This Really Annoys Me Pet Peeve Thread

[podz]

Remember, it's also the waitstaff who have a financial incentive to turn those tables quickly. You aren't tipping them more for sitting there three hours than if they hustle you out in 45 minutes.

Even if you are, one table tipping $20 doesn't match four turnovers at $10 per.

The whole tipping thing really annoys me in general. It's not part of Finnish culture (in general not part of European culture) but foreigners (mostly USA people and Brits) have tried to import it here and there. Hasn't really worked out too well for them here, though, but they sure like to ***** about not getting any.

 

[JonM]

What if you are a season ticket holder?

Or a Green Bay Packers shareholder?

 

[Quaker]

I'm with craiger on the 'we' for a team thing. I live in WI and understand the Packer aspect, but I don't care.

Chinese tourists are simply acting abroad like they do at home. It's not an entitlement thing, it's just the environment they've been raised in. Still gets on my nerves, but I understand it. I did appreciate the no tipping society there. I had to recondition myself upon returning stateside.

A pet peeve of mine is people driving with only parking lights on or driving with fog lights on a fog-less day. I was embarrassed to be pulled over by the police while driving in the Czech Republic for having fog lights on a clear night. I didn't even know the car I was driving had them, but inadvertently pulled the knob while turning the headlights on. Still, I appreciated they had a law against it and enforced it. Some of our local police drive with parking lights on which really irritates me when I'd expect them to be a role model of good driving habits.

 

[tdiowa]

McDonald's now has breakfast all day, right?

I order pancakes and sausage with a side of scrambled eggs. They take my money. Then bring me the food. I tell them they forgot the eggs.

Then they tell me eggs are only served with breakfast....

I'm like WTF is the deal with breakfast all day?

I say, I want my money back for the eggs... They obliged me.

And these people that work at McDonalds think 15.00 a hour is not a unreasonable wage....

 

[Rhumbline]

The whole tipping thing really annoys me in general. It's not part of Finnish culture (in general not part of European culture) but foreigners (mostly USA people and Brits) have tried to import it here and there. Hasn't really worked out too well for them here, though, but they sure like to ***** about not getting any.

I'm with you. Tipping in the US is necessary because servers can be paid much less than the legal minimum wage. I don't have the exact numbers but if minimum wage is $7.85 per hour then servers can be paid something like $2.75 per hour and it's expected that the tips will make up the difference.

I'm in Italy now, I love the culture here although Rome has been corrupted. Every restaurant I go to in Rome I'm reminded that service is not included.

Anywhere else in Italy, my experience is that there's no rush. In the States, they want to get you in, fed, and gone as soon as possible to seat the next group.

In Florence and elsewhere in Europe, I've ordered a coffee and camped out for hours in one cafe table with no worries from the staff. Don't try that in the States.

 

[podz]

Don't try that in the States.

Don't worry, it's not on my list of travel destinations ;-)

 

[MaxStout]

I'm with you. Tipping in the US is necessary because servers can be paid much less than the legal minimum wage. I don't have the exact numbers but if minimum wage is $7.85 per hour then servers can be paid something like $2.75 per hour and it's expected that the tips will make up the difference.

I'm in Italy now, I love the culture here although Rome has been corrupted. Every restaurant I go to in Rome I'm reminded that service is not included.

Anywhere else in Italy, my experience is that there's no rush. In the States, they want to get you in, fed, and gone as soon as possible to seat the next group.

In Florence and elsewhere in Europe, I've ordered a coffee and camped out for hours in one cafe table with no worries from the staff. Don't try that in the States.

I enjoyed being able to spend a few Euros for a coffee, then relax an hour or two without being nudged out the door.

Unless things have changed, I recall a tip being that you rounded up to the next Euro. Anything more than that was deemed excessive.

 

[Rhumbline]

I enjoyed being able to spend a few Euros for a coffee, then relax an hour or two without being nudged out the door.

Unless things have changed, I recall a tip being that you rounded up to the next Euro. Anything more than that was deemed excessive.

Yeah, anywhere other than Rome. even leaving the change can make them uncomfortable.

 

[Schlenkerla]

The whole tipping thing really annoys me in general. It's not part of Finnish culture (in general not part of European culture) but foreigners (mostly USA people and Brits) have tried to import it here and there. Hasn't really worked out too well for them here, though, but they sure like to ***** about not getting any.

