Things that piss me off

Why is it that when you have to email a company's customer service staff, that no matter how much you try to simply exactly what you're complaining about, the reply back always seems to fixate on the least important part of your issue, ignoring the central theme, and giving a totally irrelevant form letter in response?

I don't think I've been able to resolve anything meaningful lately in less than 3 emails from me to clarify the question and question their answers. But it's still easier than trying to get someone on the phone that can understand and speak English...

It's summer time, and the family is hitting the road more often than usual. And one of the great joys of travel is the joy of using public restrooms. Yes, people are slobs, and as near as I can tell both genders are equally guilty, but my biggest gripe is with the idiots that mount the toilet paper dispensers.

I am painfully aware of the Americans with Disabilities Act, being 6' tall and having an intermittently bad back, it's such a joy having to bend over to wash my hands at child level sinks, but for the life of me I cannot understand why the toilet paper dispensers are mounted at the lowest possible height allowed by law (19"). This is especially frustrating considering that most commercial toilets are at least 16" or higher, and invariably the dispenser is mounted right next to the toilet itself, not a few inches in front, so that you practically have to get up and turn around to get a handfull of paper. Also fun are the dispensers that are mounted below (!) the level of the toilet, these are usually found in stalls that are so small you practically have to stand on the toilet to close the door behind you, so if you don't grab the TP before sitting down, you might as well forget the whole thing.

Those double roll dispensers are nice, allowing restroom cleaning staff to avoid the chore for much longer periods of time, and are usually mounted a bit further out, but provide different challenges. When mounted too low, the paper is very difficult to grab, as it somehow always tears too far up, and you have to wedge your hand up in the dispenser to try to spin the roll around.

This isn't just a challenge for adults, kids have issues too. I've seen kids fall off the potty while fishing for TP, always good for a few snickers from the adults that witness this, but terribly embarrassing if you happen to be the parent of the unfortunate youngster.

Just got back from a moderately entertaining cruise, sailing out of the Port of Galveston (Texas). Getting through the port and onto the boat wasn't all that bad, check in happened pretty quickly considering the crowd, and we were on board. Disembarking, though, was an entirely different horror story.

Boat returns at 8 something AM, and passengers were supposed to start disembarking shortly after 9 for those carrying their own bags, and around 9:30 for the rest of us having our bags offloaded for us. Well after 9:30, folks finally start getting let off the boat. Over an hour later, the rest of us finally start moving along.

Imagine my surprise when I find out that after this huge wait, I round the corner and enter this huge warehouse type building about the size of a football field, and see the longest line I've ever come across winding back and forth across the building. And this includes the stupid crazy lines at most theme parks.

About half way through when I steal a glance at my cell phone (which we're supposed to not be using), I realize that by this point I had originally planned to be back in Austin. Another hour later, we finally clear the Customs checkpoint (1 of 8) and somehow get out with the last group, when there was easily about 150 folks behind us in the main line. We manage to catch the last bus back to the parking lot, and it's now just after 1pm.

To put this in perspective, a couple of years ago we had cruised out of Port Canaveral (Florida) and after leaving the boat it took all of 15 minutes to collect our luggage and pass through customs, and get across the street to our vehicle.

Normally, I've had great service from these folks, the occasional outages are a minor annoyance, but they can't be faulted when idiots ram the poles with their trucks and down lines. However...

A few weeks back, our new digital cable box stopped receiving channels above 20-something, so a quick call resulted in a box reset, and we were up and running in a few minutes. Fast forward to a few days ago, and our bill is now about $60 higher than it had been, and there's a mysterious charge for the prior month, apparently backdated to about the time our box was reset.

Two phone calls later, the truth comes out. It seems that when the box was reset, for some reason, our account got reset too, and we lost the promotional code that was on our account as of the end of December. So I ask for them to put the code back on and fix the bill, at which point I'm told that they can't override the system and put the code back.

But you already overrode the system, I point out, and do you're just fixing what was already overridden. My logic is lost on them, and a manager confirms that they can not now go back in to correct this. I then explain to them that in that case they will be getting their DVR boxes back, and I know exactly where to put them. The manager starts to get very defensive at this point, so I explain that I meant I was going to take them to their main office in town, what did he think I meant? Some mumbling later, and the call was done.

A short while later at the main office, DVR boxes, cables, and remotes in hand, the counter girl confirms that they can't put in the old promo code anymore, and unfortunately they have no current promos of comparable value, so I dump everything off with them.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before a salesweasel calls to sign me up again, this time I'll make sure to get the offer in writing...

I listen to the radio quite often in the car, and one thing that really bugs me are the morons that don't know how to use the phrase 'straight up', as in, it's straight up 12 o'clock, meaning that the hands on the clock are all pointing up.

Of course, when clock went digital and people forgot what those little hands meant, suddenly 'straight up' was any old hour of the day. Now it seems that this phrase must mean 'exactly', because I heard that it was 'straight up 5:30' on the drive home. But then, these are usually FM DJs, so I really don't expect a lot of intelligence out of them.

Cup problems continue... Today, we have a lid that is almost, but not quite, entirely the wrong size for the matching, and I use that term loosely, cup.

It looks like it fits, but looks are entirely deceiving. I demonstrate to the manager by tilting my drink sideways for her and spill soda on the counter as it drips from underneath the lid.

I suggest that she may wish to complain to her supplier, but the blank stare in her eyes leads me to believe that this would be slightly more futile than asking an elephant to take up basket weaving.

Nothing better than buying a large drink, grabbing a straw, and finding out that it's too short when you insert it all the way through the lid and it drops down into the drink. Again, management is no help. They seem to think that it's just fine if the straw can't reach the bottom of the cup.

Like the moron today at the local DQ too busy jamming on his own tunes to worry about getting my order right. I blame poor management, if he wants to listed to tunes, he should be doing it on his own time.

Simple theme... A running list of things I encounter during my day that bug me. I'll write them here, blow off some steam, and move on.