Well, that sucks! [The Gripe Thread aka I Hate Mondays]

I want to create a thread where we have those annoying things that happen to us, sometimes entirely our fault, that makes us roll our eyes and curse under our breath about our luck.

I'm aware that there is already a "loathe" thread, but I feel uncomfortable writing "this customer service experience was weird" or "I took a selfie with a celebrity and my thumb was in the way" beside posts about someone being diagnosed with cancer or something.

Today's gripe:

- Came back from vacation, can't remember combination of lock I bought right before.
- Can't find a lock nearby, go out of my way to buy one at the other side of town.
- Don't want to repeat mistake, so I decide to take the sticker with the lock combo printed on it, and decide to store it behind my ipod case (since if I'm at the gym and used my lock, my ipod will be the only object on my person).
- Upon taking the case off, I realize that this is literally the thought process I used a month ago, and find the sticker with the combination for the other lock right there.

Lovely timing for this thread.

So far my morning has consisted of waking up at 1:30 am to tell the two drunk men arguing on my lawn to please leave, nearly coming to blows with said drunk men and calling the police, drunk men stumbling off before the police arrive so that the police are annoyed with me for calling them for nothing, being woken at 3:30 am by the howls of our corgi who has apparently been afflicted by apocalyptic sh*ts and had turned the inside of her crate into a Jackson Pollock, being woken at 5:30 am by my daughter cheerfully informing me that the dryer stopped running, smells funny, and has smoke coming out the back, being pulled over a mile from my house and getting a $180 ticket, getting stuck in traffic for an hour, getting stuck in a McDonald's drive through for 44 minutes only to receive the wrong order, getting pulled over AGAIN a mile from work (this cop took pity on me and did not write me a ticket), arriving at work fifteen minutes late despite leaving two hours earlier, and opening my email to discover that my Steam account is temporarily suspended while they investigate suspicious activity.

Jay-sus, dude.

I think you need a reset button on this morning!

I kind of feel like a jerk for complaining now, after Trichy's epic morning, but I guess feeling like a jerk never stopped me before...

When I host a meeting I'm keenly aware of the time frame, because it's disrespectful to intrude on other people's plans for their day. The other morning I had to attend a meeting held by a supervisor famous for rambling on and on and ignoring stated meeting lengths. Predictably, she went over time and 5 minutes later she said to the group, "Can I humbly ask your permission to go 10 minutes longer?" Why does she suddenly care now?

Just once I want to be the guy who rises to his feet and yells Nope! and walks out. But no, we all let her drone on for another 10 minutes. I'd much rather she just state she's going to go 15 minutes over time instead of making the pretense of asking permission from her audience.

I am giving a test for a colleague. The test was supposed to start at 11am. At 10:58, the power in the two city area just went out. I gave them the test anyway.

Edit: About a minute after the last student finished, the power came back.

trichy wrote:

Lovely timing for this thread.

How can so much go so wrong in one day? I'm sorry, trichy.

The magical guessing game that is "ordering women's t-shirt's at a suitable size". There's me thinking I was playing safe and clever by buying something "XL" sized (which in mens sizes is approximate to a small marquee in the UK).

OH HOW WRONG I WAS. It still feels like it was made for some sort of elf, regardless of what the label says.

Gripe that didn't reach "loathe" level.

Why is it that:

When I think of something I should/need to do; I'm never in a position to do said thing, but when I have plenty of opportunity to do the thing, I never think of it?

This morning - Parking by-law changes (found out yesterday, thankfully), that eliminated 80% of the nearby street-parking spots. I get in early, and still had to park blocks away, walk all the way to the building before realizing that I've left my card and keys IN THE CAR!!! Walk all the way back to the car, and back to the building, wasting 20 minutes of my day (not counting the first walk, as I had to do that one, anyway).

The alarm app I've been using on the iPad for a few years put out an update that catastrophically broke just about everything about it.

It updated overnight, and when it did, it deleted all my alarms!

The next evening I recreated them, and the following morning, the alarm would refuse to turn off, and opening the app would crash to the home screen. Then the alarm would start again. I finally had to turn off the iPad.

I deleted the app, and now i'm using the default iOS Clock app, which has a nifty new Bedtime feature I've been using for a few days now. So I guess it's not a total loss.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Gripe that didn't reach "loathe" level.

Why is it that:

When I think of something I should/need to do; I'm never in a position to do said thing, but when I have plenty of opportunity to do the thing, I never think of it?

Easy and trite answer: because you don't tell Siri "Remind me to do X at Y o'clock/when I get to location Z."

Which is to say, I have the exact same problem, and Siri is a godsend for fixing it.

pyxistyx wrote:

The magical guessing game that is "ordering women's t-shirt's at a suitable size". There's me thinking I was playing safe and clever by buying something "XL" sized (which in mens sizes is approximate to a small marquee in the UK).

OH HOW WRONG I WAS. It still feels like it was made for some sort of elf, regardless of what the label says.

Or ANY women's clothing. I needed to buy jeans over the summer. I bought two pairs from the same store at the same time and the same brand and style...only difference was color. They're two different sizes.

Jonman wrote:
Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

Gripe that didn't reach "loathe" level.

Why is it that:

When I think of something I should/need to do; I'm never in a position to do said thing, but when I have plenty of opportunity to do the thing, I never think of it?

