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Post by traveler63 on Jun 4, 2009 18:27:57 GMT
Here is what brings me to the edge. The endless menus that you have to go thru to actually talk to a real person on the telephone and then that person tells you to call another number or transfers you and you start all over again!!!!
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Post by gyro on Jun 5, 2009 6:31:43 GMT
Yeah, they're pretty bloody annoying. And, quite often, you listen to all the options and NONE of them are applicable to the issue you have.
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Post by happytraveller on Jun 5, 2009 6:38:47 GMT
Rude people bring me to the edge, like the woman yesterday who let her dog attack mine and then did not even apologize. Cow !
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Post by BigIain on Jun 5, 2009 18:31:42 GMT
Further to #1... calling a call centre and going through all of the stuff you mention, and then going on hold 3 or 4 times and all the time knowing that you are paying for the pleasure of doing so.
(having Managed call centres I know that they are under instruction to put you on hold at least twice to "check" things which are already on the screen in front of them!)
A Call centre in Glasgow for a leading mobile network (think of a number between 2 and 4) targets their agents on the total amount of time that they manage to keep their customers on hold.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2009 18:40:20 GMT
I was ready to slap someone at the Chinese supermarket the other day. She had brought two frozen (French) desserts to the checkout to get a price check. Naturally, she chose to keep the cheaper one and just dumped the other one in an abandoned basket.
The cashier had a fit. "No do this! Frozen item, take back to frozen case!" The other bitch had the nerve to say, "That's not my job." But without saying another word, the cashier had such a violent gaze (good for her!) that the woman finally picked up the item and took it back where it belonged. The cashier stood up and followed her with her eyes to make sure she didn't dump it somewhere else.
Once she was gone, I told the cashier, since I was next in line, "You did the right thing. I was ready to slap her."
Unfortunately, the cashier still looked at me with loathing, because she was convinced that all of the Occidental customers were vile scum. I left the place with a bad feeling.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2009 23:24:56 GMT
I was pretty close to the edge day before yesterday. Went downtown to get some plain drawer pulls -- I needed sort of antique bronze, not fancy. There is one (1) store that is reputed to have a variety of pulls, and which indeed has tons displayed on boards outside and inside the store. Get there, find one I really like. Guy goes in the back, returns with the pull, except in a shiny finish. The next one I picked out was out of stock. This went on for about five more selections, and each time the counter person would disappear for ages into the back. It actually gave me hope, thinking perhaps they were casting the pulls for me. After about an hour (at least), I gave up. I was on the busy ring road & someone sent me to a lumberyard/construction materials place. Hopped on the bus to go there only to find that almost all of their pulls were kept behind the counter. While peering over the counter, my blouse got torn because they had %^&*#$! nails sticking out of the counter. The tear threatened to do me in, but I kept it together long enough to buy two dollars worth of crappy pulls. Then I hear a big noise. It's the sound of all the rain in the universe falling at the same time. Because I was so close to a meltdown, I threw myself into the rain and swam across the four lanes of the road in order to get a bus home. Gad!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2009 10:16:11 GMT
The presence of 2 leafblowers AND 2 weedwhackers going at it simultaneously on my block as I go to take a siesta. The next time it happens,someone will get hurt.
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Post by rikita on Jun 6, 2009 15:37:40 GMT
being stupid enough to read the comments section under various german news articles, which is usually enough to make me despair about this country and its people. when i am with friends and family i can make myself believe most germans are modern and open and everything. but these comments throw me back to the reality of how many smallminded, xenophobic etc. people live here... actually i am always considering to comment there too, but then i realize it wouldn't probably be of any use anyway.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 6, 2009 21:47:30 GMT
That's interesting, Rikita. I've noticed the same thing in English-language venues. The comments section seems to bring the loonies and haters out of the woodwork. So, I don't think it's the fact that they're German, I think that in every country there are nasty, emotionally crippled people lurking and looking for a chance to spew their poison on others.
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Post by rikita on Jun 7, 2009 14:40:22 GMT
well that is the thing though - a lot of those don't even seem trolls or haters per se - they seem to be regular people who are just very very stupid and for some reason convinced of these horrible things. and none of them seem to know how to spell.
what annoyed me yesterday, were for examples comments on an article about obamas visit to the concentration camp site in buchenwald. more than one actually kept bringing up the bombing of dresden and how people suffered, and that obama should rather acknowledge that. why do so many germans these days again not realize that it was germany who started the war, and that the bombing of dresden was a consequence of that. contrary to the killing of millions of jews, roma, homosexuals etc. in concentration camps, which was a horrible crime done to people who had not started a war. it just so much annoys me that so many people keep proving that they learn nothing from history.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 7, 2009 15:20:15 GMT
When people are being unconsciously defensive, they can be pretty stupid. It's true that many people reflexively hate Germany and all Germans because of WWII, which must flip the defensive switch in many German people.
A parallel example of pointless, ignorant defensiveness would be one I heard when growing up. Whenever it was suggested that the enslavement of Africans was evil and that the contemporary treatment of their descendants was wrong, you could bet some pinhead would say, "Well, they sold each other into slavery." Not only were "they" people from another continent and from the consciousness of two and three centuries earlier, it made no intrinsic sense. That's not surprising, considering that great wrongs simply have no justification.
As you say, many of these people seem otherwise normal -- but complacent normality can be very dangerous. It's the unthinking acceptance of everything in ones rearing and milieu that makes people defensive about anything that might threaten their worldview.
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Post by rikita on Jun 7, 2009 19:43:43 GMT
i guess so. the sad thing is though, it seems to be a majority rather than a minority...
