her mum and dad don't help her learn, or perhaps she's just slipped through the system in school like many kids do, because the teacher's overwhelmed with stuff to do and the kid can probably look it up later.
Jeesus! You might try just being a little bit kind and forgiving of people. These problems aren't just in Australia. They're all over the UK too. You get shitty service there too, but your attitude, Arkon ... It's just gobsmackingly hyper critical of everything.
And yet if none of these things come up to your standards, what exactly have you done to put into your community some sort of assistance that might help people? I'm willing to bet absolutely none.
It's just too sad for words.
Your bad luck? Do you think none of us meet young girls at the checkout who don't seem so bright but we don't come here and condemn them for it?
Jun 4th 2006, 2:30 am
#47
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Ballarat
Posts: 7,005
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by Little Miss Sunshine
Are there any other ebay widows here? I surf this site to keep myself amused while my husband buys off ebay! Mind you there are some bargains to be had and ebay Au doesnt seem to be as popular as ebay U.K so prices are good(so my husband keeps telling me)
My husband uses ebay a lot here and we even got a koala beanie from the aus ebay . My hubby is interested on using ebay in aus when we get there.
Mandy
Jun 4th 2006, 2:31 am
#48
Ex BE ***** Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,773
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by iPom
Yes, the book situation is bad. So what are you doing about it? Are you contributing towards your local library? Are you lobbying to get cheaper books? Are you looking into home publishing? Has anyone local got a story to tell? Have you done any fund raising (alpacca burgers) to raise money to buy some new books for the community?
This is my point, Arkon. Yes it's bad - we're not in denial.... so do something about it or shut up. Moaning about it doesn't do anything. Doing something about it does.
It's bad, so I go to the brilliant libraries here and get books for free. That's just my way of handling the book situation differently. If people don't support libraries, the gvt will no longer fund them. Use it or lose it.
Anyway, we obviously have differing attitudes, but at the end of the day, you take yourself with you wherever you go.
And I must go to bed. Tara.
This is my point, Arkon. Yes it's bad - we're not in denial.... so do something about it or shut up. Moaning about it doesn't do anything. Doing something about it does.
It's bad, so I go to the brilliant libraries here and get books for free. That's just my way of handling the book situation differently. If people don't support libraries, the gvt will no longer fund them. Use it or lose it.
Anyway, we obviously have differing attitudes, but at the end of the day, you take yourself with you wherever you go.
And I must go to bed. Tara.
Sorry to the OP, this is all way off topic and time to call it a night.
Jun 4th 2006, 2:35 am
#49
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 269
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by arkon
I prefer to buy them so I can read them and hopefully one day pass them on to my son. Also it's much better to read a virgin untouched by bogie ridden fingers than a library book.
Actually all jokes aside if it wasn't for a mobile library when I was a kid I probably wouldn't like to read so much as I do now. Takes me right back to "Plop, the owl that was afraid of the dark" and "Stig of the dump". I do now consider libraries to be one of those things that were better in the past and best left there along with 2 bob bits!
Actually all jokes aside if it wasn't for a mobile library when I was a kid I probably wouldn't like to read so much as I do now. Takes me right back to "Plop, the owl that was afraid of the dark" and "Stig of the dump". I do now consider libraries to be one of those things that were better in the past and best left there along with 2 bob bits!
Jun 4th 2006, 2:36 am
#50
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,158
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by arkon
It isn't one isolated case, it happens all the time, and no I wasn't rude or derisory. It is you that are derisory by pre judging me and you weren’t even there. Nor do you live here. As for what I do for the community, quite a lot actually, once again you have no idea and so decide to lambaste me. What you don’t want to accept is that yes these things all happened in the UK but only occasionally. Here it’s all the time and with almost everything
I've lived in many different areas of Aus and dealt with many different situations and problems and might I say, much worse places than where you are right now. I just shifted my perceptions and attitudes to get the best out of the people I was dealing and working with. As you have found, they aren't British and don't respond like British people do to many situations.
I'm not lambasting you but if you do so much in your community why come on here and deride it and the people there so much? Either you're in it to work it out or you're not.
And as for keeping quiet when you get shoddy service... why? I don't do that. How will they ever know service is shoddy unless you tell them?
Things were fairly shoddy at times in the UK, but I've not had a shoddy moment here so far apart from some shop owner ignoring me because I didn't look good enough for her. As soon as she recognized my perfume as being expensive she couldn't do enough to help me... but that's just a small town idiot mentality. Why should I let such small things annoy me?
I've had nothing but help since I got here from lots of very good people. Like I say, you get out what you put in.
I'd be interested to hear about your community work Arkon. So would everyone else. Perhaps you'd start a new thread on what you do out in your rural areas to help out and contribute to the population and community as a whole.
Jun 4th 2006, 2:38 am
#51
Fighting my corner
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 11,948
Re: ebay
New books are much cheaper in the UK, there's no doubt about it. I have bought more books here in 2.5 years than I did in 5 years back home! 
Having said that, my local library is nowhere near as good as the one I used to visit in Western Australia, and anyone who thinks that Australia has no decent secondhand bookshops is simply talking bollocks.
