Job: cashier
Item doesn’t scan
Customer: “That means it’s free, right?”
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Only about 4 weeks in as a cashier and I’ve heard this enough to last me a lifetime.
I was working at a tool checkout in my shop for a while, and the sheer amount of ignorance and repetition blew me away.
People would come in, see signs stating things like “Don’t throw your hazardous waste in this trash can!”, and people would straight up ignore it. Things got so bad that we had to stop offering a trash can in our part of the shop.
A lot of people would also just repeat the same statements, day after day, week after week. For example, we have iPads that contain maintenance manuals. We have to update those manuals every week, on the same day. Without fail, the same people always forget which day Update Day is, and have to ask.
The worst ones happen when people come to turn in their gear before end of shift. Most people are fine, but every toolbox has to be thoroughly inspected before being scanned back in. Often, somebody misplaced a tool, left garbage in the box somewhere, or there’s some other undocumented discrepancy.
Most people are cool about it, and willing to make things right. But, some people act like you’ve purposely screwed them over, or react with total apathy and disrespect. I don’t make the rules, man, I’m just trying to do my job.
I don’t make the rules, man, I’m just trying to do my job.
I feel this so much.
Me: Linux Sysadmin
Co-workers: 2 Linux sysadmins with 15+ years of experience.
They pronounce URL as Earl.
My husband (a 55yo DBA) does that. 😬 He also says nu-cu-lar and en-tree. I’ve brought it to his attention but he’s just so used to it and after 23 years together it’s a battle I’ve opted out of. As long as he knows how he sounds to people like me, it’s on him.
It’s been Earl since at least 1997 when Sun introduced their mascot for Java: The Duke of URL
The probably started using it ironically and it fell into habbit.
There was a proto-meme back in the day along the lines of “URL? Who’s Earl?”
Holy shit. That’s horrific and would drive me to quit.
We do that, too, because it’s funny.
“That’s literally the first sentence in my email”
From many years ago, in a previous career.
Job: IT
Issue: hardware of some kind is broken
Customer, incredulous: “…but it wasn’t broken yesterday!”
Yeah, no shit. That’s how things break. They’re fine, then become broken. Why is this even being discussed?
OP, I’ll have you know that I pull that joke every single time it happens. And I make sure to throw out a great, heartfelt laugh and slap my knee just to make sure you get the joke.
It’s great.
I was once cleaning outside and had a customer tell me “You missed a spot!” He then proceeded to laugh his ass off the entire time he was walking away from like it was the funniest joke he ever heard.
I wasn’t even mad. If it brings you that much joy you do you man.
What’s sad is that I may have said the same before I started cashiering. I don’t remember, but it sounds like something I might say. 😬
Open source business: we support free/open/ethical source software Also business: we use Slack, Google GMail, & Microsoft GitHub for our communication & collaboration Also business: we have a social media presence—which is limited to Instagram, Twitter, Google YouTube, & Discord
“I’m trying to identify a source of truth”
It’s supposed to be a good practice … in theory. In practice nobody knows what exists and who’s in charge of what and there’s exceptions and exceptions to exceptions.
Speaking for software engineering perspective. I see in other comment you’re doing process engineering, I assume the term is used in a similar way
Wait, do you work at my company?
What’s your job?
Process Manager
I googled “identify a source of truth” and was treated to a plethora of buzzwordy tweets and articles worthy of Deepak Chopra.
I’m so sorry.
Let’s put a pin in it, and we can circle back when we have more bandwidth. Hopefully it’s not too heavy a lift.
I used to work with enterprise customers at a SaaS company, and still have a lot of anger in how corporate types use this fluffy language. I think my “favorite” example of this jargon is “Please Advise.”, which basically just means “What the fuck?!”
Oh Ffs kill me I hate this nonsense.
Hopefully it’s not too heavy a lift.
Well, that’s a new one (assuming it’s not referring to a physical object) to me
I think that’s better than one department (with the clout to do so) going “this is going to be our source of truth” while completely unprepared for what it means.
They literally spent over a year in talks with the whole rest of the damn company about what that would mean and what level of responsibility that would entail, delayed the go live multiple months multiple times… and they still can’t do fucking basic data validation.
Leading and trailing spaces. Names randomly in all caps.
Oh, there’s a shit ton built off the requirement that this field is one of these options? Surprise, we silently added another option without telling anyone, after we agreed in planning that option was invalid. Not our fault, your fault for building shit based off the idea this was a source of truth and we actually took requirements seriously.
Why is everyone coming to us to correct this data? Why can’t you just correct it downstream like you used to? What do you mean we were warned? I wasn’t paying attention during that meeting that you held specifically to warn me about this in advance because I was too busy ignoring all the other warnings people were telling me!
