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today's complaints
Oct. 17th, 2007 01:02 pmYet another entry entitled "today's complaints". I briefly flirted with the idea of having a complaint of the day, but then I'd have no days left to post other stuff.
Anyway.
Firstly, someone appears to have stolen my coat when I was out last night. I left it somewhere that I figured would be pretty safe and free from the possibility of someone taking it by accident, but someone took it anyway despite my periodic checking. Of course, there are the usual caveats about how foolish my actions may have been in leaving such an item in an open area, but that's not really the point. I should be able to put my coat down and have it there when I return in much the same way that women should be allowed to look good on a night out and not get raped. Temptation may be an influence but it's not an excuse. It wasn't a particularly good or expensive coat, but I've had it for a while and it was a gift, so it's a shame to lose it. It's more annoying that there are grown up and supposedly mature people who still steal things.
Secondly, the shop salesman in the leather coat shop was massively overbearing! I went in there to scope out replacement coats and he Just Wouldn't Stop Talking. Yes, I probably want a black one, yes, probably quite plain and simple, no, I don't think I would want the military style one, no, I don't want a trenchcoat as I'm only a part-time goth, oh, it's your best selling one is it, that's great, yes, that one is really light isn't it. FFS. In the end I left before I was able to do all the browsing I wanted, because I was fed up of answering his questions. How on earth is that a good sales tactic? Do people really feel pressured into buying £150 leather coats when hassled by a salesman? I would guess that they're far more likely to flee like I did than to make such an expensive impulse purchase. I need to go back with a pretty girl to distract him with.
Thirdly, I wish Caiman 'UK' (in the USA!) who sell CDs and books via Amazon Marketplace would stop lying about whether something is in stock or not. Almost half of the things I've ordered from them, which are explicitly marked as being in stock, ended up being on back order meaning I've had to wait 4 to 8 weeks for them. I might have still bought the items anyway even knowing that they'd take that long to arrive, but I hate being lied to. I think I'm adding them to my boycott list, alongside Microsoft and Creative. I know not everybody agrees with the benefit or ethics of such things, but I think that you have to vote with your wallet. (As it's pretty clear that voting with your ballot achieves absofuckinglutely nothing.)
Fourthly, people who feel the need to publicly micro-analyse a night out that they just went to by posting on the internet. Once upon a time people might comment that they had a great time, or they didn't, which is fair enough. Then it started becoming more a case of "they didn't play much X and too much Y". Now it's going beyond that point, to where people worry about how much a sub-sub-genre is played, or how many songs of a certain type were played in a row. Come on people, get a life. And don't claim this criticism is "nothing personal", because you're wrong - no matter how you intend it to be taken, the event was run by real people who have real feelings, and you are effectively now highlighting their failings in public. Most of them will be happy to listen to you privately or receive your email if it's really that big a deal. If not, just leave it. If your night is made shit because someone played Smashing Pumpkins after only 2 power metal songs in a row rather than a good run of 6, or because your favourite song was played 90 minutes earlier than you expected, then you probably just shouldn't leave the house.
Hmm, that'll do. Back to work...
Anyway.
Firstly, someone appears to have stolen my coat when I was out last night. I left it somewhere that I figured would be pretty safe and free from the possibility of someone taking it by accident, but someone took it anyway despite my periodic checking. Of course, there are the usual caveats about how foolish my actions may have been in leaving such an item in an open area, but that's not really the point. I should be able to put my coat down and have it there when I return in much the same way that women should be allowed to look good on a night out and not get raped. Temptation may be an influence but it's not an excuse. It wasn't a particularly good or expensive coat, but I've had it for a while and it was a gift, so it's a shame to lose it. It's more annoying that there are grown up and supposedly mature people who still steal things.
Secondly, the shop salesman in the leather coat shop was massively overbearing! I went in there to scope out replacement coats and he Just Wouldn't Stop Talking. Yes, I probably want a black one, yes, probably quite plain and simple, no, I don't think I would want the military style one, no, I don't want a trenchcoat as I'm only a part-time goth, oh, it's your best selling one is it, that's great, yes, that one is really light isn't it. FFS. In the end I left before I was able to do all the browsing I wanted, because I was fed up of answering his questions. How on earth is that a good sales tactic? Do people really feel pressured into buying £150 leather coats when hassled by a salesman? I would guess that they're far more likely to flee like I did than to make such an expensive impulse purchase. I need to go back with a pretty girl to distract him with.
Thirdly, I wish Caiman 'UK' (in the USA!) who sell CDs and books via Amazon Marketplace would stop lying about whether something is in stock or not. Almost half of the things I've ordered from them, which are explicitly marked as being in stock, ended up being on back order meaning I've had to wait 4 to 8 weeks for them. I might have still bought the items anyway even knowing that they'd take that long to arrive, but I hate being lied to. I think I'm adding them to my boycott list, alongside Microsoft and Creative. I know not everybody agrees with the benefit or ethics of such things, but I think that you have to vote with your wallet. (As it's pretty clear that voting with your ballot achieves absofuckinglutely nothing.)
Fourthly, people who feel the need to publicly micro-analyse a night out that they just went to by posting on the internet. Once upon a time people might comment that they had a great time, or they didn't, which is fair enough. Then it started becoming more a case of "they didn't play much X and too much Y". Now it's going beyond that point, to where people worry about how much a sub-sub-genre is played, or how many songs of a certain type were played in a row. Come on people, get a life. And don't claim this criticism is "nothing personal", because you're wrong - no matter how you intend it to be taken, the event was run by real people who have real feelings, and you are effectively now highlighting their failings in public. Most of them will be happy to listen to you privately or receive your email if it's really that big a deal. If not, just leave it. If your night is made shit because someone played Smashing Pumpkins after only 2 power metal songs in a row rather than a good run of 6, or because your favourite song was played 90 minutes earlier than you expected, then you probably just shouldn't leave the house.
Hmm, that'll do. Back to work...
