Monday 30 March 2020

How NOT to claim South Western Railway Delay Repay | Class 442 smashed #TightwadDad VLOG



How NOT to claim South Western Railway Delay Repay | Class 442 smashed #TightwadDad VLOG



I know let's get this train.
[TRAIN WHOOSH]
Oh.
[MUSIC]

So this train limping away -- it's Monday the 17th of February -- got to the station, and things are running on time... even though there's a storm

And then I thought 'oh, I'll take a picture of myself with this nice old train from 1989, and er... oh look it's going very slowly and...' its front cab window was smashed.
This seems to happen quite a bit on these old trains.
I believe they're called Class 442's.

[TANNOY] This service is unsafe for us to continue.
This service will be terminating here. Would you all change please, all change.
I do regret to inform you again that this service is being terminated here. This is due to unsafe conditions to carry on.

Because the window was smashed by a tree, they've taken it out of service.
Some of us punishers... punishers?
Some of us passengers wonder how clever it is to introduce trains from 1989 through our line in 2020.

So anyway good job I took a picture because I've had my my compensation refused a couple of times.
So I'm gonna have to tweet this, which I don't like doing.
But erm... it's the only way I can keep track of the trains being taken out of service all the time.

So anyway this is delay we're facing at the moment - I'll screengrab it.
I guess we see what time we get to London and on what train!
That's the broken train!
The window looks better on this side - hey maybe we'll get a shot of it as it goes past!
[Music]

So I got here at 7 o'clock it's now just gone 8 o'clock and the next train looks as if it's coming into the station now
[Music]

Fingers crossed for this one.
Will it be 12 carriages or will it be 8?
It's South Western Railway bingo...
Yes!
It's 12 carriages. Oh that's a result - this is a good start to a Monday... an hour after it started
[Music]

Ah, I'm freezing - I can't feel my hands.
[Music]

[TANNOY:] Once again this service WILL now be calling at Guildford, Worplesdon and Woking only.

Okay, we've just been told that this train's being terminated at Woking.
So we'll see how long this takes.
[Music]

So this train - the first one through the blockage has been terminated early here at Woking.
They've told us to go to Platform 1.

I've got to record this, because the Delay Repay people - they'll refuse the refund, when they see that there was a next train - even though we've got to get all the way from Platform 5 over to Platform 1 in I think under a minute, so let's see how this goes...
I'm gonna keep the camera running just to show you how quick it takes to be terminated and detrained and find another train

[TANNOY: Please note the train will only be 6 carriages, so if you're not able to board the next train on platform 2, please remain on the platform. The next available train will be the 0924...]

Okay so the next train in is six carriages long, we're 12 carriages, so Delay Repay - the people at Delay Repay will block that payment because even though we couldn't get on the train.

[TANNOY]
"Please stand behind the yellow line please!"
[INCOMPREHENSIBLE TANNOY]

It's exciting twelve carriages down to six carriage train, let's see how this works out!
Yeah that would be full when it arrives yeah.
[TRAIN NOISES]
[PLATFORM STAFF SHOUTING]

Okay, it's gonna be a bit tricky getting on the next train.

[TANNOY]

There's 12 carriages of us trying to get on.
[TANNOY NOISES]

I know, let's get this train!
[TRAIN NOISE]
Oh.
[Music]
Ooh, this looks good.
[Music]

So it's 0957 which means I'm 1 hour 20 minutes late.

They'll blame it on the storm - but from here it looks like more to do with running a 32 year old train with curved windows not coping very well with a tree and terminating the next train through - the first train through that blockage - South Western Railway chose to terminate that that at Woking.

So let's see how the wonderful people at delay repay will reply with this one.

I'm sure there'll be an apology I'm sure there will be a good amount of compensation on my £118 ticket! Let's see what they come up with!

So I've put the claim in - hello by the way I'm Neil - thanks so much for seeing this through to the end...
Will I get some compensation from South Western Railway?
What do you think?

Leave me a comment below tell me what you think - tell me what your experiences are and down there I've also got a link for-- I'm just giving myself big shadows!

In the link below I've put the link - that's what it's called - to the southwest and delay repay site you can try this out for yourself.

But anyway I put the claim in - I think I've got that up on screen now and South Western Railway? Wailway?

South Western Railway sent me a refund on my £118 pound ticket - I got a grand refund of £5.91 pence.
Yes.

EXCEPT... then I saw in the corner of the email - wait a minute!

