Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Vent Thread

Sorry, Roo, but my current pet peeve is with McDonalds... I'm fine with the food and all, but you have to understand that I pay for everything with credit cards. Charge it, get the reward points, then pay it right off, but the point is, I don't use cash very much anymore, and I'll sometimes go around for weeks without having more than a few coins in my purse. I was *delighted* when fast food places started taking cards -- no more running to the ATM just so I could eat french fries. :rolleyes:

The only problem is, sometimes their credit card machines aren't working, so they'll only accept cash. Which I probably don't have. I'm a reasonable woman, I know that glitches happen, but this happened to me *three* times last week, at three different McD's locations. It's happened before, too -- at a fourth location, plus possibly some while we've been travelling.

One of those times was at a Wal-Mart, actually -- the guy said they were rebooting the system and it should only be ten minutes. Hello? I'm hungry now, and I have shopping to do, and I'm not going to twiddle my thumbs while you get your electronics working. Lost the sale, buddy. That was the second time last week it'd happened. The first time was in a mall food court -- although, mysteriously, the woman behind me was able to pay with her credit card.

The third time was at a drive-through. Now, this is a location that was slow to get cards -- other area locations were taking them, but this place was cash-only. When I pulled up to the drive through, I was delighted to see those little credit card signs -- finally, I thought, this McD's has joined the 21st century. So I ordered -- everything came up on the little screen okay. She was trying to tell me something, but between the intercom and her accent, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was saying (and that's another thing -- when someone says they didn't understand something, could the speaker please repeat it *slowly* and try hard to be clear -- maybe even reword it -- instead of just rattling off the same phrase again??). I got the impression it was something about Happy Meal toys, so I said, okay, whatever.

But then when I get around to the window to pay and try to hand over my card, she says, "we don't take those." I pointed at the sign which clearly said that they *did* take them. "The system is down." Luckily for me and my hungry family, I did have cash on hand, so I was able to pay, but... yeesh, people. I understand technology can be finicky, nothing's perfect, etc, but why does this *only* ever happen to me at McDonalds??? I don't recall *ever* having that problem at a Wendy's, or Burger King, or Arby's, or KFC, or... They need to stop ordering their card readers off the back pages of comic books.

I said I was never going to go to McD's again -- much to the dismay of my two kids. I didn't really mean it, but... it might be a while.

So that's my vent for the day, aren't you glad you asked?

PJ

Sorry, I'm going to take this for a rant. Because this is one thing that really peeves me.

Now, just so you know, I live right behind a local mall. It's a nice quiet location, but it's literally hell during the Christmas season. I have to get through mall traffic just to get home from work. So I *know* how busy things get.

But no matter what time of the year, I'll head over to the mall, and grab a parking spot, usually one of the first near the end of the row of cars that I see. I might go down one aisle and back another just to see how crowded it is, before I take a parking spot at the end of the line. But I'll watch people stalk the aisles, going up and down them several times. They'll see someone get into their car, back up a bit, and wait for that car to pull out so they can get that "prime" spot. I was once stopped 2 cars behind one car that did this. I was impatient, wanting to get into the next aisle so I could quickly find parking spot of my own. But no, I had to wait 5 minutes for that car to back out, just so Mr. Whiny could take that spot so he wouldn't have to park that far.

Now, I know Americans are lazy. But for goodness sake, WALK! If you can't walk that far, talk to the doctor, maybe you can get a handicapped tag. But don't make *me* wait and waste gas so you can save a few footsteps. The gas is more expensive.

Just to show how ridiculous this is, last month we had two shootings at the mall over parking spaces. I know one person only shot a gun up into the air, but it really is sad.

Oooooh... venting! I can do that! So what gets on my nerve?

1) Weirdos I seem to attract lately. Just last Saturday I was at a birthday party and there was one guy who followed my every step all night and kept taking pictures of me. Really freaked me out after a while.

2) Parents who think we teachers ought to be perfect. I'm enough of a perfectionist without a student's mother coming to school just to tell me I made a mistake in the example of an exercise (horror! damnation!) and that's why her son failed there. Uh... yeah. So why did my 8 other first graders get it?

3) Letting things pile up and not dealing with them as they come. No matter what I keep failing at being organised. It's a pain in the backside.

I think that's it for now.

Kaethel

Yeah, I remember hearing on a radio program a couple of years back that this one was an urban myth. As for the figures - partly, it was supposed to be down to people keeping glasses of water beside their beds at night. Spider gets into glass, person wakes up thirsty, reaches for glass without putting light on....

