The Lobby - general discussion – Which? Conversation

Have something you want to talk about, but aren’t sure where to start? Start here!

Update 26 October 2021: welcome to the New Lobby!

It’s getting rather crowded in here, so we’ve opened up a new Lobby to continue the discussion.

This post is now closed to new comments, however the page will remain live; if you’d like to carry forward any conversation into the new space, please feel free to do so. You can refer back to old comments by their specific URL (in Windows, right click on the timestamp and copy the link location).

Take me to the new Lobby

Original discussion

The Lobby is our off-topic discussion space here on Which? Conversation.

Unlike the other topical conversations we post, this is a place where we look to you to start the discussion.

If there’s a consumer issue or concern, an idea you have for Which?, or something else you’d like to talk with us and with other community members about, start up a conversation in the comments below!

Lobby etiquette

Here’s a few suggestions to make the conversations read smoothly:

Make your topic clear and easy for others to find.

For example, you may want to start your comment by setting your topic or question out apart from other text, or in bold text (using HTML tags).
If you want to respond to a topic someone else has started, reply to the original parent comment using the Reply button rather than posting a new parent comment on the same topic.

This helps keep conversations on a single topic together as our off-topic space doesn’t support individual message threads (yet).
Feel free to move the conversation around.

If you’ve started a discussion on a topic we have an existing conversation for, we’ll suggest shifting the conversation there. Equally if you’re in any topical conversation and the conversation goes far from the topic being discussed, feel free to move it in this space.
You can grab the hyperlink for any specific comment by copying the link location from the comment’s timestamp.

As with the rest of Which? Conversation the Community Guidelines and Terms and Conditions still apply, so please do adhere to those to keep it a welcoming and open place for all.

Where to go next:

There’s more to explore in other parts of the Which? community space:

First time here? Be sure to say hello and tell us a bit about yourself in the Welcome Lounge.
Something on this site not working correctly? Let us know over in website feedback.
Want to dig back into previous off-topic discussion? Our original Lobby (2017-2018) and its successor (2018-2020) are now closed to comments, but remain online for people to read.

If you’re looking to get outside for a bit, feel free to check out the Which? Gardening Group over on Facebook. Hosted by the Which? Gardening team, this is your space to chat about plants and gardening, as well as see what goes on behind the scenes at Which? Gardening.

Over to you!

What’s on your mind today?

Comments

7111

VynorHill says:

25 October 2021

Now back in the sane land of reliable internet. My previous two comments disappeared when I pushed the “post comment” button and the internet had silently failed. The screen faded and refused to reboot when the internet returned. One click of the mouse and the whole message vanished – twice in one day. I retyped one and gave up trying to reply to Wavechange and his virus comment.
The gist of that reply was that infections rely on people being close together and we have been closer together and more at risk, so cases have risen. Schools, by their very nature -lots of people in the same environment and then spreading into the community at home time – are a huge source of infection. Any football match or crowd event automatically raises numbers. It is hardly surprising that cases are high and will continue to climb. Vaccines will be like headache tablets, dulling the effect without removing it altogether. We have yet to stabilise our virus response so that we can accurately predict the change any intervention will make. That will happen when, like flu, the vaccines are altered so that they keep pace with the virus mutations and medicines can instantly tackle any infection effectively year in year out. While this is being worked on, we do need to consider ways of preventing virus spread as the chief way of keeping safe. As Ian points out, herd immunity may not even happen when the population has all had their boosters this winter.

Looking at the final comment above, it is not unknown for someone to mistype a number and push the send/ pay button without checking. Maybe in a hurry, or perhaps under pressure to do other things. I do hope that all banks will now make a check on name and number when processing payments for us. My suspicion of the internet leads me to fear that, even if I type things in correctly, someone, somewhere will try and hijack any on line payment. That, combined with decades of faultless and simple writing of cheques, and bank direct debits, has made me wonder why I need to change my banking, just because it is seen as old fashioned. I have made one bank transfer, of a considerable sum of money, and I did that over the bank counter with the help of the cashier who double checked everything with me. I dislike using my credit card for on line purchases, but, the convenience has been too much to resist. I’m still careful who I buy from on line. No one transfers money to me by bank transfer, except under the cover of the current account.

John Ward says:

Nearly all my payment transfers are to a “person or organisation you have paid before”. Once the account name and details have been set up and a trial payment made all future payments to the same payee are relatively safe. They still require diligent attention but there is very little risk of the payment being misdirected.

However, the APP frauds and scams rely on people being persuaded, purportedly by the payee themselves in an e-mail message usually, that the payee’s customary payment details have been changed. Without double checking — because they trust the fraudulent source since it mimics the legitimate one — they initiate a payment to the new nominated account.