South Western Railway REDUCED my delay from 1 hour 16 minutes down to under 59 minutes.

South Western Railway just changed my delay!

I filled in all the forms, I presented all the proof, and the company just went...
"Nah. It's between 30 and 59 minutes."

Completely made up a time to avoid paying the extra compensation you get on 60 minutes and over.

So I click on the appeal button and I go through the appeal process where you have to fill in the form that you filled in the first place - from scratch - and I've recorded it for your viewing pleasure - you can watch along with me how good I am at doing this.

I wanted to make sure that I had all my facts straight which meant that I was too slow because I kept looking back at my photos and my tweets and my screengrabs and my videos I'm sharing with you here right now

But because I was doing that, this the appeal system just kept logging me out and every time you're logged out - you've got to log back in again and start again from scratch.

I don't know why we've got a login!
You've got to start from the beginning of your appeal - appeal - every single time you're logged out.
Uploading the tickets, and filling in the boxes, and then it hit me.

I've spent all this time on the delay, and the claim for the delay repay, and now the appeal for the delay repay.

I don't think South Western Railway wants to give me this few extra quid.

They're going to fight this against me to the death.

And my breath is taken away in admiration.

But maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe South Western Railway will delight me with their response...

"Unsuccessful".
So your compensation won't be increased.

If you still believe we make the wrong decision after spending what feels like hours of your life on us, please get in touch!

Dear customerrelations@SWRailway.com

How are you?

Me?

I thought my 32 year old train with its 1980s stylish curved windows, smashed by a tree, was meant to arrive in Waterloo at 0841.

I thought you terminated our first train through the blockage, early, at Woking, with our full 12 carriages trying to get across three platforms to an already full 6 carriages.

I thought the next train I could physically get on was the 0919 from Yeovil... that was delayed.

And I thought that this train actually arrived at London Waterloo at 0957.

So I thought my delay was 1 hour and 16 minutes.

But actually I was wrong.

And South Western Railway Delay Repay is teaching me a valuable lesson.

South Western Railway is teaching me how to gain humility.

How to nurture patience.

And most of all... how to bend the laws of physics, space, time and dimension.

And I want to learn.

I want to learn good.

You are the champions.

You are WINNERS.

And you have completely beaten me.

I'm broken!

And a little bit... rinsed.

Or as your email nails it, "Unsuccessful".

Thanks again, it's been a blast.

Neil, kiss.
PS hope the driver is okay.
[Music]

If you have watched to the end thanks so much for being there, I really appreciate it and if I can help at all, leave a comment.
It'd be lovely to hear from you

If you could give it a thumbs up it might help some other people to see it and if you hit the subscribe button that also helps pump up my videos in YouTube.

You don't have to watch anything I make ever again, but every subscription is really appreciated.

Can you please help my daddy get 1000 subscribers just click on his face.
Thanks! Bye! How's that?

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My South Western Railway week of delays! (and no repays) #TightwadDad Vlog


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Monday 23 March 2020

My South Western Railway week of delays! (and no repays) #TightwadDad Vlog



My South Western Railway week of delays! (and no repays) #TightwadDad Vlog



So this is a good start.
The train has 5 carriages.
It's half a train.
It's 5 carriage train, instead of a 10 carriage one.
[Music]

It looks pretty busy... and there's no seats!
Cos it's half a train.
On the upside, the company's going to call itself "--Ern Railway" now.
[Music]

So this is my seat for the one hour journey.
Gonna get myself comfortable, I think.

[TANNOY:] Usual 10. I've just been informed this is due to a brake problem on the rear 5 coaches this morning in the depot. I do sincerely apologise for this. This service is half the size of a normal service of 5 car. I've been informed recently this is due to a brake fault on the rear 5 coaches which are in the depot. So we do apologise for the uncomfortable conditions up to Waterloo.
They're gonna remove the guards, and replace them with full-time apologisers.
[Music]

[TANNOY:] For the cramped and uncomfortable conditions this morning. As most of you well know, this service is normally a 10 car. For the last couple of days it's been a 5 car.
This is not a permanent change. This was just due to I've been informed brake problems on the rear 5, so I can only apologise. And hope for the rest of the week return to a 10 car.

Hello South Western Railway.
This is what it looks like when half a train runs.
It's nice and cosy.

Okay so that wasn't a great start to this week of filming this.
I can't move my legs! I've been standing for an hour.
And holding this at an awkward angle because I don't want to enrage the many people that I'm sharing this train with.

