The pet peeve thread

[oblong]

For running clothes I think the opposite is true. Women always have a phone pocket.  Would it kill apparal companies to just throw in a zippered pocket on a pair of shorts or a jacket?  When you run often times you drive somewhere so you want, at minimu, a spot for a key and a phone.

 

[MIguy]

I signed up for a couple Gmail accounts way back when it was still in beta and you had to beg for invites.  Being in so early, I was able to secure my first and last name as one of my email addresses.  I don't use it as my primary email but have kept it active and check on it from time to time.  

Over the years, I have had at least 4 different people with my same name giving my email address as theirs.  I've had emails from a car dealership in Canada, from a National Guard unit in Louisiana, from employers in South Carolina and most recently, from the Penn State University Alumni Association.  These are all legit emails, not spam or attempted scams as I've reached out to the senders and in the case of the South Carolina emails, actually talked to the dude who had given my email address while looking for a job.

I just can't wrap my head around how people can be so dumb as to not know their own email address or how they can sign up for something and then not eventually figure out that they never receive emails from that place.   

Edited November 27, 2023 by MIguy

[oblong]

I got one that's kind of a common term, for entertainment.  For a long time I was getting emails addressed about T Shirts and when certain events were going to leave.  

[djhutch]

Clothes sizes.  I will admit to having fallen off the wagon a bit on my health journey this year, but why is it you cannot depend on the tag on a piece of clothing.  Sometimes it's a Large, sometimes a 2X is almost tight.  & don't get me started on jeans!

[Tigeraholic1]

On 11/27/2023 at 2:18 PM, oblong said:

I got one that's kind of a common term, for entertainment.  For a long time I was getting emails addressed about T Shirts and when certain events were going to leave.  

I have had a yahoo account since like 2000. Somehow I got added to a group of older New York guys who talk baseball. I have never replied I just enjoy reading their stories about seeing this player or that player. I feel bad not saying anything because someone got left out way back when I got added. The same email string is 20 plus years old. A few guys have died but they keep each of their emails included in case their family check in.

[oblong]

wow... that's amazing.

I'm on a list like that which began around the same time.  It was about Band Names.  We'd come up with Band Names.  That's it.  Most of the people on the list I never met and never will.  I check and it is still going on.  Someone once put it all into a 17 page word document.  

 

[chasfh]

Apparently, the new thing that happens when you are on a call with customer service for whatever the product or issue is—if they can't answer a problem you're having, they'll simply hang up, sometimes abruptly. Or, if they're nicer and/or less confrontational than that, they will ask you to hold and then they'll hang up. Maybe right away, maybe after a couple of seconds of silence. I would say at least half of the customer service calls I've had in the last year resulted in them hanging up. I'm guessing this has occurred more in the wake of COVID, given all the conventions of employment that turned upside down with quiet quitting and the like. I notice this happens particularly frequently with those CSRs with American accents, who I assume to be  contractors working from their own homes, so I would assume they feel even less compunction about just hanging up on you. After all, this is their house, they're monarchs of that castle, they can do what they want. Every once in a while, though, some one with an obvious accent working with a loud call center in the background will do the same. Never used to happen at all.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Apparently, the new thing that happens when you are on a call with customer service for whatever the product or issue is—if they can't answer a problem you're having, they'll simply hang up, sometimes abruptly. Or, if they're nicer and/or less confrontational than that, they will ask you to hold and then they'll hang up. Maybe right away, maybe after a couple of seconds of silence. I would say at least half of the customer service calls I've had in the last year resulted in them hanging up. I'm guessing this has occurred more in the wake of COVID, given all the conventions of employment that turned upside down with quiet quitting and the like. I notice this happens particularly frequently with those CSRs with American accents, who I assume to be  contractors working from their own homes, so I would assume they feel even less compunction about just hanging up on you. After all, this is their house, they're monarchs of that castle, they can do what they want. Every once in a while, though, some one with an obvious accent working with a loud call center in the background will do the same. Never used to happen at all.