I have yet to find a secondhand bookshop of any sort here in the Midlands; I know they must exist, but I haven't found one yet. So if I need secondhand books, I usually order them from a place in Hay on Wye. 
Having said that, my local library is nowhere near as good as the one I used to visit in Western Australia, and anyone who thinks that Australia has no decent secondhand bookshops is simply talking bollocks.
I have yet to find a secondhand bookshop of any sort here in the Midlands; I know they must exist, but I haven't found one yet.
So if I need secondhand books, I usually order them from a place in Hay on Wye.
Jun 4th 2006, 2:45 am
#52
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,158
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by arkon
Ok so I'll stop my computer business and give up on the lingerie business. And create an Australian version of Amazon? I can’t do everything.....
Not what I was suggesting. I don't mean that you must make some grand gesture to contribute towards making things better at all. Small gestures... Like buying a woman a dozen red roses when buying one has exactly the same meaning.
Jun 4th 2006, 11:34 am
#53
Ex BE ***** Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,773
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by iPom
Not what I was suggesting. I don't mean that you must make some grand gesture to contribute towards making things better at all. Small gestures... Like buying a woman a dozen red roses when buying one has exactly the same meaning.
I could go on defending myself but I don't really care what others think of me. I know the difference between good service and bad. Smart people and the not so smart, good education and bad, and it is all BAD here.
Jun 4th 2006, 1:06 pm
#54
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,158
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by arkon
I could go on defending myself but I don't really care what others think of me. I know the difference between good service and bad. Smart people and the not so smart, good education and bad, and it is all BAD here.
Well good for you for getting involved Arkon. It's only by doing things like this that things will change over time.
I'm sorry you're living in such a sh*te place of Australia with all those stupid and badly educated people and terrible service. As I said, I hope you sell your farm soon.
Last edited by Pollyana; Jun 4th 2006 at 8:08 pm. Reason: language
Jun 4th 2006, 6:24 pm
#55
High in the Dandenongs
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: Listening to Puffing Billy
Posts: 9,183
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by arkon
Today with the 6X6 girl, she couldn't add up period, it wasn't because I was me or a pom, it was because she was thick and couldn't do basic math’s.
)
)
Lets hope your son would recieve more sympathy if he were to have a learning problem. It would be a great shame if all of those lovely books that you like to collect for him may go to waste
Jun 4th 2006, 7:20 pm
#56
It's got to be purple....
Joined: Jun 2004
Location: Glaswegian in Canberra
Posts: 527
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by iPom
I joined up with my local library and I'm reading three books per week on average, completely and utterly free.
Novel, eh?
Why didn't I think of that......doh !!!!!!!!!!
Wendy
Jun 4th 2006, 7:51 pm
#57
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: On the edge of the Dandenongs, Melbourne
Posts: 2,387
Re: ebay
I know the difference between good service and bad. Smart people and the not so smart, good education and bad, and it is all BAD here.[/QUOTE]
I'm sorry that the area you are in is so intolerable. BUT please do not generalise - I've had no problems yet. OK, some inefficient staff (but we're talking some bank staff, solicitors and other 'professionals'!) - but certainly no more than in the UK! Ask my OH when he tried to transfer a tiny £1K from the UK to Oz with his bank.....
I'm sorry that the area you are in is so intolerable. BUT please do not generalise - I've had no problems yet. OK, some inefficient staff (but we're talking some bank staff, solicitors and other 'professionals'!) - but certainly no more than in the UK! Ask my OH when he tried to transfer a tiny £1K from the UK to Oz with his bank.....
Jun 4th 2006, 7:56 pm
#58
Ex BE ***** Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,773
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by The Crow
I know the difference between good service and bad. Smart people and the not so smart, good education and bad, and it is all BAD here.
[/QUOTE]I think I need to agree to disagree. Each person will find out for themselves. I for one am going to vote with my feet and join the ranks of the disillusioned.
Jun 4th 2006, 7:59 pm
#59
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,158
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by arkon
I think I need to agree to disagree. Each person will find out for themselves. I for one am going to vote with my feet and join the ranks of the disillusioned.
Good for you Arkon.
TAXI!!!
Jun 4th 2006, 8:04 pm
#60
Ex BE ***** Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 3,773
Re: ebay
Originally Posted by hevs
Or could it be that she was perhaps dyslexic http://www.mamashealth.com/dys.asp
Lets hope your son would recieve more sympathy if he were to have a learning problem. It would be a great shame if all of those lovely books that you like to collect for him may go to waste
Lets hope your son would recieve more sympathy if he were to have a learning problem. It would be a great shame if all of those lovely books that you like to collect for him may go to waste
It was some other so called professional here entering incorrect data into her computer that nearly caused our son to be aborted for no reason! By your reasoning she must have been dyslexic too. I know lets blame all the fuxk ups on people with disabilities as that’s a much better excuse to make us all feel better than blaming the real reasons in this land of plenty.
I can't wait to go and at least when they screw up back home someone might be held accountable. Here accountability is passed away because they followed some half arsed procedure so can't possibly be to blame...I'm off....Work to do....Got to go and feed the homeless or give some books away...