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 7, 2009 19:51:39 GMT
Hi bixa and rikita Just read your posts and I agree. What you learn from your family, where you live and what you experience in school shapes how you think. I am optimistic that a vast majority of people generally are critical thinkers and can view both sides of an issue. Now, more than ever because of the INTERNET, if you are open to research you make your own decisions about different things. I grew up in Southern California in the 50's and 60's and never thought about anyone I knew as being different than me even though I went to school with Hispanics and African Americans, who were pretty much the majority, I was always treated fairly. I came from a family that was very open. My mother and dad had a very dear friend that was gay and I never questioned it, he and his partner were dear family friends and I just knew he was fun and I always loved him like an uncle. I think people who are bigoted are always looking for someone or something to blame for their own failures and it is easy to point at something else rather than to look inward. The ones that drive me up the wall are the so called "religious" ones that basically are hypocrites. I have one in my neighborhood, an ordained minister is has a very narrow view of everything. We have clashed about a few things in Homeowner's Association meetings. He is the first to condemn something and the last to want to help. We had a long time resident who was having financial difficulties and I suggested at the Board meeting that we waive the fees for a couple of months, to try to help (we are both on the board of directors) and he basically said no way. No empathy!!!! So, my big mouth, I said boy isn't that the "Christian thing to do" I think he doesn't like me now, because he won't talk to me or even look in my direction.
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Post by BigIain on Jun 7, 2009 22:07:59 GMT
when people can not remain impartial when it is essential. That is the sort of behaviour which really makes me rethink things.
Like a biased referree in a sporting fixture for instance
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 7, 2009 23:32:42 GMT
Interesting the man doesn't want to look at you. As a minister, he surely knows this passage of the New Testament. Perhaps you are as the Christ's finger writing in the dust for him. The flip side of using the internet for research is that it also gives people with skewed beliefs access to so many others who share those views, which can have the effect of making them feel empowered.
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welle
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om sweet om
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Post by welle on Jun 9, 2009 8:00:07 GMT
Paperwork, especially Excel tables.
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welle
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om sweet om
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Post by welle on Jun 9, 2009 8:00:42 GMT
Here is what brings me to the edge. The endless menus that you have to go thru to actually talk to a real person on the telephone and then that person tells you to call another number or transfers you and you start all over again!!!! Oh yeah.
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Post by gyro on Jun 9, 2009 9:46:41 GMT
Fucking HAYFEVER ....... ! ! !
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2009 17:27:32 GMT
Paperwork, especially Excel tables. Excel tables are your friend!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2009 18:18:50 GMT
People walking with huge baby strollers aside another person with same, sometimes with dogs in tow as well, taking up the whole walkway at the farmer's market. Sometimes on cell phones. No regard for anyone else, especially elderly people. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
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Post by distantshores on Jun 10, 2009 3:11:47 GMT
People walking with huge baby strollers aside another person with same, sometimes with dogs in tow as well, taking up the whole walkway at the farmer's market. Sometimes on cell phones. No regard for anyone else, especially elderly people. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I'm with you 100% on this one casimira! Also people in public places who let their kids run wild cause THEY think they're cute, and so we should too! I look down to see who's standing on my toes! And there's this little face looking up at me, hanging on to my freshly cleaned pants with their greasy fingers! Don't get me wrong. I love kids! I have three grandsons. I just like well behaved kids is all!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2009 11:50:18 GMT
Last week at the market an unsupervised child came within inches of running into me with a gooey, dripping popsicle. Had I not been paying attention she surely would have gotten me. Later, I found out the same child got someone I knew with same popsicle,purple grape juice all over her skirt. The person I know has a 15 month child of her own and swore her child would never be allowed to behave in such a manner. Some comfort there at least.
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Post by gyro on Jun 10, 2009 12:40:05 GMT
'an unsupervised child'
hahaha !
Yes, I think it should be LAW for all parents to have an extra pair of eyes set into the backs of their heads !
You do realise how bitter the last two posts sound, do you ?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2009 13:22:49 GMT
I can certainly see how it may come across that way. Given the fact that I am ventilating an ongoing frustration with some parents child rearing "skills", I do not think that "unsupervised "children should be allowed to run free in a marketplace designed for people to walk around and shop unencumbered by their children flaying melting popsicles in all directions. Common courtesy and safety for all seems reasonable enough an expectation.
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Post by imec on Jun 10, 2009 14:17:37 GMT
I'm with you casimira. Parents don't need eyes in the back of their heads, just a functioning lobe in the front.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2009 14:22:36 GMT
Children must be taught to eat their popsicles more quickly!
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Post by distantshores on Jun 10, 2009 14:50:34 GMT
I can certainly see how it may come across that way. Given the fact that I am ventilating an ongoing frustration with some parents child rearing "skills", I do not think that "unsupervised "children should be allowed to run free in a marketplace designed for people to walk around and shop unencumbered by their children flaying melting popsicles in all directions. Common courtesy and safety for all seems reasonable enough an expectation. Well said Casimira! Well said!
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welle
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om sweet om
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Post by welle on Jun 10, 2009 18:08:23 GMT
I'm with you casimira. Parents don't need eyes in the back of their heads, just a functioning lobe in the front. Haha, I very much agree. And I also don't like the stroller brigade.
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Post by rikita on Jun 10, 2009 19:13:14 GMT
fat old people walking really slowly, and holding hands. can't they walk behind each other so i can pass more easily?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2009 19:17:04 GMT
rikita , you are a trip!
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