Things that annoy you beyond reason...(Vol 5)

[Moonhawk]

Vaud said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Vaud said:

So I am encouraged to pay at the pump with the app. But I can't use my mobile phone. FFS.

It's one of the vagaries of the rules; apparently it is a total no-no to hold your handset up to your ear and take/make a voice call, but it is totally ok for your phone's transmitter to maintain a data connection.

So it isn't actually contradictory, although it is bloody stupid.

It says "switch off mobile phones".

The best pumps are those with a sticker with a QR code on. How are you meant to scan the QR code if you aren't supposed to use your phone?

[nonsequitur]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Vaud said:

I can understand when car phones or a portable phone had a whopping great big battery... but not a modern phone.

I think petrol stations are simply too scared to relax the rules, just in case there is some freak million-to-one accident that could somehow be tied to the mobile phone. The rules just simply haven't kept up with technology, and the fact that modern phones are pretty much always transmitting.

Most people don't make calls whilst filling up anyway, so it's not really a problem.

Saw one making a call once. The tannoy boomed out from the till area ' Turn that ........ phone off '

[Vaud]

Moonhawk said:

The best pumps are those with a sticker with a QR code on. How are you meant to scan the QR code if you aren't supposed to use your phone?

Like my initial post on the topic?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Vaud said:

Moonhawk said:

The best pumps are those with a sticker with a QR code on. How are you meant to scan the QR code if you aren't supposed to use your phone?

Like my initial post on the topic?

The circle is now complete.

[AstonZagato]

nonsequitur said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Frimley111R said:

Just coming back from the USA - tipping and receipts. Suggested tips of 18%, 20% and 22%. On a big bill that's a lot. One waitress ticked the top one for me and and another said she'd added on the tip for my convenience! None of them did anything above and beyond their jobs. On a $100 meal that's a $20 tip. Just takes the piss IMO.

It's best to just think of the tip as a local tax, and the stated price on the menu as being the price before tax. Don't think of it as a tip in the sense we understand it in the UK.

In Singapore, there are several local taxes (I forget what they are) and each one is expressed as a 'plus' or '+', so you will often see prices quoted as "S$123+++", which gets really confusing.

Some years ago I had a stand up, or rather sit down, 'discussion' with a restaurant manager in Chicago on this very subject. He said that the servers are all on minimum wage and need tips to get a decent pay packet. So we the customer have to subsidise the low pay of his staff. I explained that in the UK we tip for 'extra' service over and above the norm and that the meal and service we had received in his establishment was distinctly average. I left 10% tip. He remained tight lipped as we left. In those days they were expecting 12 to 15%.

Apropos above. There is a state sales tax of approx. 8% added to all bills in addition to any tip that may be 'conveniently' attached to the total.

Some interesting moves in the US to try to get tipping removed. The kitchen staff, who also are on minimum wage, could not participate in the tipping pool (in most States) and so it was trying to pay more fairly.

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-tipping-be-...

The last I heard, it wasn't working.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

AstonZagato said:

Some interesting moves in the US to try to get tipping removed. The kitchen staff, who also are on minimum wage, could not participate in the tipping pool (in most States) and so it was trying to pay more fairly.

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-tipping-be-...

The last I heard, it wasn't working.

The whole tipping culture in America is fundamentally broken.

It would be like all prices here being displayed as excluding VAT and then you having to pay VAT on top, but instead of paying it to HMRC you pay it extra on top of the bill. Sometimes in the form of coins in a jar or tray.

Then, if the rules were then changed so that all prices had to include VAT, people would moan that all prices had gone up by 20%.

(It's just an analogy, so don't pick it apart too much please)

Edit: Plus, as you say, it's unfair as only front house staff benefit from the tips, unless there is some kind of tip pool. Which makes even more of a mockery of the concept of it being a tip (in the sense that we understand the term).

[Cobnapint]

Let's be honest. It's just a scammy way of saving the restaurant owner money by forcing the customer to subsidise the staff wages. It's managed to escape scrutiny for decades but it's time it stopped.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Cobnapint said:

Let's be honest. It's just a scammy way of saving the restaurant owner money by forcing the customer to subsidise the staff wages. It's managed to escape scrutiny for decades but it's time it stopped.

Indeed.

[Bluedot]

The gap in between the front seats and centre console of cars.

I could probably have retired by now with the amount of loose change and god knows what else that has been lost over the years down the most fkin awkward place known to man to get to.
If those lads in Thailand had fallen down that gap then they'd never have got them out.

[Rich_W]

Bluedot said:

The gap in between the front seats and centre console of cars.

I could probably have retired by now with the amount of loose change and god knows what else that has been lost over the years down the most fkin awkward place known to man to get to.
If those lads in Thailand had fallen down that gap then they'd never have got them out.

Buy a better car.

I noticed the S Class has a sort of extra piece of trim that prevents this! Game Changer!

* * *


Current irritation (even though it shouldn't bother me AT ALL!)

Chatting to girl on dating website, 4-5 days of messages, all going well. I go for the date.

What you up to weekend?
Something Friday. Something Saturday
OK, fancy meeting on Sunday? Maybe afternoon?


