You know what really grinds my gears?

[dubcity]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Another good one is when you get a gift card from a relative out of state, and upon receiving it you eventually realize that it was never activated. Am I going to contact that person who bought it for me and tell them the $50-$100 they spend was a waste, and then ask them to buy another one? Probably not.

[Majingir]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Maybe not as annoying, but I have around THIRTY Visa or Mastercard gift cards from the last couple years that all have $3-5 left on each of them.

PayPal and others places used to let you merge those cards into your account but apparently that doesn't exist anymore.

Another issue I have with gift cards.

How much free money do stores make from gift card purchases that never get 100% redeemed?

I have some cards that probably have like 50 cents to $2 left on it from stores I never even go to and if I did go there, would just feel weird paying with a gift card that has all of $2 on it.

It's not like amazon gift card where you add it to your balance, or online stores where you can just add it when paying and avoid the awkwardness of having a cashier ringing up a card with 50 cents on it.

[KSUowls]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

On the topic of gift cards

I'm not sure if any companies still do this, but I used to encounter times where companies would reduce the value of your gift card based on how old it was. Like reduce it by $5 for each month that it goes unused or something like that. Pretty shady imo.

I also know that at least some businesses treat lack of gift card redemptions almost like a business model. I worked for a booking agency in college that definitely pushed redemption vouchers hard, knowing that a not-insignificant number of them would go un-redeemed. It was basically free cash.


On a separate topic; the ever popular lack of customer service and basically when companies operate as if they have no intelligence.

I tried ordering a (not cheap) new desk in November, along with some accessories to go with it. The purchase had an expected delivery of "on or before Jan 23 2025". The reason for the 2 month delay was actually due to one of the small accessories that I had added, worth about $50 on a $1,500 order (their policy is to not ship any portion of an order out until all items are ready, the desk itself said would have been ready November 29th). I patiently waited though, and then 2 days before the original "on or before" date, I receive a notification that the small accessory was still out of stock and would not be available for at least a few weeks.

Now, at this point the company had already charged me the full $1,500 when I put the order in two months ago, and when I reached out to them to find a resolution they both refused to ship out any portion of the order now (basically everything except a cable management add-on) while they sort out the inventory problem on the 1 accessory and they would not allow for modifications on the original order to remove the out of stock item. They also could not even provide me with a firm delivery date, I was just expected to be out $1,500 and stuck in limbo indefinitely. The "solution" that they offered was to re-order the desk minus the out of stock item, but even then they would not push me to the front of the line for their order processing. It would be treated as a new order and I would have to wait for all the ones "before" me to get filled.

I know policies exist for a reason, and you can't just go make exceptions every time. But there should be some intelligence that the customer service teams are allowed to work within. I spent a week talking to different people before giving up (online chat and e-mail), and I'm not convinced that I ever spoke with a real person based on how brain-dead the responses were.

On the bright side, I have now "saved" $1,500 on what was a splurge purchase. So, I guess there are some positives when businesses suck.

[Majingir]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

On the topic of gift cards



I'm not sure if any companies still do this, but I used to encounter times where companies would reduce the value of your gift card based on how old it was. Like reduce it by $5 for each month that it goes unused or something like that. Pretty shady imo.



I also know that at least some businesses treat lack of gift card redemptions almost like a business model. I worked for a booking agency in college that definitely pushed redemption vouchers hard, knowing that a not-insignificant number of them would go un-redeemed. It was basically free cash.

One of many reasons why gift cards are horrible.

Don't know what the US law says, but in Canada I know they made that illegal. You're basically giving someone store credit, how can you say store credit has an expiration date or a monthly fee?

[Master Live 013]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

The lack of what I consider (of course, everything is about me :P) essential features in software. How can Word not have a "duplicate this page" feature/option? No, I don't want to select and copy & paste. I want to say "duplicate page 7" and it duplicates it. Jesus ****ing Christ.

But of course, no one will ever beat the king: Chrome not having a "warn me before closing multiple tabs". Long live the king.

[Blzer]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

But of course, no one will ever beat the king: Chrome not having a "warn me before closing multiple tabs". Long live the king.

Thankfully, because of this post I have discovered something new. If you press Ctrl + Shift + T, you will revive that recently closed window.

It doesn't help when crafting a long OS post and accidentally closing it out, but at least it's better than nothing!

[EUBlink]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Thankfully, because of this post I have discovered something new. If you press Ctrl + Shift + T, you will revive that recently closed window.

It doesn't help when crafting a long OS post and accidentally closing it out, but at least it's better than nothing!

Which browser do you use? There are programs and possibly extensions that can recover lost form text when you accidentally close a tab or window. They are relatively easy to use. I will give you detailed instructions on how to solve the issue should it ever happen again, if you'd like.

Also, Ctrl + Tab will switch tabs on most browsers without having to use the mouse, if you weren't aware.

[BurghFan]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

The lack of what I consider (of course, everything is about me :P) essential features in software. How can Word not have a "duplicate this page" feature/option? No, I don't want to select and copy & paste. I want to say "duplicate page 7" and it duplicates it. Jesus ****ing Christ.

