Minor things that bother you

[Rothman]

Meh.  They left off the coda lots of times on northeastern classic rock stations I've listened to over the years.

[jeffandnicole]

I place checks as dead last because of how insecure a financial instrument it is and some experience where I provided someone with a check and they took forever to deposit it. I now explicitly state when I give someone a check to deposit it immediately please as I intentionally keep a low balance in my checking account. Practically the only time I write a check is when I deal with a government entity because the surcharge with going with the third party provider is just too much.

Exactly, I am extremely baffled by people who think that electronic means of funds transfers are less secure than checks. Checks literally put all of your financial information out there for pretty much anyone to see.

After a check clears, at least you can look at it later and see the stamp of who deposited it and see that it's your handwriting on the check.

Other than the signature, anyone can fill out a check. Or modify it.

[kkt]

I place checks as dead last because of how insecure a financial instrument it is and some experience where I provided someone with a check and they took forever to deposit it. I now explicitly state when I give someone a check to deposit it immediately please as I intentionally keep a low balance in my checking account. Practically the only time I write a check is when I deal with a government entity because the surcharge with going with the third party provider is just too much.

Exactly, I am extremely baffled by people who think that electronic means of funds transfers are less secure than checks. Checks literally put all of your financial information out there for pretty much anyone to see.

After a check clears, at least you can look at it later and see the stamp of who deposited it and see that it's your handwriting on the check.

Other than the signature, anyone can fill out a check. Or modify it.

I'm not in the habit of leaving signed and otherwise blank checks around.  I can see the check images after they are paid and see who endorsed them and what bank they were deposited into in case there are questions.  If an electronic payment is suspicious I can't see any trace of how it happened.  Possibly bank security might but I can't see any evidence either way before going to the bank or calling with a question.

[thenetwork]

Maybe, at 6'4", I don't suffer from the same afflictions. I don't remember the last time I had to even stretch for an item.

I'm under six feet.  Had to stretch to reach something a few weeks ago, but that only happens once a year or so.

Been asked to grab something for other customers, but that's also rare.

Been mistaken for an employee at Target or Walmart just by wearing a collared shirt.  Wasn't even red.

When I was younger I used to be mistaken for an employee at Lowes. A lot. Maybe I should've just directed people to the other side of the store for no reason.

I always tell people the item they are looking for is in "Aisle 4".

But if we're already in Aisle 4, then I say Aisle 8.

[formulanone]

Meh.  They left off the coda lots of times on northeastern classic rock stations I've listened to over the years.

To be fair, Layla by Derek and the Dominoes has a running time of about 15 hours or so.

[vdeane]

I'd put cash over a debit card. Cash can't get skimmed by an illegal card reader.

Cash can't be tracked though

That's the government's problem, not mine.

[jeffandnicole]

I'd put cash over a debit card. Cash can't get skimmed by an illegal card reader.

In a few times that I've had my credit card information taken, which I'm assuming was from a skimmer. It wasn't hard to call my bank and get the money put back on my account. Plus, I would hope and investigation would be open and they would look at the footage and see who did it, but I'm not sure how far they go with that.

With the amount of times this occurs per day, no one has the time to investigate every instance of credit card crime.  When a card's info is swiped, it's often sold on the black market.  While reviewing security footage from a store could show who used the info, it probably isn't the person that originally stole the info. 

This is also usually low-level criminal activity; most credit card companies, stores and police districts aren't going to review anything unless it's a high dollar amount or a possible theft ring.

[Scott5114]

I'd put cash over a debit card. Cash can't get skimmed by an illegal card reader.

Cash can't be tracked though

This is what's known as a "feature".

How many chicken sandwiches I buy is between me and Wendy.

[1995hoo]

... even the first part of the Who's Were Not Gonna Take It, but never this.

That one makes sense. "See Me, Feel Me" was released as a single in the United States because of its popularity after the Woodstock movie. So the radio stations still play that single.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'd put cash over a debit card. Cash can't get skimmed by an illegal card reader.

In a few times that I've had my credit card information taken, which I'm assuming was from a skimmer. It wasn't hard to call my bank and get the money put back on my account. Plus, I would hope and investigation would be open and they would look at the footage and see who did it, but I'm not sure how far they go with that.

