Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

[Strat-tastic]

Don't tell me what you're going to show me, show me!

 

[Ediswan]

Particularly so with "real life" fly-on-the-wall documentaries, such as "Traffic Cops", "Road Wars", "Police Interceptors' and the suchlike, where the production team(s) don't have all that much original footage to work with, and thus have to pad it out somewhat.

The latest competitor for the 'most extreme padding' award is the ******* child of Road Wars and Gogglebox. A few short clips of relatively mundane incidents, each repeated multiple times, with audience reaction. I forget the name.

Edit: Apparently, a common term for a child born out of wedlock is a banned word.

 

[dangie]

Don't tell me what you're going to show me, show me!

Plus the first two minutes after an ad break recount what happened before the break. My memory is bad, but it’s not that bad……

 

[PeterY]

The latest competitor for the 'most extreme padding' award is the ******* child of Road Wars and Gogglebox. A few short clips of relatively mundane incidents, each repeated multiple times, with audience reaction. I forget the name.

Edit: Apparently, a common term for a child born out of wedlock is a banned word.

I love Gogglebox. It means I only have to watch two minutes of a program and it makes me realise why, I'd no way want to watch a whole program of hyped up TV eg, Love Island, In the jungle (whatever they call it) At least I've after watching two minutes, I know what my friends are talking about. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing

 

[61653 HTAFC]

What's going on?

All this grumbling about various vegetables, have accidentally come to the Under tens version of this site?

 

[jfollows]

Being begged, repeatedly and incessantly, to "go paperless". This morning I got it from my bank after earlier having got it from HMRC. In the first case, I already am "paperless", in the latter I specifically chose to have information posted to me so why would I magically change my mind? And both times to get out of it I have to explicitly select the "no, I don't want to" option before I can get past the prompt.

 

[yorksrob]

What's going on?

All this grumbling about various vegetables, have accidentally come to the Under tens version of this site?

Is sweetcorn a vegetable ?

 

[duncanp]

Being begged, repeatedly and incessantly, to "go paperless". This morning I got it from my bank after earlier having got it from HMRC. In the first case, I already am "paperless", in the latter I specifically chose to have information posted to me so why would I magically change my mind? And both times to get out of it I have to explicitly select the "no, I don't want to" option before I can get past the prompt.

Not only "..paperless..", but being forced to do everything via a mobile App.

Yes, Royal Bank of Scotland, I am looking at you, because you make functionality available on the mobile banking app that isn't available on the website.

 

[Acey]

Apps

 

[jfollows]

Not only "..paperless..", but being forced to do everything via a mobile App.

Yes, Royal Bank of Scotland, I am looking at you, because you make functionality available on the mobile banking app that isn't available on the website.

Yes, I agree. NatWest is going there too I think - I can't set up new payees on the Web site any more and have to use the "app". That said, the NatWest app has improved and it's not as bad as some.
....like Virgin, from whom I used to receive a notification, and could log on and download my statement. Now I have to use the "app", from where I can email my statement to myself and then download it on my computer. So I changed my preferences with them from "paperless" to "paper statement every month by post".

 

[duncanp]

Apps

I would also like to ban the bank making you approve a payment in the mobile banking app when you want to buy something from a website using a credit or debit card.

We already have to put in the card details and security number, so why this extra step?

 

[D821]

I would also like to ban the bank making you approve a payment in the mobile banking app when you want to buy something from a website using a credit or debit card.

We already have to put in the card details and security number, so why this extra step?

Card details still get stolen, I've had it happen but thankfully the credit card company realised that I was unlikely buying leatherwear in Las Vegas! They texted me to check them the security team called me.
Having second factor authentication (2FA) makes a big difference in fraud. It is a PITA but I'd take it over being a fraud victim.

 

[duncanp]

Card details still get stolen, I've had it happen but thankfully the credit card company realised that I was unlikely buying leatherwear in Las Vegas! They texted me to check them the security team called me.
Having second factor authentication (2FA) makes a big difference in fraud. It is a PITA but I'd take it over being a fraud victim.

There may be good reasons for 2FA, but there are other ways of doing it rather than using a mobile app.

One building society I use gives you the option of receiving a 4 digit code via a text message to a mobile phone (which doesn't have to be a smartphone), or a voice call to a landline.

Using a mobile app can be a pain if the device you need to use is in a different room to the laptop which you are using to log on to the website.

 

[D821]

There may be good reasons for 2FA, but there are other ways of doing it rather than using a mobile app.

One building society I use gives you the option of receiving a 4 digit code via a text message to a mobile phone (which doesn't have to be a smartphone), or a voice call to a landline.

Using a mobile app can be a pain if the device you need to use is in a different room to the laptop which you are using to log on to the website.