But of course, no one will ever beat the king: Chrome not having a "warn me before closing multiple tabs". Long live the king.

Thankfully, because of this post I have discovered something new. If you press Ctrl + Shift + T, you will revive that recently closed window.

It doesn't help when crafting a long OS post and accidentally closing it out, but at least it's better than nothing!

Or just click the 3 dots in the upper right to bring down the options menu and then select history and you'll be able to restore closed tabs

[Master Live 013]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

That, or just use Firefox. I know my choice.

[KSUowls]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

The lack of what I consider (of course, everything is about me :P) essential features in software. How can Word not have a "duplicate this page" feature/option? No, I don't want to select and copy & paste. I want to say "duplicate page 7" and it duplicates it. Jesus ****ing Christ.

But of course, no one will ever beat the king: Chrome not having a "warn me before closing multiple tabs". Long live the king.

This is truly timely.

I stopped really using VBA a number of years ago. There are few macros that I have saved that do some basic things, but most automation comes through things like SQL for me these days. I was trying to write a macro the other day through the VBA editor in Excel though, only to discover that it does not have a feature to display line numbers for your code. One I can't believe that I ever worked in VBA without it, but also how does a software which has lines of code NOT have it? I thought I was going crazy when I couldn't find the option, and the first result on Google was a forum post from 2003 asking the same question . The answer then, as it is now apparently, is that there is not a built in option.

[Speedy]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

This is truly timely.

I stopped really using VBA a number of years ago. There are few macros that I have saved that do some basic things, but most automation comes through things like SQL for me these days. I was trying to write a macro the other day through the VBA editor in Excel though, only to discover that it does not have a feature to display line numbers for your code. One I can't believe that I ever worked in VBA without it, but also how does a software which has lines of code NOT have it? I thought I was going crazy when I couldn't find the option, and the first result on Google was a forum post from 2003 asking the same question [emoji38]. The answer then, as it is now apparently, is that there is not a built in option.

Yeh, VBA is definitely aged 15 yeads ago. I've moved to Power Query and Power BI.

[Majingir]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

The more I watch game shows the more in convinced they pick some people who just suck at the game so they don't have to give out money.

I've seen people on wheel of fortune solve a puzzle instead of spinning when there's clearly 3 or more of the same letter still up there which is a guaranteed $1500 minimum. Sure you could get bankrupt or lose a turn, but you're just solving to get the round minimum of 1000 at that point.

Or people clearly not paying attention and calling a letter already up there or already called (I believe contestants do have a screen they see which shows which ones have been called?). Even in the final round where they give them RSTLNE, then ask the person which letters they want to pick, people sometimes ask for one of those letters....did you not just hear those letters being given to you 15 seconds earlier?

Now I'm watching Hollywood Squares which for people who don't know, it's basically tic tac toe mixed with trivia. The amount of players who choose a square to play for when that square has no relevance to the rest of the board (for instance, someone might be a square away from winning and their opponent doesn't even choose to play for the square which would give them a chance to block that person from winning)

Or sometimes they could choose a square that lines up with one they already got so then they could be 1 away from winning, and they choose a completely different one that doesn't help their chances of winning at all. It's literally tic tac toe. It's not complex.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I love it when they buy a vowel, then ''ok, now I'll solve it.''

Edit - Meant to quote the above.

[Majingir]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

I love it when they buy a vowel, then ''ok, now I'll solve it.''

Edit - Meant to quote the above.

That happens so often too.

Sure, the vowel might help them solve, but it just feels so stupid that you're spending money to buy a vowel just to solve after. Did you really not know it? And if you didn't, would guessing a vowel be a lower risk than just spinning and risking bankrupt/lose a turn vs you getting the consonant you know is up there?

They also have (or had?) that express thing where you get $1000 for every letter you call and you call in succession, but the second you're wrong you lose everything and your turn is over. And people decide to not do it, but then they literally spin again after that...How is spinning and guessing a letter for $600 better than $1000? If you get it wrong for $600 your turn is just as over as it would've been if you got it wrong at $1000.

That's one reason I enjoy celeb wheel of fortune more. Sure, the celebs are stupid at times too, but at least they're "fun stupid" where they laugh at themselves too.

[dubcity]

Re: You know what really grinds my gears?

Tangentially related: you couldn't pay me enough to do Wayne Brady's job on "Let's Make A Deal." Whenever I pass through the breakroom at work and that show is on I can just feel the cringe coming off the screen. Plus, I just hate the small talk involved with meeting new people and pretending to be excited about whatever the hell they are doing. So much of that show is just him meeting and interacting with people. Same with Drew Carey on TPIR. I'm pretty sure they tape a month/week's worth of shows in a single day, so that has to be socially draining.

Reminds me a bit of that internal memo that was leaked from Steve Harvey's show, which basically said he didn't want the people who work on the show to be coming up to him nonstop trying to tell him their life story and just dominate his time every day. From the outside that might seem unnecessarily antisocial, but you can imagine what must have happened to get to that point.