The pet peeve thread

[Edman85]

People standing on escalators or not leaving room to the left for people to pass.

People who vape in your face as if that's not a bunch of toxic chemicals. (Smokers who do the same, but that's an obvious one)

On that topic, girls on the dating apps who vape who mark themselves as non-smokers.

[casimir]

12 hours ago, oblong said:

Because of family considerations it will probably never happen but I would love to spend a winter on the island. I watched a PBS doc on winter living and it seemed fascinating.  There’s a great Facebook page called Mackinac Island News and Views. The winter posts are my favorite. 

A winter in Mackinac Island or Put-In-Bay or Petee Island (Lake Erie) would be pretty interesting.

Did it freeze around Mackinac at all this winter?  I would imagine there’s a fair amount of snowmobile/ATV traffic from island to mainland during the heart of a normal winter.

[oblong]

6 hours ago, casimir said:

A winter in Mackinac Island or Put-In-Bay or Petee Island (Lake Erie) would be pretty interesting.

Did it freeze around Mackinac at all this winter?  I would imagine there’s a fair amount of snowmobile/ATV traffic from island to mainland during the heart of a normal winter.

Yes.  They mark the safe paths with trees. 

[chasfh]

On 7/5/2023 at 8:36 AM, oblong said:

My son got a ticket in Detroit.  He went to pay but the app was down and it said " System Maint No payment is required at this time".  He took a screenshot of the message. He got a ticket.  Car is in my name... I went through the process of appeal, sent the photo, explained it all, and they denied it.  I could appeal it in person.

What a racket.  They know doing that will deter people like me who just fork over the $35 or whatever it was. 

 

That’s what we get when they turn over this function to private companies. They are accountable only to their shareholders.

[chasfh]

When people working at stores, ballparks, etc. feel free to try to grab your phone when you show them something on it they need to see, like an ID or a ticket or something, and that goes double for when they get all offended and make passive-aggressive remarks when you pull it back and say that’s OK, I can hold it for you.

[chasfh]

I’m sure this will rise to the level of pet peeve as it becomes truly prevalent, but the new practice of businesses to charge an extra fee for you to use a credit card—in the case of the car wash this morning, 3.99%.

Two reasons:

• It’s a way for a business to skim even more money from customers. VISA does not charge 3.99% in fees. They charge, at most, 2.4% of the bill + 10 cents a swipe, and probably most times less than that. So in the case of a $19.99 car wash, that’s 48 cents plus 10 cents equals 58 cents extra in fees, and they just charged me 80 cents. So, for no other reason then they can, they skimmed an extra 22 cents from me on the transaction. That might seem like nothing,  but (a) it’s ethically wrong on its face, and (b) it’s free money for them for doing literally nothing more, even if it doesn’t add up to enough for them to buy a mansion and a yacht.
• It’s part of the same problem the concept of tips and taxes yields: they all work as hidden fees that the merchant does not have to show in the upfront price they promote. So, the car wash gets to promote the car wash as being $19.99 cheap, but in reality they charge an extra 10.25% in taxes and, now, an extra 80 cents for use of credit card. So the final cost ends up being $22.84, not $19.99 as advertised. Add in a 20% tip, and you’re walking out some $27 lighter, not, again, the $19.99 they get to promote. 

We’re used to it in America, but most of the first world sees merchants required to add taxes into the final cost as a GST, and tips are not a thing in many places. So what we see there is, whatever the cost is advertised at, that’s the final cost. It’s just a level of deception that we take granted in America that benefits merchants at the expense of consumers.

[oblong]

I bet they would also argue it's to help pay for the CC equipment and phone line and all that other jazz.... which again is a cost of doing business.  When I buy a pizza they don't say "Well it's an extra 25 cents because I had to buy a new door".

I would push back and say "Well the lack of physical money saves you time and risk from not having to deal with cash and going to the bank and being robbed, making mistakes, etc."

I had a low tire on Grosse Isle last week and the only gas station on the Island had a cool air feature.  IT's computerized, you tell it how much pressure you want and it stops automatically. And it took credit card. No fishing for quarters, who the hell has quarters anymore.

It was $2

 

 

 

 

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, chasfh said:

but the new practice of businesses to charge an extra fee for you to use a credit card—

TBF - some gas stations have been charging for credit purchase for as long as there have been crdit cards.

[chasfh]

9 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

TBF - some gas stations have been charging for credit purchase for as long as there have been crdit cards.

Only a small percentage of them, and I didn’t start seeing this outside of those few gas stations until maybe since COVID.