Despite the new protocol and the greater likelihood of reimbursement in the event of a payment diversion, it remains sensible for all users of the Faster Payment Service for transferring money (a) to make [and check] a trial payment when setting up a new payment authorisation, and (b) to always check direct with the intended recipient any request to change the destination of funds.

wavechange says:

I’m sorry that I have innocently contributed to your anguish, Vynor.

Where possible I use copy and paste for account numbers and sort codes, in case I inadvertently transposed two numbers or simply hit the wrong key, I have carried on doing this even though I have the protection of CoP. My first financial activity online, many years ago, was to open an Egg savings account and the incentive was that my money would be protected. To this day, I still expect to be protected from money disappearing from accounts.

I believe that our government needs to emphasise the need to keep away from others as much as possible, particularly indoors, to reduce spread of the virus and not just rely on masks or washing your hands,

malcolm r says:

There have been plenty of comments and links on confirmation of payee that suggest rhe process was not as straightforward as some like to think. Certain banks did not have the ability to join phase 1 but will be able to join phase 2.
Which? were asked to have a contribution from the banks/PSR but as far as I know this was not done. That would have helped this CoP topic perhaps, to be a more informed debate.

Jon Stricklin-Coutinho says:

Rolling on to a new Lobby

It’s starting to get crowded in here, so to help this space easy to navigate and comments (hopefully) easier to find, we’ll be closing down this space to new comments and opening up a new Lobby this Wednesday, 27 October. As with previous Lobbies this space will remain on site, so feel free to refer back to here as you’d like.

With the new space we’ll be rolling out a couple of changes as part of our Test and Learn project we announced back in July:

Changes to the Latest Comments feed – we’ll be shifting Lobby comments out of the Latest Comments page and onto the page itself, so you’ll be able to see the most recent comments in the Lobby when you load the page.
Moving comments into topical discussions– there’s a lot of useful comments in here on topics that later become “on topic”- however these tend to get lost as the conversation moves on. We’d like to give these greater prominence and visiblity, with the new Lobby the Moderation Team will be more active in moving comments that are on topic and signposting when these moves happen. We’ll be active in announcing and signposting where this happens. Having a headline or topic sentence helps make this a lot quicker, so if you’ve been including that in your Lobby posts, thank you!

I’m very much in favour of Lobby comments not appearing in Latest Comments, Jon. This was suggested in the early days of the original Lobby. Anyone who is interested in specific consumer issues might not be interested in the daily jokes or views on how best to address global warming. It will be interesting to see Lobby comments being transferred into topical discussions.

I have noticed that you periodically use smaller text in your posts. Is this a moderators’ privilege or something that we can do? I have tried and failed.

Beryl says:

26 October 2021

Thought for today

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

27 October 2021

Last call for comments! We’re about to flip the switch to the new Lobby, so this space will shortly be closed to new comments.

Here’s the new link (also conveniently located in the navigation bar): https://conversation.which.co.uk/discussion/off-topic-lobby-4/

I second Wavechange’s final suggestion. Staff would be better off as well because the cost of housing and living generally is much lower in the provinces. For an organisation that trades on finding good value such a move should be a no-brainer!

I don’t claim any originality for this, John. It has been mentioned numerous times and hopefully someone will bring it up at the forthcoming AGM.

George Martin says:

Would a dedicated topic on the ULEZ and its impacts/whether it could be replicated elsewhere in the country be of interest? Let me know if so and I’ll see what I can do……

Hi George – Please can we have a Conversation about low emission schemes. Clearly the extension of the London ULEZ is the current focus of attention but other schemes will follow as mentioned the article I posted a link to.

Yes. A few things on my list first today but I’ll do my best to get this sorted. We’ll then move these comments over from here into the new topic.

I didn’t feel too bad when I lived in London for forty years, but having come back to Norfolk I certainly notice the difference when I visit any major metropolitan area now. I no longer wish to go to London even though it means missing meetings with friends.

Norwich has a traffic pollution problem but they are banning vehicles from certain city centre routes and introducing low emission and electric buses. The good thing is that where we live about half a mile from the centre and on high ground the air seems to clear quite quickly once the clouds lift.

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The Lobby – general discussion

Update 26 October 2021: welcome to the New Lobby!

Original discussion

Lobby etiquette

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Over to you!

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Update 26 October 2021: welcome to the New Lobby!

Original discussion

Lobby etiquette

Where to go next:

Over to you!

Search

Latest discussions

This week's spotlight poll

Vote in our latest poll

Related discussions