Minor things that bother you

[hbelkins]

The use of the compressor, in my experience, doesn't affect defrosting the exterior.

Defogging the interior, on the other hand...

[zachary_amaryllis]

The use of the compressor, in my experience, doesn't affect defrosting the exterior.

Defogging the interior, on the other hand...

nerd.

well played, tho.

[kkt]

On a lighter note, a minor thing that bothers me is that my car makes a "ding" sound when the temperature drops to 4 C (39 F) or lower. It still startles me for a split second until I look down and see the message .

My car does that too.  2018 Honda Accord.  I guess it's a warning to take it easy on bridges because they may ice up.

The car beeps at me for so many things it hardly seems worth while getting bothered by that particular one.

[LilianaUwU]

On a lighter note, a minor thing that bothers me is that my car makes a "ding" sound when the temperature drops to 4 C (39 F) or lower. It still startles me for a split second until I look down and see the message .

My car does that too.  2018 Honda Accord.  I guess it's a warning to take it easy on bridges because they may ice up.

The car beeps at me for so many things it hardly seems worth while getting bothered by that particular one.

I had to get from my hometown to Québec City with one of those cars once. It beeped when the driver changed lanes, because it thought we were swerving.

[Scott5114]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

On a lighter note, a minor thing that bothers me is that my car makes a "ding" sound when the temperature drops to 4 C (39 F) or lower. It still startles me for a split second until I look down and see the message .

My car does that too.  2018 Honda Accord.  I guess it's a warning to take it easy on bridges because they may ice up.

The car beeps at me for so many things it hardly seems worth while getting bothered by that particular one.

I had to get from my hometown to Québec City with one of those cars once. It beeped when the driver changed lanes, because it thought we were swerving.

I rented one like that once. You could make it not beep when changing lanes if you used the turn signal. Very passive-aggressive way to encourage signal use.

My aunt's car lets out a long, continuous beep if you don't heed the first few sets of seatbelt-warning beeps. It will just keep going in one long, unbroken beep until whoever the offending passenger is buckles their belt.

[LilianaUwU]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

But what would be National Park worthy in those states?

(wait, which states are we talking about?)

[Scott5114]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

But what would be National Park worthy in those states?

(wait, which states are we talking about?)

Every state has some feature that's worth protecting and/or maintaining as a recreational destination. They don't have to be Yellowstone to be worth protecting. Sometimes, they even have other park-ish designations but aren't National Parks™ for some reason. Oklahoma, for instance, used to have a national park that got downgraded to a National Recreational Area in 1976. They should make it a national park again. The Ouachita National Forest could be one as well.

[GaryV]

The use of the compressor, in my experience, doesn't affect defrosting the exterior.

Defogging the interior, on the other hand...

I've had to defrost the interior.  It's a pain.  Because of the curvature of the glass, a scraper only makes contact at the outer edges of the scraper.  So you pretty much just have to wait for it to warm up.  And you certainly wouldn't want the compressor running then.

[hotdogPi]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

If New England has six, California would have at least 15.

[1995hoo]

The use of the compressor, in my experience, doesn't affect defrosting the exterior.

Defogging the interior, on the other hand...

I've had to defrost the interior.  It's a pain.  Because of the curvature of the glass, a scraper only makes contact at the outer edges of the scraper.  So you pretty much just have to wait for it to warm up.  And you certainly wouldn't want the compressor running then.

The car I had when I was in high school (a '77 Granada) used to get frost on both the inside and outside of the windshield and my brother and I had to scrape both inside and out in the mornings before driving to school. It also lacked a rear defroster, so we had to scrape back there too.

There were some mornings when we were cutting it close on timing when we'd be driving with the windows open hanging out the windows to see where we were going....

[vdeane]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

But what would be National Park worthy in those states?

(wait, which states are we talking about?)

Every state has some feature that's worth protecting and/or maintaining as a recreational destination. They don't have to be Yellowstone to be worth protecting. Sometimes, they even have other park-ish designations but aren't National Parks™ for some reason. Oklahoma, for instance, used to have a national park that got downgraded to a National Recreational Area in 1976. They should make it a national park again. The Ouachita National Forest could be one as well.

