The First World Whinging Thread

Chat conversation with Amazon over an undelivered item:

Me: Yes, the item is marked as having been delivered on Tuesday 07 July but I never received it.
Assistant: Okay, I'm very sorry about that. Would you like a replacement or a refund?
Me: A replacement, please, but the item was a gift for a birthday, which is tomorrow *. Can you send it by express delivery to get here for tomorrow?
Assistant (after several minutes checking): No I'm afraid not. The delivery date is showing as Tuesday 14 July.
Me: But this was a Prime order. I expect more from my Prime membership.
Assistant: I understand your frustration.
Me (after checking the same item in another search): What about this? This is marked as 'Delivered by tomorrow' [provides link]
Assistant: No reply
Me: Or this. This is also marked for next day delivery [provides link]
Assistant: So, would you like a replacement or a refund?
Me: A refund.
Assistant: Okay I'll process that for you right away.

I end the conversation and place another order with guaranteed delivery by tomorrow.

*A lie

 

I can't imagine a whinge more fitting for this thread. In fact it's almost offensive, but I'm soooo tired of eating!! Apart from the fact buying food eats (ahem) away at money I could be spending on things far more exciting, the process bores me to tears! I'm sick to the back teeth of walking into my local Morrisons (I know that place better than I know my own home) to pick up bits and pieces, never knowing when I head over there was I want to buy anyway. Everything I want to buy and enjoy eating is too expensive so I always fall for this 'false economy' way of shopping by only buying enough for 2 or 3 meals. I can't get it into my thick skull that 7 day's worth of shopping for £50 would be far more economical that spending £10 every day.

 

I got a mosquito bite IN my ear. Isn’t that shit against the Geneva Convention?

 

I asked the exact same thing when I were a boy and pee'd in the bushes ( I was a long way from home annnnnd, it was the 90s ) I had unknowingly pee'd all over a wasp nest then got stung to holy hell and twice on the same nut. Worst day of my life. 12 stings if I remember rightly.

Turns out I started it so deserved it.

 

Oh my god I'm so sorry

 

Sometimes a boy gotta learn the hard way.

Just surprised I didn't mutate into The Wasp boy or some such.

That double tap on the nut though was savage.

 

I was peeing in a bush once during nocturnal outdoor drinking festivities and a 'buddy' thought it would be hilarious to shove me into the bush, which turned out to be thorns. Luckily I didn't snag anything important. But when I had painfully extracted myself I did chase him all around until I caught him, hoisted him up, and threw him in. He didn't think that part was so funny. The rest of us did.

 

Did you forget about peeing or finish up?

 

I don't remember!! Guess I was pretty drunk at the time.

 

It's not the subject that made me ugly laugh. It's the delivery.

Also, I don't have any peeing into a bush stories, but I did belly flop into a mud puddle running from a guy we'd tp'd. I was in my all black clothing stage at the time. Squished all the way back to the house where we were hanging out and I had to borrow towels for the ride home.

 

I mowed the front yard, and the weeds on the side of the house, but it’s too damn hot to hit the back yard right now. I’m gonna wait till it cools down later this evening.

 

Last night was my one night of "outside the apartment" work. It's actually a gig that requires a fair bit of travel as my life goes, so it resulted in two whinges.

First, when I was back home in February, I bought a pair of proper black Docs. I would have killed for those back in high school, but now that my generation has aged they can be considered within the eccentric range of professorial footwear. Wore them some in Chicago, but they've been in my shoe rack ever since.

Thought they were broken in.

In addition to the trains (more on that in a bit) this gig involves a ~30 minute walk each way from the train station to the actual place I teach. No buses, no taxis, just gotta hump your bookbag there, devil-dog.

The Docs weren't broken in.

My heels are now though.

Sigh.

Other whinge: I have to take two different train lines to get to that gig. Line A is one of the big, major intercity arteries in this part of Japan. Clockwork adjusts itself to the arrival of these trains as They. Run. On. Time.

Line B is a minor local line run by a different company/agency/whatever. And the train I need to take from the transfer station is carefully calibrated to, on my way home, let me get from Line B to Line A in time to catch the Line A train I need to get home so long as I move in an expeditious fashion. No bathroom breaks, no stops at the convenience store, just a good purposeful walk down the escalator, through the gates, across the concourse. through the other gates, back up a different escalator, and onto the train. Easy, peasy, dare I say it, Japanesey, right?

If frackin' Line B ever ran on time. It's always between a minute and a minute and a half late.

I can hear the Americans snorting and the Brits pissing themselves right now, but you just don't understand how messed-up that is. The trains I'm referring to aren't the famous shinkansen bullet trains, but the bullet trains have an average delay of 18-50 seconds. And that includes periods of natural disasters such as typhoons, landslides, and earthquakes.

So I walked half an hour with blisters growing on both heels, caught my Train which arrived a minute and a half late, took it to the transfer station to see Train A departing as we pulled in, hobbled over to the Train A platform and stood there in the heat and humidity for ten minutes because the coronavirus has closed the air-conditioned lounges for the duration, then took Train A the rest of the way home except for the walk from the station to my apartment, which is about 20 minutes.

At least it started raining before I was halfway home....

 

Having experience of both the Japanese and British rail systems, you are quite correct. I am pissing myself.