LOL -  That could be a grey area - maybe l'm happier if the guy just checks out quickly as opposed to giving me a run-around and only at the end of a couple of hours of wasted time fails to solve the problem! 🤔

Edited December 2, 2023 by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

14 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL -  That could be a grey area - maybe l'm happier if the guy just checks out quickly as opposed to giving me a run-around and only at the end of a couple of hours of wasted time fails to solve the problem! 🤔

Ha, I definitely do not see it this way! The way I see it, whether CSRs work for the company or as a contractor, whether they work at home or in an office, they are a representative of the company whose product I am seeking help with, and I do not believe they should get the same pass on not knowing something, or being dismissive of my inquiry, the same as some rando I ask in a bar.

I don't blame only the CSRs, of course—I also blame the company that is putting such woefully insufficient resources into customer service that they hire a functionary who's go-to is googling the same websites I already googled and whiffed at before I call them. I have a reasonable expectation that CSRs will be well-trained enough in the product to either answer my question or problem, or to get me to someone who can.

If one were to say I'm being naive for that expectation, then I would say they are being cynical for expecting nothing and then shruggingly accepting the nothing they get. When cynics do that, that's how the companies win.

Edited December 2, 2023 by chasfh

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, chasfh said:

then I would say they are being cynical for expecting nothing and then shruggingly accepting the nothing they get. When cynics do that, that's how the companies win.

Guilty as charged. My wife will pursue satisfaction to the ends of the earth - I'm much too prone to just taking the write off and moving on,

[chasfh]

14 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Guilty as charged. My wife will pursue satisfaction to the ends of the earth - I'm much too prone to just taking the write off and moving on,

I would think that if you’re going to accept getting no help for your problem, then you might as well just accept the problem in the first place and of nothing. Maybe that’s what you were saying here. 

[oblong]

The thing is… to the company…. From their perspective… so what?  I’m with G2. I can not be happy but my time is money and I just move on.  Sometimes things just suck. The companies know this. You can complain and eventually find someone who will send you an apology or offer a lame discount on a future product.  They empower no one so you are on your own. 
 

yes they are cynical.  Their loyalty is to the stock price and shareholders. Customers are just a means to that end.  

[Motor City Sonics]

Any doctor who puts a patient on Klonopin or any other Benzo for more than two weeks should have their license taken away.   

 

I know someone who's brain is permanently fried because of those nasty drugs,  which are designed to get someone through a tough period like grief or addiction, it's not supposed to be permanent - because once someone is on those drugs for a month or two, their brain gets broken.    Lazy doctors giving people pills to shut them up.    I don't know,  the first words of the creed are "First, do no harm".  Guess they glossed over that part. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Motor City Sonics

[Motor City Sonics]

Sciatic pain is a major pet peever. 

[Deleterious]

Paying $529 for a GPU and its probably mid-tier at best.  I used to build an entire rig for $500.  

[Biff Mayhem]

Pricing a hand splint at CareLinc to find out it is $224 only to find the exact same device on Amazon for $21. Healthcare/insurance in this country is insane.

[djhutch]

On 12/6/2023 at 7:44 AM, Biff Mayhem said:

Pricing a hand splint at CareLinc to find out it is $224 only to find the exact same device on Amazon for $21. Healthcare/insurance in this country is insane.

Insane is a good word for it.  Jeesh.

[Motor City Sonics]

Having to pay to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas.     That's just morally wrong.  

[chasfh]

MLB Network, I mean the whole network, is kind of a general pet peeve for me because it is so obviously and offputtingly marketing-driven, although I do like the show MLB Now, but only when Brian Kenny is on it. In fact, if he were to leave the network, I might stop watching it for any reason altogether.

But my specific peeve today is any MLB Network countdown show about top plays. They have these throughout the year: Top Plays of the Week and Top Plays of the Month, and in November, it's Top Plays of the Season. I had gotten about halfway through this year's Top Plays of the Season when I simply couldn't stand to watch another second, because fully 40% of the top "plays" they show are hits, with all but one of those being a home run. And a home run is not a play.

A play involves decision-making. You have to decide how to react to the action, what route you take toward the action, and the specific response you make. That's why plays, in general, are defensive in nature. You have to make a series of decisions along the way: what direction to break in, what spot you're moving toward, what you do when you get the ball, where you throw it, maybe deking the runner along the way—all that goes into what makes a defensive play a play. A play is something you make happen.