Given what happens to National Parks in government shutdowns (either closed or trashed), I think I'd prefer it if things like Niagara Falls and Letchworth stay exactly where they are.  Plus National Parks are far more expensive than state parks.

Of course, the reason why there are many more national parks out west is because that's where the unceded federal land was when they were created.  States out east tends to own their land or have it in private hands, but so much of the states out west is owned and controlled by the federal government.

[hbelkins]

"Customer service" people for whom English is a secondary or tertiary language, read from a script, and are actually unable to help you with the problem or the questions you have.

Case in point: My wife ordered something from Macy's, as the nearest one to us is in Lexington and we don't go there very often, and sure wouldn't to make a special trip (and fight holiday traffic on Nicholasville Road to get to the mall) to get one item. She input all her information, actually had me look over it to make sure she had everything right, and placed the order online. It seemed to go through, and then today she gets an email saying the order was canceled because they couldn't verify some of the information. So she decided to call them. All the info she provided on the online order was correct, and the info she gave to the non-native-English speaker on the phone was also correct. But the person on the other end of the line was unable to tell what information their system was unable to verify and was very obviously reading from a script on what to say instead of actually trying to solve the problem.

As I type this, she's been on the phone for nearly 30 minutes, and on hold for about 20 minutes, waiting to talk to a supervisor about what, exactly, their system can't verify.

It's certainly not a good way to build goodwill for your company.

The clueless woman on the phone can't even tell her if the problem is with the address or phone number associated with the bank card, the fact that we have a post office box for a mailing and billing address instead of a physical address, or what the issue is.

Even if they approve the purchase now, she's not going to buy it. It's a matter of principle now.

And don't lecture people on being considerate to customer service personnel if they can't get it right or actually do their jobs. I know no one is perfect, but how hard can it be to find out which information could not be verified, or at what point in the system, so she can find out if she needs to call the bank to update an address or phone number or make sure they have the right one on file, especially since this is the first time this has happened?

Related: The saying "the customer is always right," which may have been discussed here before. In reality, the customer is hardly ever right, at least from the terms of the business.

[JayhawkCO]

And don't lecture people on being considerate to customer service personnel if they can't get it right or actually do their jobs. I know no one is perfect, but how hard can it be to find out which information could not be verified, or at what point in the system, so she can find out if she needs to call the bank to update an address or phone number or make sure they have the right one on file, especially since this is the first time this has happened?

While I understand your/her pain, I think being considerate to people, whether or not they're good at their jobs is just being a good person.  Keep in mind that person is using likely some shitty software where it's just as hard for them to diagnose the problem as it is for you.  It's not like they're the one who told you that there was an issue.  Being rude to them accomplishes zero.

[Scott5114]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

If New England has six, California would have at least 15.

California already has 9 as it is.

And don't lecture people on being considerate to customer service personnel if they can't get it right or actually do their jobs. I know no one is perfect, but how hard can it be to find out which information could not be verified, or at what point in the system, so she can find out if she needs to call the bank to update an address or phone number or make sure they have the right one on file, especially since this is the first time this has happened?

Sometimes, really fucking hard. The last customer service job I worked, I was considered one of the most competent people there, to the point that on multiple occasions management would call me to fix problems that they didn't understand. And still there were some problems where I had zero information to give the customer, because the computer system simply didn't dispense the information that was needed as to why a particular transaction wasn't going through. I couldn't tell the customer how to fix the problem because the people who wrote the software didn't think it was important to make that information available to the customer.

So tell me how the customer being rude or inconsiderate to me, the person trying to help but being unable to because I'm not being given the information necessary to do that, would help matters at all? Am I supposed to hack the computer's admin password so I can install a decompiler and rewrite the credit card processing software to provide more specific error messages? (You better be standing there with me the whole sixteen hours or whatever it takes to do that, by the way.) Or maybe you should accept that the front-line employee isn't the one at fault here and take it up with whoever made the boneheaded decision to not provide any sort of information as to why the transaction isn't going through?