I'm not sure if you know the food service business has lower hourly rates than any other low skilled minimum wage job in the USA. A portion of their hourly pay is considered to be from tipping. I'm not sure why its this way in the US. Maybe to help businesses survive with volatile demand for food service in a day. The thought they can staff higher to cover a meal surge and defray the labor/service cost on the consumer and not be on the hook for 100% of the hourly wage for a slow day. In a non-tipping payment method they would not do this, if they were busy they would just be slow. Pure speculation...

US Tourists do it for a few reasons. Probably they don't know better and think its required or expected. They also don't want to look like cheap-a$$ tightwads to the service staff. If they received good service that its well earned, they want to reward the person. They plan to be around for awhile and want the service next time. With this last thought I am thinking of baggage handlers mainly. When I travel to Europe or Asia its usually for more than a week and I'm usually toting heavy suit cases and I appreciate the help they have given me lugging my crap around. I do this at bars too. I tend to make a connection with that individual and get better service. Timely refills and polite conversation, this often leads to them telling me what's good to see in their town while visiting. Its not a bad thing, its my money, if I want to give it to people, and I can afford to do this, why not?

Whats the matter with this? Do you have a bunch a loud mouth Americans in your favorite dinning or drinking establishment and taking away the service attention you'd get if they were absent? When its time to get you another beer you have too wait longer? Are you thinking, "Stop talking to those fookers over there and get me another beer.... be-otch?"

 

[podz]

Do you have a bunch a loud mouth Americans in your favorite dinning or drinking establishment and taking away the service attention you'd get if they were absent? When its time to get you another beer you have too wait longer? Are you thinking, "Stop talking to those fookers over there and get me another beer.... be-otch?"

LOL, no, you missed what I was saying. There are some USA people and Brits who have moved here, mainly looking for work, and they can't find work outside of the service industry. They expect that people here are going to tip them, they set out tip jars, etc, but it doesn't really succeed - nobody tips them and they get highly pissed off about it.

 

[Schlenkerla]

LOL, no, you missed what I was saying. There are some USA people and Brits who have moved here, mainly looking for work, and they can't find work outside of the service industry. They expect that people here are going to tip them, they set out tip jars, etc, but it doesn't really succeed - nobody tips them and they get highly pissed off about it.

I was wondering if was what you said above or the flip side of not liking tippers...

 

[Schlenkerla]

The whole tipping thing really annoys me in general. It's not part of Finnish culture (in general not part of European culture) but foreigners (mostly USA people and Brits) have tried to import it here and there. Hasn't really worked out too well for them here, though,


but they sure like to ***** about not getting any.

Re-read this, not sure how I missed this.

Edit. Makes me think they're mad about not getting any action from tipping big. I'm sophomoric though...

 

[sudbuddy]

People who say "Belgium" beer instead of Belgian beer

 

[podz]

Re-read this, not sure how I missed this.

Edit. Makes me think they're mad about not getting any action from tipping big. I'm sophomoric though...

Foreigner WORKERS have tried to import it here, not foreigner CUSTOMERS. The foreigner WORKERS get pissed of when nobody tips them. The foreigner workers being mainly USA and British citizens who have moved here looking for work.

 

[rawlus]

Remember, it's also the waitstaff who have a financial incentive to turn those tables quickly. You aren't tipping them more for sitting there three hours than if they hustle you out in 45 minutes.

Even if you are, one table tipping $20 doesn't match four turnovers at $10 per.

There are plentry of people who don't mind processed food prepared in central warehouses and then reheated in a commercial kitchen and served by a drug addicted waitstaff so I don't have to worry about my impact on the rate of table turns.

It's not about tipping, I tip well. It's about going to a chain restaurant and paying good money for something you can make better at home, sometimes for less money too. Chain restaurants are for lazy people.

 

[Stillraining]

I'm taking notes and will get all this taken care of when I'm voted King.

 

[CGVT]

Screw that. When I am King the world will swing.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Foreigner WORKERS have tried to import it here, not foreigner CUSTOMERS. The foreigner WORKERS get pissed of when nobody tips them. The foreigner workers being mainly USA and British citizens who have moved here looking for work.

I know...was goofing on you.

Action = Tipping big and taking some hottie to an "after hours" place.

English a second language?

Sophomoric means pretentious and juvenile, I still laugh at fart jokes. I'm almost 50.