What do you mean that the thing you warned us would be consistently be delayed until next day because of how our source of truth works can’t be done on demand on the same day? Huh, we signed off on it being okay, along with every other relevant department?
As someone who had to work on syncing multiple databases of customer and order data this was actually very important for me to know. Turned out that it could vary on a field by field basis and could also depend on the type of customer and where they came from.
To sync up our new and shiny SAP CRM with several Access databases and our customer-facing software I ended up writing a script that would collect all data field by field with varying hierarchies and writing it back out to everything. Worked surprisingly well.
Is Access still in use?
Access will probably be the laat thing to die before the heat death of the universe.
Even after things inappropriately hosted in Excel? Lol
Oh, yeah, forgot that.
I’m certain the access database living in a broom closet that someone setup 20 years ago is still going strong at my last job. It was also fed by mainframe dumps, I’m super glad I never had to go anywhere near the thing personally, different department and it was explicit that they owned it.
Cashier: *presents EFTPOS machine* Cheque, savings, or credit?
Customer: Savings… More like SPENDINGS, amiright Cashier!? Wooooo! High five for the amazing joke! Up high!
Omg I’m so sorry.
You are legally obligated to high five me. Comply. Comply. Comply, or I get your boss.
My executive saying “Revenue is up 30% YoY! […] Due to budget cuts we’re limited to a 4% raise+CoL adjustment this year.”
You get CoL adjustments?!
Baked into our medicore raises… yeah!
They give you a 3% raise even though inflation is 8% because if they didn’t then you might decide that it’s worth the effort of going through the job application process until someone else hires you at a 10% pay raise.
You get raises?!
That sounds like a dream. Last place I worked aa an employee, we got “col” 9which was actually less than 1/3 the government-declared col) plus as much as 1.1% merit increase.
Typical raise for a high performer was around 2%.
The places where corporate decides to penny-pinch is truly infuriating.
Hi colleague!
“These Samsung appliances look nice…”
Yes they do— and that’s all they do well. That, and break in expensive ways, often and early.
Avoid Samsung appliances.
The only Samsung products I have never had not fail on me is RAM and ssds, and the only reason the ssds have not failed on me is that I’ve not bought their latest ones that have sudden mysterious failure issues.
Every single Samsung product I have ever owned has broken, and almost always when it’s not actively in use. I go out of my way to tell people about this and to attempt to dissuade them from using Samsung products because of this.
That’s disappointing since Samsung is such a big and well-known brand. Good to know though, so thanks.
Even as an iPhone guy, I’ll say that their consumer electronics are just fine. Very good, even.
But their appliances are crap. Apparently, they used to be quite good, but once they got a bug up their ass about sticking a bonkers amount of tech into them, they started cutting costs on build quality, so they just don’t last more than a few years before parts start crapping out.
Companies like LG and GE are much better at balancing tech, quality, reliability, and price points.
I can’t stand “fancy” electronic appliances. I hate all the musical beeping and half the time the panels don’t even recognize my finger taps. It makes doing chores more frustrating than it already is.
We recently bought a fixer-upper and have had to replace a bunch of old appliances. I told my husband the simpler/cheaper the appliance is, the better. Knobs over digital displays.
The only time I like the newer digital versions is with microwave ovens.
Get commercial washer and dryer, Speed Queen, on the used market.
A used model will cost as much as a new Samsung consumer model, but it’ll last far longer and has replaceable hardware inside.
it will also tear your clothes apart while using 3x the water and power as a newer model LG or GE without an agitator
no thanks!
Right, right.
Because commercial laundromats don’t have to pay for water or energy.
Pray tell, how would a washer tear your clothes when they’re the same washing mechanism as a consumer model - a tub with paddles on the sides.
Donyour clothes get torn at the laundromat? Not seeing how they’d stay in business if that were the case.
Right, because I want to pay a huge amount for water and power like a commercial laundromat does. Lol.
I love it when people argue with me like I don’t do this for a living.
I hate to break it to you, but even with the knobby versions, it’s still electronic under the hood. But I know what you mean about the annoying bleeps and bloops. Again, though, the Samsungs were always the worst offenders in that regard, omg…
GEs make little noise, and LGs are pretty low-key. Whirlpools and Maytags just beep a couple of times.
When I bought my house it came with an induction stove.
I thought it was pretty great being able to boil water in 2 minutes.
It was a GE profile, and it just suddenly mysteriously failed on me. Kind of sucks, it wasn’t that old of a stove, maybe 5 years.
The board that it needed to have replaced cost $1,700.
So I said fuck that, I went and bought a Whirlpool induction stove. $900.
It has worked really well for the last year and a half, but the one thing that I truly and honestly despise about it is that the controls are capacitive touch and that means instead of flicking your wrist and setting it on medium heat you have to hit a button to turn on the stove and then hit a different button three or four times to adjust it down to medium heat and it doesn’t always respond to the button touches.