I've found that employees naturally want to do their jobs, because making customers happy makes the job more pleasant and happy customers are easier to deal with than pissed-off ones. When you encounter someone that can't do their jobs, nine times out of ten it's because there is a manager somewhere stopping them from doing their job. In a lot of cases these managers have never done the job of the person helping you and may not have ever even once talked to one of the company's customers.

[JayhawkCO]

Preach.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

And don't lecture people on being considerate to customer service personnel if they can't get it right or actually do their jobs. I know no one is perfect, but how hard can it be to find out which information could not be verified, or at what point in the system, so she can find out if she needs to call the bank to update an address or phone number or make sure they have the right one on file, especially since this is the first time this has happened?

While I understand your/her pain, I think being considerate to people, whether or not they're good at their jobs is just being a good person.  Keep in mind that person is using likely some shitty software where it's just as hard for them to diagnose the problem as it is for you.  It's not like they're the one who told you that there was an issue.  Being rude to them accomplishes zero.

Whenever someone bitches about rude customer service 99.9% of the time it's because the customer was rude first, then turns around and cries victim because they expect to be able to be a dick to service employees without having to get any in return because "the customer is always right".

[thspfc]

And don't lecture people on being considerate to customer service personnel if they can't get it right or actually do their jobs. I know no one is perfect, but how hard can it be to find out which information could not be verified, or at what point in the system, so she can find out if she needs to call the bank to update an address or phone number or make sure they have the right one on file, especially since this is the first time this has happened?

While I understand your/her pain, I think being considerate to people, whether or not they're good at their jobs is just being a good person.  Keep in mind that person is using likely some shitty software where it's just as hard for them to diagnose the problem as it is for you.  It's not like they're the one who told you that there was an issue.  Being rude to them accomplishes zero.

Whenever someone bitches about rude customer service 99.9% of the time it's because the customer was rude first, then turns around and cries victim because they expect to be able to be a dick to service employees without having to get any in return because "the customer is always right".

Or because the employee made a mistake which they quickly corrected and apologized for, but the customer is so hungry for validation that they choose to be angry about it.

[JayhawkCO]

And don't lecture people on being considerate to customer service personnel if they can't get it right or actually do their jobs. I know no one is perfect, but how hard can it be to find out which information could not be verified, or at what point in the system, so she can find out if she needs to call the bank to update an address or phone number or make sure they have the right one on file, especially since this is the first time this has happened?

While I understand your/her pain, I think being considerate to people, whether or not they're good at their jobs is just being a good person.  Keep in mind that person is using likely some shitty software where it's just as hard for them to diagnose the problem as it is for you.  It's not like they're the one who told you that there was an issue.  Being rude to them accomplishes zero.

Whenever someone bitches about rude customer service 99.9% of the time it's because the customer was rude first, then turns around and cries victim because they expect to be able to be a dick to service employees without having to get any in return because "the customer is always right".

It was really fun when I was the GM of a fancy restaurant and I got to 86 people so they could never come back.  A lot of people were so rude and mean that they made my employees cry.  I told several of them that if the couldn't treat our employees with respect, then we are under no mandate to treat them with respect and we would prefer that they left.  Most of those people made more money than god and rarely heard the word "no".  It shut them up pretty quick once I kicked them out, especially when it was in front of a client or fellow employee out for a business dinner.

[webny99]

I generally think it's never a good idea to come out being rude to someone, on the phone or in person. If the other person is rude first, then fine, you can be a little short and defend your turf if you feel it's warranted.

If you're dealing with someone that you feel is incompetent, I don't see that as a reason to be rude because there's a 99% chance that their incompetence is the result of someone else above them in the chain/org chart. Either they didn't receive proper training, their HR department hired an unqualified candidate, or their systems haven't been properly developed enough enabled them to properly answer the customers questions. So if incompetence is the issue, ask to talk to a manager before you get too worked up.

