So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[MisterCairo]

Well, as everyone else is discussing it - I've hated it up till now - and now cannot believe my blessings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Health_Insurance_Plan

 

[sheeplady]

I think one of the problems with the VA system is these hospitals are mostly in urban areas... the vast majority of veterans are rural. It's a problem to expect someone in poor health to drive 3 hours (or arrange a driver) for regular care.

 

[Harp]

I usually have my hair cut inside the Options Exchange across the street from the Chicago Board of Trade, but the other day I spent some
lunchtime at Optimo, gazing at very expensive homburgs; then ducked inside a tobacconist to search for a new leather pouch to accompany
my curved English briar, before stepping inside a stylist shop I had mistakenly assumed to be a barber establishment. Place even had some Playboys
scattered around, but I didn't have an appointment.

 

[Stearmen]

The Fedora Lounge, this thread. I have never been insulted and so deeply hurt on the internet as I was on this sight! Not only was a treated as some kind of petulant child that need to be scolded because I do not conform to their ways. There were several members that seemed to have a certain pleasure in the thought of my demise. And the moderators remained silent! Most disgusting indeed.

 

[tonyb]

The Fedora Lounge, this thread. I have never been insulted and so deeply hurt on the internet as I was on this sight! Not only was a treated as some kind of petulant child that need to be scolded because I do not conform to their ways. There were several members that seemed to have a certain pleasure in the thought of my demise. And the moderators remained silent! Most disgusting indeed.

Are you pulling our legs, Stearman? Or did I miss something?

I always found you an agreeable sort, for whatever that's worth. I'd miss you if you weren't around.

 

[Stearmen]

Are you pulling our legs, Stearman? Or did I miss something?

I always found you an agreeable sort, for whatever that's worth. I'd miss you if you weren't around.

Actually, you were one of them, calling me a "donor cycles!"

 

[tonyb]

Actually, you were one of them, calling me a "donor cycles!"

Mentioning that some in the emergency medical field refer to motorcycles as "donor cycles" is hardly wishing ill upon you. The plain and simple truth is that motorcyclists are much more vulnerable than car drivers. A motorcyclist wishing to see a ripe age free of disabling injuries would keep that in mind.

I have already made mention of a cousin's oldest offspring, a fellow in his forties, who died in spring of last year of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. I wish a similar end upon no one, and certainly not upon you.

You have clearly misunderstood me, Stearman.

 

[vitanola]

This brings back a fond humorous memory...
We were at a major NHRA drag race - in late summer - hot as all get out... It was between rounds, so it was dead quiet... An ice cream vendor was down at the front walkway of the grandstand yelling "Ice Cream!" - "Ice Cream" - "Ice Cream" ---

At the back row a semi-drunk fellow stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!", then took a bow and sat down.
It completely broke up the whole grandstand and he got an enthusiastic round of applause.

 

[scotrace]

The Fedora Lounge, this thread. I have never been insulted and so deeply hurt on the internet as I was on this sight! Not only was a treated as some kind of petulant child that need to be scolded because I do not conform to their ways. There were several members that seemed to have a certain pleasure in the thought of my demise. And the moderators remained silent! Most disgusting indeed.

If there was a problem we missed, please sent me a note.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm so tired of a certain type of bourgie American woman who will go out of her way to use Britishisms in her language especially when it's done in an oh-so-self-conscious way, like my wanna-be-bourgie niece calling the mail "the post." If I have to hear "Which way to the loo?" piped out one more time in a cultivated Wellesley-girl accent, I shall certainly swoon. They're almost as bad as their hubbies, in the yacht-club polo shirts and the boat shoes with no socks, talking about going to "the head." You're on dry land, commodore -- the john is over there.

I wonder if there are annoying British women who honk out "Which way to the can?"

 

[tonyb]

I'm so tired of a certain type of bourgie American woman who will go out of her way to use Britishisms in her language especially when it's done in an oh-so-self-conscious way, like my wanna-be-bourgie niece calling the mail "the post." If I have to hear "Which way to the loo?" piped out one more time in a cultivated Wellesley-girl accent, I shall certainly swoon. They're almost as bad as their hubbies, in the yacht-club polo shirts and the boat shoes with no socks, talking about going to "the head." You're on dry land, commodore -- the john is over there.

I wonder if there are annoying British women who honk out "Which way to the can?"

There's a precious scene in "A River Runs Through It" (the novella, not that unfortunate film adaptation) wherein the phony city-slicker relative in the tennis sweater gets introduced to the ways of men in the Big Sky Country.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm so tired of a certain type of bourgie American woman who will go out of her way to use Britishisms in her language especially when it's done in an oh-so-self-conscious way, like my wanna-be-bourgie niece calling the mail "the post." If I have to hear "Which way to the loo?" piped out one more time in a cultivated Wellesley-girl accent, I shall certainly swoon. They're almost as bad as their hubbies, in the yacht-club polo shirts and the boat shoes with no socks, talking about going to "the head." You're on dry land, commodore -- the john is over there.

I wonder if there are annoying British women who honk out "Which way to the can?"

Years ago, after a co-worker came back form a vacation in the UK, she sprinkled in works like "tube" for subway and "flat" for apartment - it was so stupid sounding.