I never really paid attention to the timing of local trains there though. I was on the Biwako line in Kyoto on my way back from Sekigahara, and there were four foot snowdrifts, and the trains ran half an hour late.

Half an hour! In Britain, the first snowflake causes the train system to shut down. So yeah, I kind of sympathise... and not at the same time.

That time, I actually wanted to visit the battlefield but the snow was so thick, I didn't make it out of the trains station car park, which turned out to be all I saw of Sekigahara. I'd have made a damn poor scout.

 

Sounds like everywhere in Seattle. Even the freeway(highway) people
just stop and get out and walk home at the first sight of snow.

 

Opened the dishwasher to put some rinsed dishes in and saw a spinner arm lying across the bottom row of dishes. "Shit," I thought as I picked up the arm and another plastic piece, "this will be a minor repair that will cost an insane amount." I tried to put it back on the opening in the top, but it wouldn't work. So I put a sign on the dishwasher and resigned myself to getting it fixed on Monday. I took the dirty dishes out, since the wife insisted that she, not I, should wash them, because, well, I don't seem to do it to her standards.

Then I went downstairs to write, or try to, or pretend to.

After about half an hour I did a Google search on fallen dishwasher spinner arms, and found a simple fix, and an observation that some of the less-bright folks think it goes on that hole in the top, when it actually attaches to the bottom of the top rack. So I scurried back upstairs, where wife was just finishing the dishes. I opened the dishwasher and popped the piece back on. "Ta-da," I said, and told her what I had found. She said that if she had found the piece it would have been obvious to her (I wonder but you know how they are) and, anyway, why did I have to wait until after she did the dishes to find this out?

My whinge? What I should have done was waited until late tonight and shown it to her in the morning, yawning, and talking about, lying about, how long it took me and how complicated it was. No one but I would have known the truth. And I'd have added some cred.

 

I haven't had a dishwasher for twenty years. Guess if I had kids I might want one, but cleaning up for two just doesn't take enough time to worry about. Plus every damn dishwasher I've ever had required you to wash the dishes before you put them in which makes me wonder what the hell it's doing anyway.

 

Totally feeling everybody on the dish washer talk.

My dish washer is so bullshit it doesn't have a logo on the front.

Anyways I noticed a while back that it collects dirt/grime on the inside edge of the door. So I end up having to wash the dish washer when I coulda just washed the dishes myself.

 

It's not snow that's the main issue for British trains, it those damn leaves every autumn!

 

Husband and I roll up to the Tim Horton's drive through, and an automated attendant comes on. This is a new thing for this particular store. Of course, the husband is attempting to give it snark, and it rewards him by giving him only one of the two items he's ordered. So he needs to repeat the item so we receive the correct amount.

This AFTER he had driven away from three gas stations while we needed gas because he didn't like the way the service station accepted payment, didn't get to the payment. If they don't have a pinpad outside, he won't go in to pay... He has a mask and gloves if necessary, he's just an obstinant turd at times.

Anyhow, after the gas stations, and the Tim Horton's he's still nattering. I've married Archie Bunker. I swear to God.

He continues to go on and on. At which point I said "You know, you have so many complaints about every little thing, I have decided this is going to be our new occupation. Professional complainers. We'll just call up these companies you have complaints about and I'll waste my precious time."

His response. "Oh, you're saying I'm complaining too much again."

No ____ Sherlock.

"No dear, I'm really going to take notes and complain to all the companies when you don't like what they do."

 

I'd like to see one of those automated attendants. Is it like a robot? I'm with your husband about the gas stations. If I can't pay at the pump, I go somewhere else. Been a while since I've seen a station that made you come inside to pay, though.

ETA: All four of the Tim Horton stores in our metro area closed permanently this summer.

 

Nothing as interesting as a robot, its like the telephone voice which asks you to move through the prompts to get to a human. In this instance though, it takes your order. I don't mind it, if you speak clearly enough, you get what you order.

Unlike other times when I ask for a double-double from the human attendant and they come back with "So that was a large black, with a shot of espresso?" Or something dumb like "Would you like a tray?" When I've ordered four items at the counter and there's no one else with me. I've actually said. "No. I'll just juggle them." Then they just stand there processing it. As Bill Engvall, the comedian says "Here's your sign."

As to payment at the pump, driving away from one gas station, I can understand that. Two. Maybe, I can get on board. But three times? For varying reasons. The issue isn't the pump, its the user.

Sorry to hear your Timmies is closed. Here they installed plexiglass shields, and the workers wear masks and gloves. If it were up to me, we'd never go there. I can make several cups of coffee at home with the machine we have, in a reusable filter, and put my own 18% cream in it. I also never get my order wrong

Another first world whinge while I'm thinking of it. Who in their right mind spends two hundred dollars or more on beverages for their family? Us idiots. That's who. The husband got a bit cranky when I went through our bank statement and tallied up all the coffee and 7-11 trips we were making and then read the riot act since it's wasted money. I know he works hard and sees it as (pun intended) a perk for doing so, but I'm of the mindset "Why are we making someone else rich?"

I seem to be on a whinge roll today. Most people would be incredibly happy to have a couple of dollars they could put toward items they need. Some have lost their jobs, and I'm incredibly thankful my husband still has one.