Easy and trite answer: because you don't tell Siri "Remind me to do X at Y o'clock/when I get to location Z."

Which is to say, I have the exact same problem, and Siri is a godsend for fixing it. :)

Supplemental gripe: BlackBerry

I just booked a trip for work for next month, and both of the flights have almost half the plane reserved as "paid/preferential seating". So even though half the plane is empty, I can't pick a seat because all the free seats are taken. Will I automatically get one of the better seats when I check in? Will I even have a seat? I guess I'll stay tuned to find out!

Seriously, fees for picking a $#@& seat on the plane are ridiculous. They charge extra for a checked bag, so everyone carries a suitcase on the plane instead. Now overhead space is at a premium, so everyone wants to get on first, so they charge extra for THAT.

I could fly Southwest and avoid it, but then I have to deal with the "must check in exactly 24 hours in advance" nonsense.

I have had bronchitis since Saturday. I also have a basement that leaks like crazy, but can't get the drain tile/sump pump installed till 10/31. Yesterday while home sick I had to clean up water in the basement which only aggravated my cough more.

I just found a really old thread on these forums where I make a joke that it'll probably be 2015 by the time Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is released.

I think I'm going to cry.

I've been waking up at 4 or 5 every single day for at least a week now. It looks like my sleeping issues are back. Yay

FFS Gamespot! - thanks for the character spoiler in the video title for one of your Dishonored 2 playthrough videos. You know - that GAME THAT IS NOT RELEASED UNTIL F***ING NOVEMBER.

Arseholes.

pyxistyx wrote:

FFS Gamespot! - thanks for the character spoiler in the video title for one of your Dishonored 2 playthrough videos. You know - that GAME THAT IS NOT RELEASED UNTIL F***ING NOVEMBER.

Arseholes.

That sucks! I've been avoiding everything about Dishonored 2 since I know I'll play the hell out of it anyway, especially since I might only have a couple months to enjoy it before the world ends, depending how the US election goes.

Walking into my local greasy spoon - thinking of a lunch of a Fat Boy and Fries... I get a call from my Doctor's office, juuuust as I get to the door.

"Your blood work came back, and your cholesterol is up from last year, so he's recommending that you reduce your fatty foods, and increase fiber."

... no Fat Boy...

No biggie, just put some extra lettuce on the burger to balance it out.
IMAGE(https://media1.giphy.com/media/Y2nbrJyAR6RiM/200_s.gif)

Getting put on hold, and the receptionist never comes back.

Work is changing insurance carriers at the end of the month. We were told our current plans would be "mirrored" under the new company. We got a look at our new options yesterday and the least damaging choice offers me:

$97 increase in monthly employee contribution
Doctor visits go from $25 to $30 per.
Hospitalization goes from 90% to 80%
Max out of pocket goes from 3k/6k up to 5k/10k

I had to check with our HR head to make sure they knew what "mirrored" means.

First : Waking up at 8.30 am and remembering you have a GP appointment at 9.00 :O

Second : busting ass getting to the GP office on time and then finding out it's actually for NEXT Tuesday.

Woops!

Being on an extended out of state visit to customers and coming down with bronchitis/sinus infection. I have been out of town since last Tuesday and won't be going home till at least Friday/Saturday and started getting sick Thursday.

Having a senior member of our company who falls in love with whatever business meme or parable hoves its way into her field of vision. Today, we were treated to an hour long lecture about how if you take the number of each letter (a=1, b=2, etc), hard work only equaled 98, but attitude equals 100, so clearly that's more important. I think she honestly expects us to respond to this two bit, vending machine business doublespeak bullsh*t by climbing up on our tables, crying out, "Oh captain my captain!"

trichy wrote:

Having a senior member of our company who falls in love with whatever business meme or parable hoves its way into her field of vision. Today, we were treated to an hour long lecture about how if you take the number of each letter (a=1, b=2, etc), hard work only equaled 98, but attitude equals 100, so clearly that's more important. I think she honestly expects us to respond to this two bit, vending machine business doublespeak bullsh*t by climbing up on our tables, crying out, "Oh captain my captain!"

"STAPLERS" equals 113.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/MLezO.gif)

Woke up this morning to the newspaper delivery guy banging on the door at 430 to let me know the door of my car was wide open. Some meth addled ass hole had broken in, rifled through my stuff and stolen my work ID along with my limited edition Seahawks Super Bowl lanyard.

Horizontal sleet.

Turns out I'm not a fan.

pyxistyx wrote:

Horizontal sleet.

Turns out I'm not a fan.

I liked their earlier stuff.

trichy wrote:

Having a senior member of our company who falls in love with whatever business meme or parable hoves its way into her field of vision. Today, we were treated to an hour long lecture about how if you take the number of each letter (a=1, b=2, etc), hard work only equaled 98, but attitude equals 100, so clearly that's more important. I think she honestly expects us to respond to this two bit, vending machine business doublespeak bullsh*t by climbing up on our tables, crying out, "Oh captain my captain!"

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BvssiVZCQAAO4bc.jpg)

I remember working at a crap customer service job where the HR director came up with the Fish motivational technique based on what the fish workers at Pike Place Market do to have fun on the job. Instead of throwing real fish (which lets face it would be totally awesome) we were expected to throw little plastic fish to each other as a morale booster. Meanwhile, our medical benefits and hours were totally cut. I just wonder if this kind of stuff just helps abusive management sleep better at night.