Sierra Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 It's a very rare person who doesn't have their idiotic side. My own is probably the one which manifests itself on SF, getting into petty and interminable slanging matches with people who wind me up. What a waste of time and energy, but once I get that bit between my teeth.... I have one friend who has fantastic inter-personal skills and is very well judged in his general approach to people and issues etc. But when it comes to doing anything manual, he almost seems to take pride in his seemingly cultivated lack of apptitude, and chaotic, slap dash approach which makes everything twice as hard. It's almost like it's beneath him to waste even a little bit of his brain power on such banality. Anyone who didn't know him and saw him doing manual work might easily mistake him for an idiot. Bering an idiot about financial matters is one thing you won't get away with, though. It is up there with being a social skills idiot as something which can have dire and lasting consequences. Most other forms of idiocy are dealable with, so long as there's something to compensate. But donkey, don't you miss our little fights? I think you hit the nail on the head and this is exactly what I meant to say. In a fun, "I can't stand you and your crap attitude another minute' sort of way. I've met women like your mechanically inept friend. They have a 'household account" that the husband puts money in. Only, they're always in trouble with the spouse because they keep overdrawing the account. And like your friend, they are proud! Are you kidding? You're paying overdraft charges? For groceries and household junk?!! And I say nothing, because I know down to the penny exactly how much money we have. I bicker with the accountant come tax time over what we can deduct and what we can't. I'm the one who signs us up for those cash back things because we're paying the electric bill anyway, might as well get something back for it and every little bit adds up! I hope people in England are more fiscally responsible, because it's pretty bad over here. No wonder California is broke. People walk from their financial obligations and don't even have the wherewithal to feel bad about it. I had neighbors who own a thriving restaurant. They lived in their house for TWO YEARS without making a payment, before the overwhelmed bank got around to throwing them out. They run to advisors and attorneys to find legal loopholes to screw someone else out of the money they owe them! Money someone else needs to pay their bills and keep their business open! Most of these people have money for what THEY want to have money for. With the exception of having to move, their lives continue pretty much as before. The nice cars, eating out. Vacations. They drink, they smoke, they get their nails done. They spend hundreds in salons, and shopping? With coupons? Umm, no. They buy their groceries in stores with spotless floors and mini computers on the carts. It's like with children. When my kids were small and money was tight, they got a new pair of shoes before we did. It's just what you do. People say, "well, the value of the house was going down, so...we just stopped making the payments!" I'm standing there, giving them the stinkeye. "I guess you'll be moving soon." "No, we're still living there." Oh Gawd. Where are those happy pills the dentist gave me?! I fear this horrible, entitled "gimmee" attitude is spreading, as most American things do. Some of it is good, and some of it I don't understand because it's awful. And for that, I sincerely apologize. Thank you all for listening. As I told Draggle, you all are cheaper than a therapist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donkey Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I fear this horrible, entitled "gimmee" attitude is spreading, as most American things do. Some of it is good, and some of it I don't understand because it's awful. And for that, I sincerely apologize. Thank you all for listening. As I told Draggle, you all are cheaper than a therapist. You could be right there. Motor insurance premiums have leapt up about 30% just since last year as a direct resilt of parasitical lawyers on the TV actively encouraging people to make claims for anything and everything. Nobnody I know wants this litigation culture.Most people see it as another step towards becoming a less civilised and cohesive society. But the politicians and lawmakers seem to have insidiously drifted towards an attitude that if somebody somewhere is making a lot of money out of something without technically breaking the law, don't interfere. Another thing which has happened in the last ten or fifteen years (I don't know if this originated in the US) is that most the utilities companies have adopted a system where they are super efficient at getting the money out of you in record time, but if something goes wrong - like they take money from your account they aren't owed, or fail to provide you with the internet speed you have paid for - suddenly they go from being super efficent to utterly inept. You are met with a wall of operatives who have clearly not been trained properly. They file a report and when you don't hear back from them and have to phone again, you get a different operative, who can't find the report and tells you something completely different to the first one. It is obviously deliberate, because they are clearly capable of great efficiency when it is in their interests. Again, this low level fraud has been uniformly tolerated by the politicians. But then we have them lecturing us about 'moral decay'. "Don't do what I do, do what I say." Is the clear message from all this. The 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' springs to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Utility Companies? Grrrrr ! I speak of my cable TV, landline and Internet provider. For 5 months they kept billing me for a cable box I had returned