Now if you're dealing with someone that is straight up unhelpful and has a bad attitude, that's different and goes back to my first point.

[hbelkins]

Postscript to the story: The person on the other end of the line basically called my wife a scammer who had used unverifiable information in an attempt to order a $50 Christmas present for her favorite aunt.

After a lengthy hold, she finally got through to Person 1's supervisor, who was also someone for whom English is obviously a secondary or tertiary language. They were never able to tell her exactly what the issue was (she genuinely wanted to know if she needed to contact the bank to verify some information, or if they had something wrong on her account) but they did manually process the order. When she got the confirmation email, the only difference was that the billing and shipping addresses had the ZIP+4 instead of just the five-digit ZIP. It got her order placed, but it still didn't solve the mystery of what went wrong in the first place so it won't happen again. And the first person never apologized for calling her a scammer.

I go out of my way to be nice to customer service people, but I expect politeness and competence in return.

[ZLoth]

The clueless woman on the phone can't even tell her if the problem is with the address or phone number associated with the bank card, the fact that we have a post office box for a mailing and billing address instead of a physical address, or what the issue is.

I think some of this comes down to the corporate attitude of "increase revenue, decrease expenses, increase profits". The customer service representatives can only use the systems that are provided to them, usually by an overworked and understaffed Information Technology department. The order systems probably aren't a in-house system either, but adapted from a third party vendor solution, probably with very limited options. There are also limits to what that CSR or their "manager" can and cannot do.

Related: The saying "the customer is always right," which may have been discussed here before. In reality, the customer is hardly ever right, at least from the terms of the business.

"The customer is always right" originated around 1905-1908, and is meant to be respectful of the customer. Unfortunately, too many people in the world (especially the obnoxious Karens) have twisted this around to no end that it has become a joke.

[kkt]

That there are 20 states with no national park. Every state should at least have one.

On a lighter note, a minor thing that bothers me is that my car makes a "ding" sound when the temperature drops to 4 C (39 F) or lower. It still startles me for a split second until I look down and see the message .

My car does that too.  2018 Honda Accord.  I guess it's a warning to take it easy on bridges because they may ice up.

The car beeps at me for so many things it hardly seems worth while getting bothered by that particular one.

I had to get from my hometown to Québec City with one of those cars once. It beeped when the driver changed lanes, because it thought we were swerving.

I rented one like that once. You could make it not beep when changing lanes if you used the turn signal. Very passive-aggressive way to encourage signal use.

My aunt's car lets out a long, continuous beep if you don't heed the first few sets of seatbelt-warning beeps. It will just keep going in one long, unbroken beep until whoever the offending passenger is buckles their belt.

Yes.  I have to admit, it may have made a small improvement in my habits.  I always generally signalled, but now I have two reason:  because it's the right thing to do, and in order not to get beeped at.

[Scott5114]

Related: The saying "the customer is always right," which may have been discussed here before. In reality, the customer is hardly ever right, at least from the terms of the business.

"The customer is always right" originated around 1905-1908, and is meant to be respectful of the customer. Unfortunately, too many people in the world (especially the obnoxious Karens) have twisted this around to no end that it has become a joke.

That's also not what it originally meant. Originally, it was a warning to the business owner that the customers' preferences should govern what the business sells. If you think bright green curtains are tacky but they're flying off the shelves, you bite your tongue and restock them, because the customer is always right.

[roadman65]

The Customer is Always Right is only when you are the employee.  When you are the customer, it don't work that way

[roadman65]

Oh for me this is one I live with, but seems odd.  Without being sexist here, I often wonder why females now exclusively paint their toes but not their fingers as the fingernails seems like it's only a percentage of the female population.

To me the ones who paint their toenails and  do not paint their fingernails is like spraying deodorant under one arm and leaving the other arm unprotected.

Not that I lose sleep over this, but it is odd to do one side only and not the other and plus do most guys look down at a girls toes if they are not in high heels and mini skirts?