The “Random crap that crosses your path and leaves you baffled” Thread!

thegreysquirrel · 20 Dec 2018 at 12:38

Yadda said:
I was driving into a town centre car park last week, indicating right and giving way to pedestrians who were crossing the mouth of the car park entrance when one of them said quite sternly "this is no entry!". It was the only entrance to the car park and all the road signs and markings made it quite obviously a valid route. I ignored the advice with a smile and a wave but I was scratching my head for a while afterwards.

Had similar a few years ago. I drove down a one way street with parking on the sides facing into road. I decided to reverse in only for someone to shout it's a one way and I went the wrong way.

I triple checked the signs and all other cars going the same way, and to this day I have no idea why he thought I'd done wrong. Perhaps he only saw my reversing and thought I'd reversed the entire way?! I never did get to ask him.

I still think about it every time I go down a one way street.

thegreysquirrel · 20 Dec 2018 at 12:54

Steeps said:
NHS managers and decision makers are just as bad. Had a colleague let me listen to a Q&A session with a decision making pharmacist who basically rubbished all clinical data and said that treatment results are down to the patient's belief in getting better..

This is worryingly common in the NHS. My wife has heard nurses on many occasions this, even about patients with cancer.

Luke · 20 Dec 2018 at 12:56

Bought something in a shop yesterday and it came to £9.20. I handed over a £10 note and as she was getting change I realised I had the 20p. When I tried to hand it over so she only had to give me £1 rather than a handful of change she told me she couldn't as it was already rung up.
I didn't have the energy to argue.

Randomface74 · 20 Dec 2018 at 13:04

Went to asda earlier, was gonna pick up some christmas cards for neighbours while I was there.
None in stock.
Amazon 1, High Street nil.

MadMan-JaMeS · 20 Dec 2018 at 14:52

Luke said:
Bought something in a shop yesterday and it came to £9.20. I handed over a £10 note and as she was getting change I realised I had the 20p. When I tried to hand it over so she only had to give me £1 rather than a handful of change she told me she couldn't as it was already rung up.
I didn't have the energy to argue.

This was just her own stupidity not being able to work it out. The tills tell them how much change to give. She clearly doesn't have enough brain cells to work out the correct change in her head.

Participant · 20 Dec 2018 at 14:58

StoutMeister said:
That's not very festive of them.

Depends on your point of view I guess.

ttaskmaster · 20 Dec 2018 at 15:46

Skidder · 20 Dec 2018 at 15:55

Scania said:
Yup, as the title alludes to, what crops up in your day to day existence that leaves you drawing a blank?

My starter for 10 (minus 20 more like!) I keep getting social media adverts for Rolls Royce appearing in my feed(s) now, were I an affluent type with more money than I had an idea as to how to spend it, fair enough, in reality though, I’m about as able to acquire a Roller as I’m likely to build the next Death Star....

I always thought your social media advertisement feed was derived from what you browse etc etc so why on earth am I getting Rolls Royce marketing?

‘‘tis hurting my head, so I’d like to know what’s hurting yours.....

Along those lines Instagram seems absolutely convinced I am Scandinavian. Most adverts i get are from Swedish or Norwegian companies in the local lingo. Only thing I can think of is I follow quite a lot of winter sports people and may be some machine somewhere has put 2 and 2 together and got fyra.

wesimmo · 20 Dec 2018 at 17:27

Skidder said:
Along those lines Instagram seems absolutely convinced I am Scandinavian. Most adverts i get are from Swedish or Norwegian companies in the local lingo. Only thing I can think of is I follow quite a lot of winter sports people and may be some machine somewhere has put 2 and 2 together and got fyra.

I was talking to a girl at work and she mentioned all the weird stuff that Wish try and market to her on Facebook, "Look what even is this, it's like a penis bone, and these sort of nipple cover things."

"Er, you do know they're tailored ads? Look, on my feed Wish try to sell me toolkits, car parts and car novelty items."

StoutMeister · 20 Dec 2018 at 19:45

wesimmo said:
I was talking to a girl at work and she mentioned all the weird stuff that Wish try and market to her on Facebook, "Look what even is this, it's like a penis bone, and these sort of nipple cover things."

"Er, you do know they're tailored ads? Look, on my feed Wish try to sell me toolkits, car parts and car novelty items."

LOL, I think you've scored!

chroniclard · 20 Dec 2018 at 19:57

So talking to the wife about ordering a new frying pan, next day amazon delivery arrives (Christmas presents) along with a new frying pan, I didn't order a frying pan, didn't even get to the point of searching for one! Amazon accidentally sent me a frying pan, chatted to them online, said I could keep it. Spooky coincidence!

HungryHippos · 20 Dec 2018 at 20:04

A

chroniclard said:
So talking to the wife about ordering a new frying pan, next day amazon delivery arrives (Christmas presents) along with a new frying pan, I didn't order a frying pan, didn't even get to the point of searching for one! Amazon accidentally sent me a frying pan, chatted to them online, said I could keep it. Spooky coincidence!