Ah, sorry, I see what you mean now. I have one for my bank which is a minor inconvenience, mainly as its Mrs D821 who spends most of our money

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Is sweetcorn a vegetable ?

It's not an animal or a mineral, that's for sure...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Is sweetcorn a vegetable ?

It's not an animal or a mineral, that's for sure...

It's "a-maize-ing" what you can learn on here!


P.S. If it's not a vegetable, then I presume sweetcorn's considered to be a grain?

 

[PeterY]

Not only "..paperless..", but being forced to do everything via a mobile App.

Yes, Royal Bank of Scotland, I am looking at you, because you make functionality available on the mobile banking app that isn't available on the website.

Why is it assumed that everyone has a smart phone. I hate the idea of a smart phone but I can imagine, I'm going to be forced to have one.

 

[duncanp]

Why is it assumed that everyone has a smart phone. I hate the idea of a smart phone but I can imagine, I'm going to be forced to have one.

And even if you have a smartphone or tablet, there is no guarantee that the App you need to use will work on it.

I have an Android tablet, and the Barclays bank mobile app does not work on it, even though I have the latest version of Android installed.

The mobile app for practically every other bank works on my tablet, and the Barclays app works on smartphones.

When querying this with Barclays (via the "chat" option as it is impossible to get through to a human being ) they just glibly replied "...the App doesn't work on Android tablets..." with no real explanation as to why.

So I banned Barclays bank from my life, by taking all my money from my accounts with them and depositing in another financial institution which pays a lot more in interest than the tightfisted Scrooges at Barclays.

 

[D821]

I think having an app only available on mobile and not tablet is down to security - getting something verified via the mobile's phone or SMS function is more secure than a tablet with just an email address.

 

[duncanp]

I think having an app only available on mobile and not tablet is down to security - getting something verified via the mobile's phone or SMS function is more secure than a tablet with just an email address.

That doesn't explain why every other bank apart from Barclays make their app available on a tablet.

As I said earlier, there are other ways of doing two factor authentication if that is deemed necessary.

 

[yorksrob]

It's not an animal or a mineral, that's for sure...

Well I shall enjoy counting my chip butty as two of my five a day in that case.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Apr 2023 ==

It's "a-maize-ing" what you can learn on here!


P.S. If it's not a vegetable, then I presume sweetcorn's considered to be a grain?

Yes, that was my thinking.

 

[D821]

That doesn't explain why every other bank apart from Barclays make their app available on a tablet.

As I said earlier, there are other ways of doing two factor authentication if that is deemed necessary.

It's Barclays' choice based on risk. They're not the only bank that does this, I had the same problem setting up my mum for online banking and she's notvwith Barclays.

 

[Techniquest]

Card details still get stolen, I've had it happen but thankfully the credit card company realised that I was unlikely buying leatherwear in Las Vegas! They texted me to check them the security team called me.
Having second factor authentication (2FA) makes a big difference in fraud. It is a PITA but I'd take it over being a fraud victim.

Absolutely, it can be a pain if you're trying to book train tickets in a hurry for example, but having had my account once emptied by fraudsters in West Yorkshire (long story) when I was on holiday in 2015, I absolutely approve of the additional layer of security!

 

[jfollows]

People who get my name and/or address wrong when I've provided them with the information on-line (nowadays) or in writing (in the past).
These fall into two categories:

1. People who think they know how to spell my name better than I do - I get variants on both name and surname from time to time. It is just indicative of a poor attitude to customer service and overall carelessness. If my surname were "Smyth", for example, and the return letter starts with "Dear Mr. Smith" it grates.
2. People who decide I live somewhere else. I think this happens because they put my postcode into a system which returns a list of addresses, and then select the first one with a number "2" in it, which won't be my address. Our neighbourhood Whatsapp group helps sort this one out a bit. At one point the retailer was supplying the correct address but UPS was then "correcting" it for them - go figure!

 

[duncanp]

People who get my name and/or address wrong when I've provided them with the information on-line (nowadays) or in writing (in the past).
These fall into two categories:

1. People who think they know how to spell my name better than I do - I get variants on both name and surname from time to time. It is just indicative of a poor attitude to customer service and overall carelessness.
2. People who decide I live somewhere else. I think this happens because they put my postcode into a system which returns a list of addresses, and then select the first one with a number "2" in it, which won't be my address. Our neighbourhood Whatsapp group helps sort this one out a bit. At one point the retailer was supplying the correct address but UPS was then "correcting" it for them - go figure!

Can we also ban postmen and couriers who think that several other people live at my address apart from me.

When I lived in London my address was XXXXX XXXX Close, which was a third floor flat.

