Pet peeve – automated phone customer service

I absolutely detest those automated customer service phone systems that ask you to speak your responses and then don’t understand you. This is even more ridiculous than the automated systems where you have to keep on pushing buttons. At least those systems make no pretense of being “human.” And it gets even worse when speak [...]

Pet peeve – math errors involving percentages

I hate it when someone sees that an item is 10% off, then there is another 20% off, and concludes that the item is 30% off the original price. The item is actually 28% off the original price – if the original price is X, then the sale price is (1- 0.10)(1-0.20)X, which comes to [...]

Pet peeve – companies giving preference to new customers

It’s really annoying when I see magazines that I subscribe to offer free gifts to new subscribers and/or a lower subscription rate than existing subscribers get. The companies are so concerned with getting new customers, they forget about the existing ones. To be fair, this problem is not unique to the magazine industry.
I don’t remember [...]

Pet peeve – people who do nothing except badmouth McCain or Obama

I spend a lot of time on the social networking services Twitter and Plurk. I don’t mind people who occasionally talk about McCain vs Obama, but I am getting really annoyed with people who do nothing except badmouth McCain or Obama (mostly McCain.) I am definitely voting for Obama, but this is way too much [...]

Pet peeve – sales clerk answering the phone while helping you

I am really annoyed when I am paying for something and then the sales clerk answers the phone. This is a universal phenomeon. I am assuming that the reason that they do this is because they don’t want to lose a potential sale. This is faulty logic. The phone caller is a potential sale, while [...]

Pet peeve – blogs and websites that autoplay music or videos

As a general rule, I am not a fan of blogs or websites that  autoplay music or video. If I don’t like what is autoplaying, it is likely that I will never visit the site again. However, some of my favorite blogs do have autoplaying music or video. SinceI am not going to quit visiting [...]

Pet peeve – people who are offended by certain words

I am really annoyed by people who say that people shouldn’t use certain words (e.g. “shit” and “fuck”) – and I am really really annoyed when they say that people shouldn’t use those words because there are women present.
I strongly feel that a word is merely a collection of letters, and that unless the meaning [...]

Pet peeve – people who don’t bother to read

It is so annoying when you are reading a discussion thread in a (tech) support forum, and then someone repeats the original question which has already been answered several times. It’s times like these when I wish that there was a license needed to access the Internet…

Pet peeve regarding people who don’t leave messages on voicemail

I am somewhat annoyed when people decide NOT to leave a message on my voicemail AFTER the entire message has played, ensuring that I have a voicemail where the only audible sound is that person hanging up. This wastes a good 15 seconds of my life  If you are not going to leave me a message, [...]

pEt PeEvE

wHy On EaRtH dO pEoPlE dO tHiS? dOn’T tHeY rEaLiZe ThAt It Is EvEn MoRe AnNoYiNg ThAn ALL CAPS?
If they type in texting language, they could at least use the excuse that it requires less work. However, this “style” requires MORE work than typing normally.
I wonder if the people who do this on online [...]