Minor things that bother you

[jakeroot]

- Waitresses and retail staff that insist on calling me 'hun'
- The word "hubby"

Would you prefer "love" (The British equivalent)?

Add another one to the list...

"How much have you had, love??"

(+1 for anyone who knows the quote)

[MNHighwayMan]

My first real job was pushing shopping carts at a Target in the west suburbs of Chicago (Roosevelt & County Farm, for those of you who care).  I got sick of seeing people drop someone off, then just idle in the fire lane in front of the store for a while–or, worse, pull up in the fire lane, and go inside themselves for a quick purchase.

For my job, I used one of those remote-controlled motorized cart pusher machines.  I also–in the name of efficiency and because nobody told me otherwise for the first few months–tended to push as many carts with the thing as the remote control signal strength would allow me to.  45 carts was my approximate max train length:  much more than that, and the remote control signal would cut out and the machine would stop every so often.

So one day, I had a good long train of carts going, and I saw a car parked in the fire lane.  It irked me.  I double-parked my whole train of shopping carts, curving it just enough to "wrap" the guy in and not let him drive away.  Then I went inside to take a bathroom break, refill my cup, etc.  When I came back out, he was none too happy about having come out to his car with no way to escape.  But there wasn't anything he could do about it either.

I'm sure most of you will find it easy to believe that customer service is not one of my strong suits.

Funny, I had that exact same job at 18.  I found a lot of those people were actually hitting the store on hit-and-run shoplifters.  I later became security later and ended up getting quite a few of the parking lot fiends, those were sweet tiny little victories.  I even had the cart guy block in a couple shoplifters on one occasion.

As did I, from age 16 all the way until I graduated high school. Company policy was to limit the cart pusher to twenty carts, but I often got away with double that. Did not deal with shoplifters though, not that we had very many in a town of 7000 people. If they did, they were doing it at the Wal-Mart instead!

[formulanone]

- The word "hubby"

What is...words you've seen on greeting cards and tabloid news but have never actually heard anyone actually say?

[DaBigE]

- The word "hubby"

What is...words you've seen on greeting cards and tabloid news but have never actually heard anyone actually say?

You've apparently been lucky. I've heard it way too often when someone's attempting be funny or as a term of endearment.

[Rothman]

The auto start and stop is annoying.  My parents have a Subaru with that feature that I drove over Thanksgiving weekend and I found it actually concerning due to the additional wear that may be caused by all those starts.  Car shuddered a little too on each one.

[Max Rockatansky]

My first real job was pushing shopping carts at a Target in the west suburbs of Chicago (Roosevelt & County Farm, for those of you who care).  I got sick of seeing people drop someone off, then just idle in the fire lane in front of the store for a while–or, worse, pull up in the fire lane, and go inside themselves for a quick purchase.

For my job, I used one of those remote-controlled motorized cart pusher machines.  I also–in the name of efficiency and because nobody told me otherwise for the first few months–tended to push as many carts with the thing as the remote control signal strength would allow me to.  45 carts was my approximate max train length:  much more than that, and the remote control signal would cut out and the machine would stop every so often.

So one day, I had a good long train of carts going, and I saw a car parked in the fire lane.  It irked me.  I double-parked my whole train of shopping carts, curving it just enough to "wrap" the guy in and not let him drive away.  Then I went inside to take a bathroom break, refill my cup, etc.  When I came back out, he was none too happy about having come out to his car with no way to escape.  But there wasn't anything he could do about it either.

I'm sure most of you will find it easy to believe that customer service is not one of my strong suits.

Funny, I had that exact same job at 18.  I found a lot of those people were actually hitting the store on hit-and-run shoplifters.  I later became security later and ended up getting quite a few of the parking lot fiends, those were sweet tiny little victories.  I even had the cart guy block in a couple shoplifters on one occasion.

As did I, from age 16 all the way until I graduated high school. Company policy was to limit the cart pusher to twenty carts, but I often got away with double that. Did not deal with shoplifters though, not that we had very many in a town of 7000 people. If they did, they were doing it at the Wal-Mart instead!

I think it was 20 back then also, or at least I remember people getting upset about long cart trains.  I was training for police tests so I usually just pushed a train of 15 carts by hand.  I only did that job for one summer but trimmed down from my hockey playing weight of 190 down to 160.  It probably didn't hurt it was often 110 degrees in Phoenix most of the summer of 2001.  I was getting adept at distance running at the time also so the cart gig helped tremendously to that end.  The worst part was that they wanted me to cashier on occasion which I would go out of my way to avoid at all costs.  I hated talking to people and I mostly get by with the reasoning that customers didn't want to see someone drenched in sweat and sunscreen. 

[jeffandnicole]

The auto start and stop is annoying.  My parents have a Subaru with that feature that I drove over Thanksgiving weekend and I found it actually concerning due to the additional wear that may be caused by all those starts.  Car shuddered a little too on each one.

