What Irked You Today?

[High octane]

Well, it wasn't today, but I had a funeral on my list of things to do so just getting around to this. Found out officially on Friday.

The job I was supposed to start on Tuesday is going to be another two weeks at least. Paperwork/background check stuff not done on time. Not my fault, the company that does this stuff for the hiring company is known for delays. The hiring company apparently only starts new people every other week, so no chance of starting earlier.

Wish the agency had told me this upfront, now I am just hoping that the hiring manager doesn't dump me. I was really counting on starting this week.

Russ

Good luck to you Russ, as I know from experience that getting a job and actually starting a job can be frustrating.

[waynehulsey]

This was yesterday, but needed to get the blood pressure down. Ran by the credit union to deposit a check and get a little spending money back from it. Then the teller asked me if I wanted to make a car payment (loan through them) since it was due on the 2nd. Told her I'd already made it and had made the October payment also. Was told no their rules don't allow early payments and I was now late on my Sep payment. I replied I send them in with the appropriate coupon for the months I was paying and were did it say on the coupon that I couldn't send them early and why the hell did I have a coupon booklet if I couldn't make payments with it?!? Was told you'll need to talk to a service rep so I'll put you on the list for one. So what was going to be maybe 10 minutes running in and cashing a check turned into an hour waiting to try and clear this up. Anyway was told that was their policy on all loans, the other payments were put against the principal and if I made September's payment now they'd waive the late fee. Then I asked about October since I'd already send it in. Was told I'd need to come in and do it across the counter since I didn't have a payment coupon. So I asked what the payoff amount was. I can cover it so am thinking about it just to get rid of it. This place's customer service had just when downhill over the last couple of years: closing local branches, fewer tellers, trying to force everything on-line or to your smart phone (which I don't have, can barely use the flip phone I have). Do have another accounts, but they're with Wells Fargo and all their BS has been on the national news the last few months. To quote an old, long time friend, "I'm glad I'm old and won't have to deal with this much more". And I'm more cynical and depressive them him.

[crazyjim]

Pay it off and be done with the scumbags.  You should save some money on interest too.

[espo]

This was yesterday, but needed to get the blood pressure down. Ran by the credit union to deposit a check and get a little spending money back from it. Then the teller asked me if I wanted to make a car payment (loan through them) since it was due on the 2nd. Told her I'd already made it and had made the October payment also. Was told no their rules don't allow early payments and I was now late on my Sep payment. I replied I send them in with the appropriate coupon for the months I was paying and were did it say on the coupon that I couldn't send them early and why the hell did I have a coupon booklet if I couldn't make payments with it?!? Was told you'll need to talk to a service rep so I'll put you on the list for one. So what was going to be maybe 10 minutes running in and cashing a check turned into an hour waiting to try and clear this up. Anyway was told that was their policy on all loans, the other payments were put against the principal and if I made September's payment now they'd waive the late fee. Then I asked about October since I'd already send it in. Was told I'd need to come in and do it across the counter since I didn't have a payment coupon. So I asked what the payoff amount was. I can cover it so am thinking about it just to get rid of it. This place's customer service had just when downhill over the last couple of years: closing local branches, fewer tellers, trying to force everything on-line or to your smart phone (which I don't have, can barely use the flip phone I have). Do have another accounts, but they're with Wells Fargo and all their BS has been on the national news the last few months. To quote an old, long time friend, "I'm glad I'm old and won't have to deal with this much more". And I'm more cynical and depressive them him.

I know what you mean about customer service in banking. They are saving money by not having employees and everyone gives up after arguing with a computer. What the CU failed to explain is what sounds like a Simple Interest  Loan. You would be required to make monthly payments on your loan, and any additional payments made between the scheduled payments are applied to the principal on your loan. They will charge interest based on the unpaid balance until the next payment is received. Any time in excess of the predetermined payment schedule, usually 30 days, is considered past due and a late charge will be applied. Mortgages  are also done in this way. With the old Add on interest loans you were able to make payments ahead of time and even skip a payment if you had paid ahead on you loan. Guess which way lenders make the most interest and income.

[waynehulsey]

David thanks for the explanation. In 4 lines you gave me a better explanation and more information then what the 30 minutes arguing with the customer service rep did. Guess the others including my mortgage were the old style since they were all at least 8 years ago. This was the car I had to buy in April to replace the one that got t-boned by hit and run driver that came through a stop sign on me. At the time all I was told was that I can pay it off early to save on interest. So to me that means as I get a little extra cash I make a payment, since as you mentioned about skipping a payment I considered this as a safety net in case some emergency came up. For another quote to paraphrase Bob Dylan: more people have been robbed with a fountain pen, then ever with a gun. 

