Shit that annoys you

[halliday]

You bring scissors to hotels to cut off the tags?

I tear them off. No scissors needed.

[Ted Striker]

We’re sorry this package has experienced a sortation delay.

Thomas Randolph got it right: fooleation.

[californiagrown]

One of the dark side of social media that no one talks about annoys me... The culture of community acceptance/celebration of objectively negative traits (weight, ADHD, poor financial decisions, etc.). Its comforting to know that there is an influencer who makes videos and online community who you recognize with, but it doesnt make you any happier if the trait you all share fundamentally makes you unhappy.

Also, arthritis fucking sucks.

[::: :::]

the phone tree when calling health insurance customer service

why the fuck do i have to spend minutes stating my member #, name, DOB & confirming for the goddamn phone computer if you are just going to ask me when I get you on the phone?

and why have the fucking phone tree at all? the reason someone is calling is that they can't solve something via the automated processes online...meaning they want to talk to a human, not get sidetracked by the phone tree trying to dissuade any human interaction

ffs

[riser4]

Basically all customer service businesses are like this nowadays.

[Thaleia]

Guys cut them some slack, obviously their call volume was higher than normal that day.

[anotherVTskibum]

Basically all customer service businesses are like this nowadays.

Well, it's partially because there are far too many people who refuse to do things the efficient way and instead want their hand held. That's why first-level tech support is usually "did you follow the instructions? Is it turned on? Have you restarted it?" etc.

See also: people who bring packages to the Post Office without even knowing how they want to send them. I get that you might not have an appropriate scale, but there's a big difference between "I want to send this Priority Mail to the address on the package here" and "I want to send this item that's not fully packaged yet to my brother (and I have no idea how I'm going to package it, will have to look up the address when you ask for it, will then need you to look up the ZIP, and I don't know Priority Mail from a hole in the ground)".

[riser4]

You're so called 'hand holding' is called customer service. Fuck the businesses that want to pay their executives way too much many and look for anything not nailed down that they can eliminate. Fuck that. The post office is both an apt point and not an apt point. I agree that certain basic criteria from your list should be met before stepping in line. However a) it's not supposed to be profitable, it's a government function that is supposed to make our lives better and b) using their website to find basic shipping cost information sucks donkey dick. They don't list the prices outright. You have to go through a series of annoying questions to get information that would be easy to publish in a table. It's a fucking visual phone tree. That doesn't make it better or easier.

[Supermoon]

Some IT consultant told them that a natural language form was better (is it more money for the company? Irrelevant!) so it had to be better right?

[evdog]

Guys cut them some slack, obviously their call volume was higher than normal that day.

At least he was able to get through, eventually.

More than once I've called a company and got the recording "We are currently experiencing higher than normal call volumes. Goodbye." < click >

[Thaleia]

Chef's kiss is when you get that after holding 45 + minutes (LG looking squarely in your punk ass direction lol). #Lifesnotgood

[plugboots]

I usually have the phone sitting there on speaker and I’m doing something else, and then when it makes any sort of sound that isn’t the Muzak (or whatever), I scramble to the phone and it’s happened where they hang up.

[The AD]

You're so called 'hand holding' is called customer service.

My mom was telling me that the customer service for Consumer Cellular is actually really good. I told her it needed to be since the average age of their customers is probably around 80!

[anotherVTskibum]

Chef's kiss is when you get that after holding 45 + minutes (LG looking squarely in your punk ass direction lol). #Lifesnotgood

I had a Verizon landline issue years ago. Their service hours overlapped with my work hours (which I'm sure is pretty common), so I kept trying to call on the way home from work.

The day I was waiting in the queue for 40+ minutes and got unceremoniously dropped because it was now outside those hours really pissed me off.

Re: shipping rates, how do you make a table with axes for weight, dimensions, starting and ending ZIP codes, declared value and whatever the other questions on that form are? Some of the questions (like return receipt) are straight cost add-ons that would be easy enough to list separately, but most of them are more complicated and affect each other.

[anotherVTskibum]

I usually have the phone sitting there on speaker and I’m doing something else, and then when it makes any sort of sound that isn’t the Muzak (or whatever), I scramble to the phone and it’s happened where they hang up.

I suppose we should mention the "thank you for continuing to hold, we'd like to pretend we care" recordings that break into the Muzak and make you think you're about to talk to someone.

[::: :::]

Guys cut them some slack, obviously their call volume was higher than normal that day.

I suppose it’s still a vacation period so staff is not back?
I timed the answer-our-recorded-questions bullshit: 3min 45s answering/confirming before sending me to the next level: actually ringing a line for a CS agent. And then waited 14mins with no one picking up.
I hung up, re-dialed & just talked over the recorded questions like an octogenarian. 1min 16s to get routed by a human to the appropriate CS agent line. Further 1min 30 to actually talk to someone.

[easyrdr]

Placed an order 14 days ago, FedX estimate given for standard ground shipping was five days, I figured it would take longer with the holiday but not this long. It left Illinois, spent two days in podunk Missouri, a week in Olathe Kansas, then disappeared for days then reappeared in Phoenix where it spent 2 days, now 2 days in Camp Verde, wherever the fuck that is. I didn't realize it was so hard to find Durango on a map.