Anyway I give this journey a half out of 10.
Half for the half train that we got.
Man that was ugly.

115 quid -- oh and er it was a little bit late as well!
[Music]

What a difference 13 hours makes.
Got a completely empty train. Life is good.
For this evening.

So... I'll probably give this journey a 10 out of 10. Solid 10.
Knew it was too soon. The guard has just asked for police assistance over the tannoy.
It's gonna be okay. It's all gonna be okay.

Ah well. So I've now downgraded this score to... erm, the journey's a 7, a gentle 7 out of 10 now.
[Music]

Okay so that didn't go so well but you know there's still the rest of the week to go
[Music]

It's Wednesday, it's 5 past 7.
And I know it's gonna be a good day
We're gonna we're gonna get solid tens today, I know it.
[Music]

So that was a nice journey. Got a seat.
Ten minutes late so it's ten minutes
I give that journey I give it a 9 out of 10 even though it's 10% late so there's 10% off the mark. So I think that's fair.
I don't know why it can't just turn up on time, but...
guess we'll call it South Western Railway time
[Music]

So it's 10 hours later.
And I'm after the 1845.
Agh, knew it was to be true
They've run the train short!

Look!
Instead of 12 carriages, it's 8.
I'm looking at the wrong camera again.
It's 8 carriages - we can't get on!
So it's a short, short form train again
I dunno if I can get on.

[TANNOY:] If you do require Clapham, please return to the platform.
Thank you.
So I squeezed on. And er it looks like we're gonna be leaving five minutes late
So we've, there's the camera, so we've left late.
Again. Let's see how this goes.
[Music]

That wasn't such a great journey - I got my bag strap caught in the door, it was so crowded.
I was standing for 45 minutes - it was a good job that I've got on it and nearly didn't get on it because it was so crowded, but the train behind us the 1900, that got cancelled totally because of a train fault - as well as our one being short because of a train fault

And the 1815 before it was short, because of a train fault so... I guess I should be lucky that we got a train at all
So that's a win.

But I'm only gonna give this a score of 7.
We're late as well but not late enough to get any compensation so I'll give that journey actually no I was standing I'll give that journey 6 yeah [CRASH!] that train!
Oh hello there it's Thursday morning it's 7:15 and I've got a good feeling about today
I think this might be the day where South Western Railway can show us it's excellence!
[Music]

So we're nine minutes late.
Late enough to have an impact - Not late enough to get any compensation.
I think I'll give that journey... a, a, it's tricky - I'll give it a nine with some indecision
Yeah it's a solid nine.
[Music]

So it's Thursday night - there's a camera! I keep missing it.
It's Thursday night - going for the 1745.
Let's see if all the carriages are here.

Looks like most of them are here.
Looks like it'll also leave on time, so I don't wanna jinx it, but this this could look good.
(SINGS) It's a proper length train!
[Music]

Okay so this is going well. We're on time and there's a faster service that's going to overtake us so I'll be able to get on that and maybe get home a bit sooner
I don't know why I'm staring you like this.

It's like I'm looking down - I don't - lift it higher that's what I should do but I feel weird holding the phone this high.
I think I'm getting better at this over the week, no?

Okay I spoke too soon. It's a third of a train - there's only four carriages.
Oh South Western Railway!
You keep us hanging on!

So this 12 carriage train is only 4 carriages.
That's a third of a train it's-- maybe I should shoot all my videos in here?
I'm not sure. It's not exactly soundproof.
There's no water. Oh!
[Music]

Hello it's five to seven on Friday. Last day of the week yeah!
I've got this new camera I don't even know if you can see me let alone if I'm in focus
I've got good hopes for today.

I know South Western Railway can pull this out of the bag yeah!
It's funny I was thinking last night I'm worried that this video will come off as ungrateful or snarky when it absolutely comes from an opposite place
I feel so grateful in this country that we have a rapid mass transit system that's just there for us as a nation.

But anyway let's see what today brings
[Music]

Okay so my train's on time - yes! - but it's another short formation
It's 8 carriages instead of twelve but on the upside it's a Friday, so it's usually a lot quieter on this route on a Friday, so fingers crossed.

A lot of people like to not travel in by train.
What's not to like?!
[Music]

That's not the camera: The lights are off. It's nice and intimate.
I actually prefer it like this I think.