If I end up having to buy a stove again in the future, it’s got to have a knob on it. It’s such a tiny thing but it’s so fucking annoying.
I’ll say this about GE appliances, until they were bought by Haier in 2016, they sucked too. But once they were bought out by Haier, their quality improved remarkably, and so did their customer service. They’re pretty great now.
I’ve had exactly two dishwashers completely stop functioning in my entire life. Both were GE post Haier and within the last 6 years. Also had a Haier made GE microwave completely fail.
I replaced the microwave (and the matching stove) with Samsung and haven’t had one bit of trouble with either.
I thought I had just gotten a lemon, but three separate failures within a couple of years has really soured my opinion of them. I was a lot more worried about the Samsung appliances I bought, but they’ve been a dream.
Note: I am not recommending Samsung appliances, at all. I got an amazing deal and fully expected them to fail shortly after the warranty was up. I’ve had to repair several of my friends and family’s washers, dryers, and refrigerators. Samsung’s poor reputation is well earned, I just got lucky
Of course they’ve been electronic for decades, but lately it seems they have overdone it so the thing actually becomes less convenient. Kinda like in cars.
And some of the high-end models yes, but there’s still a wide range available with different levels of “functionality.”
You should check out Electrolux. They make some really nice laundry appliances without any smart features at all. They’re great.
My husband and I literally just unwrapped a new Whirlpool washer.
Have you ever rebuilt and repaired old electrical appliances? An old microwave with a turn dial timer is most certainly not electronic. Electrical sure, but not electronic.
Those only basically have a mechanical timer dial, high voltage transformer, high voltage diode, magnetron, light, fan, turntable motor, fuse, and some safety switches for the door.
Absolutely nothing electronic about them, they’re as dumb as an old-school toaster, they just happen to use high voltage to generate microwaves instead.
i’m not referring to old appliances
Well, generally speaking, most people discussing the benefits of appliances and stuff with turn dials are referring to older/simpler appliances, back before they started adding in unnecessary electronics and ‘features’ and stuff.
I’ve never actually seen any microwave with a turn dial that has any sort of electronics in them, those are all built almost identical in schematics, aside from different sizes and wattages.
Note for those reading -
This doesn’t apply in Europe, or large swathes of the planet. Samsung appliances are excellent.
The US has virtually nonexistent consumer protection laws, so companies will get away with selling poor quality, because they can.
See the Hyundai scandal. Only happened in one country, because it could
Breathe easy, EU folks
Really? How can a company make terrible appliances for a single country? They’re not made domestically.
The main manufacturing of Samsung appliances takes place in South Korea, with a washing machine manufacturing plant also located in South Carolina, USA.
It’s more than just their washing machines
For sure, their are model numbers specific to regions. Sometimes you see US Products available for various manufacturers and some say not for sale in Canada, which could be distributor rights or maybe won’t pass canadian electric standard or warranty requirements
That usually has to do with the fact that American appliances are 110 V for everything but ovens and dryers
We have 110 /120 as our standard regular voltage also
Same factory just send the units that normally wouldn’t be sellable (defects and such) but still function to the US
You say that, but my experience is different. After my Samsung washing machine failed, I took it apart and found blatant evidence of planned obsolescence. If the units elsewhere are good, then the ones in the US aren’t just the same things with defects, but rather ones with spider arms cast from an entirely different metal alloy.
Fair enough, I was just guessing at a way one country could receive only/mostly inferior products
The massive volume of sales for North America is too big to be met by factory defects. They’d have to have entire factories making defects.
It only works if that one country is the good ol’ US of A. Lol
Just because all defect stock are routed to the US inventory, doesn’t mean that US inventory is made up of all defect stock.
as someone who deals with this professionally, i assure you: they are.
every samsung appliance consistently fails in one of a few ways, so much so that it’s not simply a matter of by-chance defects. they’re design flaws.
Sure, if they were designed that way, I would not call them defects either.
With Samsung it’s almost always caused in my experience by either the use of plastics that are not up to the stress requirements of the application, or the use of electronics that are not capable of standing up to the use duration.
Samsung appliances that I have had have always had either broken plastics or fried circuit boards.
And they’ve got to know that these things break because there are always replacement parts for the specific ones that break, but if you’re not a DIYer you will pay 70% of the cost of the original appliance to install the part that broke.
So long as voltage and frequency match
The main manufacturing of Samsung appliances takes place in South Korea, with a washing machine manufacturing plant also located in South Carolina, USA.