I was in someone's car with that feature recently.  Yeah, I didn't care for it either.

Having a hybrid, I don't have that issue.  Actually, it vary rarely turns off when stopped, because it's usually already switched over to electric mode in the process of slowing down.  When I speed up, it continues to use the battery for a little bit as well.

Recently, sitting in traffic, the car did go from gas to electric while stopped.  The carpool member with me asked if does that every time.  I've had the car for 6 months, sitting in traffic every day with this guy, and it's the first time I remember it doing that, including on that very trip.  So, that answer would be a big fat No.  Let's just say this particular guy is the type that knows everything, yet is very unobservant about most everything as well.  (When he can't believe traffic is jammed (which it is every day), I'll ask if he just saw the travel time sign we just past. The answer, every time, is No.)

Another job, especially related to this group: Toll Collector. 

My brother-in-law (not the picky-eater-in-law described a few posts above) was a toll collector about 30 years ago, and was bored out of his mind after a month, and quit after a few months. Nothing else to but to make change, read a book, and listen to the radio...and occasionally give directions. He was told that his ability to make correct change "over 95% of the time" was impressive, which made him realize there was no hope for climbing the career ladder. He'd told me that it took a day or two to not wince at the sight of a 18-wheeler going 55 mph, which was the toughest part of the job.

Your mileage may have varied!

I don't recall actually being concerned about truckers in regard to their speed - truckers tended to slow down further away from the plazas, whereas car drivers tended to drive very fast up to (and occasionally thru) the toll lane. I did have a car run up the concrete barrier in the front of the adjoining booth...slow enough that it wasn't much of a concern, except for the fact the driver was laughing about it.  Me and the toll attendant next to me gave the driver a WTF look, and the driver got mad at us, as if running a car up a barrier mere feet from a toll booth operator should be taken as a funny joke!

[tchafe1978]

My first real job was pushing shopping carts at a Target in the west suburbs of Chicago (Roosevelt & County Farm, for those of you who care).  I got sick of seeing people drop someone off, then just idle in the fire lane in front of the store for a while–or, worse, pull up in the fire lane, and go inside themselves for a quick purchase.

For my job, I used one of those remote-controlled motorized cart pusher machines.  I also–in the name of efficiency and because nobody told me otherwise for the first few months–tended to push as many carts with the thing as the remote control signal strength would allow me to.  45 carts was my approximate max train length:  much more than that, and the remote control signal would cut out and the machine would stop every so often.

So one day, I had a good long train of carts going, and I saw a car parked in the fire lane.  It irked me.  I double-parked my whole train of shopping carts, curving it just enough to "wrap" the guy in and not let him drive away.  Then I went inside to take a bathroom break, refill my cup, etc.  When I came back out, he was none too happy about having come out to his car with no way to escape.  But there wasn't anything he could do about it either.

I'm sure most of you will find it easy to believe that customer service is not one of my strong suits.

Funny, I had that exact same job at 18.  I found a lot of those people were actually hitting the store on hit-and-run shoplifters.  I later became security later and ended up getting quite a few of the parking lot fiends, those were sweet tiny little victories.  I even had the cart guy block in a couple shoplifters on one occasion.

As did I, from age 16 all the way until I graduated high school. Company policy was to limit the cart pusher to twenty carts, but I often got away with double that. Did not deal with shoplifters though, not that we had very many in a town of 7000 people. If they did, they were doing it at the Wal-Mart instead!

I think it was 20 back then also, or at least I remember people getting upset about long cart trains.  I was training for police tests so I usually just pushed a train of 15 carts by hand.  I only did that job for one summer but trimmed down from my hockey playing weight of 190 down to 160.  It probably didn't hurt it was often 110 degrees in Phoenix most of the summer of 2001.  I was getting adept at distance running at the time also so the cart gig helped tremendously to that end.  The worst part was that they wanted me to cashier on occasion which I would go out of my way to avoid at all costs.  I hated talking to people and I mostly get by with the reasoning that customers didn't want to see someone drenched in sweat and sunscreen. 

My first real job was pushing carts and bagging groceries. We didn't have a cart mule, so we pushed all the carts by hand, which was made slightly easier by the parking slot sloping down towards the store. Unfortunately, at least for the cars and their owners, on more than one occasion a customer would stop to drop someone off or whatever right in front of the door just as I was bringing a line of carts in. Sorry, but I have no way to stop a line of carts headed downhill on a dime, and avoid hitting your car.

[Beltway]

Another minor gripe that I frequently encounter --

Public restrooms usually don't have a place to put a few items while using the stall.  Say you have a few books with you and you want to set them down while you use the commode.

All it would take is a board about 8 x 24 inches attached to the wall with 2 angle brackets.