[TANNOY]
At Guildford, we were advertised differently. This lead to a couple of minutes extra.
I do apologise for the inconvenience this will cause to your journeys this morning...

So it's not going quite so well on this journey.
We've got a level crossing failure. The train was routed into the wrong platform, so we're running about 12 minutes in delay. And, and there's a third of the train missing.
So... not quite there this morning.
[Music]

Okay, so this is interesting: we're exactly 14 minutes late.
If we're one minute later we get compensation, and if we don't lose a minute, we don't.
So fingers crossed
[Music]

Okay so there's a-- there was a, we were routed... routed?
We were routed into the wrong platform at Guildford - there's a level crossing failure - a third of the train is missing, don't know if you can see that in the background?
I'm still looking at the screen instead of the camera and we're sixteen minutes late which is great because that means we'll get some compensation.

I'll put that on screen now, how much I'll get.
It takes a couple of weeks to go through
So that's gonna be a load, a load of money

We're 15-- no 16 minutes late on a one-hour journey
Ha. But it's okay, because I now allow an hour and a half...
[TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT]

I now allow an hour and a half extra on my journey time because I might not trust South Western Railway so much at the moment
[Music]

So we're out seeing a show. We're going to get very late train, at 2245 and it looks like it's gonna leave on time - it looks like all of the carriages are here.
So very late on a Friday night... South Western Railway you're looking good!
[Music]

Oh! It's not that train! It's the front of the--
[Music]

So that was a good one. That was on time... all the carriages were on the train.
Well done South Western Railway. So I think what I've learnt is, the time to travel on South Western Railway is at midnight on Friday... then we're good.

It's Monday. It's the last day of this experiment to just record a typical week travelling on South Western Railway.
The company has cancelled two trains - the two trains I was going to get on.

So I didn't rush to the station for it. But just realized I won't get any compensation for that because I don't actually hold the ticket for the trains that were not going to leave.
So... don't know how I would claim for that.

Ah well. So, I'll go and get my ticket now
[Music]

It's a bit windy
So the train straight after the cancellations are obviously late.
So fingers crossed we can get on this one.
[Music]

Okay so this train's a bit busy.
But the next one's in ten minutes, it's delayed even more. So... there's a seat.
[Music]

[TANNOY: The next station is Guildford]
[TANNOY:] This is your service up to London Waterloo, this is your Guard.
Apologies, we're now running 20 minutes behind schedule.
We were delayed as we arrived into Guildford, we were delayed further as we were awaiting a second member of crew to head up to Waterloo. So I do apologise for the delay as we are running around 20 minutes behind schedule now.
[Music]

So two trains cancelled and the one next one in is 27 minutes late.
That's erm... I think I'll give, give that - I don't know if you can hear me?
I'll-- all I can hear is just apologies on tannoys, it's lovely.

So I think I'll give that journey a soft six out of ten
It didn't clonk over to the half hour extra compensation so I'm 27 minutes late, I'll be paid the same as being sixteen minutes late, which... is unfortunate.
[Music]

So the last journey on the last day of this random week of travelling with South Western Railway.
That last journey there, left at 1800 and I've got here on time -- it might be in one minute late but basically it's on time, so that's a good one.
That's a good one to end on!

Well done South Western Railway!
I'll give that-- Oh, I had to stand!
I had to stand for half an hour, but but look all the carriages were there!
It was a twelve coach train with twelve coaches!

And it left on time!
So one journey - that's fantastic - to end on on this journey high.

So that was a random week of me travelling on South Western Railway

Have you got any comments?
What's it like for you travelling on South Western Railway?

Or maybe on the train company that serves your area - leave a comment below I'd love to hear your stories.
And if you've reached this point in the video my goodness you you've come along a long journey with me.

You're awesome! Thank you. Why not express your awesomeness with a thumbs up 0 would be lovely to know that someone reached this point of the video.

And if you're feeling even kinder, why not hit the subscribe button? Every single subscription is treasured and takes us closer to the 1000 subscribers that we're aiming for. We really appreciate that. I'll see you on the next video thanks for watching!


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How to make YouTube thumbnails for FREE


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Thursday 19 March 2020

HOW TO MAKE YOUTUBE THUMBNAILS FOR FREE | Self-publish NOW Neil Mossey



HOW TO MAKE YOUTUBE THUMBNAILS FOR FREE | Self-publish NOW! 003 Neil Mossey



Hello welcome back to the Happy Hut - I'm Neil Mossey and I help as many people as possible to get ideas out of their heads and out into the world to make as many people happy as possible

One of the best ways of doing that is right here on YouTube

If you are looking for how to make a thumbnail for YouTube, I am so sorry, I feel your pain.
I'm so sorry that you are at that stage in your youtubing where you've realized that thumbnails are important and a thing
I put it off for years

Look at us.
A pair of unpaid google interns.
I mean we're slaves!

