Have not seen a rant thread in a while

[aja8888]

Same with DW's family. Missed events, missed appointments, missed anniversaries, missed flights, missed pickups. 1000 excuses.

Then I say: "They're texting each other 20 hours a day but nobody ever knows what's going on".

Stepdaughter was Maid of Honor at DD's wedding and was 1/2 hour late for the rehearsal!!

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Before I checked out of Megacorp this texting thing was really a problem. We had an IM system at work and one of the junior engineers was texting back and forth with an architect one floor up. She kept showing me the texts, each of which was at least 10 lines long, asking me to interpret what the other person meant. I told her it was time to get up and walk upstairs and discuss it face-to-face. Nope. Not happening. Back to texting for the next half hour.

 

[ls99]

A while back a lady with whom I danced several times, after Tango class asked if I have a card.


It so happened that in my wallet was a calling card. For those not familiar, it is the size of a business card with only my name on it in a very nice raised script.


After I handed it to her, she kept flipping it, trying to find the rest of the usual stuff. She was totally befuddled.


Some other time I'll tell the rest of the story

 

[REWahoo]

Some other time I'll tell the rest of the story

You are such a tease...

 

[Chuckanut]

T

• Contractors who never return messages in periods of feast, then complain about the lack of work when things slow down. Currently we have 3 painters and 1 asphalt contractor who just don't want to return calls, even though we are repeat business for 2 of them.

One good thing about that is at times it can same one some money. I was frustrated trying to get a dryer repair guy out a few years ago. So, I decided to look into the problem myself one rainy afternoon. I discovered what I suspected was a bad switch that cut off power to the dryer when the door was opened. It cost about $6 and was shipped to my house. Problem solved and I saved a nice repair charge.

 

[FIYes]

Okay, here is my rant for the day. Had a plumber come out today. The plumbing is now repaired so the big picture is...all is good.
The small stuff and my rant...he left trash on my driveway. Some paper and a used Kleenex which I am going to assume just fell out of his truck and he didn’t notice. He also threw a cigarette butt on my driveway.
Apologies to smokers, but nonsmokers find tossing cigarette butts out very rude.

 

[Rustward]

Okay, here is my rant for the day. Had a plumber come out today. The plumbing is now repaired so the big picture is...all is good.
The small stuff and my rant...he left trash on my driveway. Some paper and a used Kleenex which I am going to assume just fell out of his truck and he didn’t notice. He also threw a cigarette butt on my driveway.
Apologies to smokers, but nonsmokers find tossing cigarette butts out very rude.

Back when workplaces were going smoke free, DW's place followed. There were the usual meetings to explain the health benefits and what was allowed (company sponsored cesation plans . . .) what was not allowed (no clustering near doorways, not on the loading dock, on your own time, etc.). At the end the presenter asked "any questions?"

Someone stood up and said "Well, that's all good, but what are you going to do for the smokers?"

At the place I was at, the presenter (the director) described the process of going smoke free as an intelligence test.

 

[Car-Guy]

My rant for today (and most days) are about people/hypocrites who live in 25k+ sq mansion(s) and fly around the world in their private jet(s) to give high dollar speech(s) about global warming and reducing carbon footprints.

 

[Music Lover]

My rant for today (and most days) are about people/hypocrites who live in 25k+ sq mansion(s) and fly around the world in their private jet(s) to give high dollar speech(s) about global warming and reducing carbon footprints.

They wouldn't do it if there wasn't an audience willing to overlook their hypocrisy...

 

[Backpacker]

On the message / voicemail topic. My 5 children call, get my voicemail, leave zero message. Then hours later when I don't rush to call them back, I'll get a text asking why I didn't call them back.

 

[marko]

Back when workplaces were going smoke free, DW's place followed. There were the usual meetings to explain the health benefits and what was allowed (company sponsored cesation plans . . .) what was not allowed (no clustering near doorways, not on the loading dock, on your own time, etc.). At the end the presenter asked "any questions?"