Can't say as a theory it ever made all that much sense to me, but it is partly the reason why the only water beside my bed at night is in bottles.

I'm picking up on this vent by the way - what on earth makes the makers of these ads think that grossing out your potential pool of takers is a good marketing strategy?

LabRat

My vent of the day...

Bookshops that don't actually act like a bookshop!

I have just started an online course. Got my booklist a week or so ago, plus the address/website of the campus bookshop. Went there and saw that they have an online ordering facility for distance-education students (which I am) and that books may be ordered for postage or pickup.

Fine. As I will be at the college a week after placing my order (tonight, actually), I decide to order online with a view to picking the books up tonight. Go through all the process online, noting that stock of one book is down to one. Get to delivery info stage and discover that there is only an option to ship the order, at a cost of Can$15 plus tax. Cancel process and phone bookstore.

Staff in bookstore do not have the details the website has of essential texts for each course, so instead of telling them my module codes I have to list each book individually. They then tell me that they cannot hold the order for me to pick up a week later as they have no space to keep individual orders. They tell me to order online and have books shipped. So, even though it will cost me more, when it would have been convenient to pick up my books tonight, I ordered them to have them shipped - was conscious of that one text which only had one copy left.

A week later, no books have arrived. When at the college tonight, I went into the bookshop to ask when my order was dispatched.

They have no record of my order.

So now I have to call tomorrow with my order confirmation information and try to get it sorted out. I will then have to wait to get the books dispatched. In the meantime, my course has now started and they are out of stock of the one essential text which I did actually manage to order. So, having been organised enough to have my books in time, I now have nothing.

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!


Wendy

Lab, glad I could help.

Walmart -- not touching that one. Which, come to think of it, is my general policy when it comes to Walmart. (Except Sam's Club, but that's different...)

My rant: Push-To-Talk cell phones. Now, those things drive me nuts. What is the point? Suddenly, instead of speaking normally into your phone, so that at least the volume isn't disruptive, you're shouting into the thing because it's in speakerphone mode.

Not only that, but whatever's said on the other side gets blasted out of the phone's speaker. The sound quality is poor and garbled, but you can still hear it across the room.

Then, just in case that wasn't loud and annoying enough, the phone punctuates every sentence with a loud chirp which can be heard from two rooms away.

So, you're adding three new levels of noise pollution to fill the room/bus/whatever, and what's the benefit? The minutes are a little cheaper. Except that you have to buy a phone capable of using the service, and you have to pay extra to get the PTT minutes (which are seperate from your regular minutes).

Really, then, you're annoying an entire room full of people (me especially) for no better reason than because it seemed like a cool idea. Or something.

Grr.

*other venty noises*

Paul

Cell phones. I cannot stand it when people come into the store on the phone and expect me to help them. I feel like I have to interrupt their phone conversation to help them find what they're looking for, take their money, get them to sign their receipt, etc etc. Just hang up the phone for five seconds and let me do my job. We'll all get done faster if I don't have to compete with a cell phone conversation.

Jen

Sara's rant reminded me of something.

Vent Subject: Restaurant Menus.

Why? Because you can never be sure that they serve everything that's in the menu. I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but it's true here in Greece for most restaurants/taverns. I do check the menu before ordering, but it just bugs me to know that I can't say "I'd like this one, please" and instead I must say "Would you happen to have this one?" Isn't there a reason there are menus??

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Think that must be a Greek thing, Anna. Certainly, it doesn't seem to be the norm in any country I've visited (UK, France, US, Canada, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria...um...Czechoslovakia, old Yugoslavia, Germany, Hungary...).

Yvonne

Ah, I've got one.

Last week a couple of friends taught me how to make home-made sushi. As a huge fan of it, I went looking for the ingredients to make some. Basically what I needed was seaweed for the wrap and a special sort of rice.

There is a supermarket beside my house that specifically carries Asian products, so after I came to my senses and remembered it was there <g> (I went to a regular store before that and was pissed because they didn't have what I needed) I went.

I found an aisle labeled (among other things) "Sushi Items." Wouldn't you think that would include rice? I found the seaweed. One side of the aisle had rice sticks, that looked more like noodles til I read the label, so I thought maybe I kept missing it or something. There was a stack of Indian rice nearby too, so I thought that might've been it, but it didn't look like it was.

Eventually I caught an employee and asked him to point me to the sushi rice. He did. To the other end of the store. How on EARTH am I supposed to guess it would be at the other end of the store???