in exchange for a DVR. I returned the cable box via UPS so I know it reached it's destination okay. The customer service reps were useless. Kept promising they would investigate and get back to me. Never did but they kept billing me incorrectly. They did however give me credit for the overcharged amount and the problem was finally sorted out after 5 months. I have to wonder how these customer reps are trained to operate and what rules the employer require them to work under. I've come to the conclusion that they're required to answer so many calls an hour and if the problem cannot be resolved right away they just dump it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denlin Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Yep. I realized about 5 years ago that 99%+ of the UK population are irredeemable idiots. I'm in the -1%:hihi: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denlin Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Meow Sierra!. I wouldn't want to cross thou. Tha't reight there, sounds like someone committed suicide and this is their epitaph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sccsux Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Once again they visit me and bring in an atmos you could cut with a knife. That'll be the cheap and tacky plastic that's at fault there. Yep, thats why we all like you Sierra Speak for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sierra Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Speak for yourself. Oh good Lord. Why has someone always got to be the turd in the punch bowl? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sierra Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 You could be right there. Motor insurance premiums have leapt up about 30% just since last year as a direct resilt of parasitical lawyers on the TV actively encouraging people to make claims for anything and everything. Nobnody I know wants this litigation culture.Most people see it as another step towards becoming a less civilised and cohesive society. But the politicians and lawmakers seem to have insidiously drifted towards an attitude that if somebody somewhere is making a lot of money out of something without technically breaking the law, don't interfere. Another thing which has happened in the last ten or fifteen years (I don't know if this originated in the US) is that most the utilities companies have adopted a system where they are super efficient at getting the money out of you in record time, but if something goes wrong - like they take money from your account they aren't owed, or fail to provide you with the internet speed you have paid for - suddenly they go from being super efficent to utterly inept. You are met with a wall of operatives who have clearly not been trained properly. They file a report and when you don't hear back from them and have to phone again, you get a different operative, who can't find the report and tells you something completely different to the first one. It is obviously deliberate, because they are clearly capable of great efficiency when it is in their interests. Again, this low level fraud has been uniformly tolerated by the politicians. But then we have them lecturing us about 'moral decay'. "Don't do what I do, do what I say." Is the clear message from all this. The 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' springs to mind. Lawsuits here are out of control. And inefficient? I hear 'ya. Sort of like the old joke about complaining to the phone company, and their reply is, "you get your bill every month, don't you?!" Bank of America (who I've always avoided like the plague) has started to charge their customers to access their own money. They remind me of the scene in Caddyshack where the two kids get into a fight over the price of a Coke. One demands an explanation. The other tells him the guy who runs the place has raised the prices because he's been losing at the track. B of A has been losing at the track and now they want their customers to bail them out. Again. Class Action Lawsuits are all the rage here. A law firm sues on behalf of oh, 5,000 plaintiffs. It could be anything, diet pills that didn't work, faulty taco container design, anything. They shake down the manufacturer, business, etc. for a few million, distribute $50,000 in awards (all plaintiffs get $10 each) and keep the lions share for themselves. It stinks, and of course the cost gets passed on to us consumers. I hope this doesn't catch on where you are, but I fear it probably will if there's money in it. Maybe English law will prevent the worst of it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sierra Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 Utility Companies? Grrrrr ! I speak of my cable TV, landline and Internet provider. For 5 months they kept billing me for a cable box I had returned in exchange for a DVR. I returned the cable box via UPS so I know it reached it's destination okay. The customer service reps were useless. Kept promising they would investigate and get back to me. Never did but they kept billing me incorrectly. They did however give me credit for the overcharged amount and the problem was finally sorted out after 5 months. I have to wonder how these customer reps are trained to operate and what rules the employer require them to work under. I've come to the conclusion that they're required to answer so many calls an hour and if the problem cannot be resolved right away they just dump it Comcast, Harley? Or At&T? Although *&^$%* Direct TV LIED to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harleyman Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Oh good Lord. Why has someone always got to be the turd in the punch bowl? Dont bother your head about him Sierra. He's only happy when he's bellyaching about Israelis and Americans. Hates em both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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