So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Stearmen]

Agreed, in the state of PA, the automotive industry estimates that they need 10,000 more mechanics currently. All the dealers in my area have long wait times for service. It's about the best trade a young person could enter right now.

You won't find any mechanics at the dealer ship, they are all technicians! Technicians, plug the on board computer into another computer, then replace the part it tells them to. That might be the entire engine. I had a problem on my 2011 Triumph Thruxton still under warranty, the tech could not find what was wrong with his computer. I went home, looked at a wiring diagram, figured only two things could keep blowing that fuse, either the ignition switch or the regulator. The regulator was the easiest to get to, so I pulled that. Took all of a couple of seconds to find the problem, one of the spades in the connector had worked it's way out and was arcing! Took it and showed it to the shop rep, he took one look and said, "there's your problem!" They gave me a new one, and I installed it.

 

[jamespowers]

You won't find any mechanics at the dealer ship, they are all technicians! Technicians, plug the on board computer into another computer, then replace the part it tells them to. That might be the entire engine. I had a problem on my 2011 Triumph Thruxton still under warranty, the tech could not find what was wrong with his computer. I went home, looked at a wiring diagram, figured only two things could keep blowing that fuse, either the ignition switch or the regulator. The regulator was the easiest to get to, so I pulled that. Took all of a couple of seconds to find the problem, one of the spades in the connector had worked it's way out and was arcing! Took it and showed it to the shop rep, he took one look and said, "there's your problem!" They gave me a new one, and I installed it.

Triumph?! There's your problem right there. lol lol

 

[jamespowers]

You own a Ford. We all know how dear old Henry felt about Adolf. Did your Mustang come with reproduction NAZI medals like Henry's?

We all know Henry was long dead when they produced the Mustang---that and it came in colors other than black.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

and it came in colors other than black.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whoa, countercultural!

 

[jamespowers]

Whoa, countercultural!

No way! That would give them LSD flashbacks of them not being able to evade the draft.

 

[vitanola]

We all know Henry was long dead when they produced the Mustang---that and it came in colors other than black.

So did the Flivver, before 1914 and after 1924...

 

[jamespowers]

So did the Flivver, before 1914 and after 1924...

Changed his mind for ten years eh?

 

[Hercule]

Restaurants and other service oriented establishments whose employees refer to customers as honey or sweetheart etc.

I just had such an encounter at a Subway - after screwing up my bill (overcharging) and continuously calling me sweetheart, I blew up at the employee and asked her not to refer to me that way (I did say please by the way), at which point the owner came over and chewed me out for raising my voice at her middle-aged adult daughter. This always seems to happen to me. I just wanted a sandwich, not a relationship!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Don't ever eat at a greasy spoon in Maine. "Whatcha want, deeah?" is the standard greeting for everyone.

 

[Fading Fast]

Don't ever eat at a greasy spoon in Maine. "Whatcha want, deeah?" is the standard greeting for everyone.

Change it to a New Jersey accent, and that - or some variation - is the standard greeting in half the diners in NJ - especially if you sit at the counter.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What I really don't like to hear is "Hello, I'm Chad and I'll be your server this evening," chirped out with false cheerfulness by some poor kid who's been drilled by rote to say the exact same thing the exact same way to every customer. I like to deal with a real person in such situations, not a smiling automaton. At the theatre, I urge all the kids to be themselves -- polite, but themselves, and to feel free to engage in casual unscripted, no-sales-pressure conversation with patrons who seem receptive to it. At the door, I'll read the people as they come in and if the kids hear me kidding around with them as they arrive, they know who to have fun with and who to just shut up and serve.

 

[tonyb]

...
The other pet peeve is the person who is in the check out line in front of me. Unloads all their items. Stands there and watches the check out girl scan each item and doesn’t lift a finger to help her put the bags in the cart. So the poor girl has to stop and do it herself, then go back to scanning. People are lining up behind her and that person jusst stands there watching. THEN, after its all scanned and put into the cart, they start looking for their checkbook to write a freaking check!


That’ll make you want to slap someone.