We're slaves to the YouTube algorithm so-- so yeah let's make our shackles and chains that bit more appealing.
I'm going to show you some of the things that I use to make my youtube thumbnails for free but man I hate it.

I hate making thumbnails.
Nobody likes making thumbnails.
You made a video, isn't that enough?

You've then got to upload it - right so you're doing video - done that... and then you've got to write your description - done that... words.

And now? And now you've got to start editing images?

I mean the hard thing is I'm actually quite good at Photoshop or the free equivalent GIMP - but I'm not gonna get Photoshop out to make a thumbnail.

I just want a place to just put the thumbnail in... add some words and then get it out again.
And over the months and years I've managed to find a few tools and a few techniques to do that as as easily as possible and completely for no money as possible.

But one thing I do promise you - hand on heart - I will not show you how to make those videos where you look surprised in the thumbnail.
You know those really stupid thumbnails? The really irritating thumbnails I'm not I'm not gonna do that I'm not gonna do that I promise you.

The broken jazz hands and look-of-shock thumbnail shot

Actually I'm gonna - that is - that is exactly the thumbnail that I'm gonna use on this video, just to make a point.

So let's jump into into YouTube this is what the tube studio dashboard looks like.
I've actually gone into my last video.
As you can see YouTube offers you three completely usable thumbnails.
They're quite, actually quite good at it
I think there must be some beast like software that can detect smiles and can avoid frames where your eyes are closed.

And I actually really like this thumbnail in the middle and that's the one I've selected.
But the first problem I had was that I actually want to add to that
I want to add some words to it
I might even want to add another picture

I could not work out how to export a thumbnail from YouTube
I finally did manage it but it's a little little bit of a workaround
If you have a cell phone or a mobile phone as we call it here in the UK, the way that I export thumbnails from YouTube - any one of the three that they offer you - is using this.

It's an app called YT studio
It's supposed to be the studio app for youtubing
When you go in there you can click on the dashboard

Click on "videos" from that pulldown menu, and choose the video that you want to play with
It gives you lots of details about the video but up here if you click on the pen icon you can actually edit the video from the app

And there's a little tool in here which is great
If you go into the thumbnail there are the three thumbnails and you can see them there.
So if you choose the one that you want to export... save it... select the one that you want and down there, hit "download thumbnail"

That downloads the thumbnail to your phone
Now if you go over to google photos there is the thumbnail ready for you in all its glory

So all you need to do now is to go to Google Photos, download that onto your computer, and use the software and that's what I'm going to use next
Now the next tool that I use for free is something called spark on Adobe.com, so I'll put the link in the description.

If you type in "spark.Adobe.com"
Now I know I'm scared of using Adobe products because man do they like to hold you upside down and shake you around for money, but this, I've been using this for about six months now
It's completely free - all you need to do is to set up an Adobe.com account which is free

I use that on my dirty email so they can't spam me with marketing messages
If you go into just the the opening page you'll see you can use their templates - the pre-loaded templates.

So this is my dashboard here in Spark.
To create a new thumbnail, or new project even, see this plus sign at the top of the page?
This is what will probably greet you when you go there for the first time - you sign in for the first time - and they offer you all these different templates you know.
There's a flyer or a slideshow but what they also offer are YouTube thumbnails!

So if I click on that down here on the right hand side look at all these pre-made YouTube thumbnails you can use.
See you could choose this one for instance

Click "create" and you can change absolutely anything on this template, so this block of text here?
If you click on the the pencil icon again - click Edit - you can change that to "my thumbnail"

Click "done" but you can make that bigger by dragging these corners here and it just it just works it all out for you

It's really lovely. You could change this picture at the back here and that's what, that's what we're gonna do at the moment, so I'm gonna go to some thumbnails that I've made in the past...
So as you can see it saves as you go along
I'll probably delete that - so I've developed a bit of a template for myself
Sometimes it might have four pictures in there - or one big picture and a block of text - and I think that's what I'm going to go with for this latest video

So what I'll do is, I'll duplicate a thumbnail that I've already made and we'll call it "transcribe thumbnail"