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You’re missing one big thing - there’s only one country that has horrendous consumer rights laws and a huge market, and 110v electric
Well worth making models just for that one market
ahem the actual standard is 120volts, but can tolerate down to 110volts
That’s irrelevant to the advice in this thread
Hope you get your adenoids sorted
Why does the voltage matter?
If there’s only one country that uses 110v, you have to make an appliances for that country specifically. If that country has really shitty consumer rights laws, why not also make the appliances shitty?
Damn… it’s all a 110 volt conspiracy
How can I buy a European made(?) samsung fridge?
Go to Europe
Enter shop
Buy fridge
Carry home
Realise it doesn’t work because you have girly electricity
It won’t fit in the overhead compartment.
I never even considered this and now I am enraged.
I am surprised to hear this. I have not had any issues with my Samsung devices. I have a fridge, washer, dryer and television.
My entire Samsung appliance experience is one dishwasher but it was so shit that I was happy when it broke after 18 months and I will never buy another Samsung appliance. Didn’t clean things and smelled like death if we didn’t manually clean it once a week and run it empty on sanitize and never leave the door closed. Searching the internet told me it was widespread and people were considering class action lawsuits.
It looked nice though. And was quiet.
I seem to have had great luck with the brand if these comments are any real sample.
Ironically just repaired my samsung dryer. Two drum felt gaskets, and the belt since it was disassembled. Front gasket failed and tore out. After examining all components, the torque of belt drive pulls on one side of drum, this puts extra pressure one one set of the drum rollers (Rh side). The rear one is near the hot air duct so it gets more extreme working conditions. bearing has worn shaft slightly and plastic wheel was partially fatigued, so looks like that rollet was dragging and so belt pulls down more front of drum pinching seal from extended weight and torque. The paint was worn off the housings in this section so felt gasket had more friction in that zone. The rear roller near the heating generator duct is a bad design. especially since it hangs off the back housing which is quite flexible in that area. Thankfully the repair was simple, other than completr disassembly , but not convinced it will last long.
Any recs for something halfway decent in the US?
Can you get Bosch? Or Miele if you’re flush.
I feel there’s some dots and squiggles missing from that title.
Job: cashier. Not my current job, but definitely the one that racked up the most irritating quotes.
Customer: “Now, don’t you try to double scan my items. I’m watching you.”
I heard this one constantly when I was a cashier at a grocery store. At first I assumed that they were kidding. After all, it’s such a stupid accusation to make. It was only after about 100 elderly people had said it while staring daggers at me that I realized they weren’t kidding.
I assume there must have been a news report in the 1960s about store clerks charging you twice for an item and then taking the extra cash, and a certain kind of person had been paranoid about it ever since. Except this wasn’t in the 1960s, it was the 2010s, and such a scam couldn’t even work anymore. The cash register isn’t just a lockbox like it was in the 60s, it’s a computer and it knows exactly how much money should be in it. And if it has less than that in it when your shift ends, you’re screwed.
Plus, you’re paying with a credit card, Gertrude, how am I supposed to steal your shit when you’re paying with a credit card?
I think the thing that made it so irritating was the fact that they are willing to whip out this assertive, domineering attitude at you based on information that hasn’t been true for about forty freaking years. They have a mistrust of other people because they don’t know how the world works anymore, yet they think they’ve outsmarted you.
Sometimes the scanning technique can mean an item is accidentally scanned twice. It’s a bit of a faff around to have to go to the CS desk to get a refund, so I can understand them wanting you to not make any mistakes in the first place.
Why would they have to go to the CS desk? the cashier can just change it right there. It happens occasionally where they scan too many items and have to void some out, it’s really not a big deal.
Not if they don’t catch it then and there.
The way you described then makes me think of the “make sure your man double-bags” scene* in Shawshank Redemption.
*WARNING: Major spoilers for the movie if you haven’t seen it. In which case, you should really go see it. It’s one of the best movies in existence.
The movie’s 30 years old, I think we can relax the spoiler warning.
I don’t ever want to be the one responsible for spoiling such a good movie for someone who hasn’t seen it, even today.
Whenever you raise a problem with a process or setup the general answer is “It is what it is”. No! Your laziness can jump, you can fix the damn problem you are not going to get away with inaction with a platitude.
“It must be the network”
– Webdev who doesn’t even understand DNS
“its probably the front end node”
- Sysadmin who doesn’t get React
Job: Software Dev
Internal stakeholder or C-Suite: presents nebulous idea for workflow/product/feature with no actual end goal
“We have a CRITICAL need for this product. It will REVOLUTIONIZE everything we do here. The stakes could not be higher. THIS MUST BE COMPLETED ASAP”
My boss: Okay. We will move heaven and Earth to get this done for you.
Me: Works 60 hours a week for two months to ensure the new product is successful
Also me: checking usage statistics six months later…last used by me during go live testing
I hate my life.