Off-thread warning...

Back when we went smokeless at work we tried to be understanding and accommodating and allowed smoke breaks (in addition to coffee and lunch breaks). This is when it's bad to do good.

I was visiting one of our smaller remote offices and finally sat there and timed one guy. He'd take a ~12 minute smoke break every 30 minutes.

So it was like 9:00 to 9:12 smoke break, then work from 9:13 to 9:30 and another smoke break, then a separate coffee break...all day long! He ended up actually in the office 'working' about 2 1/2 or 3 hours a day; the rest of the time he was outside enjoying the California weather!

So...after a week, I cornered him and said: "You know, I've been watching you all week and you haven't done a [redacted] thing all week long."
He said: "Well boss, if you have been watching me all week, YOU haven't done a [redacted] thing all week either!"
That was the last thing he said as an employee.

 

[folivier]

Here's mine: 3 year old air conditioner evaporator coil is leaking so I call a company who lives in our neighborhood and has very good ratings. Got a voicemail Tuesday at 7:30 pm that they'll have to push me back a couple hours but should be here by 10am. Huh? Never got the first call about them coming, so had to re-schedule a few things to be here. Didn't get here until 1:30pm, ok stuff happens, just fix the darn thing. After rummaging around in the attic for an hour the guy tells me the supplier doesn't have the coil and he'll have to re-schedule me! Then he starts complaining about having 4 guys over here wasting their time! Wasting their time? Just because I'm retired doesn't mean I do nothing all day. So hoping they come out tomorrow.
Then last week I ordered a piece of metal cut into 4 equal pieces. UPS dropped it off, opened the long tube and I got a 4' piece! 2"x2"x1/4" iron square tubing, I ain't gonna cut it with a hacksaw!
You got 1 job to do!

 

[donheff]

I can't even figure out how my voice mail works. I switched to FIOS recently and thught I set the darn thing up to use VZ's VM feature but thta seems not to work and my new cordless phone set seems to be recording locally even though I thought I set it to not save. Now I can listen to message and then they are gone - no option to save and re-listen. Too much of a PITA to rely on it. I prefer texts or emails -- those I monitor and respond to.

 

[timo2]

On the message / voicemail topic. My 5 children call, get my voicemail, leave zero message. Then hours later when I don't rush to call them back, I'll get a text asking why I didn't call them back.

I think this cultural trend is because of caller ID. People now will see that someone called and just call them back without listening to a VM message. After having numerous people say 'oh I didn't listen to your message I just called you back', I also have quit leaving messages to people who know my phone number. Why even bother.

 

[marko]

I think this cultural trend is because of caller ID. People now will see that someone called and just call them back without listening to a VM message. After having numerous people say 'oh I didn't listen to your message I just called you back', I also have quit leaving messages to people who know my phone number. Why even bother.

Our loopy SIL will call us and leave a voicemail saying " Hi. I'm too busy to talk now I'll call you later".

 

[scrabbler1]

For me the biggest day-to-day annoyances are the constant junk calls I get on both my land line and cell phone. Nomorobo blocks some of them on the land line, but it has become less effective in the last year or so because of the quickly growing ability of the scammers and spammers to spoof the phone numbers to stay ahead of Nomorobo's database. I'd say Nomorobo blocks maybe half the junk calls now, down from about 80% a year ago.


My low-end cell phone (flip phone) has no ability to automatically block calls. But it does how me the caller's phone number before I decide to actually answer it. Most of the time, I just lift the phone open for a split second before closing it so I don't waste any minutes listening to a useless sales pitch for a chimney sweep, solar panels, payday loans, IRS scammers, etc. And I recently figured out how to access its voice mail using my land line so I don't have to waste any minutes retrieving them using the cell phone. I have given my cell phone number out to maybe 10 people, so 90%+ of the calls I get are junk.


