So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Zombie_61]

And of course there's Anthony's Law of the Workshop: "Any tool, when dropped, will roll into the least accessible corner of the workshop." And it's corollary: "On the way to the corner, any dropped tool will first strike your toes."

 

[GHT]

And my corollary: Murphy was an optimist.

As in, he lost $200 on a horse race. $100 on the race and a second $100 on the replay. Forever the optimist.

 

[Fading Fast]

On some websites - Amazon, Walmart and Seamless all do it - when you go to "your cart" and then click to purchase, you begin a series of steps to complete your purchase - fill in your address, shipping choice, payment method, etc. So far, so good, but have you noticed that you can't easily click back to the main website? It's odd, but it's like you're locked in the "purchase" process.

You are unable to swipe back out of the purchase process and the back button on your browser also won't take you out of the purchase process. I find I have to put the company's website address in the web browser to get out of the purchase process and back to the regular website.

If I'm guessing correctly, it's just more obnoxious behavior where someone in the company has learned (probably based on some consultant's study since several large companies are doing the exact same thing) that if you can "keep" your customer in the purchase process and make it harder for them to return to the regular website, the client is more likely to complete the purchase.

This is such a great example of (1) short-term thinking and (2) not valuing your customers and not respecting them. Trying to bully your customer into completing a purchase will only turn them off to your company and create ill will. How is that a good thing? Sure, it might help get some more immediate sales today, but the damage done is long-term and hidden because the customers who are turned off to your company by this crass grab for money don't (in most cases) let you know that, they just don't come back or buy less or buy less frequently.

Have others noticed this?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. The sooner they load Bezos into a rocket and shoot him into space, never to return, the better.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Yep. The sooner they load Bezos into a rocket and shoot him into space, never to return, the better.

I have several people in mind for that, or that one way mission to Mars, but if I start naming them I might get banned from this lovely website. Definitely don't want to.

 

[MisterCairo]

There speaks someone from a country with the province of Quebec in his country. Did you know that The French use the term pound in weight form? Une livre is half a kilo, but they don't ask for half a kilo, it's une livre.

Canada is bilingual in oh so many ways. The Quebec franco curiosity as above.

Then, though we are officially metric, we can label products with both measurements, advertise price per unit of weight in both ("may I have half a pound of shaved turkey please?"), buy beer by the pint, butter by the pound (454g), gas and milk by the litre, have speeds in kms/h, talk about how hot it will be today (30, 35 with the humidex), wonder if we'll lose five pounds before bathing suit season, wonder if someone is six foot three or four inches, and dream of the 3500 sq ft house on a 100 acre farm.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

And of course there's Anthony's Law of the Workshop: "Any tool, when dropped, will roll into the least accessible corner of the workshop." And it's corollary: "On the way to the corner, any dropped tool will first strike your toes."

My auto shop vocational teacher told me that that is because of gremlins.

 

[MisterCairo]

Midges.

 

[3fingers]

Stores that force you to enter on the left.
Here at least, we were trained from kindergarten on to walk down the hallway on the right, enter or exit double doors on the right, etc. A few years ago I noticed new stores were reversing that ingrained system and setting up traffic flow to enter/exit on the left. I see more jamups and people bumping in to each other trying to come and go than I see any benefit to this.

 

[Fading Fast]

The insanity of being ask "to post a review," "tell us what you think," "how was your experience," "please take a brief survey," etc., after nearly every purchase or service sector encounter. Since we do most of our day-to-day shopping on line, we could spend all our free time responding to these requests, which of course, are all just a way for the company to get you to do work for them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

1. "You stink."
2. "I think you stink."
3. "My experience stunk."
4. "Please take a brief flying leap into the middle of Lake Stink."

 

[MisterCairo]

Not sure if this has been raised, but have others had the "experience" of paying for your purchase, and being asked by the cashier if you'd like to make a donation of $2 or some other pre-determined amount that they have a universal price bar code for, for insert charity here, so you feel like a jerk when you say no thanks? because you literally gave at the office already?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Not sure if this has been raised, but have others had the "experience" of paying for your purchase, and being asked by the cashier if you'd like to make a donation of $2 or some other pre-determined amount that they have a universal price bar code for, for insert charity here, so you feel like a jerk when you say no thanks? because you literally gave at the office already?

I heard an analogy for this a while back. I have 100 candy bars & you have 3 candy bars. I tell you to donate 1 candy bar while I donate 0. This is how I feel when a celebrity or a store asks me to donate to a cause.

