What is your pet peeve of the day? -- 2021

[athena53]

I guess misuse of the word "free" is a pet peeve for me.

And don't forget "free trials"... just enter your contact and credit card info to get started...

 

[GrayHare]

technically, it's BOGO rather than BOGOF

 

[Texas Proud]

At our local grocery store, their "BOGO Free" sales are really 1/2 price sales. If you buy 1 item, you get it at half price. If you buy two, you get them for the price of one.

Would you be happier if, instead of "BOGO Free", the store advertised "2 for the price of 1"?

That is what I mentioned earlier... but there are things that you have to get two... I buy soda with buy 2 get 2 free... and it does NOT give you the discount unless you have 4 of them... it charges full price for all 4 and then at the end removes two of them... you just have to watch when the first one is scanned...

 

[socca]

This law is intended to help fight issues such as money laundering. ..

So ... the 99.99999999% of U.S small businesses that aren't engaged in money laundering have new initial and continuing compliance requirements to help the gov't track down the 0.00000001% of U.S. businesses that are engaged in money laundering? This isn't the appropriate forum to squabble over this topic, but forgive me for being less than enthusiastic about this new waste of my time.

 

[Aerides]

So ... the 99.99999999% of U.S small businesses that aren't engaged in money laundering have new initial and continuing compliance requirements to help the gov't track down the 0.00000001% of U.S. businesses that are engaged in money laundering? This isn't the appropriate forum to squabble over this topic, but forgive me for being less than enthusiastic about this new waste of my time.

It sounds like it's a one-time certification, by January 2025. And then no update is needed unless there are changes to your business. I will need to do this too, but it doesn't look like much more effort than my annual state business filing.

 

[socca]

It sounds like it's a one-time certification, by January 2025. And then no update is needed unless there are changes to your business. I will need to do this too, but it doesn't look like much more effort than my annual state business filing.

A change in business ownership or officers means an updated filing is required. That's continual compliance. And it's not enough just to supply an ID number for each person, supporting documentation such as the scan of a driver's license is required.

 

[USGrant1962]

"Self-insure." You can't self-insure, to insure is to spread risk over a risk pool. You aren't a risk pool and you are simply self-paying or rather just paying. I'm lookin' at you - LTC.

 

[COcheesehead]

My peeve for today, I ordered
Flysky G7P RC Transmitter and Receiver R7P FS-R7P 2.4Ghz for Crawler Truck Car Boat Robot

Note, it says Transmitter and receiver. The picture is a transmitter and receiver, however if you look closer, the 3 small pictures show 3 different possible orders. You can probably guess, I didn't look closer. I now have a receiver, but I don't have a transmitter.
It just seems to me the price shown should be of the product shown in the picture.
I thought I was getting a deal from Aliexpress. Even my request for a return is not going well, so far. I expect I will have to pay for shipping it,so hardly worth returning. I also had to wait a little over two weeks to get not want I wanted.

Looks like a rip off to me.

 

[Time2]

My peeve for today, I ordered
Flysky G7P RC Transmitter and Receiver R7P FS-R7P 2.4Ghz for Crawler Truck Car Boat Robot

Note, it says Transmitter and receiver. The picture is a transmitter and receiver, however if you look closer, the 3 small pictures show 3 different possible orders. You can probably guess, I didn't look closer. I now have a receiver, but I don't have a transmitter.
It just seems to me the price shown should be of the product shown in the picture.
I thought I was getting a deal from Aliexpress. Even my request for a return is not going well, so far. I expect I will have to pay for shipping it,so hardly worth returning. I also had to wait a little over two weeks to get not want I wanted.

Looks like a rip off to me.

Ya, I think it is poorly laid out on purpose.

I did contest it, the seller would not return my money, but Aliexpress stepped in and said they have returned my money. But I have not seen it, waiting for my credit card bill.

 

[Time2]

Or "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!"

The jingle reminded me of Mason Adams. Does that name ring a bell with any one.


https://youtu.be/TbMU6vz3pSw?si=p9Ne-g5IikL29zWW&t=24


Only 10 seconds long.

 

[Al18]

On restaurant checks, the suggested tip amount is almost always calculated incorrectly. If the meal was $50 and I had a $10 discount, I tip on $40, not $50. Also, the suggested amount they want me to tip on the total (including tax). Nope - the governor was not serving me food so I'm not tipping him.

 

[aaronc879]

On restaurant checks, the suggested tip amount is almost always calculated incorrectly. If the meal was $50 and I had a $10 discount, I tip on $40, not $50. Also, the suggested amount they want me to tip on the total (including tax). Nope - the governor was not serving me food so I'm not tipping him.

So lets say you have a gift card that you use for a meal so the meal costs you nothing. You think that it's ok to tip nothing since the bill was $0? The wait staff did the same work. If I get a comped meal I tip $5 minimum.

 

[Koolau]

If this was mentioned before, in my defense I did search for "BOGO":

My big consumer pet peeve is "Buy X, get Y free!", because FREE means at no cost. If I have to buy something, then you're not really giving me anything free, are you? For example, if it's the classic buy one, get one "free", then they really should have to call it "buy two, get 50% off"!! If there really is a "free" item, can I have just the free item? No? THEN IT'S NOT FREE!!!

Some people look at me weird when I complain about that, but I figured this crowd would be more likely to get it.

I get it - and you are so right. Marketing tricks are still rampant. Next time I see a "Buy X, get Y free" I'm gonna ask for "Just the free Y, please" and see what reaction I get. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Al18]

If the meal is on a gift card, I tip the full amount. But if an entree is on sale, no tip on the discount.