Hit duplicate - so it should have duplicated it here and it hasn't shown it on the dashboard, but if I go into "edit project" hopefully all the bits that I need will be there
There it is fantastic

I want a block of text, and I want the nice thumbnail that YouTube have already chosen for me, so firstly I'll change the block of text

I want that to run along the bottom there, and I can change this image - and you can change the image on the template thumbnails that they give you - so if I just click on the image and then I'll go up to "replace"

Now what I'll do is I'll upload the photo that I downloaded from Google photos because I downloaded it from the YouTube studio app .
I hope that makes sense

I've gone into Google photos and there is the thumbnail that YouTube offered which I liked and I'll click on download

Back into spark, if I hit upload photo, right so now I am uploading the thumbnail picture... there it is!
I want to make this text smaller, just so it runs along the bottom here, so what I would do is click "Edit" and I'll change the words

So we'll change this to something like "transcribe for free"
I want it big so it reads - so I might put it in the middle - or put it in the bottom - the bottom there - and it sort of works out all the proportions for you

You can change anything that you want on the, on the words, so you can change the font
I prefer the one I've got
You can change the colors, you can change the size or the line spacing and I've sometimes done that just to get more words in...

But it's a really brilliant resource to just be able to just sling in the words and sling in a picture and it saves as you go along so now if I hit download... so now that I've downloaded it I can now upload it as a thumbnail

And there it is - and that's it!
It really is such an easy way to just grab a thumbnail that youtube has offered
Maybe manipulate it a little bit or add some extra pictures, add some words, then download that image and then re-upload it as a thumbnail

So I hope this video has helped give you some ideas for how to export a thumbnail from YouTube - to give you somewhere to go for free - to manipulate it and some text maybe add any other images that you want to and then export and download that image that you can then use as a thumbnail

It's a little system that I've managed to use for a lot of videos now
If you've reached this point in the video and it has helped well why not give me a thumbs up just to let me know that someone reached this point in the video

And if you're feeling even kinder, if you were to hit on the subscribe button that would just show me some love that I crave - but also I'm craving subscribers - trying to get to a thousand subscribers - probably exactly the same as you...

One day we'll be monetized!
You and me... making thumbnails.
For little to no money, but in the meantime good luck with your thumbnail creating
I'll see you on the next video.


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YELLED AT DURING SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY RMT STRIKE | #TightwadDad Vlog by Neil Mossey


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Monday 16 March 2020

YELLED AT DURING SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY RMT STRIKE | #TightwadDad Vlog by Neil Mossey




YELLED AT DURING SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY RMT STRIKE (...not by SWR) #TightwadDad Vlog by Neil Mossey



Train's just come in... I've got four minutes, before it goes.
It's up here...
[MUSIC]

Hello I'm Neil and this the TightwadDad Vlog.
It's a place where we try to be happy with the stuff that we've already got and this is gonna be a bit of an experiment this morning

I am - it's really early in the morning
I don't know if you can see... but it's not great weather.
I'm gonna take you along the journey with me to show you what it's like traveling on the trains here in the UK while there's a strike going on

I don't know if it's gonna be any good
Now it's Friday - so I thought it might be quiter today... but as you're about to see it's not.
[MUSIC]

The train is late which is pretty normal
So the dilemma now, as to whether I get on this one or wait for one that's less busy
[Music]

So now at Waterloo, and we're late and I've had to pay extra to come in to London so that I can go straight back out again, that way. To Clapham Junction.

South Western Railway isn't a very nice company maybe I should let South Western Railway explain themselves in their own words.

Here's a quote from them.
"Our first second and third priority is revenue."

So maybe that's why during a strike they've cancelled the few trains before this train.
And they've canceled at least four trains... well not cancelled, they've just disappeared them.
They've deleted four trains - the four trains after this train - I'm trying to find the humour in this - bear with me.

And on the tannoy announcements they're blaming it on the strike

But... there are still revenue protection guards on the trains to check that we're paying the same amount of money for the rubbish service - and the services they've deleted.

So they have the staff - they've got the staff
From my point of view this is because perhaps South Western Railway isn't a very nice company and in their own words their first second and third priority is revenue
[Music]

So anyway now I'm gonna get on this extra train that costs me more
That takes longer.

