Poorly made plastic rims on insulated coffee mugs. They’re insulated, they’re reusable, hence you’d think the manufacturer would realize we’re going to wash them once in a while.
Good luck not scratching yourself up on the craptastic molded plastic edge on the threads for the lid. I’ve had 3 different brands that all had rough edges inside. That’s just dumb.
[QUOTE=Mr Bus Guy]
A) That plasticky crap that never opens along the glued line so you have to rip it wide open.
[/QUOTE]
This is true of just about all bagged food now. And you used to be able to open it neatly along the seam. Don’t know why they thought we needed industrial strength glue along the seam.
Blister packs are evil.
[QUOTE=Mama Tiger]
And I had a blind friend who routinely would walk up to the drive-through ATM near her house.
[/QUOTE]
Isn’t that dangerous? And given how hard-assed fast food places are about not walking up to the drive-thru, I’m surprised the bank even allowed it.
[QUOTE=Leaper]
Isn’t that dangerous? And given how hard-assed fast food places are about not walking up to the drive-thru, I’m surprised the bank even allowed it.
[/QUOTE]
I know of at least two banks in my area (one of which is a branch of my bank) that only have drive through ATMs, and do, in fact, ask that you walk up to it if you’re on foot.
[QUOTE=Leaper]
Isn’t that dangerous? And given how hard-assed fast food places are about not walking up to the drive-thru, I’m surprised the bank even allowed it.
[/QUOTE]
How are they going to stop it? It’s an AUTOMATIC teller machine.
Incidentally, all the ATMs at my bank now have headphone jacks for use by visually impaired people.
Just to pitch into the ATM topic, another thing to consider is that the actual equipment used in drive through ATMs seems to be the exact same stuff used in hole-in-the-wall units; I doubt you’ll find someone at the factory is separating them out and saying “this one will be a drive through… this one will be a walk up…”
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink]
DVDs with several minutes of previews that start automatically when you put the DVD in the player, which disable the MENU key. Especially if they can’t be fast-forwarded through, either. (And especially especially for TV shows on DVD, where, unless I’m going to watch all the epsidoes on the disc at once, which I very seldom do, I have to sit through the previews before each individual episode I watch.)
There is simply no explanation for this that does not involve the DVD producer being Evil.
[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Also, the bloody lecture about piracy. Hey! I just BOUGHT your fucking DVD. Preach at someone else about piracy.
Litre cartons of juice with those bloody easy-open spouts that either fail to open properly, or open, but don’t pour cleanly. Implement it solidly, or not at all, please.
Please don’t tell me your company’s ham or bacon packaging it ‘peel and seal’. This NEVER works.
[QUOTE=Labelless]
Animal food bags. I understand the reasoning why the string has to be sturdy, but for the life of me, I can never get the bags open that way! I always end up with a pair of scissors, or worse, if I get it open just a little bit, I’ll try to tear it, then end up with a gaping hole and animal food all over the floor because the paper will tear before the string will let go.
Fuck it’s annoying!
And an Amen to plastic packaging as well.
[/QUOTE]
I second this. It seems every fucking bag of dog food or cat food has that dumb string and 90% of the time the string is to short on either end to get any kind of real grip on it to use it to open the bag.
Most of the time I don’t even try and just grab the scissors if I have to open one.
Another is cat food that come in boxes. They used to have a little metal spout that would open and close but some fuck watt wanting to save money decided to just create a little cardboard door. Not only does it not close properly but it is impossible to stop the flow of food with out it spilling all over the place.
I also hate the hard plastic coverings. I hate to admit it but I don’t even fuck with them. I just hand then over to the SO and he deals with it for me.
Last but not least are manufactures that put things in a “Ziploc type” resealable bags. First the “tear here” thingy does not “tear here”. It tears just a little and rips off. This forces you to get out the scissors to cut through the opening. You have to do this carefully as not to cut the “Ziploc” part which in the end does not zip back up anyway and forces you to place it in a real Ziploc bag or some other type of container.
How about those little zigzaggy tear strips on the top of cardboard packages (crackers and the like - you’re meant to be able to tear out the whole strip, releasing the lid - but it just never works - you just end up pulling off a little square of card, then opening the box some other way.
[QUOTE=SomeUserName]
Last but not least are manufactures that put things in a “Ziploc type” resealable bags. First the “tear here” thingy does not “tear here”. It tears just a little and rips off. This forces you to get out the scissors to cut through the opening. You have to do this carefully as not to cut the “Ziploc” part which in the end does not zip back up anyway and forces you to place it in a real Ziploc bag or some other type of container.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, yes! I totally forgot about this one! Fuck resealable packaging!
And fuck the cardboard door!
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni]
Preach it! AMEN! I don’t know how many of my good sewing scissors my husband has ruined in his frustration to get those damned things open. That sort of packaging must be either very cheap to make, or is particularly resistant to being stolen. Or possibly the manufacturers just don’t think about the consumer.