Lol! Alexa! Send me a 2080 ti!

Terminal_Boy · 20 Dec 2018 at 20:04

That it’s that time of year where every third advert is some chugger attempting to guilt me into sending money to some 3rd world toilet in order to bring false hope to the locals.

Angilion · 20 Dec 2018 at 20:49

MadMan-JaMeS said:
This was just her own stupidity not being able to work it out. The tills tell them how much change to give. She clearly doesn't have enough brain cells to work out the correct change in her head.

Or the till is cashed up on a per denomination basis rather than on a total cash basis, in which case accepting a different amount of money after ringing in the amount first offered would require her to either cancel the original transaction and make a new one or show incorrect totals at the end of her shift, both of which would probably require a management login which she probably won't have.

Or she was offering a polite excuse to a person who was probably thinking that they were being helpful but was actually being a hindrance because she'd already made change for the amount she'd been given. Changing the amount of money you're giving to someone partway through the transaction is generally not helpful to them.

Or her till was short of £1 coins and she didn't want to use one unnecessarily for a customer who changed their mind partway through the transaction.

If you want to round out your own change, fine. It would be more polite to do so beforehand rather than changing your mind partway through, but you don't have to. Servants exist for the convenience of the people they're serving, after all. That's what we do. It's easy to assume servants are stupid because they're servants, but that's often not the case.

I suggest you read the Earl of Chesterfield's letters to his son in the mid 18th century regarding the way in which a civilised person of good manners should behave, particularly those referring to how to treat servants and other people of inferior social class to yourself.

Yadda · 20 Dec 2018 at 21:31

Angilion said:
Or the till is cashed up on a per denomination basis rather than on a total cash basis, in which case accepting a different amount of money after ringing in the amount first offered would require her to either cancel the original transaction and make a new one or show incorrect totals at the end of her shift, both of which would probably require a management login which she probably won't have.*snip*

How does that work if you pay normally with loose change? Does the cashier have to input the type and number of different coins?

Angilion · 20 Dec 2018 at 21:47

Yadda said:
How does that work if you pay normally with loose change? Does the cashier have to input the type and number of different coins?

It would be possible to do that with a modern till. There may be some places that do it. It wouldn't be efficient, but rules in businesses aren't always efficient.

I suggested three explanations other than assuming that someone is stupid. All 3 are possible. I think the other 2 are more likely, but that 1 is also possible.

Yadda · 20 Dec 2018 at 21:52

Angilion said:
It would be possible to do that with a modern till. There may be some places that do it. It wouldn't be efficient, but rules in businesses aren't always efficient.

I suggested three explanations other than assuming that someone is stupid. All 3 are possible. I think the other 2 are more likely, but that 1 is also possible.

Wow, I had no idea some places use tills like this. I assumed they just rang in the total cash they receive as payment, not the individul coins.

Anyone in retail reading this actually used one of these systems? It sounds like a right PITA.

MadMan-JaMeS · 20 Dec 2018 at 22:01

Yadda said:
Wow, I had no idea some places use tills like this. I assumed they just rang in the total cash they receive as payment, not the individul coins.

Anyone in retail reading this actually used one of these systems? It sounds like a right PITA.

It is.
So i suspect you'll be very hard pressed to find any retail outlet that uses them.

Maybe 1 of the 3 examples @Angilion was correct. But i think i'm right. Its happened to me a few times and caught me off guard, where i have to take a few seconds to work it out the transaction in my head.

Angilion · 20 Dec 2018 at 22:09

Yadda said:
Wow, I had no idea some places use tills like this. I assumed they just rang in the total cash they receive as payment, not the individul coins.

Anyone in retail reading this actually used one of these systems? It sounds like a right PITA.

Most if not all places nowadays use tills that could be used in that way. I'm not saying that they all are or that many are. I'm saying that it's a possibility. I mentioned 3 possible alternative explanations - what do you think about the other 2?

The fact that it's a PITA to staff wouldn't be considered of any relevance. It's common custom in this country to deliberately harm people employed in low status positions solely to cause them pain and chronic medical problems in order to rub their faces in their inferior status. Imposing a harmless inconvenience on them would be a trivial thing in comparison.

Yadda · 20 Dec 2018 at 22:09

MadMan-JaMeS said:
It is.
So i suspect you'll be very hard pressed to find any retail outlet that uses them.

Maybe 1 of the 3 examples @Angilion was correct. But i think i'm right. Its happened to me a few times and caught me off guard, where i have to take a few seconds to work it out the transaction in my head.

I agree. I've never heard of POS terminals being set up for the input of individual coin types.

Whenever I've offered the odd change needed to round up my change and it's been refused, the reason I'm always given is "sorry, I've already rung it through". Surely all these places aren't using this mystery till configuration that no-one seems to use?