Julie

Ah, yes, Julie. The layout of supermarkets defies any logic known to the human race. And why they insist rearranging them when you've only just figured out where everything is again, I really don't know.

Well, I do, really. It's so that you notice new stuff while you're trying to find the stuff you really want to buy. As if an aggravated, irritated shopper who just wants to find the canned soup aisle would *really* be interested in an impulse buy of dried fish scales or whatever it is they're trying to sell you.

Yvonne

this finding-things-in-a-supermarket rant is very interesting. if I was as rich as the fictional character in my avatar, I would offer all of you my services because:

I have a superpower. It's finding things in supermarkets.

It works 99% of the time. Even if I've never been in the store, I can walk immediately to the correct aisle and find the correct section right away. Now, this doesn't mean that I can go into Cash Wise Groceries and find savory (they don't carry it), but I certainly can get you to the spice aisle fast and directly.

If I had the money to travel around the world at will, I would offer my services.

What's your superpower?

(but this is a topic for another thread. )

I'm not sure I've got a superpower, but I can tell you both my kids do -- Indestructible Cuteness

PJ

To tag onto Paul's...

I hate Push-to-Talk, too. For all the reasons Paul stated and one more:

You have no choice but to answer your phone. Say I'm at dance and I'm expecting a call from my mother about something important so I leave my ringer on and warn my kids that I might have to answer the phone (because, otherwise, naturally, I would turn it off). If my best friend calls, for whatever reason, I can check the caller ID, realize it's not my important-urgent call, and ignore it.

Not so with PTT. Instead, a disembodied voice just SPEAKS with no regard whatsoever for the fact that you might be, oh, say, busy! And then, you have to answer, even if only to say, "Can't talk right now."

How rude is that?

Drives me bonkers.

Bethy

Wendy, you have my sympathies. There's nothing more aggravating than a service company that fails to do the one thing it's in business to do. Delivery companies come to mind, or even worse, delivery drivers.

Their sole function in life is to drive the van to the correct address and hand over the goods. You'd think, therefore, that they'd be pretty good at finding addresses - I mean, that's all they do, all day long, every day of the week. All that practice! They must be experts, mustn't they?

Well...no. Instead, they ring you up on their mobile and tell you where they are and expect you to guide them in. Thus ensues a ridiculous conversation wherein you use one set of landmarks to describe the route and they use another.

"I'm driving past the Shell garage," they say.

"What Shell garage? Are you anywhere near the big Sainsbury's?"

"Don't know, but there's a pub coming up on the left called the Jolly Roger."

"Sorry, don't know that," you reply. "How about that big Sainsbury's I just mentioned?"

"No, love, can't see that. There's a police station...?"

And so on until they crash into the next car because they're driving while talking on their phone.

Yvonne

I've got another one...

Parents who move into a new sector of town (or another city) in the middle of the year and register their kids at my school. My class just got its 25th student, and in a couple of weeks I'll have a 26th one, and that within a double class (first and second grade), which is supposed to have *less* students than regular classes!

Kae :p

People that talk to you when you're obviously busy drive me nuts!!!

My sister has been ranting for the last hour or so about someone in her writing forum. In between spurts of rant, I was calling the theater to reserve tickets for a special show. She read the phone number to me, watched me dial, then proceeded to rant again! Worse, is that she expected me to get the information from the phone call *and* respond to her rant. Bah!! I can only process one conversation at a time, thank you!

Sara

People that talk to me when I'm tired. I know that sounds rather witchy, but the last thing I want to do when I'm tired is talk or even listen to people talk.

jd

I hate having to call for any kind of repair service. Be it calling a plumber or the cable company. They tell you they will be their between 8 am and noon or 1 pm and 4pm. How come then every time the show up it is like 11:30 am or 3:30 pm. What are they doing the rest of the time because I have friends with the same complaint. They show up right at the end of the time they say they will come. We can't always be the last one scheduled.

I also hate the fact that you go through this long description of what is wrong and when the repair person gets there they have it all wrong and because of that half the time don't have the right parts.

Continuing with kmar's rant about service people...

My insurance company had arranged for a guy to come out and have a look at the leak in my roof that's now morphed into a rather large hole...I was told he would arrive between 1pm and 4pm.

He arrived at 4.20pm, and for some reason thought it was appropriate to bring along his two daughters, aged 4 and 6. While he was on the roof assessing the damage, the girls decided to go through the front door and start going through my house, touching things (and breaking them), and then chasing the poor cats around.