Rant

[Ryan]

Trouble with using vouchers is that people may start discriminating against those using them. Plus people with them may feel embarrassed by it. I doubt the government will implement a voucher system as it will segregate those on benefits from others, which isn't necessarily fair.

It's also not fair that people use benefits to purchase drugs, alcohol and other luxuries that aren't needed. Life's not fair.

[pluk]

Trouble with using vouchers is that people may start discriminating against those using them. Plus people with them may feel embarrassed by it. I doubt the government will implement a voucher system as it will segregate those on benefits from others, which isn't necessarily fair.

And therefore encourage these people to go out and get jobs? Can't see the negatives really. Milk vouchers were in use until just a few years ago, I used to process them in my cash office. There is no stigma if the reasons for getting them are varied; most child benefits go to all, as do a lot of tax credits. No one knows your circumstances just because you have a voucher.

I do know what you mean though, when I was at school the teacher called register you went up and either paid him cash or if you were poor you gave them a meal ticket for your school dinner. The kids with the meal tickets got torn apart, obviously, which looking back is clearly horrible. It does not have to be like that now, it can all be done electronically.

[JoshC.]

My biggest problem is with people who claim they're in financial hardship one minute, then the next, go out and buy expensive things. I'm not too fussed whether that person is on benefits or has a job - if money is tight, cut back on your spending regardless of you job situation. For example, one person I know recently was saying about how she was "really struggling with money" and was "cutting back on luxuries and switching to supermarket basics products, etc."; the very next day, she bought a Jack Russell puppy for £250 - which now means she has 4 cats and 2 dogs. If money's THAT tight, why buy a new dog?

[Smidget]

It's also not fair that people use benefits to purchase drugs, alcohol and other luxuries that aren't needed. Life's not fair.

I agree. But not everyone does that, so why discriminate and segregate those who do actually use the benefits system correctly?

And therefore encourage these people to go out and get jobs? Can't see the negatives really. Milk vouchers were in use until just a few years ago, I used to process them in my cash office. There is no stigma if the reasons for getting them are varied; most child benefits go to all, as do a lot of tax credits. No one knows your circumstances just because you have a voucher.

I do know what you mean though, when I was at school the teacher called register you went up and either paid him cash or if you were poor you gave them a meal ticket for your school dinner. The kids with the meal tickets got torn apart, obviously, which looking back is clearly horrible. It does not have to be like that now, it can all be done electronically.

Not everyone is on benefits because they are lazy. Many have very legitimate reasons for not working. Yes, there are those who do scrounge off of the government, but that doesn't give people the right to assume everyone on benefits is like that. Embarrassing someone/discriminating against them is not necessarily going to drive people to get jobs, especially if they DO try but aren't getting anywhere. Yes, it can be done electronically so others do not need to know your financial situation, but that doesn't mean people on benefits will be happy with that system. If they're not abusing it, why should they have to use a different system to everyone else? I agree that something needs to be done to stop the abuse of the benefits system, I just don't believe that introducing vouchers is necessarily the right way to do it.

[Fred]

Shouldn't have to be vouchers which can be related to benefits, but more like Morrisons Gift Vouchers or something similar?

I dislike that everyone is scared to offend/upset a very very tiny minority to stop the majority abusing the system. Same with everything in walks of life, any other country and this wouldn't happen. Least we have a benefits system.

[pluk]

Not everyone is on benefits because they are lazy.

...why should they have to use a different system to everyone else? I agree that something needs to be done to stop the abuse of the benefits system, I just don't believe that introducing vouchers is necessarily the right way to do it.

I would exclude DLA from that system, but literally everything else should be paid in a way where it is spent on its intended 'need'. To quote a modern poet, 'She was supposed to buy you shorty Tyco with your money She went to the doctor, got lipo with your money', what is wrong with putting in place safeguards to stop that happening? If you don't intend on abusing it it would not affect you in the slightest and would be the same for everyone.

I suppose 'voucher' is the wrong word, more a debit card that knows what it can be spent on.

[Smidget]

I suppose 'voucher' is the wrong word, more a debit card that knows what it can be spent on.

Ahh right. That sounds much better. The debit card could very easily be designed to look exactly as a normal debit card would, with perhaps a very slight difference that wouldn't really be noticed at a quick glance. At least that way people won't have to go round displaying that they are on benefits

[Mark9]

People who are happy to bitch about others but aren't able to accept tounge in cheek comments.

Also, 2 faced people.

[tomglazed]

Jeez, I know this topic is usually for off topic rants but this for some reason has really riled me.

People seem to think it's cool or good to bash Thorpe no matter what just because people believe they will get more support if they hate on them than support them, it's like they are the child who will never fit in class. Especially when you see people one minute saying "Yeah, Swarm is really good, best theming on park, good step in the right direction", next topic "Thorpe can't do immersive, they suck". Jeez will they ever be able to do anything right in people's eyes?