 

[Aerides]

We have a whole ridiculous multi-page thread dedicated to tipping gripes, they do not belong in the pet peeve thread.

 

[ERD50]

Ya, I think it is poorly laid out on purpose.

I did contest it, the seller would not return my money, but Aliexpress stepped in and said they have returned my money. But I have not seen it, waiting for my credit card bill.

For one of my orders with Ali-Express, the seller sent me the wrong version of an electrical part. I think it was an honest mistake, they are identical except for one parameter (not a different cost, just different configuration), with different part numbers. IIRC, ~ $30 worth.

I thought this would be a hassle, but I just submitted the dispute on their on-line claim form, included pictures of the part with the wrong P/N. The seller never responded, but after X days (10?), Ali-Express stepped in, and refunded my money (don't recall how long that took).

Once I got the money back, I took them apart, and figured out that by adding a resistor, I could convert them to the configuration I needed - but I wouldn't want to risk that before I got them covered.

So overall, a pretty good experience.

-ERD50

 

[JoeWras]

Just bought a key from Aliexpress. Giving it a try. It is only a few bucks, versus over $100 from the dealer.

But my peeve is Aliexpress. This website has to be the biggest POS in the commerce world. It is as if it was written in a non-latin alphabet language, and then run through a translator to English.

Oh wait, that's what it is! They could use a few native English speakers helping out.

 

[Time2]

Just bought a key from Aliexpress. Giving it a try. It is only a few bucks, versus over $100 from the dealer.

But my peeve is Aliexpress. This website has to be the biggest POS in the commerce world. It is as if it was written in a non-latin alphabet language, and then run through a translator to English.

Oh wait, that's what it is! They could use a few native English speakers helping out.

Yes, I have wondered why they don't hire English as first language speakers to correct text.
I buy electrical/electronic parts and there are some strange translations. It may take some with technical experience for these corrections though.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Yes, I have wondered why they don't hire English as first language speakers to correct text.
I buy electrical/electronic parts and there are some strange translations. It may take some with technical experience for these corrections though.

Probably because they are trying to keep their prices as low as possible, isn't that their biggest draw? That, and the breadth of their selection (which would also make even a minimal additional effort costly).

 

[Koolau]

Yes, I have wondered why they don't hire English as first language speakers to correct text.
I buy electrical/electronic parts and there are some strange translations. It may take some with technical experience for these corrections though.

Yeah, where is AI when you really need it?

 

[ERD50]

Yes, I have wondered why they don't hire English as first language speakers to correct text.
I buy electrical/electronic parts and there are some strange translations. It may take some with technical experience for these corrections though.

What amazes me is, I have bought some gadgets (mp3 players Bluetooth ear buds, etc) that are pretty popular, get good reviews, and the manual is that awful, tortured semi-English semi-gibberish.

It's hard to believe there aren't decent translators available at low cost. And I'm not talking technical writers, just simple instructions for button pushing. There must be plenty of Chinese nationals that also know English well enough to take this on as a side job? It might take an hour to translate a little 'quick reference' style manual for a simple gadget.

-ERD50

 

[O2Bfree]

It's hard to believe there aren't decent translators available at low cost. And I'm not talking technical writers, just simple instructions for button pushing. There must be plenty of Chinese nationals that also know English well enough to take this on as a side job? It might take an hour to translate a little 'quick reference' style manual for a simple gadget.

-ERD50

It can be difficult finding good translators. Salaries for translators aren't great, and it can be a high-stress job, with the pressures of meeting tight schedules, often with on-going or last-minute changes by the client. And if the source document wasn't written and laid out with translation in mind, the translator can run into all sorts of problems such as inconsistent terminology and formatting problems when translated text is much longer or shorter than the source text. I've managed translations in up to 21 languages, and getting good translations is time-consuming and not cheap because of all the other work that goes into them besides the actual translation. I can see why there are so many poorly-translated documents and websites out there.

 

[braumeister]

It can be difficult finding good translators. Salaries for translators aren't great, and it can be a high-stress job, with the pressures of meeting tight schedules, often with on-going or last-minute changes by the client. And if the source document wasn't written and laid out with translation in mind, the translator can run into all sorts of problems such as inconsistent terminology and formatting problems when translated text is much longer or shorter than the source text. I've managed translations in up to 21 languages, and getting good translations is time-consuming and not cheap because of all the other work that goes into them besides the actual translation. I can see why there are so many poorly-translated documents and websites out there.

This is true. I was a technical writer for a few years at a company whose product manuals had to be translated into 11 languages. It was by far the most expensive part of the documentation process.

 

[euro]

This is true. I was a technical writer for a few years at a company whose product manuals had to be translated into 11 languages. It was by far the most expensive part of the documentation process.

This is true if you are aiming for a good to very good quality translation (I put myself through graduate school translating technical scientific articles and it is a VERY labor intensive task even if you speak both languages fluently and have technical knowledge). However, for many everyday products, the quality doesn't need to be that good. A halfway decent translation would do fine. But, in reality, many of these translations aren't even poor, they are flat out pathetic. Much worse than just using "Google translate"

 

[O2Bfree]

This is true. I was a technical writer for a few years at a company whose product manuals had to be translated into 11 languages. It was by far the most expensive part of the documentation process.

When I started as a tech writer, my first manager said that most people imagine translation as an idyllic job where the translator sits at a sidewalk cafe sipping a latte and casually dashes off your project in an hour or two. Hardly!