[smhardesty]

I've got 26 diecast cars/trucks in 1/32 scale that I've been trying to trade or sale. I advertised them on a local Facebook garage sale page. I figure I've got just under $500 in the cars and I know I'll never get that much out of them. I have them advertised on that page at $225 or best offer. That's less than $9 each and that's a fair price. So this guy sends a message asking what brand they are. I replied that most of them are Signature Models, but there are a few other brands in there too. So he replies that he sells Signature Models cars for five bucks each. I fired right back and asked if those were mint condition Signatures and if so how many did he have because I knew a whole lot of guys on forums that would take every one he had at that price. No response. So I sent another message asking how many he had and indicated that I'd take every one he had for five bucks each. No response. MAN! That really jerks my string! We all know he probably doesn't have a single one for sale, and if he does he's not going to let them go for five bucks. All he had to do was say that my asking price was too high, or maybe make an offer less than I was asking. Why go to the trouble to "create" a lie? What purpose did it serve? Whatever happened to good, honest, dealing between two guys? And if he really did sell Signature Models, why didn't he know that mine were Signatures? There pretty easy to recognize.

By the way, for the guys that know that I don't, and won't, do Facebook, my wife does so I use her account to post stuff for sale.

[Ace-Garageguy]

...Whatever happened to good, honest, dealing between two guys?...

It still works when you have 2 good, honest guys.   

[smhardesty]

It still works when you have 2 good, honest guys.   

Yeah, but it keeps getting harder and harder to find that other guy.

[smhardesty]

Watching the coverage of Irma on TV and different websites is bringing up something that a few of my old storm chasing buddies and I just never figured out. Why is it that news reporters and meteorologists think they have to get out in the storm, stand in the flood water, stand in a foot of snow, etc, etc? I just saw a report on weather.com where some dingbat was standing on the seawall getting blasted by the 100+ mph winds. Why? Do they all think that we, as viewers, are so stupid we wouldn't be capable of looking at the palm trees bent over and the rain seemingly blowing horizontally and figuring out how bad the winds are? In my area we suffer from river flooding and every local TV station reporter has to don knee boots, and sometimes even hip boots, then walk out into the flood waters to report the flooding. Gee, I guess we're too stupid to realize there is significant flooding if we only see houses with flood waters up to the windows.

As a storm chaser I reported live information to the meteorologists at the NWS to aid in their decision making about storm warnings. I stayed in the truck unless I was on the outskirts of the storm where it was safe to exit the vehicle. Yes, I screwed up twice and got myself on a road where I was trapped by a tornado and ended up driving through it, but that sure was never by choice! The whole idea behind storm chasing is to follow, or parallel, the storm and make observations that help the NWS in warning residents in the path of the storm.

[Xingu]

My wife and I were saying the same thing this morning. If a reporter gets knocked off the seawall and into the water, he is as good as dead.

[espo]

Watching the coverage of Irma on TV and different websites is bringing up something that a few of my old storm chasing buddies and I just never figured out. Why is it that news reporters and meteorologists think they have to get out in the storm, stand in the flood water, stand in a foot of snow, etc, etc? I just saw a report on weather.com where some dingbat was standing on the seawall getting blasted by the 100+ mph winds. Why? Do they all think that we, as viewers, are so stupid we wouldn't be capable of looking at the palm trees bent over and the rain seemingly blowing horizontally and figuring out how bad the winds are? In my area we suffer from river flooding and every local TV station reporter has to don knee boots, and sometimes even hip boots, then walk out into the flood waters to report the flooding. Gee, I guess we're too stupid to realize there is significant flooding if we only see houses with flood waters up to the windows.

As a storm chaser I reported live information to the meteorologists at the NWS to aid in their decision making about storm warnings. I stayed in the truck unless I was on the outskirts of the storm where it was safe to exit the vehicle. Yes, I screwed up twice and got myself on a road where I was trapped by a tornado and ended up driving through it, but that sure was never by choice! The whole idea behind storm chasing is to follow, or parallel, the storm and make observations that help the NWS in warning residents in the path of the storm.

Also been watching the storm coverage. I think that sort of reporting will come to an end quickly when one of these guys get hit by some flying debris, "film at eleven" as they say.  

[bismarck]

There was a video posted some time back of a weather reporter getting CLOCKED by a flying road sign in mid broadcast. I think it was some time during last years storm season. 

[cobraman]

The wife and I went to see the movie "IT" yesterday. I am a sucker for anything by Stephen King. What irked me may have been my fault. What I did not know was the fact that this movie was not a complete story. It did not follow the book or TV movie in that it stopped where the story ends with the kids and does not follow through with the story as adults. It was over and Chapter One came on the screen. The next part of the story should be out in 2019. Maybe I should have known but I did not. Small irk perhaps for some but I was irked. Now this does not hold a candle with people that are in the path of the hurricane and are going through hell so maybe not worth mentioning but since I typed all this ......................