[DaBigE]

Another minor gripe that I frequently encounter --

Public restrooms usually don't have a place to put a few items while using the stall.  Say you have a few books with you and you want to set them down while you use the commode.

All it would take is a board about 8 x 24 inches attached to the wall with 2 angle brackets.

I like the idea, but it would likely become a big target for vandalism. There's an outlet mall I was at, where they recessed the wall like a shower shelf, behind the toilet in every stall.

[Beltway]

Another minor gripe that I frequently encounter --
Public restrooms usually don't have a place to put a few items while using the stall.  Say you have a few books with you and you want to set them down while you use the commode.
All it would take is a board about 8 x 24 inches attached to the wall with 2 angle brackets.

I like the idea, but it would likely become a big target for vandalism.

No more than any other appurtenance in the restroom.

There's an outlet mall I was at, where they recessed the wall like a shower shelf, behind the toilet in every stall.

I have seen that, probably no more materials needed than without it being recessed.

[Mrt90]

The auto start and stop is annoying.  My parents have a Subaru with that feature that I drove over Thanksgiving weekend and I found it actually concerning due to the additional wear that may be caused by all those starts.  Car shuddered a little too on each one.

I test drove a couple of VW's with that feature, and I couldn't really tell when the engine was being restarted, but I didn't like sitting in an intersection waiting to make a left turn and knowing that the car would have to restart which probably caused me to sit there waiting longer than I needed to.  Fortunately the VW's have a button by the gear selector where you can turn off the start/stop feature; if I bought one I would probably hit that button immediately after starting the car.

[mgk920]

Regarding the auto idle stop, my wife's car has it. I keep an eye on the other direction's traffic light so as to lift my foot off the brake quickly before the light goes green. That way the car starts back up in advance of it being time to move. I've been in that habit for years because in my cars I like to shift into gear and be ready to move.

Regarding waitstaff, I waited tables at a retirement home when I was in high school. It definitely gives you a different perspective on how people treat waiters and waitresses and I tend to be a lot more polite to them as a result.

As über-annoying as I can imagine that stop-start thing to be, could this be an impetus for the European style one or two second red/yellow signal phase to be added to the standard traffic signal cycle in the USA's MUTCD?

Also, yes, some people are beyond annoying and/or stupid as customers.  I tend to ignore them and if you ignore those truly bad ones enough, they'll eventually go away.

Mike

[mgk920]

A few more:

- One vehicle, usually a fancy ego trip one, that takes up two (or more) parking spaces.
- Someone, usually an older retiree, taking forever at the counter of a C-store while he or she is buying and cashing scratch off lottery tickets.
- I'll second the one about vehicles that are loudly rattling to the sub-bass beat of the crap that is being played on their sound systems.
- Regarding public 'facilities', people who don't flush after doing a #1.
- Customers who keep their phones stuck to their heads while they are taking care of business transactions (when I was very young, I was taught that it was rude to interrupt someone when he or she is on the phone - and I still gladly practice that!).
- Nicotine addicts.

Mike

[Beltway]

- I'll second the one about vehicles that are loudly rattling to the sub-bass beat of the crap that is being played on their sound systems.

Boom cars.  One the noise scourges that anti-noise activist groups are working to eliminate.

- Regarding public 'facilities', people who don't flush after doing a #1.

Seemingly minor, but I still find it nasty to often see that when I go into the stall.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

My experience with fast food was that there are people who knowingly take advantage of company policies generally prohibiting employees from responding in kind to douche customers. They know they can unload their misery and be as mean, rude, denigrating as they please because they won't hear a word in return, and if they do pick on the wrong employee to target with their spew they can immediately turn around to play victim and try to get people fired because they know corporate will likely take their side.

[1995hoo]

I was just programming online bill payments and I found myself thinking how stupid it is that creditors will set due dates on days when the banks aren't open and online payments can't be made (in this case, my Verizon bill is due December 25). It's a minor annoyance because I normally program the payments for the business day before the due date anyway (so I set this one for December 24, and I would have done so even if December 25 were not a holiday), but it seems dumb to have bills due on Sundays or holidays.

[texaskdog]

Going to the bank just to get a roll of quarters and being stuck behind someone with a drawn-out and/or complicated transaction.

and 5 other employees doing nothing who can't go be a 2nd teller

[texaskdog]

I'm one of those who gets annoyed by almost everything!, Yeah, go ahead and call me out on it. Most of this certainly is arbitrary and I decline to say everything because it sets off a chain reaction of shit that need not be said.

*Overmoderation of this forum 

Good behavior is the solution to your problem (said ind true hypocritical fashion - by the way, H.B., this is a sarcastic response.)

oh by the way, OK Boomer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  (Ok, so I pressed one too many buttons)

Nothing is valid except ISO 8601.

