What little things drive you completely up the wall....?

[Venus193]

When information about things like medical insurance is in industryspeak and difficult to understand to people the industry is intended to serve.

[Diane AKA Traska]

The shareholders?

::Flees very, very fast::

[Snooks]

New things not working - in the past week I've had a brand new top shrink after being washed following the instructions and a new computer which just turns on it's lights and beeps, no output to keyboard or monitor.

[cabbageweevil]

I'm now wondering if you have TV in your public toilets!

Not normally, but I've heard about it as a possibility.

I haven't seen TVs in public lavatories yet but have been some experiments with projected ads.

Recalled from childhood 50+ years ago, at the height of the Cold War (and a time where television was much less ubiquitous than now) -- read in "humour" section of some periodical, likely the Reader's Digest -- "In hotels in Russia, there's television in every room; but IT watches YOU".

[Diane AKA Traska]

I'm now wondering if you have TV in your public toilets!

Not normally, but I've heard about it as a possibility.

I haven't seen TVs in public lavatories yet but have been some experiments with projected ads.

Recalled from childhood 50+ years ago, at the height of the Cold War (and a time where television was much less ubiquitous than now) -- read in "humour" section of some periodical, likely the Reader's Digest -- "In hotels in Russia, there's television in every room; but IT watches YOU".

Are you sure it's 50+ years ago?  Because that sounds like Yakov Smirnov's "In Soviet Russia, X does Y to you!" bit.

[Moray]

I was just thinking the same thing, Traska. I think that places it around '83-'86 or so.

[siamesecat2965]

When the washers stop in my laundry room and I'm waiting around for whoever's stuff is in there to come and take it out so I can use them!  Bonus points if they don't come and I have to take it out myself, and touch their stuff.  Ick. I know its weird, but I hate touching other people's clean laundry.  I always go down before mine is done, so when its done, I can take it out, and the next person can use it. Today I waited almost 15 minutes and finally gave up.  I hate that I had to do that, but I need to do mine, and when its busy like that, and they're all in use, you snooze, you lose.

[siamesecat2965]

And when I go back, and the stuff I removed is still there, and the owners are just coming for it.  And get pissy wiht me when they wonder what happened and I politely say their stuff sat for 45 minutes and it was busy, so I removed it.  I was slightly wrong, it didn't sit IN the washer, but on the table and in the cart.  So if you can't get down there when your stuff is done to take it out, you have no right to complain.  And since all dryers were in use, I drove to another laundry room which was EMPTY and cleaner than mine.  Might have to start using that one.

[Thipu1]

I was just thinking the same thing, Traska. I think that places it around '83-'86 or so.

About the time I visited the Soviet Union in 1971, there was a cartoon in Punch that said almost the same thing.

  'If you require anything, just speak into the table lamp'.  With the key ladies on every floor of every hotel you could almost believe it. 

[Diane AKA Traska]

I was just thinking the same thing, Traska. I think that places it around '83-'86 or so.

About the time I visited the Soviet Union in 1971, there was a cartoon in Punch that said almost the same thing.

  'If you require anything, just speak into the table lamp'.  With the key ladies on every floor of every hotel you could almost believe it.

That's a different kind of joke, though... more dark humor, and less "Soviets have everything backwards" kind of thing.

[Thipu1]

Getting other people's mail.

I know this happens from time to time.  The delivery person puts something in the wrong box.  However, in our case, it's getting absurd. 

Over the last few months we've been regularly getting mail for at least half a dozen different people.  The disturbing part of this is that, although the names vary, all the addresses are our address down to the apartment number. 

It isn't possible that any of these people lived in the apartment before us.  We moved in on the day the renovated building was approved for occupancy and have lived there for almost 30 years.  It's also not a spelling error because the names are completely unlike ours. 

We're concerned because it could look like there are eight people with very different names all living in our two bedroom flat.   
 

[GreenEyedHawk]

Siamesecat, you do NOT make me miss having to share apartment laundry at ALL.  In my old building, before I moved into my house, I used to have to sit in the laundry room with a book and guard my stuff, because things would get stolen (including a $150 hockey jersey, which I did manage to get back) or someone would steal my wash or my dry.

See, the laundry room was right next to the rear entryway of the building, so some tenants would sort of hide around the corner in the entryway, and the washers and dryers are coin-operated.  So I would bring my laundry to the laundry room, put it in a washer and pay my $1.50 for the wash, then fire it up and go back to my apartment, because who wants to babysit their laundry, right?

Then the hiding-around-the-corner tenant, hearing me leave, would dart into the laundry room, pull my laundry (usually at least partly wet by this time) out of the washer, dump it on the folding table and throw theirs in, using the wash I paid for.

I eventually ended up buying an apartment washer/dryer unit for about $500.  The money was a huge hit at the time, but the unit hooked up to my sink and fit easily in the corner of the kitchen nearby.  My faucet did not need changing at all except for a simple snap fitting that screwed on.  The convenience of knowing my laundry wouldn't be stolen, as well as being able to do laundry whenever I wanted, without having to make a trip to get the right kind of change for the machines and all the other hassles that come with using shared apartment laundry?  Worth every penny.

[Elfmama]

Getting other people's mail.

I know this happens from time to time.  The delivery person puts something in the wrong box.  However, in our case, it's getting absurd. 

Over the last few months we've been regularly getting mail for at least half a dozen different people.  The disturbing part of this is that, although the names vary, all the addresses are our address down to the apartment number.

It isn't possible that any of these people lived in the apartment before us.  We moved in on the day the renovated building was approved for occupancy and have lived there for almost 30 years.  It's also not a spelling error because the names are completely unlike ours. 

We're concerned because it could look like there are eight people with very different names all living in our two bedroom flat.

Thipu, check your credit score IMMEDIATELY.  It looks like your address is being used fraudulently, especially if this mail is some sort of bill.  You may be the victim of identity theft.

Contact your Post Office Monday morning, explain this fraudulent use, and follow their suggestions.  It may be to give them the letters so that they can investigate, keep them so that the credit score people can investigate, or just print 'return to sender - no such person at this address' and drop them back in the mail.

Good luck.  We had a person who used our phone number fraudulently for several years.  I finally had to work up a spiel that I launched into as soon as callers asked for her.

[Thipu1]

Thank you for the excellent suggestion.  We will certainly check our credit scores.  We have gone the 'return to sender' and 'not at this address' routes.

So far, the misdirected mail has been benign.  We've only received catalogs, appeals from charities and postcards with notification of local social events.

The bills we receive are only our monthly 'nut'...maintenance, gas, electric and telephone.  These we carefully read and compare to prior months.  To date, there has been nothing out of the ordinary but we'll be especially vigilant. 
   

[Luci45]

The bills we receive are only our monthly 'nut'...maintenance, gas, electric and telephone.

I was with you until NUT. What does that mean? Yes, I got 'regular stuff', but what does that mean?

I'm still good with just ignore the whole thing and if the authorities come, just show them around the place - unless, of course, you are storing your  brother's stuff (insert other relative here) so it looks kind of shady. Good luck!