[gehringer_2]

2 minutes ago, oblong said:

only gas station on the Island had a cool air feature. 

so this isn't so much a peeve as "Well -- things change."  Back in the day they did auto, or at least tire, service at every gas station i.e. the 'Service Station.'  Every 'service' type gas station had a commercial air compressor for their tooling. And every commercial sized air compressor does a pretty good job of dropping the water out of the air in the holding tank so you get fairly dry air into your tires. 

The modern "convenience store with gas pumps" establishment likely does not have a commercial compressor -  just some kind of gadget on a pole with no holding tank, so you get wet air into your tires. After a number of years of being filled with wet air, alloy wheels develop enough surface roughness under the bead that they will begin to seep air. PITA.

You can buy a home compressor with a small tank, but tank compressors small enough to be portable, while better than tankless sources, don't do that good a job of dropping water either... 

 

[chasfh]

How the American healthcare system has become primarily a discount dispenser for healthy people.

I went to the dermatologist for my annual. The list price of the visit was $175. The cost to me was $101. So basically, the $1,300/month we are paying for health insurance got me a 42% discount on the visit. Since our annual deductible is up into the five figures, only a major health issue will allow us to get our insurance company to pay for anything beyond a negotiated discount for medical services.

The only real benefit of health insurance in America is as a hedge against really expensive diseases, and not even all of those qualify.

[chasfh]

@LaceyLou, I am interested in your perspective so I can understand why you disagree.

[LaceyLou]

26 minutes ago, chasfh said:

@LaceyLou, I am interested in your perspective so I can understand why you disagree.

I don't disagree, actually-the crying emoji is because I agree. 

I'm lucky to have a better than average health plan, and wish that more people had access to this kind of care. 

[gehringer_2]

Pet Peeve: the SAD EMOJI. It should be labled  "welp", or 'gulp", as something like that is closer to the emotion the graphic actually portrays.

[Edman85]

Does every girl who go sees the Barbie Movie have to take a picture wearing pink in whatever pose the Barbie pose is and blast it on social media?

[Edman85]

46 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Pet Peeve: the SAD EMOJI. It should be labled  "welp", or 'gulp", as something like that is closer to the emotion the graphic actually portrays.

[Hongbit]

5 hours ago, chasfh said:

How the American healthcare system has become primarily a discount dispenser for healthy people.

I went to the dermatologist for my annual. The list price of the visit was $175. The cost to me was $101. So basically, the $1,300/month we are paying for health insurance got me a 42% discount on the visit. Since our annual deductible is up into the five figures, only a major health issue will allow us to get our insurance company to pay for anything beyond a negotiated discount for medical services.

The only real benefit of health insurance in America is as a hedge against really expensive diseases, and not even all of those qualify.

It’s become such a racket.  I agree with everything you said and I’m also in the same boat.   $1200 a month and still paying bills at the doctors 

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, LaceyLou said:

I don't disagree, actually-the crying emoji is because I agree. 

I'm lucky to have a better than average health plan, and wish that more people had access to this kind of care. 

Thanks for clarifying. I was hoping that you weren’t upset by my clunky first paragraph which I wondered was being misinterpreted as humble-bragging about how healthy I am or something like that. Obviously not what I meant, but sometimes it’s hard to see eggshells.

[Deleterious]

Billion dollar corporations asking me to round up to the nearest dollar to donate to their charity fund.

[CMRivdogs]

I've been tempted to ask for a separate receipt for my 37 cent donation for tax purposes.

[oblong]

My son shared a peeve with me last night... He's 22.  He hates when people say things like "They could never make Blazing Saddles today".  I guess those people have never watched South Park.

[djhutch]

On 7/21/2023 at 11:57 PM, oblong said:

Because of family considerations it will probably never happen but I would love to spend a winter on the island. I watched a PBS doc on winter living and it seemed fascinating.  There’s a great Facebook page called Mackinac Island News and Views. The winter posts are my favorite. 

I would do that in a heartbeat

[oblong]

I start my work day at home and put on Fox 2 News and there's this strange sporting event on involving people from other countries that seemingly never ends.  WHen it's finally completed they spend 10 minutes showing me half the participants hugging and crying.  

 

 

 

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

strange sporting event on involving people from other countries that seemingly never ends.

test cricket?

3 hours ago, oblong said:

WHen it's finally completed they spend 10 minutes showing me half the participants hugging and crying.  

oh, probably not then.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Crazy Cat Gentleman

[Edman85]

Say you have group tickets to an event on the weekend, or a tee time e.g., and you are recruiting early in the week. Text the person and they say "I will let you know soon," but they take so long that it is too late to find anybody else once they say no. Part peeve, part pondering... At what point do you recruit over them?