With the amount of times this occurs per day, no one has the time to investigate every instance of credit card crime.  When a card's info is swiped, it's often sold on the black market.  While reviewing security footage from a store could show who used the info, it probably isn't the person that originally stole the info. 

This is also usually low-level criminal activity; most credit card companies, stores and police districts aren't going to review anything unless it's a high dollar amount or a possible theft ring.

I don't know it seems like it's a big enough problem. They could look into it and start trying to form some sort of a task force to attract these people down. Though I will say it's only happened to me a couple times. When it did, I called Chase and they immediately credited my account back the money. No questions asked.

[D-Dey65]

I'm trying to find places that recycle glass and Styrofoam, and nobody is telling me anything. All my searches on the internet are lies.

[Scott5114]

I'm trying to find places that recycle glass and Styrofoam, and nobody is telling me anything. All my searches on the internet are lies.

Styrofoam isn't recyclable.

Glass is very easy to recycle, but it requires special handling because it's so easy to break, which makes it hard to turn a profit on. When I lived in Oklahoma, we couldn't recycle glass through the regular recycling stream because the glass would break and intermingle with everything else. But they had recycling drop-off places throughout the city that had a dumpster for glass. I don't know the rules here in Las Vegas, but I would assume they're similar since the same company (Republic Services) handles the recycling in both LV and Norman.

You might reach out to your city sanitation department and see if they have any recommendations for recycling glass.

[US 89]

In the town I grew up in, back before we got curbside recycling, there were a few "recycling centers" around town - basically sets of big dumpsters you could take your recyclables to. There was one for glass, plastic, paper, etc...

Eventually we got curbside recycling, which you can't recycle glass through... but at the same time, the recycling centers went away. So now you can't recycle glass unless you want to drive a few cities away.

[thenetwork]

In the town I grew up in, back before we got curbside recycling, there were a few "recycling centers" around town - basically sets of big dumpsters you could take your recyclables to. There was one for glass, plastic, paper, etc...

Eventually we got curbside recycling, which you can't recycle glass through... but at the same time, the recycling centers went away. So now you can't recycle glass unless you want to drive a few cities away.

In my town, their recycle center accepts glass, but there are separate bins for clear and colored glass.

[GaryV]

We throw all our recyclables (glass, metal, paper, plastic) into a large wheelie bin and the recycle center takes care of it. We have to take styrofoam, shredded paper, and hazardous waste (batteries, paint, etc) to the recycle center.

[Plutonic Panda]

I don't know how true this is, but I've been hearing more and more lately that a lot of what you recycle doesn't actually go and be recycled. That has happened since China stop accepting a lot of recycling waste. Is that true?

[Max Rockatansky]

Recycling has never been close to a 100% efficient process.  The trouble is that a lot of people (including my wife when I met her) believe it is.  I think it more a "feel good" measure for most people than something they strive to have an understanding on.

[jeffandnicole]

I don't know how true this is, but I've been hearing more and more lately that a lot of what you recycle doesn't actually go and be recycled. That has happened since China stop accepting a lot of recycling waste. Is that true?

I've heard that the cost benefits of recycling aren't there anymore.  If the town or garbage company takes the recyclables to the landfill or the recycling plant, it costs about the same.  So it's quite possible the recyclables wind up in the regular landfill anyway.

[Rothman]

The most insidious thing about recycling is the coding of plastics within the recycling symbol for plastics that are currently not going to be recycled -- anything coded a 3 or higher, essentially.  Those really shouldn't have a recycling symbol at all.

[Scott5114]

I've got better things to do than squint at tiny numbers on things before throwing them away so I just toss it in the bin no matter what number it is. Republic gets paid enough they can sort it and throw out whatever they don't want.

It does mean that I go to a much greater extent to recycle aluminum and paper, though, since I know that will be accepted.

