Things that annoy you beyond reason...(Vol 4)

[Balmoral]

gregs656 said:

GroundEffect said:

That's a stupid comparison. Compare to a travelator - you walk on them, right? They just allow you to walk faster. Same theory.

They allow you to walk faster *if you want to*.

Not if people are blocking the way they don't!

[Chris Stott]

While on the subject of airlines, I may as well have a rant about airports.

BAA are a bunch of s.

They know exactly how many flights they are running, when they are running, and how many passengers are travelling. Yet there’s still a fking massive queue to get through security as only half the lanes are open.

Then there’s the endless queue’s to get through immigration as only 3 manned lanes are open and 75% of the automated gates are broken. I know the government have cut budgets for the immigration service, but given how much profit BAA make, they should be contributing to improve the service for the traveler.

BAA have no interest in the traveler beyond how much money they spend in the fking duty free shop.

[Antony Moxey]

The point being a normal escalator in a shop is a 30 second ride. If you want to walk on it it makes it a 20 second ride. You're saving yourself a whopping ten seconds at best - is worth getting annoyed beyond reason over ten seconds?

Of course the other complaints: stood in a queue THEN looking for your money once you've reached the checkout, stopping at the top/bottom of escalators, blocking doorways etc aren't valid either as it's not beyond reason at all to be annoyed by that.

[RizzoTheRat]

Bluedot said:

Overhead road-signs that say stuff like "A27 closed at A2025".
Who the hell knows where the A2025 is ? The A27 goes on for hundreds of miles and unless you've got some photographic memory and know the UK roads inside out then what use is it ?
Why don't they say "A27 closed at Worthing" or "A27 closed in 25 miles" ???

Had even worse a while back, sign at M25 J13 (A30) saying A303 closed at Awhatever. Then I got to M25 J12 (M3) to find the junction was closed. WTF? Why tell me a junction 50 miles away is closed, but not tell me the next sodding junction is shut at the junction where I can come off and take an alternative route! you'd have to take the bloody M3 to get the junction they'd told us was closed anyway.

[Europa1]

Borroxs said:

Talking of escalators.....

Idiots that go up or down an escalator and as they step off, they come to a complete standstill to look around for where they need to go next. Usually, old duffers, confused as to why they are there in the first place.

FFS get out of the way I'm right behind you!!!!!!!

Or else it's someone with a wheeled suitcase who stops dead whilst they cock about re-extending the handle to pull the thing with.

[Halmyre]

RizzoTheRat said:

Bluedot said:

Overhead road-signs that say stuff like "A27 closed at A2025".
Who the hell knows where the A2025 is ? The A27 goes on for hundreds of miles and unless you've got some photographic memory and know the UK roads inside out then what use is it ?
Why don't they say "A27 closed at Worthing" or "A27 closed in 25 miles" ???

Had even worse a while back, sign at M25 J13 (A30) saying A303 closed at Awhatever. Then I got to M25 J12 (M3) to find the junction was closed. WTF? Why tell me a junction 50 miles away is closed, but not tell me the next sodding junction is shut at the junction where I can come off and take an alternative route! you'd have to take the bloody M3 to get the junction they'd told us was closed anyway.

I'm firmly of the opinion (adjusts tinfoil hat to a rakish angle) that the powers-that-be want motorway warnings to be as unhelpful as possible. They'd rather keep travellers cooped up in 50 mile tailbacks than have them wandering around causing further chaos on alternative routes.

[Morningside]

Halmyre said:

RizzoTheRat said:

Bluedot said:

Overhead road-signs that say stuff like "A27 closed at A2025".
Who the hell knows where the A2025 is ? The A27 goes on for hundreds of miles and unless you've got some photographic memory and know the UK roads inside out then what use is it ?
Why don't they say "A27 closed at Worthing" or "A27 closed in 25 miles" ???