I don't go to Thorpe enough to hate nor love it, I can only say what I experience on the occasions I manage to get up there and I have never had issues to the point where it warrants the apparent hate it appears to get. Rides breaking down? Out of the park's control, Guest behaviour? Out of the park's control, weather affecting operations? Out of the park's control, teething problems with new attractions? Out of the park's control. I don't doubt there is a lot within its control such as what it installs and the bad decisions they may have made on that front (Storm Surge) but come on now, credit where credit is due.

[Benin]

Thorpe get stick because quite often it's perfectly justified, like many parks do...

Indeed, Thorpe can easily be criticised for it's poor maintenance standards we have seen over the years (although 2011 was good, it has this year descended back to earlier times), going in summer and having 8 of your rides/attractions down and 2 of your working coasters breaking every so often is not good service, regardless of rides opening later on...

We can also criticise Thorpe for their lowest common denominator style PR stunts, which are quite frankly, worse than Morwenna's crap she spouted whilst at Towers...

My main problem with Thorpe is the distinct lack of consistency, you come out of the Swarm area into some old tatty often closed beach area, with random chart music playing at it's tinniest form... Then Tidal Wave's immersiveness is ruined by the stupidity that is Storm Surge, and then Lost City is a mess of thematic music...

Of course, this doesn't matter anymore, cos Thorpe have moved away from themed areas, but the problem is that these areas still remain in a sense, so the continuity and consistency just fails...

Then they decide to trial a shopping container hotel before building an actual one... Decisions like that also don't help...

Most on here are good with criticism, giving justified explanations behind it, rather than go "rar rar rar #thorpeisawful rar rar"... People do give the park credit (for Swarm, for opening rides early) but there are also things the park makes mistakes on (running one train on coasters in the morning, overselling of fastrack) and hence are criticised for it...

As long as it is justifiable, no park is free from criticism... Hell I'm sure I have some criticisms of Europa Park to write up about in my report, and that truly is an outstanding park, same goes for Disney... It's just up to people to actually bother to give reasons for their criticism...

[Fred]

Just to add to the justified reasons, seeing as I was the one who mentioned the awful immersive experience - Yes, the swarm is amazeballs, it is exactly what we want in a coaster and in a theme, even if it now looks like it's been put in entirely the wrong park (two immersive rides, albeit one littered with advertising now, in a park full of styled stuff). However, if you're gonna just blast the entire theme and immersion to put Nintendo adverts around the place, don't expect not to be criticised .

To be fair, with ride downtime.. there's only so much that can be just shrugged off as not the parks fault, however there must be a problem with the engineering dept, whether its budgets, its lack of ability to conduct preventative maintenance, or they have awful timetables with their maintenance enabling the rides to run at reduced capacity, affecting guests. Something which needs to be continually pointed out, if it continually happens, to ensure that someone tries to sort it. Same goes with new rides, it depends on how you deal with the original faults as to how the park moves forwards.

[tomglazed]

I completely agree with all above. But Fred it wasn't your posts which got that reaction it was a whole collective .

I think all I'm saying is that personally I go for an innocent until proven guilty approach. Do I think that Park Management are happy that they've got a stunning new attraction open next to an embarrassment that is Neptune's Beach, but unfortunately with the money they have just shelled out for said new attraction and now the unfortunate spat of reliability with not only the teething issues on Swarm but other major attractions on park, they just don't have the resources right now to do a good long term fix? No.

If anything, just on the topic of the chart music playing right next to their star attraction. What if we came at it from the angle that actually it serves as a good contrasting breakaway effect from the rest of the park. You turn that corner onto Swarm Island and no longer are you hearing some top 40 track through tinny speakers, you are now hearing the roar of Swarm's scream and seeing an upturned telephone box, destroyed jet, church and all that jazz. That's a real impactful change in my eyes.

[Marc]

I'd say ride reliability is a weird one, whilst on the face of it they look much worse than the others I'm not sure if they are...

If we start with the disaster of Saw, if you consider the fact the ride was having all sorts of issues before it even opened and was being tested, a process TP would have little input in, and then on its opening day the ride manufacture had to come out and install trim brakes not too sure you can blame them for that.

Swarm has suffered too, pictures on Facebook of bolts popping every other day, from the manufacture who are meant to be the best at what they do, again do you blame Tp for this or is there little they can do, bolts are checked but they can't keep an eye on then all day every day so when they pop it equals down time.

And then there's slammer and rush where I think the park deserve alot of credit, when they opened they were stupidly unreliable, but the park has worked on them and they run well ( when slammer does!!) and the amount of money actually spent on slammer where most parks could just as easily give up I think is very good of them

[Mer]

I just edited my post and now its disappeared? Don't tell me its been deleted...there was nothing wrong with it

[Flipper]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207032/Amputee-war-hero-allowed-Alton-Towers-rollercoaster.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

^ That is my rant. Papers posting about crap. Riles me up so so much because they don't realise how horrid it can make the staff feel when meeting H&S on selected rides.