So that I can earn some money myself to then give to South Western Railway next week.
What am I doing?!
What are we doing?!
There's beautiful London that I paid a ticket for - to get in to - and I'm not even gonna get to see it - This is purely so I can change trains.
[Music]

This is Clapham Junction this is the station I wanted to change at - I wanted to get the ticket through - because it's a lot cheaper.
I'm here 20 minutes later... than when I went through it the first time.
[MUSIC]

Okay, my train's been cancelled, so I've got a nice 11 minute break here
Hope it doesn't get crowded
[MUSIC]

And we're in the London Overground now and there's some overhead wire problems.
So the whole line's suspended

This train's going in a different direction

What's good about TfL and London Overground is they're actually arranging for a shuttle service to run between Shepherds Bush and Clapham Junction

South Western Railway wouldn't do that - when - last night when they had a problem - they just shut the whole line and didn't bother running a shuttle over the 40 miles up to the problem because their priority... the first second and third priority is revenue.

So I feel like I'm in good hands here.
There's a problem, but London Overground staff are clearly doing something about it for the passengers not for the revenue

Okay so they say there's a shuttle service to Shepherds Bush but there's a train five minutes before then from another platform so I'm going to try and get on that one but that one isn't very reliable - that's a Southern train service

We're gonna see if it's running today
[Music]

You need the pastry shops to give you the energy
To be able to do this.
[MUSIC]

I think it's gonna be busy.
I'm too old for this.

So I've made it - about half hour, 40 minutes after I would prefer it to be.
let's see how it works in the other direction

okay so just found out all those people I walked past...

The barriers are shut over there - and no... no-one mentioned it.
Commuters never talk to each other
That's sort of why it's a bit weird and difficult for me to do this
I'm literally walking around talking to a camera - I'm talking full stop
Let's try that again

So, I've made it in - probably now another five minutes later than usual
Let's see how this goes in the other direction
"YOU CANNOT--"

So my greatest fear actually happened
That shot there - that I just thought was a funny innocuous shot of the "Please don't run" sign...
This guy starts shouting at me.

"YOU CAN'T FILM HERE! YOU CAN'T FILM!"
It's a guy in a in a Hi-Vis suit but it didn't have any London Underground or Overground branding on.
I need to see some...

"YOU CAN'T FILM! YOU CAN'T FILM!"
It's like... And here's me saying good things about the London Overground
I still think it's a good line - and run well.
But he's going "YOU CAN'T FILM!"

I said, "I'm sorry! I don't know who you are."
Because he had a company lanyard that said Vinci on it?
I said "I don't know--"

"YOU CAN'T ASK ME WHO I AM. YOU CAN'T FILM!"
So it's like... "I don't know why you're yelling at me!"
So he walked me over to the station supervisor and said "I WILL CALL THE POLICE!"
And it's like, but, I still don't know who you are - I'm so sorry

"THIS IS WHO I AM"
He held up this ID card that said he was a contractor working for London Overground
Well that's great that's great

But if you just go up to people yelling at them - you know it's like we take everything at face value.

Anyway station manager very calmly politely said that because of the current threat that no filming is allowed at all anywhere on the Lond-- on the--

I can't even say it.
Anywhere on the--
Any INEPT filming.

Like my filming is good enough to help the threat
I'll be lucky if some of it's in focus.
But you're not allowed to film anywhere on the London Overground
[MUSIC]

Okay I'm going home by tube, because I got such a kaa-kaa shower on the Overground, I couldn't face it again.
So I'll see if I can get on this train.
[MUSIC]

So after this morning turns out there was a massive landslide on my railway line

So they they stopped the line and I can't tell if the bad barebone service they're giving at the moment is because of that, or the strike or, just because they can't be bothered
I've got to wait an extra 45 minutes to get my train so I'm just gonna stand here for half an hour and then sit down

Trains just come in I've got four minutes before it goes - it's up here
[MUSIC]

That's it - I think - so I'm going to end this now
I hope that this will be the end

That's what it's like traveling on South Western Railway in the middle of a strike
If you've got to this part of the video thanks for sticking with it - it'd be great to hear from you if you wanna give me a thumbs up

Leave a comment - it'd be lovely to hear from you.
But thanks for coming on this journey with me.

It's just a little piece of history - just to prove on video that it is hard
Harder than usual
Thanks.

Gonna stay here, I think.