[TBS]

the phone tree when calling health insurance customer service

why the fuck do i have to spend minutes stating my member #, name, DOB & confirming for the goddamn phone computer if you are just going to ask me when I get you on the phone?

and why have the fucking phone tree at all? the reason someone is calling is that they can't solve something via the automated processes online...meaning they want to talk to a human, not get sidetracked by the phone tree trying to dissuade any human interaction

ffs

So we had to change health insurance companies because the hospital system here dumped our old one. Did all the paperwork to change in November, sent it in, receipts acknowledged. Don’t have insurance cards yet so Ms TBS calls to find out when we can expect them.

Well, the service company (PERS) forgot to forward the paperwork to the carrier. Only the CSR tried to make it out that we had fucked up. Then tried to blame it on the carrier.

Ms TBS shut that shit down politely but firmly - “When were the forms forwarded to the carrier? Don’t you have a record of doing that? You don’t have any record of receiving the forms from me? Would you like me to send you the email acknowledging receipt of docs dated Nov 21, or can you find the docs on your own? You found them? Great!”

We now have a manager working on this and he’s promised we will have cards within the week. Which is good because Ms TBS has a docs appt in 8 days.

Wouldn’t be so bad if they had just said “oh shit we fucked up - will get this fixed immediately”.

[TBS]

Placed an order 14 days ago, FedX estimate given for standard ground shipping was five days, I figured it would take longer with the holiday but not this long. It left Illinois, spent two days in podunk Missouri, a week in Olathe Kansas, then disappeared for days then reappeared in Phoenix where it spent 2 days, now 2 days in Camp Verde, wherever the fuck that is. I didn't realize it was so hard to find Durango on a map.

Was shipping thru FedEx or FedEx Ground? The latter is done thru contractors and delivery times can be “uneven”. I had a fishing reel ship from somewhere in KY, to MO, CO, ID, then within 20 miles of me before it was sent back to MO where it set up residence. Took a month to get it.

And don’t get me started about On Point Express. They are one-for-three getting packages to me.

[riser4]

I had a Verizon landline issue years ago. Their service hours overlapped with my work hours (which I'm sure is pretty common), so I kept trying to call on the way home from work.

The day I was waiting in the queue for 40+ minutes and got unceremoniously dropped because it was now outside those hours really pissed me off.

Re: shipping rates, how do you make a table with axes for weight, dimensions, starting and ending ZIP codes, declared value and whatever the other questions on that form are? Some of the questions (like return receipt) are straight cost add-ons that would be easy enough to list separately, but most of them are more complicated and affect each other.

For simple standard envelope sizes sent 1st class, I don't want to answer a bunch of questions. I just want to know how many extra stamps if it's heavy. It can easily be in a simple chart. You don't need the zip codes for that. The web site sucks for such a simple question. So much so that pre-pandemic I would just go to the post office to have them do it.

[anotherVTskibum]

For simple standard envelope sizes sent 1st class, I don't want to answer a bunch of questions. I just want to know how many extra stamps if it's heavy. It can easily be in a simple chart. You don't need the zip codes for that. The web site sucks for such a simple question. So much so that pre-pandemic I would just go to the post office to have them do it.

This one?

https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Notice123.htm

(Can't link directly to the First Class table, add session-specific URLs to the annoying list)

[evdog]

He had a handicap tag but this still seems like a douche move.

[MakersTeleMark]

I think stacking more carts behind it would be the move here.

[Mustonen]

Finally got out to the local hill. Today was the first day open since a couple days before Christmas and then the rain/warm weather ruined everything.

Was skiing with my kids for a bit, and two bailed and I was trying to find my youngest. Figured may as well take a few hot laps as a single.

The hill was generally chaos. Lines weren’t actually terrible but there was zero queuing or markers. Just a long line from the bottom of the one open fixie triple that wrapped across the bottom of the beginner area. Also, they were doing nothing to encourage singles to pair up with doubles or even other singles to shorten the line. So I did what I usually do in that situation (pretty common here) and zipped up the line to find other singles to ride with or maybe a competent looking couple. I enjoy meeting people this way.

I got a talking to by the lifty manager. He told me there was no singles line today and I needed to wait at the end of the line like everybody else. I told him I was actually shortening the line and nobody is complaining. Nope. Wait at the end of the line please.

Wtf. I’m not as down on this place as IAS, but they sure do try my patience sometimes.

[riser4]

Finally got out to the local hill. Today was the first day open since a couple days before Christmas and then the rain/warm weather ruined everything.

Was skiing with my kids for a bit, and two bailed and I was trying to find my youngest. Figured may as well take a few hot laps as a single.

The hill was generally chaos. Lines weren’t actually terrible but there was zero queuing or markers. Just a long line from the bottom of the one open fixie triple that wrapped across the bottom of the beginner area. Also, they were doing nothing to encourage singles to pair up with doubles or even other singles to shorten the line. So I did what I usually do in that situation (pretty common here) and zipped up the line to find other singles to ride with or maybe a competent looking couple. I enjoy meeting people this way.

I got a talking to by the lifty manager. He told me there was no singles line today and I needed to wait at the end of the line like everybody else. I told him I was actually shortening the line and nobody is complaining. Nope. Wait at the end of the line please.

Wtf. I’m not as down on this place as IAS, but they sure do try my patience sometimes.

Wow.