Had even worse a while back, sign at M25 J13 (A30) saying A303 closed at Awhatever. Then I got to M25 J12 (M3) to find the junction was closed. WTF? Why tell me a junction 50 miles away is closed, but not tell me the next sodding junction is shut at the junction where I can come off and take an alternative route! you'd have to take the bloody M3 to get the junction they'd told us was closed anyway.

I'm firmly of the opinion (adjusts tinfoil hat to a rakish angle) that the powers-that-be want motorway warnings to be as unhelpful as possible. They'd rather keep travellers cooped up in 50 mile tailbacks than have them wandering around causing further chaos on alternative routes.

Or diversions that assume you are a local after they divert you and leave you baffled once you get to a T-Junction.

[Shakermaker]

Chris Stott said:

While on the subject of airlines, I may as well have a rant about airports.

BAA are a bunch of s.

They know exactly how many flights they are running, when they are running, and how many passengers are travelling. Yet there’s still a fking massive queue to get through security as only half the lanes are open.

Then there’s the endless queue’s to get through immigration as only 3 manned lanes are open and 75% of the automated gates are broken. I know the government have cut budgets for the immigration service, but given how much profit BAA make, they should be contributing to improve the service for the traveler.

BAA have no interest in the traveler beyond how much money they spend in the fking duty free shop.

Pretty much this.

They are also sneaky about when the time starts for them measuring your queue time. at Gatwick they aim to have queues not longer than 5 minutes. But that 5 minutes, might not start until you get to the bit where you flash your boarding card, and will stop when you pass through the metal detector, and also it is an averaged number across all areas, they just track one or two people every 10 minutes.

Immigration though - they don't get a say, and the UKBF staff are often centrally allocated to go to Gatwick/Heathrow/Dover/Portsmouth etc etc, to cover sickness/absence from there as well. Much as they would like a say, UKBF don't care much, and Heathrow (and others) use it to their advantage at times.

[yellowjack]

Cold callers who either a) have dialled the wrong number, or b) are simply phishing.

Caller: "Hello. Can I speak to Lynn James please?"
Me: "No. Never heard of her, so you've got the wrong number."
Caller: "Who am I speaking to today please?"
Me: "If you've got the wrong number it's clearly none of your business now, is it?"
Caller (rapidly launching into his script): "Maybe I can help you. I'm calling to help you save money on your boiler cover....."

...aaaaaaaaaand "Click!"

[Halmyre]

I had one at work a while back.

Him: Hello, I'm calling about the accident insurance claim. (paraphrasing slightly)
Me: I don't recall having an accident.
Him: Yes, someone at this address had an accident a few months ago.
Me: Well, there's over a thousand people at this address, can you be more specific?

That got rid of him.

[bristolracer]

Halmyre said:

I had one at work a while back.

Him: Hello, I'm calling about the accident insurance claim. (paraphrasing slightly)

Me, yes i had a claim
Him, well maybe you can claim for injury
Me,well my claim was for a windscreen and i had to pay £100 excess,I had to get my wallet out,that broke my heart-can i claim for a broken heart?

[antspants]

yellowjack said:

Women. They annoy me beyond all reason...

+1 everything else pales into insignificance!

[Chris Stott]

Shakermaker said:

Chris Stott said:

While on the subject of airlines, I may as well have a rant about airports.

BAA are a bunch of s.

They know exactly how many flights they are running, when they are running, and how many passengers are travelling. Yet there’s still a fking massive queue to get through security as only half the lanes are open.

Then there’s the endless queue’s to get through immigration as only 3 manned lanes are open and 75% of the automated gates are broken. I know the government have cut budgets for the immigration service, but given how much profit BAA make, they should be contributing to improve the service for the traveler.

BAA have no interest in the traveler beyond how much money they spend in the fking duty free shop.

Immigration though - they don't get a say, and the UKBF staff are often centrally allocated to go to Gatwick/Heathrow/Dover/Portsmouth etc etc, to cover sickness/absence from there as well. Much as they would like a say, UKBF don't care much, and Heathrow (and others) use it to their advantage at times.