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Wednesday 11 March 2020

Dyson Red Flashing Light - What to do next




DYSON FLASHING RED LIGHT? How to replace V6 battery TightwadDad




What does a flashing red light on a Dyson vacuum cleaner mean?
It means... guess what!
You've got to pay some money!
I'm gonna show you what to do next.
[MUSIC] [MUSIC]

So let me tell you a story I'll try and get through it as quickly as possible - hello
by the way I'm Neil.
I'm the Tightwad Dad.
Every video we make is about us trying to be happy with what-- I'm holding this like
it's some kind of weapon.
And it is.

Anyway every day I try to make a video about trying to find happiness with the stuff that we've already got, and most of the time it works.
With this one I'm not so sure.

It might be a bit long so in the description I'm gonna put the times of the different things that you can do to get rid of this but I'm gonna try and tell our story along the way.
I'm gonna try and also try and find some happiness in this story as we go.

So anyway it starts like this.
We get the Dyson vacuum cleaner.
I want to call it a Hoover just to annoy them but I won't because I’m gonna try and keep this Dyson specific.

When you get a flashing red light of doom - the Dyson death flash - first thing you need to do is to call the Dyson helpline and they’ve put the number on the back I'll put it in the description if you're in the UK

So anyway so called the helpline and we got a new battery to replace the one that probably should have lasted longer than it did
Now this battery has lasted as one year and one month so we call the Dyson help line hoping that it probably should have lasted longer than one year and one month

But the Dyson helpline told us “no” because this is a replacement for the faulty one.
We've got to pay for a brand new one.

Now I'm not saying anything about the state of our house but I don't think we do enough cleaning to clap out an entire rechargeable battery in in a year!

I'd hope that it would last longer than a year but they said “no” you've got to pay 65 quid for a brand new one

So what I'm gonna do is fit it on camera in case it helps you replace your battery.

I-- I'd I'd have hoped that it would last longer than a year
I don't know why
Probably the amount of money we spent in the first place

The company that we're dealing with disagrees so I'm gonna try and find the happiness in spending more money on a battery that should probably have worked better in the first place

So it was probably our fault -- It IS our fault.
All of this is our fault for buying this in the first place that's what Dyson have told us
Let's put the new battery let's get to that as quickly as possible you can edit this down can’t you?

So when you've called the Dyson helpline and they say we can't help you they send you this

I've torn off our address because god forbid someone will come and steal our broken vacuum cleaners and they send you this
This is a this is an unboxing for the brand-new battery that they charge you more money for
And here's the battery that will probably last another year
So what we've got to do is take off this one now.

It comes with some instructions and some screws - it's almost a metaphor for being screwed
so the first thing you need to do is to find a screwdriver that fits these screws

I think I can do that quite easily
And I hate doing these hands-only videos because I'm shaking I'm shaking with rage at-- particular a particular company -- “Ask Dyson”

Answer is “it's your fault”

So you unscrew this one
I’ll put that to one side - don't want to lose it
They’re quite particular size so it just to make it easier I’ll probably take off the dirt collector and what you do that is you push this down oh--

And keep it held down and the whole thing comes off
I've taken this screw off - the next screw I believe is this one and off comes the replacement battery that has lasted one year and one month like that

Then we get the new battery, and it slots into the holster there.
A handheld unit And then we'll get the new screws - one here and then one on the back Woah!
It comes with some charge in.

Oh that's nice Dyson have given us some free electricity for our 65 quid

There you go, so as you heard it-- there's no red flashing Dyson red light of doom

Now it doesn't say if we need to charge this up before you use it first so I guess we're going to wing it

Also the Dyson helpline said it was completely our fault that the old battery only lasted one year one month

They said that “Oh you must have put it on the holster”
you know that holster that they give you to put it on the wall
- that they - that you shouldn't put it on the holster when this is feeling warm

So of course it's our fault
I'm sorry I used the holster that I was given
So what they advise is that you DON’T use the holster that they've provided for you on the wall to charge it up
That you let the thing cool down before you put it into the charger because that's really convenient

That is how to fix the red light of Dyson doom the answer is to spend more money and buy another battery.
But in our experience lasts about a year in a month

I hope this has helped and if you have reached this point in the video thanks for thanks for watching and really appreciate it

Maybe you might like to give this video a thumbs up to help others find the information that they're looking for as well

I'm still trying to find the spark of joy in this because we were really happy with the company up until they wanted our credit card details to replace something that lasted a year

If I find any joy or happiness I'll put it in the description and if you have any comments or questions please leave us a comment, it’d be lovely to hear from you
And I'm sorry that you had to watch this

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