That's why a home run is not a play. You don't make a home run happen, because while a play is process-oriented, a home run is an outcome. And there's not too much process you can put into a swing, since you are usually reacting to how the ball is arriving to you. But a home run swing, really, isn't even a reaction—it's a decision to swing as hard as you can on whatever the next pitch is. That's why we see every player swing as hard as he can and miss the ball entirely a lot. If the player connects with the ball just right, it'll be a hone run. But miss the ball by just a centimeter, and it's a long flyout, and nobody would ever confuse a long flyout with a top play, even though it frequently results from the exact same kind of swing a home run does. But a defensive effort that fails to get the out can still be a great play if the defender does everything exactly right and still misses the runner by just a hair.

I can prove to you that a home run is not a play: when was the last time you heard an announcer say something like, "Here's the pitch to Carpenter, and there's a loooong fly ball and it's outta here! Home run! What a great play by Carpenter! He made an outstanding play on that home run swing!" Don't bother, I'll answer for you: never. It has never happened. Because a home run is not a play. 😁

But, the offputting marketing-driven machine that is MLB Network will continue to include home runs in their top plays programs, because the majority of all the on-field events they market to us are home runs, because Chicks. They're never going to change that, but it's still going to bother me every time I see it, and I will complain about it every time, which makes this the platonic ideal of a pet peeve.

 

 

[oblong]

They should change the name from Plays to Events. I see your point. Probably why nothing excites me more than a well executed relay throw from the outfield to 3B or the plate. Even if my team is on the losing side. I will never fault a team for going for it if it takes 2 or 3 great things to occur to get the runner out. The play by the OF go get the ball. His throw.  The infielders catch and subsequent throw. The next fielders catch and tag. All of those things are failure points and good execution is like a ballet.  It’s beautiful.  

[Motor City Sonics]

Owning a house.   Five months in a row now I have had a major expense in repairing something in this house.   It has left me broke and I ****ing hate it.   I am stuck here.  I can't really sell it because it needs so much in repair that I wouldn't get anything out of it.   I let someone talk me into this.  I didn't want it, but they kept talking "but it's an investment".  By the time it would pay me off I am going to b e 80 years old.   I am alone and I don't need an upstairs which costs a fortune in heating bills, even when it's "blocked off".      My friends are doing things, going places, enjoying themselves, While I am stuck here always having to fix something.    It just feels pointless, a never ending spiral.     I only use about 30% of this place, the rest is just filled with stuff,  stuff I don't need or want anymore.    If there was someone else with me, it would be manageable, but I was so much happier just paying rent and not worrying about **** CONSTANTLY. 

[Biff Mayhem]

13 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Owning a house.   Five months in a row now I have had a major expense in repairing something in this house.   It has left me broke and I ****ing hate it.   I am stuck here.  I can't really sell it because it needs so much in repair that I wouldn't get anything out of it.   I let someone talk me into this.  I didn't want it, but they kept talking "but it's an investment".  By the time it would pay me off I am going to b e 80 years old.   I am alone and I don't need an upstairs which costs a fortune in heating bills, even when it's "blocked off".      My friends are doing things, going places, enjoying themselves, While I am stuck here always having to fix something.    It just feels pointless, a never ending spiral.     I only use about 30% of this place, the rest is just filled with stuff,  stuff I don't need or want anymore.    If there was someone else with me, it would be manageable, but I was so much happier just paying rent and not worrying about **** CONSTANTLY. 

With low inventory, you could sell and make a profit. I just wouldn't wait too long.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

With low inventory, you could sell and make a profit. I just wouldn't wait too long.

Yeah, I agree. cash out even if its for breakeven and go back to renting.

[CMRivdogs]

Have you guys checked out what decent rentals are going for these days? However  I agree it might be worth it to check out alternatives compared to repair and upkeep of an older, larger house.  

[LaceyLou]

On 12/12/2023 at 11:19 AM, CMRivdogs said:

Have you guys checked out what decent rentals are going for these days? However  I agree it might be worth it to check out alternatives compared to repair and upkeep of an older, larger house.  

Agreed. Rents are definitely going up fast, at least where I am. But yes, it might be worth it if you can find a place that is well-maintained, especially if it's in a convenient location. 

It never hurts to ask what you can get for it.