 

[Fading Fast]

Not sure if this has been raised, but have others had the "experience" of paying for your purchase, and being asked by the cashier if you'd like to make a donation of $2 or some other pre-determined amount that they have a universal price bar code for, for insert charity here, so you feel like a jerk when you say no thanks? because you literally gave at the office already?

I feel like Lizzie does with some things when this happens as my blood starts to boil because it is obnoxious and highly manipulative to make you feel bad about not randomly giving your money away during a store purchase all so that the store / company can give off an aura of charity and caring while, not insignificantly, using your donation (usually along with a company match) to inflate its "we raised X for this or that charity" bleating. The "cash-register" charity thing has grown along - and not coincidentally - with the entire kids-building-their-resume-thorugh-charity thing.

 

[Fading Fast]

The "Moviepass" thing. How do they get off starting a business that requires theatres to cooperate without even asking if they want to be involved? And then when something goes wrong with the card or the transaction won't go thru, we have to take the blame. Nuts to that.

From MarketWatch

MoviePass majority owner Helios & Matheson's stock jumps 40% on heavy volume

Published: June 29, 2018 2:53 p.m. ET

By EMILYBARY

Shares of Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc. HMNY, +43.89% soared more than 40% in Friday trading, marking the stock's best single-day performance this year. The stock is the most active on the Nasdaq in Friday's session. Helios & Matheson issued several financial updates in filings during the week, which led to volatility in its stock price. On Friday, the company said it had entered into agreements to exchange shares of common stock for warrants to buy fewer shares, based on a ratio of 0.85 exchange shares per warrant share. Earlier in the week, The company said it had issued $164 million in convertible notes, causing HMNY stock to drop. Shares are down 95% so far this year as the company faces steep losses due to usage of its MoviePass program and the costs of buying movie tickets in conjunction with that service. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.55% has gained 2.3% so far in 2018.​

I am still very comfortable with my call of the company being gone in six months. The above all looks to me like death-rattle financial chicanery (legal balance sheet and capital structure prestidigitation) to keep the company afloat maybe for a last-ditch effort to sell it for something (anything ) to somebody (anybody).

 

[tonyb]

A “customer satisfaction” survey from a business that sells what is called (with a straight face) “durable medical equipment” arrived in our mailbox a couple days ago.

Maybe it’s my paranoid imagination working overtime, but I can’t see how telling these people how satisfied we are with their product and service will be to our advantage if at some point down the road it turns out that this equipment is not quite as durable as advertised.

 

[Zombie_61]

The insanity of being ask "to post a review," "tell us what you think," "how was your experience," "please take a brief survey," etc., after nearly every purchase or service sector encounter. Since we do most of our day-to-day shopping on line, we could spend all our free time responding to these requests, which of course, are all just a way for the company to get you to do work for them.

This is one of several reasons I usually leave my cell phone in my truck. On those rare occasions when I bring it into any store or facility with me, nine times out of ten I've left the facility and am still walking through the parking lot towards my truck when I receive a text from that facility requesting an immediate review. I know someone somewhere is constantly tracking each and every one of us as we go about our daily business and that these damned cell phones make it easier for them to do that, but I don't need to be near-constantly reminded of it. If I have any complaints, you'll hear them. Otherwise, leave me alone and assume I was "satisfied with my experience."

 

[Fading Fast]

This is one of several reasons I usually leave my cell phone in my truck. On those rare occasions when I bring it into any store or facility with me, nine times out of ten I've left the facility and am still walking through the parking lot towards my truck when I receive a text from that facility requesting an immediate review. I know someone somewhere is constantly tracking each and every one of us as we go about our daily business and that these damned cell phones make it easier for them to do that, but I don't need to be near-constantly reminded of it. If I have any complaints, you'll hear them. Otherwise, leave me alone and assume I was "satisfied with my experience."

As you know, it's not even about caring if you're individually satisfied, it all about getting free market research done by each one of us. That's why, almost always, they offer you the option of sending in your feedback anonymously - they don't care at all about you individually, they only care about what the aggregated data can tell them about their model. Just as companies have turned us into their unpaid phone operators by having us "push one for...," they've turned us into their free poll takers with "tell us about your experience...."

 

[ChrisB]

People who hold up the check out line for 10 minutes while they argue about a coupon.

 

[3fingers]

People who hold up the check out line for 10 minutes while they argue about a coupon.

There needs to be enforced rules posted at checkout counters everywhere.
1.Have your payment method ready
2. Get your loyalty card out now.
3. If you have coupons have them sorted and ready to present to the checker.
4. If your coupon is rejected get over it and move out of the way.
5. Don't be an ass in the checkout line.
6. If you do not comply with the above you will be immediately ejected from the line to allow other less inconsiderate customers to advance.
Have a nice day.