And I am getting more and more junk texts on the cell phone, too, including several from the same payday loan outfit I have called back several times (on the land line) asking them to stop sending me those junk texts. They apologize and tell me they will stop, but they never have. The donotcall registry doesn't stop junk texts. (Doesn't stop junk calls either.)

 

[kcowan]

I have a home near the beach. I like to take long walks on nice days and listen to podcasts. I smile and say "good morning (or afternoon or evening)" to everyone I see.

Some smile back and reply. Others don't.

I just keep walking and smiling. That makes me feel good, and far less likely to feel the need to rant.

Serenity now!

When I walk, I make eye contact and smile. Often people will say hello spontaneously. Others stare straight ahead. I love it!

Same is stores. Smile and look the sales clerk in the eye.

 

[kcowan]

I told her it was time to get up and walk upstairs and discuss it face-to-face. Nope. Not happening. Back to texting for the next half hour.

I imposed a rule at Megacorp: After two volleys of text, face-to-face.

 

[mpeirce]

OK and anti-rant.

I really like how friendly folks are around here. I usually give a simple wave to folks as they walk or drive by and they almost always wave back or say something. This is actually useful when walking in the neighborhood since there are no sidewalks and I like to know they see me. No one has run me down yet...

 

[Dtail]

OK and anti-rant.

I really like how friendly folks are around here. I usually give a simple wave to folks as they walk or drive by and they almost always wave back or say something. This is actually useful when walking in the neighborhood since there are no sidewalks and I like to know they see me. No one has run me down yet...

+1 on the anti-rant even though posted a rant already.
For me, there is a clear difference in the pleasantness of personalities in FLA vs. the NEast. Much less complaining too and I live in a non 55 community.

 

[pacergal]

Rant about inconsiderate dog owners--
1) not cleaning up after them
2) letting off leash at a park, not designated as a dog park, and saying "don't worry, he's friendly" as the dog jumps all over us and definitely is NOT listening to its owner.

When we walk our dog, he is always on leash and under command and we carry bags with us.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

+1

This morning a woman marched into the coffee shop with a huge dog on a leash, and it began barking very loudly. The employees responded by making kissy noises and petting the dog. Yes, food is served there. Srsly?

 

[luckydude]

My rant:

1. Seeing drivers in expensive/luxury cars such BMW and Lexus lining up at the local Costco gas station and waiting up to 20-30 minutes to save a few bucks on gas.

2. Having said drivers blocking the Costco parking lot ingress/egress due to long lines so I in my 18-year-old economy car can't get in/out of the parking lot.

Lucky Dude

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

Dale Carnegie called it people listening to radio station WIFM (What's in it for me?). More generally, just the human condition, yes?


A lifelong friend's dad was a contractor and he always had work even through the 1970's (a very bad time economically around our area). His secret? He'd return every call even if it was to say he was too busy at that point, clients could wait 1-2 years for him or find someone else. When things got really bad, he still had enough work to squeak by while the lunks who did not know basic customer courtesy went broke. Sometimes it was calling back those people who had called him earlier. A similar thing happened in 2009 for a lot of clueless contractors who think running a business is just putting a sign on your truck. Unfortunately most of them still don't get it, of course - probably the human condition again...

 

[folivier]

Yes, returning calls and basic customer service is very important. At least for me. Recently the air conditioner quit cooling so I called a local company who lives in our neighborhood and had good ratings. Came out the next day starting working on the unit, shut it down, got a phone call and had to leave for "an emergency". Finally 2 hours later the owner and his wife showed up to charge it up and figure out the evaporator coil was leaking and need replacing. Ok, 3 year old unit but that happens. So I told him to schedule me as soon as he could to replace it. A few days go by and I get a voicemail at 7:33pm that they would have to push me back to 10-11 am the next day since "they had an emergency replacement". Huh? Never got the first call to schedule it. So they show up about 1:30pm and start pulling out the old coil. Then the owner comes over and tells me they don't have the new one and is trying to locate one. Finally a few days later they finish the job.
Don't think I'll call them again if I have any other problems.