[/QUOTE]
I have a ruined pair just for those packages. You can’t open them with a utility knife either pressing hard will barely score the surface, and you’re likely to slip when pressing down hard. This leads to the emergency room visit for stitches. Sometimes I bring out the compound metal cutters to cut through the package, because scissors don’t cut it. The compound shears are the safest thing I’ve found to open those blister packs. Compound Shears
[QUOTE=mnemosyne]
Arthritis medicine in child-proof containers. My sister took to carrying around her meds in ziploc baggies because it was easier. Several times, if she was home alone and it was time for her meds, she had to go to the neighbours to ask them to open the container for her. That makes me incredibly sad to think about!
[/QUOTE]
Wanted to chime in on this one. This headache is not due to sadistic manufacturers or vendors… they share the frustration, and have lobbied to be able to provide easier to open packages for products geared towards arthritic patients.
The FDA requires child-proof packaging on most OTC products, but allows manufacturers to package one size of each form factor as easy-open (and the packaging has to bear a warning that it is for households without children). Manufacturers have, for the most part, chosen the best-selling package size to be the easy-open: if you want Tylenol Extra-Strength Rapid Release Gelcaps, you can choose from 8, 24, 50, 100, 150, 225, etc., count packages, and the 50 count bottle is the easy-open variant. (Might be the 100 ct, can’t recall exactly.) This leads to the bizarre scenario of, say, Tylenol Arthritis Strength, having only one arthritis-friendly size (100 ct in caplet form, IIRC).
Aleve has a sneaky way of touting their easy-open bottles; they have an entire line of “arthritis pain” Aleve, with all sizes being easy to open. The trick is that each size is a different form factor, thereby following the FDA’s rule: 24 count is gelcap, 100 count is caplet, 150 count is tablet.
The Twister crackers had a design change on the box. They put a beveled edge on one corner. The box went from stable to it shifts when you are holding it, with the sides collapsing together. The box pops out from between your fingers and flies forward across the floor. They changed it back to the old design in about a month. I think other’s complained to the company like I did.
One food I buy comes in a zip package that is sealed below the zip seal. How do you cut of the sealed area and keep the zip lock portion?
I look for the easy open caps and get them. I found that you can cut off the slip cap on a safety cap and they’re a regular cap underneath. I just exchange caps after the bottle empties.
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord]
One food I buy comes in a zip package that is sealed below the zip seal. How do you cut of the sealed area and keep the zip lock portion?
[/QUOTE]
In the same vein (of zip bags), is it just me or have supermarket produce zip bags become about 1000% weaker in the last few years? It seems like the act of simply unzipping one of these is almost guaranteed to tear the zip seal off the rest of the bag now.
[QUOTE=mnemosyne]
Arthritis medicine in child-proof containers. My sister took to carrying around her meds in ziploc baggies because it was easier. Several times, if she was home alone and it was time for her meds, she had to go to the neighbours to ask them to open the container for her. That makes me incredibly sad to think about!
[/QUOTE]
In the same vein, tiny tiny pills for Parkinson’s patients. Not all people with PD have a nurse that gets the pills ready, and it’s damn easy to loose one of those suckers when you have steady hands … believe you me, I’ve organized pills for my father. It gets even better when he’s supposed to only take half of one of those tiny tiny pills…
CD packaging. Nuff said.
[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
So they get shown to their room, while using a cane, which gives them the ability to get back out by themselves. Later, they think about ordering room service, then think ‘oh hang on, what room number is this?’
[/QUOTE]
That’s hilarious. Yes, I’m sure this hypothetical blind person would spend minutes outside his room, feeling around for the tiny room-number sign – rather than calling the front desk to find his room number. It is not as though anyone has standardized where to put the room numbers on hotel rooms.
As I mentioned, I used to work at a not-for-profit that employed blind folks. In one meeting someone mentioned that the brailled office number and name plates had all been done wrong – numbers and names put up at the wrong offices.
Several of my blind co-workers chimed in with “Wait, we have labels on our offices here???”
Offices, too, do not have door numbers in standardized locations. If you’ve got to find a specific office, it’s easier to just ask someone, rather than running your hands randomly across the walls and doors, hoping to accidentally stumble upon a brailled tag.
[QUOTE=thelurkinghorror]
ATMs speak and usually have headphone jacks. If the bank is open, they provide headphones for customers, per ADA. The vast majority of ATMs only give out $20 bills in the US.
[/QUOTE]
None of the ATMs in my area speak. As older models are being replaced, newer ones have headphone jacks built in – but it’s hit-and-miss. And my bank (Bank o’ America) routinely gives out 2 x $10 instead of one $20 every time you’re getting money.
A few anecdotes of ATMs that do accomodate blind folks does not mean that “the vast majority” are not sadisticly designed for their use.
Speaking of sadistic design: CD shrink-wrap packaging, and thsoe annoying seals holding DVD cases shut. Make me want to stab someone, they do.
Re: pet food bags and some of those evil plastic packages - my bread knife has retired from its breadly duties and is a full-time opener of such containers. I find it works a lot better than sharp pointy things, and I am much less apt to accidentally cut myself open with it.