👍

That is the way to go.

Yes.  it sorts better. Also trying to sort files electronically when the policy/trend is to put given name first.

*  Motorists using their turn signal when exiting.

I disagree, because communicating your intentions is always valuable to other drivers on the road. Also, isn’t this legally required in most states anyway?

Moving into a previously existing lane, absolutely.  Signalling when moving into a new lane at the point it opens up is pointless.

Hey everyone, I'm getting off the freeway!  Yes it makes sense when the idiot exiting slows down to freaking 35 (arbitrary) before committing such action.  Otherwise, I could care less. At the same time, signaling when getting ON the freeway - Hey, I already see you (Though in fairness, not everyone is hyper-aware). Not signaling when changing lanes grinds my gears, however the robotic nature of signaling at every point where its a turn also gets to me - three left turn lanes? you're in the left lane? STILL HAVE TO SIGNAL per the law.

In football: not using analytics and therefore punting the ball away on 4th and 1 just so they don't get criticized; overcalling of penalties.  Having two football teams in Los Angeles.  Not going to an 18 game schedule/having those ridiculous pre-season games.

Speaking of football, Here's a tidbit from the TV Tropes "Insistent Terminology" series

American football announcers — presumably fearful lest those of us watching/listening to the games get confused as to exactly which sport is being played — take great pains to insert the word football (as both noun and adjective) into as much of their commentary as possible. So instead of saying, "These players need to move the ball down the field if they're going to win this game", they'll go with something like, "These football players need to move the football down the football field if they're going to win this football game," and so forth.

* Here's a supercut video an intrepid fan made of every time CBS analyst Phil Simms said "football" during a single telecast of an NFL game.note The game, for the curious, was a 2012 Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Detroit Lions and Houston Texans. It was not an especially unusual or important game, although it did go into overtime. (Total count: 58.)

** Baseball announcers, by contrast, will often call entire games without mentioning the name of the sport. Instead, it's "the ballgame", "the ballpark", "the ballplayers", etc.

*PLAY BALL!
*Foul Ball
*Fastball
*Curve Ball

--oh boy...🙄

**The difference is probably because professional football grew up so much in baseball's shadow that most of the teams played in baseball stadiums and many of them were even named after those baseball teams: The New York Giants were at first the New York Football Giants, for instance, until the San Francisco Giants moved to San Francisco.note  Even that professional sports team from Maryland mentioned above was originally the Boston Football Braves. Hence explicitly saying what sport is going on to avoid being mistaken for the other, better-known sport.

Yeah one can understand this.

**An inversion occurs in real life with the Super Bowl. "Super Bowl" is a trademarked phrase, hence the alternate term "The Big Game."

Doesn't mean it can't bother me.

* "I VOTED" Stickers, yeah it's part of the effort to get everyone to be involved in the election, but still.
* I'm a human.  I also am known as a person, American, worker, taxpayer, stakeholder, investor, voter, motorist, etc.  ok, so we change the name based on the context.
* motorist - what does a motor have to do with driving a car? Along these lines, names of car dealerships containing "motor" - Also using the word AUTO to refer to a vehicle.
* Overuse of "and" such as in "each and every", "alcohol and other drugs", etc.
* because it's tradition as a reason for not adapting to changes.

Anyone need a collaboration of "serious business" items?

Law of the month VMS

blah
blah
blah
SLOW DOWN

thanks for the reminder, any idiot who says "New York FOOTBALL Giants".....and Jagwires......

[texaskdog]

- The word "hubby"

or "hubs"

[texaskdog]

- The word "hubby"

What is...words you've seen on greeting cards and tabloid news but have never actually heard anyone actually say?

Notice how every TV show from the 60s they sing "for he's a jolly good fellow"?   Has anyone ever sung that or heard that sung at a party, ever?

[roadman65]

I heard that the Happy Birthday song is copywrited (yes NE2 I misspelled a word hold your ego please) so that is why they never hardly sing it not only on TV but at restaurants as well.

[roadman65]

When you are placed on hold with that eerie music.  Not only that but I do not like when every minute or so a recorded message kicks in to let you know you are on hold!  Really???  I think we all know that we are holding for a real live person, that message is insulting to anyone.  Plus when you hear that break in the music, for a brief part of a second you are excited  that finally you are not on hold anymore only to move back in time to the beginning after you hear that same message once again starting from the beginning of the hold process.

[1995hoo]

I heard that the Happy Birthday song is copywrited (yes NE2 I misspelled a word hold your ego please) so that is why they never hardly sing it not only on TV but at restaurants as well.

You also misspelled Sheryl Crow's name in your signature. 

[mgk920]

A USA federal court ruled not that long ago that it is in fact 'public domain' due to its copyright having expired.



As it stands right now, *nothing* created before 1924 is under any form of USA copyright protection.

Mike