 

[Fading Fast]

It drives me nuts that when I call a company and push 2 then 7 then 9 etc. - after having to hear that "our menu has changed" (really doubt it) and having to listen to a bunch of options to push all those buttons (and lose all that time) - to then be waiting on hold to be told, in a booming voice that repeats every thirty or so seconds - and that makes it hard for me to work while on hold - that "did you know, you can get answers to many of your question on line at our website at www.stopcallingus.com."

My God, the internet is not new - it's been around for twenty plus years and all but the smallest of companies have had a website for years and the big ones for fifteen or more years. Two types of people are calling you, (1) those like me who have tried the website ('cause they have no desire to be beaten up by your phone-tree moat), but can't find their answer and need to talk to someone or (2) those like my 85 year old mother who will (literally) die before she uses the internet for all but the simplest of things.

It's insulting and obnoxious to treat those who call in like idiots who don't know that the internet was invented or that you or Walmart or Con Edison has a website. To be balanced, the stupid government does this too.

 

[Zombie_61]

It drives me nuts that when I call a company and push 2 then 7 then 9 etc. - after having to hear that "our menu has changed" (really doubt it) and having to listen to a bunch of options to push all those buttons (and lose all that time) - to then be waiting on hold to be told, in a booming voice that repeats every thirty or so seconds - and that makes it hard for me to work while on hold - that "did you know, you can get answers to many of your question on line at our website at www.stopcallingus.com."

My God, the internet is not new - it's been around for twenty plus years and all but the smallest of companies have had a website for years and the big ones for fifteen or more years. Two types of people are calling you, (1) those like me who have tried the website ('cause they have no desire to be beaten up by your phone-tree moat), but can't find their answer and need to talk to someone or (2) those like my 85 year old mother who will (literally) die before she uses the internet for all but the simplest of things.

It's insulting and obnoxious to treat those who call in like idiots who don't know that the internet was invented or that you or Walmart or Con Edison has a website. To be balanced, the stupid government does this too.

It's even worse when you hear this recording when you're calling your Internet Service Provider because you can't get online.

With regards to having to deal with those menus, this is by no means a complete list but it's a good start. At the very least, as soon as you hear that recorded voice try pressing the "zero" button; that'll bypass those menus sometimes.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's even worse when you hear this recording when you're calling your Internet Service Provider because you can't get online.

With regards to having to deal with those menus, this is by no means a complete list but it's a good start. At the very least, as soon as you hear that recorded voice try pressing the "zero" button; that'll bypass those menus sometimes.

I've noticed that, today, many companies in their infinitely disaffecting wisdom have been moving away from using zero as the option that gets you to a live person as many now seem to assign a number other than zero for the live-person option and, of course, only reveal that information after you've been forced to listened to their entire stupid menu.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"Your call is very important to us (that's why we don't hire enough people to answer your questions so that you have to wait on hold for fifteen minutes while we tell you over and over how important your call is.)"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Coca-Cola New England has recently closed its regional sales offices and consolidated all ordering into a call center located, I assume from the sorghum accents of the employees, somewhere in the very deep South. Since this happened in August, every single order I've placed for product has been either late or wrong, and several times I've had to call the warehouse direct to try and get the situation sorted out.

Coke was always a company with impeccable service for its wholesale accounts -- going to back to the days when I was ordering stuff for our gas station forty years ago, I had never had any trouble whatsoever with them. The staff were local people, who knew the customers by name, and knew what we ordered and when we needed it. Now, it's a battle every time I try to get my fountain syrup, my bottled water, and my paper cups. As much as I don't like Pepsi, I'd threaten to take our business to them, except according to what I hear their service is just as remote and inept.

 

[Bamaboots]

sorghum accents

That's one I haven't heard in awhile, Lizzie. Probably centralizing things in Atlanta where the home office is.

 

[Fading Fast]

Coca-Cola New England has recently closed its regional sales offices and consolidated all ordering into a call center located, I assume from the sorghum accents of the employees, somewhere in the very deep South. Since this happened in August, every single order I've placed for product has been either late or wrong, and several times I've had to call the warehouse direct to try and get the situation sorted out.

Coke was always a company with impeccable service for its wholesale accounts -- going to back to the days when I was ordering stuff for our gas station forty years ago, I had never had any trouble whatsoever with them. The staff were local people, who knew the customers by name, and knew what we ordered and when we needed it. Now, it's a battle every time I try to get my fountain syrup, my bottled water, and my paper cups. As much as I don't like Pepsi, I'd threaten to take our business to them, except according to what I hear their service is just as remote and inept.

IMHO, this is classic "our business is shrinking so let's cut costs by 'consolidating' our fill-in-the-blank area" strategy. When business is good / growing / dominating - money will be spent to "perfect" it as the focus is on selling more, keeping it growing or dominating, but when the needles start pointing down, "cost cutting" becomes the mantra at too many businesses.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had no idea until recently that Coca-Cola New England is actually owned, thru an interlocking nest of subsidiaries, by a conglomerate in Japan. We've come a long way from the days of "your friendly local Coca-Cola bottler."