[Ace-Garageguy]

Watching the coverage of Irma on TV and different websites is bringing up something that a few of my old storm chasing buddies and I just never figured out. Why is it that news reporters and meteorologists think they have to get out in the storm, stand in the flood water, stand in a foot of snow, etc, etc?

News and weather are now nothing more than entertainment commodities packaged to grab market share and the ad revenue that goes with it. The more "OMG" moments they can contrive to put on the air, and the more false sense of drama they can create, the higher the ratings, the more each minute of advertising air time costs the advertisers. The first weather program to actually show somebody beheaded by flying debris will be the financial winner.

Oversimplified? Yeah, a little, but the amount of money earned for every minute of content is the name of the game. So you give people what they want to see: other people in potentially dangerous situations, destruction, fires, floods, riots, explosions...even if half of it's fake or pumped into unjustified-by-reality hysteria....and you'll draw viewers like flies to excrement. More viewers= more money. It's pretty simple, really.

 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[smhardesty]

The wife and I went to see the movie "IT" yesterday. I am a sucker for anything by Stephen King. What irked me may have been my fault. What I did not know was the fact that this movie was not a complete story. It did not follow the book or TV movie in that it stopped where the story ends with the kids and does not follow through with the story as adults. It was over and Chapter One came on the screen. The next part of the story should be out in 2019. Maybe I should have known but I did not. Small irk perhaps for some but I was irked. Now this does not hold a candle with people that are in the path of the hurricane and are going through hell so maybe not worth mentioning but since I typed all this ......................

Thanks for the heads up, Ray! I'm a Stephen King fan myself. I don't usually go to the theater to see a movie, but I might have made an exception for this. It is one of my favorite King movies, as evidenced by my Avatar. I would have been totally irked, myself!

[smhardesty]

News and weather are now nothing more than entertainment commodities packaged to grab market share and the ad revenue that goes with it. The more "OMG" moments they can contrive to put on the air, and the more false sense of drama they can create, the higher the ratings, the more each minute of advertising air time costs the advertisers. The first weather program to actually show somebody beheaded by flying debris will be the financial winner.

Oversimplified? Yeah, a little, but the amount of money earned for every minute of content is the name of the game. So you give people what they want to see: other people in potentially dangerous situations, destruction, fires, floods, riots, explosions...even if half of it's fake or pumped into unjustified-by-reality hysteria....and you'll draw viewers like flies to excrement. More viewers= more money. It's pretty simple, really.

 

 

You are dead on, Bill. I had a discussion with a buddy of mine about a year ago and we both agreed that's exactly what has happened to both the weather and the news. They even go so far as to use all sorts of "catch phrase" terminology in an attempt to grab your attention. I no longer watch the national news at all. Too much overstating and drama for me. And I usually only watch the weather on the local news. Even they have gone overboard on their news reporting. Sad, exaggerating news and weather to make a buck. Give me Walter Cronkite!

 

[iamsuperdan]

Here's the most irksome thing I have going right now.

I went to the grocery store and the sensors on the automatic doors are slow, so the doors didn't slide open fast enough. That caused me to have to slow down when walking out.

I hate that.

 

[cowboy rich]

My irke right now is that back in April I moved back to WA. state one of the biggest reasons being to get to spend more time with my dad that was going to retire next year. I saw him probably 6 times in this time frame and he passed away on 9/9/17....better be my last irke for awhile.?☹

[blunc]

My irke right now is that back in April I moved back to WA. state one of the biggest reasons being to get to spend more time with my dad that was going to retire next year. I saw him probably 6 times in this time frame and he passed away on 9/9/17....better be my last irke for awhile.?☹

My condolences on your father's passing, Celebrate his life well.

[KWT]

My irke right now is that back in April I moved back to WA. state one of the biggest reasons being to get to spend more time with my dad that was going to retire next year. I saw him probably 6 times in this time frame and he passed away on 9/9/17....better be my last irke for awhile.?☹

My condolences to you and yours.

[High octane]

My condolences to you and yours.

Sorry to hear of your fathers passing, and you have my condolences as well. Remember the good times with him.

[crazyjim]

Sorry to hear about the passing of your Dad, Rich.

[HomerS]

Found at a local thrift store....

For several year now, most of the local Goodwills have been pricing stuff at close to what you can buy new for and now one of the other thrift stores is following suit.  While I understand they want to maximize what they get, what they get was free and needs to be priced realistically.  I usually donate any nascar kits I get to area church rummage sales.  Let some kid build it and grab for a buck or two.

[Tom Geiger]

 

 

Wow! Bent up box and all.  I've never seen anything priced at over $5 at my local store.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

Windows updates that cause oddball problems, and touchpads that work whenever they damm well please.

All things I can fix, but it always seems like I'm doing somebody else's work, for free.