[1995hoo]

This is not something that bothers me personally, but it came up yesterday when we were at my mother's house for Thanksgiving and I figured those of you who feel strongly that all businesses must be required to accept cash would probably agree with my mom's position on this one. Specifically, she has tickets to see an upcoming musical in DC, but the venue doesn't use paper tickets and she didn't (I guess I should say "doesn't") know how to access them from Ticketmaster, much less download them to her iPhone. I do that all the time with hockey tickets, so it was very easy to show her what to do (and then she wrote down how to access them in Apple Wallet). She finds the whole thing very annoying and said she is going to complain about it when she's at the theater—she thinks paper tickets should be offered.

I suppose it's a good thing that I'm around to help her with these things because I'm not sure what she would have done otherwise. She had no idea what the Apple Wallet is. She was grumbling that she can't just bring the purchase confirmation e-mail. When I asked how they know that's you, she showed me on page 2 where it has her name and address and she said she could just show her driver's license.

With all that said, the thing that does bug me about how Ticketmaster works now is that the electronic ticket must be on a phone registered to the purchaser. That is—my wife didn't have a Ticketmaster account and wanted to go to Radio City Music Hall next month to see the Rockettes' Christmas show. So I bought her a ticket, then logged into Ticketmaster on her phone and downloaded the ticket. No dice: Ticket won't work because it's not my phone. She had to create a Ticketmaster account so that I could then transfer the ticket to her electronically (I'm very familiar with how to do that, of course, because it's how our hockey season tickets work and we share those with a group). I'm sure the reason Ticketmaster is doing that is to build up more of a marketing database, but I find it very annoying. If I buy the ticket, it's none of their concern to whom I give it. I could give a paper ticket to anyone for any reason. The move to all-electronic tickets is basically a way for them to demand restrictions that didn't previously exist. This particular restriction is a recent change. It used to be that I'd download one hockey ticket to my phone and one to my wife's and we'd each scan them on entry. Now I just download both of them to mine. I suppose in one respect that works better because she invariably had some kind of problem at the arena entrance.

[hotdogPi]

Mandatory reseller fees should be illegal. I've bought both Red Sox and Boston Fleet [PWHL] tickets in person and not had to pay the fee, and not giving that option just feels wrong.

[mgk920]

Decades ago we normally returned empty glass beer and pop/soda bottles for the deposit.  They were then returned to the bottling works where they were cleaned and refilled.  Date codes on those bottles were often several decades old and they showed normal use wear to match.

These days, plastic bottles are pretty much unrecycleable, with the the only practical use in my mind being as boiler fuel (if burning them in such a way did not produce a very toxic smoke - oh well . . . ).

Time for a retro rethink here.

Mike

[vdeane]

With all that said, the thing that does bug me about how Ticketmaster works now is that the electronic ticket must be on a phone registered to the purchaser. That is—my wife didn't have a Ticketmaster account and wanted to go to Radio City Music Hall next month to see the Rockettes' Christmas show. So I bought her a ticket, then logged into Ticketmaster on her phone and downloaded the ticket. No dice: Ticket won't work because it's not my phone. She had to create a Ticketmaster account so that I could then transfer the ticket to her electronically (I'm very familiar with how to do that, of course, because it's how our hockey season tickets work and we share those with a group). I'm sure the reason Ticketmaster is doing that is to build up more of a marketing database, but I find it very annoying. If I buy the ticket, it's none of their concern to whom I give it. I could give a paper ticket to anyone for any reason. The move to all-electronic tickets is basically a way for them to demand restrictions that didn't previously exist. This particular restriction is a recent change. It used to be that I'd download one hockey ticket to my phone and one to my wife's and we'd each scan them on entry. Now I just download both of them to mine. I suppose in one respect that works better because she invariably had some kind of problem at the arena entrance.

I think we can blame scalpers for some of that.  Buying all the tickets and then reselling them for more was one thing, but they were also reselling them multiple times, so several people would show up all claiming to have the same ticket.

[Bruce]

Mandatory reseller fees should be illegal. I've bought both Red Sox and Boston Fleet [PWHL] tickets in person and not had to pay the fee, and not giving that option just feels wrong.

Most of the fee is from the venue, who use Ticketmaster as a "shield". But many of these venues are also owned by ticket platform operators (LiveNation & Ticketmaster are the same company) and those should be broken up by the government. Ticketmaster also sets a minimum price floor for resales, so even if the market price is far far below the face value, people can't even resell their tickets properly. Sucks for everyone.