(I have been known to put the person’s bags in the cart myself to speed things along).

Yeah, that drives me nuts too. Even more common are the people who wait for their order to be completely rung up BEFORE they slide their loyalty card and payment card. It's particularly galling on a busy day (the Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend, say) when every check stand has a line of half a dozen people waiting to check out. Oh, and THEN, after everything is bagged up and back in her shopping cart, she decides she'll write a check, so she digs through the long-spent lipstick tubes and snot rags in her purse to locate her checkbook and, oh, darn it, do you happen to have a pen? And when the clerk asks for ID, well, that's another procedure. And now there are nine people waiting in line behind her.

 

[tonyb]

I don't mind being "honey" or "hun" or "sweetie" or any other such thing so long as I'm left with the sense that the person so addressing me isn't putting on an act or hustling a bigger tip.

I don't expect a whole lotta uptown sophistication in the low-budget eateries I prefer. I don't care if the waitress uses non-standard grammar or regional colloquialisms -- again, so long as it isn't an act.

My standard tip in such establishments is 20 percent, more or less. If I'm dining alone, that's just a couple of bucks, maybe a little more.

 

[Bamaboots]

tonyb, I'm with you. Growing up in and living in the south for most of my life, I wouldn't understand it if a server didn't call me hun, honey or sweetie pie and ask if I wanted sweet tea with it. If I'm dining in a white table cloth restaurant, well, I expect the experience to be different but that doesn't happen often as I'm more of a 'dive bar' kind of guy.

My first experience where this was not the case is when I moved to South Florida, the only time I ever lived up North. Even then I was able to convert a few as I had a hard time not saying ma'am, sweetie or honey pie and twenty percent tip is the standard for me.

 

[tonyb]

I almost without fail address women, even the young ones, as "ma'am," no matter their status relative to mine. Very few of my stepdad's southern ways rubbed off on me, but that one did, probably because I sensed how effectively it facilitated transactions with women, whatever that transaction might be. But now that I'm not so young myself, and I'm nowhere near the South, and that it is now 2015 and gender-ambiguity is fashionable in certain circles, I sometimes get the feeling that some find it odd, if not quite inappropriate.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The young twenty-somethings I work with absolutely *hate* being called "ma'am." But they hate being called "Miss" even more. They do not, however, chafe at "dude."

We usually call each other by nicknames that we make up on the spur of the moment. The only male we have on staff is routinely known as "Ski Pants," for absolutely no reason at all, and I once suggested to a patron that she call him that, just to watch his reaction.

 

[Bamaboots]

I almost without fail address women, even the young ones, as "ma'am," no matter their status relative to mine. Very few of my stepdad's southern ways rubbed off on me, but that one did, probably because I sensed how effectively it facilitated transactions with women, whatever that transaction might be. But now that I'm not so young myself, and I'm nowhere near the South, and that it is now 2015 and gender-ambiguity is fashionable in certain circles, I sometimes get the feeling that some find it odd, if not quite inappropriate.

Absolutely, but is so ingrained in me due to my upbringing and so many years of public service, I've been unable to let it go. Most that I say ma'am to these days are much younger than I. It evokes some odd looks if not downright disdain. Oh well, I'm sorry.[huh]

 

[tonyb]

There have been occasions when some might have thought I was attempting humor or even sarcasm when calling a young woman "ma'am." But no, it's really just my habit, of some nearly six decades standing.

Which touches on another pet peeve: Looking for offense wherever it might be found, especially when doing so involves actively avoiding giving a person the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Stearmen]

Restaurants and other service oriented establishments whose employees refer to customers as honey or sweetheart etc.

I just had such an encounter at a Subway - after screwing up my bill (overcharging) and continuously calling me sweetheart, I blew up at the employee and asked her not to refer to me that way (I did say please by the way), at which point the owner came over and chewed me out for raising my voice at her middle-aged adult daughter. This always seems to happen to me. I just wanted a sandwich, not a relationship!

[video=youtube;asRi49khe1k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asRi49khe1k[/video]