[Benin]

It's the Daily Mail... Do we expect any different from them?

And calling Slammer reliable? Even though the overall issue is S&S's fault for using air pressure for EVERYTHING, Thorpe's decision to keep it could well be a mistake if it continues to act like it has been, much more expensive to source out parts for it now than it would if S&S gave a damn about it... Half and half really...

Regardless though, Thorpe does have issues with reliability, surely that cannot be denied? And Marc didn't even mention Stealth's long list of issues... (and Inferno's, and Det's, and Colossus', and so on)...

[Mark9]

Jeez, I know this topic is usually for off topic rants but this for some reason has really riled me.

People seem to think it's cool or good to bash Thorpe no matter what just because people believe they will get more support if they hate on them than support them, it's like they are the child who will never fit in class. Especially when you see people one minute saying "Yeah, Swarm is really good, best theming on park, good step in the right direction", next topic "Thorpe can't do immersive, they suck". Jeez will they ever be able to do anything right in people's eyes?

I don't go to Thorpe enough to hate nor love it, I can only say what I experience on the occasions I manage to get up there and I have never had issues to the point where it warrants the apparent hate it appears to get. Rides breaking down? Out of the park's control, Guest behaviour? Out of the park's control, weather affecting operations? Out of the park's control, teething problems with new attractions? Out of the park's control. I don't doubt there is a lot within its control such as what it installs and the bad decisions they may have made on that front (Storm Surge) but come on now, credit where credit is due.

I think we're pretty light about Thorpes problems. We are far more realistic about Thorpe Parks problems on TPM then Disney fans are about any of the Disney theme parks. Not that people who constantly bash Thorpe are any worse, I just think credit is given when Thorpe make a good move (Swarm, opening half an hour earlier, The work done on Slammer) and we say what we think when Thorpe do bad.

[Valentez]

When is next working day not next working day? ........When Royal Fail are invloved!

Last week I had to wait 3 days for a parcel, rang them up and was told by some highly sarcastic woman that I'd need to fill out some compensation form and that this is a very rare occurance. Fair enough then I thought, these things happen but then this week yet again, order was done and dusted Monday and I'm still waiting for it!

I'm just amazed that such a thing could happen again, I made an order yesterday for some car parts from the same area of the midlands in which I was charged the same for next day as Royal Mail. The order wasn't even dispatched until 3:45pm and yet was on my doorstep at 10am this morning, the box was about the same size as me!

I appreciate they handle a ton of mail on a daily basis but then so do "UK Mail" themselves, I mean how hard can it be to deliver a 30g jiffy bag?! It's just poor poor service all round

[Liam T]

People who promise you something then pretend they didn't say it at all!

Either tell me the truth or don't give me false promises! I now have to sort out this mess, fantastic.

[Luke_A]

Unusual rant here I guess... Knock-off "non-genuine" Apple cables and chargers. Got home at about midnight last night and (stupidly) plugged my iPhone 4S into a cheap alternative Apple 30-pin connector which someone in my household had bought... Unaware to this I unplugged my iPhone from the non-Apple 30-pin cable today to find that it had ripped 4 of the pins out the bottom of my iPhone as well as a chunk of plastic from around the connector, it didn't come out easily and I'm usually very careful with things like this.

Now I have to pay £49 for a whole new 30-pin connector to be fitted in my iPhone and for it to be sent off to MendMyi (great company from past experience and usually really quick service..!) as although charging still works, syncing data over USB can be temperamental, which would also prevent me from ever selling my iPhone if I didn't get it fixed.

Mainly my fault really but it just annoyed me so much that one little thing causes so much trouble! Also typical for me to have always used Apple chargers in the past and then the one time I don't it destroys my phone.

[Benin]

Apple products eh?

[Stokesyboy]

Eugh Towers Fanboys who slate Thorpe for anything they can just because they've visited once in 2009 and most things were broken down so it must make Thorpe terrible the whole time! It gets really annoying!

[Mark9]

This whole rivalry thing does get rather tiresome I do agree.

[Liam T]

Eugh Towers Fanboys who slate Thorpe for anything they can just because they've visited once in 2009 and most things were broken down so it must make Thorpe terrible the whole time! It gets really annoying!

Don't just blame Towers Fanboys, Thorpe Fanboys are just as bad!

I agree with Mark, the whole rivalry thing is boring, personally myself, I would class myself as a "Towers Fanboy" but even though I went on a really busy day to Thorpe, with some breakdowns and over sold fastrack, I was really positive about it! So not all Towers Fanboys are bad

Though I would say BPB fanboys are twice as worse as Thorpe's & Towers put together

[Stokesyboy]

Things that wind me up are comments like this:

"Fright nightd (And thorpe in general) is a ton of sh*te. Scarefest has been quality, not filled with chavs and following Saturday, also the better organised event. Thorpe is ok at best."