"we updated our website"

These days, almost every company has a website, where you register to (a) receive info or promos, (b) pay your bill, or (c) monitor an account.

This has happened to me twice in the last week: I go to log into a website, and my login information doesn't work. I either call the support number (if there is one), or email their "contact us" email address, and either wait 20 minutes on hold or 3 days for an email response.

Both these times, the response has been "Oh, we updated our website, so you need to re-register."

Seriously?

I don't understand why an "updated" website would require re-registration in the first place, but if you don't have the technology to move your database over, then, you have my email address (you required it when I first registered) -- you couldn't tell me you were doing this?

#fail

Cars & Parking

Last week I was inundated with these things that bug me (was there a plot to push me over the edge?):

-- People who park too close to the corner, so I can't see traffic coming. I inch out, slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, until I think it's good, then hold my breath and gun it. Please, people, if there's not enough room for the length of a tire in that tiny space, there is not enough room for your CAR.

-- People who open their car doors into traffic without a glance at what's coming up the street. I have dreams of plowing into the door, like Tom Cruise driving down a city street in Knight & Day, and the door flips up, then drops down and conks them in the head, and.... oh, wait, sorry, got carried away. Again, people, if the street has barely enough room for you to parallel park without causing a four-car pile-up, there is not enough room for you to open your door wide.

-- And speaking of parallel parking.... Does the DMV actually require this on their test anymore? Because there is a plethora of drivers who simply should not try this task. Ever.

What car parking habit bugs you?

Customer Service in Bangalore or wherever the hell

I am so tired of American companies outsourcing their customer service to companies who don't speak English (or who have such a strong accent as to be unintelligble).

I just railed at one person for three minutes and they didn't understand a word I said.

Finally I was given a different phone number to call and it was THE SAME CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER.

It's bad enough that they all follow some sort of script (sometimes I play with them -- if I'm in the mood -- and ask for things that they couldn't possibly have in their script), but they don't understand the product or the service, so if it's outside the written script, they don't know what to do with me.

And please don't answer the phone with "who do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?"

This is not pleasureable.

Humans

Yep, humans. I have spent the last several days being let down by humankind in one way or another. My biggest grievance is the lack of courtesy. if you tell me you are going to do something, and my life & schedule is contingent on that, then, when you *don't* do what you said you would, it is more than just something that bugs me...

Just tired of being screwed over, is all.

Bicyclists on the sidewalk

(Wow, it's been a while since I posted -- I have been very restrained...)

It's bad enough that I have to share the sidewalk with skateboarders and roller bladers, both of whom, to a person, will not be courteous to pedestrians (sorry -- I haven't seen one well-mannered wheeler yet), but could bicyclists please, please ride in the road? The word walk is there for a reason -- the sidewalk is for walking.

Most city/town laws state that if you've got a bicycle on the sidewalk, you should be walking alongside it. Seen that lately?

Now in Burbank we have bicycle lanes as big as an airplane runway -- I have yet to see a bicyclist use them!!

Drivers

I figure -- once I get started -- this could be a blog about bad drivers. I mean, I could put at least a post a day about some idiot on the road. But then I'd have to change the title to "Drivers That Bug Me."

So I'll just have the one entry, and maybe update it occasionally (if I do it every time I'm bugged by a driver, I'll be here all day, every day).

Here's one: car manufacturers put turn signals in the car FOR A REASON. Use them!!! Oh, and it's also considered a moving violation, and you can be ticketed (not all states enforce this, but I know Texas and New York are very keen on catching drivers who don't use their signals).

Counting change

At a fast-food restaurant, the bill comes to $5.41. I hand the drive-thru guy a ten-dollar bill, plus the 41 cents in change. Obviously, they must have the old-fashioned, manual cash registers, and my method of payment must have thrown him, because, I swear, five minutes later, he hands me four one-dollar bills.

I say, no, I gave you $10.41. He says "oh, right," and hands me a five, but doesn't take back the original four dollars.

Tempted. I was tempted.