But I always used to get letters and parcels for XXXXX XXXX Road, which was a detatched house, and XXXX XXXX Gardens, which was another block of flats.

It should be obvious to a postment that if you are putting letters through the same letter box when they are addressed to completely different people, with completely different postcodes, that at least some of the letters are being posted incorrectly.

But no, it is easier (for the postman) to just shove everything in one letter box and let the owner of the flat (ie. me ) do their job for them by posting the letters that were not for me through the correct letter boxes.

When Amazon and online deliveries became more widely used, I would often arrive home from work and find bulky parcels for other people left outside my door.

Or even worse, a "..we called but you were out.." card from some rubbish courier like Hermes inviting me to go down to some depot in the back of beyond (ie. an industrial estate in West Ham) and pick up a parcel that was supposedly for me, only to find when I get there that it was for a neighbour that had a similar, but not identical address to me. Beyond annoying.

 

[bearhugger]

It should be obvious to a postment that if you are putting letters through the same letter box when they are addressed to completely different people, with completely different postcodes, that at least some of the letters are being posted incorrectly.

But no, it is easier (for the postman) to just shove everything in one letter box and let the owner of the flat (ie. me ) do their job for them by posting the letters that were not for me through the correct letter boxes.

I just pop everything back in a postbox that I'm passing so they go back through the system again. It must depend on the postie delivering because we used to get this a lot, but quite rarely with the last couple of posties we've had.

 

[VauxhallandI]

I had a spate of letters for 1b as we are 16.

Was always hand written mail, I would always write 1B but thats just me Nd maybe that would merely export the probled to number 18

 

[Merle Haggard]

Can we also ban postmen and couriers who think that several other people live at my address apart from me.

When I lived in London my address was XXXXX XXXX Close, which was a third floor flat.

But I always used to get letters and parcels for XXXXX XXXX Road, which was a detatched house, and XXXX XXXX Gardens, which was another block of flats.

It should be obvious to a postment that if you are putting letters through the same letter box when they are addressed to completely different people, with completely different postcodes, that at least some of the letters are being posted incorrectly.

But no, it is easier (for the postman) to just shove everything in one letter box and let the owner of the flat (ie. me ) do their job for them by posting the letters that were not for me through the correct letter boxes.

When Amazon and online deliveries became more widely used, I would often arrive home from work and find bulky parcels for other people left outside my door.

Or even worse, a "..we called but you were out.." card from some rubbish courier like Hermes inviting me to go down to some depot in the back of beyond (ie. an industrial estate in West Ham) and pick up a parcel that was supposedly for me, only to find when I get there that it was for a neighbour that had a similar, but not identical address to me. Beyond annoying.

I can explain this - rather than excuse it.
Many years ago, in my Sixth Form youth, we were expected to work as postmen in the busy weeks before Christmas.
Where I worked, when you received the letters for your 'Walk' they had already been sorted into streets, bound by a rubber band. You then sorted each street into numbers, (as an aside, taking into account that odd and even numbers were on opposite sides but not always numerically opposite). You then delivered looking at the number on the next letter in your pile and dropping it through that number's letter box.
Problem was, if the initial sort had put a letter into the wrong street you tended not to notice that, and just sort by the number. Perhaps inexcusable, but apart from the cold and darkness, the area I covered was called 'The Spencer Estate' - not that one, but one where sometimes attempts were made to steal your bag. It wasn't a great way to earn money, and being conscientious was hard. Another motivation for study at school to avoid ending up there for life, though.

 

[GusB]

What annoys me is people who refuse to acknowledge that posties are generally quite busy people and that genuine mistakes can happen!

A few months ago I had a letter delivered (a replacement bank card) that had been addressed correctly, but it had inadvertently been delivered to number 3 instead of number 4. The envelope had been marked "NOT NUMBER 3" and deposited in the post box for re-delivery. While the fault was either with the person who sorted the post or with the postie who failed to notice, my anger was, quite rightly, with the resident of number 3 who would have had to walk further to get to the postbox than the distance from her front door to mine!

This is the same person that nearly threw a tantrum on my doorstep because I'd taken in a parcel while she was out because apparently she'd instructed the company not to deliver to a neighbour.

At Christmas I sometimes receive cards intended for number 14, but have been addressed to me in error. I'll either walk over and post them through the correct door right away or, if I'm busy, I'll leave them by the door and deliver them the next time I'm out.

 

[D821]

We get a Christmas card each year addressed to our road, house and postcode but with a different town name. I guess someone Googled for the postcode and picked the wrong one.
Despite several years of writing the correct postcode on it, in the hope the recipient would tell the sender of their mistake, it still made no difference.
The Christmas card goes straight in the bin now, I don't see why I should make the effort.