When I WANT to talk to a person to explain what is up, and go through the phone tree, I often get another phone tree. Is there only one person there?
############# sometimes works. Sometimes.
Remember back in the day when there was a cool website called “gethuman” that had real numbers that were vetted and worked?
I used it frequently for things like Amazon and Verizon.
Then one day it was monetized and became a shill for corporate America, with useless instructions like “To get to a Verizon agent, dial 1-800-VERIZON”
Boy that sucks. I get that they need to pay the bills somehow, but it is sure a letdown when a great free website turns into crap or charges exorbitant prices for their formerly free service. (cf. Photobucket… still mad about that one).
Case in point: Tripadvisor. I gave up on that when it ceased to be a review site and started to become a booking service: obvious conflicts of interest there….
Why are you talking about “pedestrians” when the kid in the story was riding a bike?
I was responding to this (bolding mine):
I don’t know why some pedestrians endanger themselves like this. But it tears me up that if the worst happened, the driver would get blamed
If you hit a pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing, you entirely deserve to get blamed. It’s entirely your fault just as if you pulled onto a main road from a side street and t-boned an oncoming car. The car has right of way, they are not unreasonably “endangering themselves” by not stopping for you, they are just obeying the rules of the road. Just so for pedestrians, the blame is, rightly, entirely on the car.
The yellow flashing light you sometimes get on pedestrian crossings, is the equivalent of the sign you sometimes get on two-way stops that says “oncoming traffic does not stop”. If that sign is missing and you drive out into an oncoming car it’s still entirely your fault.
Pedestrian crossings work differently in different places. If I’m driving down the street and I have a green light, and I hit a pedestrian who darted out into traffic when they had a “Don’t walk” signal , it’s not entirely my fault . It might not be my fault at all depending on the exact circumstances ( if the person jumped out when I was a foot away, for example). Oc course, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be blamed.
On the recent Ghosts, they had to stay on hold for hours and hours. I will point out that for some thing- canceling a service- a simple first class letter will do the trick, and if you like, send it certified.
I was responding to this…
That’s completely different, the poster was not talking about walk/Don’t-walk signals, with a little guy and a red hand. Those do alter who has right of way (though I think most jurisdictions the pedestrians have right of way if they change while they are on the crossing). Those yellow flashing lights just tell the cars that pedestrians are coming, they are just like the “oncoming traffic does not stop” sign. Whether the light is flashing or not the pedestrians have right of way (and in my experience make it no more likely the cars will actually stop)
Is what they are sending you by phone something you would even look out if you got it by email or paper? Because all I usually get from doctors or hospitals is date, visit Co-pay $X - it doesn’t matter if it’s a by phone or email or paper or if I look at an online account . I get a bill for the co-pay for a $80k surgery , it says copay $95. That annoys me more than getting it on the phone- I don’t know which hospital/doctor it even is. There are now two or three hospitals that bought up all the others and a lot of doctors sold their practices to for example Northwell Physians , so a bill from Northwell health might be from any one of the three hospitals my husband has been at lately or the lab or any one of three or four doctors all of whom belong to the affiliated practice or even the physical therapist.
It was a notice that X amount was due, and follow these bread crumbs to pay it. I did not receive a paper bill or email. They have all of my information of course, you have to give the hospital every fact about yourself. So what do they do? They text me a bill. It was only for $490 (which was a pleasant surprise) but dammit, I want something more, my phone is for phone calls, and an occasional text to my wife.
Something else that infuriates me and my wife. It’s sort of important though.
We are getting a PV solar system installed on our house. I’m the person that is ‘boots on the ground’ for it. I work from home so It’s easy for me to be here for them. Somehow this company has their wires crossed and all notifications/questions/updates go to my wife. We have told them at least FIVE times to notify me. Or at least notify me too. Add me to your damn contacts list.
One time they said that could not be done (um, what?). Other times they said sure, no problem.
Their entire communication system is totally jacked up. That completely tests my faith in this company.
A new one, in the “This is why we can’t have nice things” category.
Apple devices allow you to set up text messages so you can only see notifications from people in your address book, and everything else quietly goes to a “unknown sender” folder.
This is nice.
But I noticed an increasing amount of election spam showing up on the screen of my locked device, stressing urgency.
I dug deeper to see how that garbage was leaking through, and I found it in the iOS settings: In the “Unknown Senders” section, below the “Screen Unknown Senders” switch there is a special setting to allow notifications through that are time sensitive.
In other words: Spam is not displayed unless the sender says it’s urgent in the message. This is probably so a message from an unknown phone number at my doctor’s office would make it through and be displayed.
So guess what spammers are doing? Of course, they are putting time sensitive urgency in their spam messages. That potentially useful setting has now been turned off.
That’s why we can’t have nice things.
People that abbreviate “etcetera” as “ect”. I see it way too often to be mostly explained by typos.
If there are 2 clocks near each other and they’re out of sync, even by a few seconds, it drives me mad. The typical case is a stove & microwave hood each with a clock display. It’s easy enough to set my own so they’re perfectly in sync, but if I’m at someone else’s house and they’re not I have to stand where I can’t see them.
Having just that situation, it is almost impossible to get them exactly in sync- sure you can get them set to the same minute, but since those two settings will be many seconds apart, for half a minute or so the two clocks will be off for a minute.
Both my current and previous residence I could absolutely get them in sync. You set the hour & minute, but the clock doesn’t actually start running until you hit Start, at which point it starts with at 0 seconds. So if I set them & then press Start on both simultaneously, they’re in sync.
Failing that, a quick and cheap fix is to put opaque tape over some of the lights - like duct tape. Most tapes will leave a sticky residue which gets harder to remove the longer the tape is in place so you may want to replace the bits every couple of months.
In my house I cannot reach both oven and microwave clocks at the same time, so they will be out-of-sync by a few seconds. Is that acceptable, or do I need to seat you at the dining room table with your back to the kitchen?
Serious answer: I’m perfectly aware this is my own quirk, and I’d never say anything to my host even if the clocks were minutes apart, unless they were a close friend.
Non-serious answer: If I’m ever in your house, I could assist you in pressing both Start buttons simultaneously, nuclear launch key style.
OK, that made me laugh. Let me know when you’re in the neighborhood!