I was chatting to a couple of police officers in the immigration area at T5 whilst waiting for a colleague to come through (she's non-EU, and it took her nearly an hour to get through immigration!)... they were saying it's a constant nightmare, and in their opinion, BAA should be contributing financially to UKBF, in the same way football clubs have to fund policing at matches.

BAA are still fking useless... if there was a convenient way for me to avoid using their airports shopping malls, I would.

[Halmyre]

bristolracer said:

Halmyre said:

I had one at work a while back.

Him: Hello, I'm calling about the accident insurance claim. (paraphrasing slightly)

Me, yes i had a claim
Him, well maybe you can claim for injury
Me,well my claim was for a windscreen and i had to pay £100 excess,I had to get my wallet out,that broke my heart-can i claim for a broken heart?

Getting these calls at work can be quite fun.

Double glazing firm: how many windows do you have?
Me: about 4000

[Shakermaker]

Chris Stott said:

I was chatting to a couple of police officers in the immigration area at T5 whilst waiting for a colleague to come through (she's non-EU, and it took her nearly an hour to get through immigration!)... they were saying it's a constant nightmare, and in their opinion, BAA should be contributing financially to UKBF, in the same way football clubs have to fund policing at matches.

BAA are still fking useless... if there was a convenient way for me to avoid using their airports shopping malls, I would.

I agree, yes, they should. I know that Gatwick made some noises about this, but don't think it got far.

Speaking of which, Gatwick is a convenient way to avoid BAA... if you live as close to it as I do.

[fullbeem]

Fellow residents in your building stealing your stuff. It not got your name on it so don't touch it! When i find out which resident of my building stole my new credit card, dog eggs will be pushed under their door.

Obviously, if I do find out who did it, a systematic approach to annoying them will take place.



Edited for spelling

[Chris Stott]

Shakermaker said:

I agree, yes, they should. I know that Gatwick made some noises about this, but don't think it got far.

Speaking of which, Gatwick is a convenient way to avoid BAA... if you live as close to it as I do.

I use Gatwick to fly to Spain 5 or 6 times a year... only use Heathrow for business trips as it's half the distance from my home.

Being honest, I don't find Gatwick much better than Heathrow. Maybe it's just airports in general that are just st.

[Shakermaker]

Chris Stott said:

I use Gatwick to fly to Spain 5 or 6 times a year... only use Heathrow for business trips as it's half the distance from my home.

Being honest, I don't find Gatwick much better than Heathrow. Maybe it's just airports in general that are just st.

Yes, they are.

Not sure why I still choose to work at them

[DJFish]

People who chop food with small knives on glass chopping boards.
Both on TV and in real life, food prepared this way tastes awful and will give you worms.

[The Don of Croy]

RizzoTheRat said:

Bluedot said:

Overhead road-signs that say stuff like "A27 closed at A2025".
Who the hell knows where the A2025 is ? The A27 goes on for hundreds of miles and unless you've got some photographic memory and know the UK roads inside out then what use is it ?
Why don't they say "A27 closed at Worthing" or "A27 closed in 25 miles" ???

Had even worse a while back, sign at M25 J13 (A30) saying A303 closed at Awhatever. Then I got to M25 J12 (M3) to find the junction was closed. WTF? Why tell me a junction 50 miles away is closed, but not tell me the next sodding junction is shut at the junction where I can come off and take an alternative route! you'd have to take the bloody M3 to get the junction they'd told us was closed anyway.

Last summer travelling East on the M4 near Maidenhead and the o/h gantry tells me "A21 blocked east of A262" - which is a pretty niche bit of messaging given (I expect) how few travellers on the M4 are heading for Hastings. Using place names would be much appreciated by many.

Still, could be distracting me by saying 'Think Bike!' and I have to recall a Raleigh Chopper or similar (instead of watching my fellow road users).