Silence.....

No Yes.
No No.

But come on.

We've exchanged Social Media. So to see a video of her on Sunday having a conversation with her fricking cat "Hello" "Miaow" "Hello" "Miaaow"

Either means I'm lucky to be getting away from potential crazy cat lady.
Or that my Game is so weak and pathetic, I cant persuade a girl with literally NO better options on a Sunday to commit to a drink


Why does this even matter to me?!?!? Its not like its a rejection of me based on anything other than a few text messages.

[V8mate]

Rich_W said:

Buy a better car.

I noticed the S Class has a sort of extra piece of trim that prevents this! Game Changer!

* * *


Current irritation (even though it shouldn't bother me AT ALL!)

Chatting to girl on dating website, 4-5 days of messages, all going well. I go for the date.

What you up to weekend?
Something Friday. Something Saturday
OK, fancy meeting on Sunday? Maybe afternoon?


Silence.....

No Yes.
No No.

But come on.

We've exchanged Social Media. So to see a video of her on Sunday having a conversation with her fricking cat "Hello" "Miaow" "Hello" "Miaaow"

Either means I'm lucky to be getting away from potential crazy cat lady.
Or that my Game is so weak and pathetic, I cant persuade a girl with literally NO better options on a Sunday to commit to a drink


Why does this even matter to me?!?!? Its not like its a rejection of me based on anything other than a few text messages.

Cat owners are incapable of maintaining human relationships. Move on.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Rich_W said:

Either means I'm lucky to be getting away from potential crazy cat lady.
Or that my Game is so weak and pathetic, I cant persuade a girl with literally NO better options on a Sunday to commit to a drink

Maybe after something on both Friday and Saturday, she just wants a quiet Sunday?

[popeyewhite]

Rich_W said:

Why does this even matter to me?!?!? Its not like its a rejection of me based on anything other than a few text messages.

Quite. Have you considered talking to a real female face-to-face? Then you might get a) more interest, and b) a more revealing answer. If you live on the Outer Hebrides I apologise as probably a dating site really is the best way of meeting people.

[Frimley111R]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Frimley111R said:

Just coming back from the USA - tipping and receipts. Suggested tips of 18%, 20% and 22%. On a big bill that's a lot. One waitress ticked the top one for me and and another said she'd added on the tip for my convenience! None of them did anything above and beyond their jobs. On a $100 meal that's a $20 tip. Just takes the piss IMO.

It's best to just think of the tip as a local tax, and the stated price on the menu as being the price before tax. Don't think of it as a tip in the sense we understand it in the UK.

I could but they also add tax on and in San Fran they add their local healthcare tax on too FFS! 3 x extra charges on your meal.

In Las Vegas we had a big group of us who spent $800 on drinks one evening at a bar. I forget the tip we gave but it was pretty big. The waitress came back to us and asked what was wrong because we'd left such a small tip (not her exact words). If I'd have heard that at the time I'd have dragged the manager out and demanded our tip back!! My pissed mates gave her more... After that I never saw smiley helpful Americans as anything but people just trying to work you over for money.

[Vaud]

You forget but it was big?

Context is everything.

[Rich_W]

popeyewhite said:

Quite. Have you considered talking to a real female face-to-face? Then you might get a) more interest, and b) a more revealing answer.

I don't want to make this into the Match thread.

But its not an either/or to be fair. Had a couple of hooks in real life recently. 1 didn't work out. The other I think I missed my shot really. Think we're heading towards friendzone This app one was just a throw it out there see what bites. (nothing as it happens )

I'm just baffled that someone I've never met, rejecting me, should make me think about her for more than 24hours!. I've been rejected before, I'll no doubt be rejected again!

[Clockwork Cupcake]

popeyewhite said:

Quite. Have you considered talking to a real female face-to-face? Then you might get a) more interest, and b) a more revealing answer.

I find the fact that you give this nugget of advice via an internet forum to be somewhat ironic.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 27th August 23:12

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Rich_W said:

I'm just baffled that someone I've never met, rejecting me, should make me think about her for more than 24hours!. I've been rejected before, I'll no doubt be rejected again!

I wouldn't take it as a total rejection just yet. As I said earlier, she may just have needed a quiet night in after two nights out. If she turns you down again, that's probably the time to give up.

I was exchanging messages with one guy once, and we were getting on well, and he'd happened to mention he was free the next day, so I suggested meeting up, and he had a full on panic attack as he was the kind of person who has to plan ahead and suggested a week hence instead. That didn't work out.
Sorry, that probably doesn't help.

[popeyewhite]

Rich_W said:

I'm just baffled that someone I've never met, rejecting me, should make me think about her for more than 24hours!. I've been rejected before, I'll no doubt be rejected again!

She obviously caught you at a vulnerable moment.

[gothatway]

Cobnapint said:

Let's be honest. It's just a scammy way of saving the restaurant owner money by forcing the customer to subsidise the staff wages. It's managed to escape scrutiny for decades but it's time it stopped.

I don't get this - doesn't the customer always pay the staff wages one way or another ?