 

[sudbuddy]

People who routinely make a stink at restaurants and talk to the manager over a perceived slight by the wait staff. They almost always have never worked in a restaurant and don't understand life from the other side. They also just look like entitled a$$holes. @Schlenkerla I'm sure you're a good guy and all, but based on your first few posts you seem to fit the bill on this one. I would encourage you to put yourself in their shoes and come down off your high horse on something as trivial as an appetizer.

 

[podz]

English a second language?

Fourth.

 

[sudbuddy]

Fourth.

Nice

 

[Schlenkerla]

People who routinely make a stink at restaurants and talk to the manager over a perceived slight by the wait staff. They almost always have never worked in a restaurant and don't understand life from the other side. They also just look like entitled a$$holes. @Schlenkerla I'm sure you're a good guy and all, but based on your first few posts you seem to fit the bill on this one. I would encourage you to put yourself in their shoes and come down off your high horse on something as trivial as an appetizer.

Dude I have worked at a restaurant, so I know how the people feel working there.

In most cases this is really only a pet peeve when it's something like my wedding anniversary and I'm gonna drop $150 for a dinner for two.

I generally recognize inexperienced wait staff. I will order accordingly or say something to space it out. If I'm doing dinner and a movie and I need to burn time I just let them know I'm not in hurry. I'm not about to be bothered with a wait especially if they are busy.

That's why I said they must never eat out for dinner or think about the customer experience. If they did, they would know any normal person wants to eat the appetizer and not have main course come right on top of it or immediately after ~ 1 or 2 minutes. When you haven't had time to eat it and probably reload in drinks before the main course.

I have had the appetizer come after the main course... with two separate people bringing out food. I've had salad come before the appetizer too.

They need to pay attention to what they are doing. Managers should explain this to younger employees with little to no experience.

So, I order in this sequence; a drink/cocktail, an appetizer, a meal, later a dessert and a cup of coffee. Tell me the order they should come out. The meal comes with soup/salad and bread.

This is NOT a trick question and not complicated.

 

[sudbuddy]

They need to pay attention to what they are doing. Managers should explain this to younger employees with little to no experience.

And of course, it is your DUTY to tell the manager how to train his staff. How silly of me.

Dude, that's no way to behave in public. I would be humiliated if I was at a restaurant and someone at my table started acting the way you have described yourself in previous posts.

 

[sudbuddy]

To wit:

If this happens, the manager hears about an the waiters gets nothing more than a 10% tip.

Its just inconsiderate if you ask me. When this happens I send the food back and ask for the bill. I pay for the appetizer and drinks and then tell the management about the service.

I will get upset, bite my tongue, at that point I'm done eating. I get up and tell the manager.

Even in McDonalds!!!

I'm like WTF is the deal with breakfast all day?

I say, I want my money back for the eggs... They obliged me.

English a second language?

That's just snarky

I won't even bother with the episode(s) you described at Red Robin because that is just entitlement and over-analysis on a mind-boggling level.

 

[Schlenkerla]

And of course, it is your DUTY to tell the manager how to train his staff. How silly of me.

Dude, that's no way to behave in public. I would be humiliated if I was at a restaurant and someone at my table started acting the way you have described yourself in previous posts.

Yeah its my duty to tell the manager of the restaurant where the bear $hits in the woods, I know the bear and the woods better than anybody else.

I love being a condescending jerk in public especially in restaurants. They can spit in my food, put my steak in the crack of their a$$, drop pubic hairs in my drink and I'm no wiser.

Dude - I'm extremely polite. I'm discrete about conversations with managers. If their employees aren't doing what it takes give their restaurant a good reputation they need to know it. Done tactfully with out any sign of anger or contempt.

I'm the type of person at work that wants to know if I'm not meeting expectations. I ask how I'm doing. This way I can make changes before somebody tells me bad news at a year-end review.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Fourth.

podz. I speak only one language fluently. 2nd is German about 60-70% confidently.

Your English it's definitely better than any other language I'd try to speak.

I wasn't sure if there was a misunderstanding colloquial or slang.

I wasn't intending to be snarky.

Frankly wasn't sure if you were an American living abroad or Finnish.

 

[sudbuddy]

Don't be that guy.

It would never occur to me to complain to the manager, that's just a whiny d!ck move in my opinion.

 

[sudbuddy]

On that note, let's give it a rest.

I hate when people say "to where." As in, "let's do something this way, to where we can achieve this"

 

[soccerdad]

Do what?

I don't know if this is strictly southern speak or not. Both my SIL and DIL say 'Do what?' when normal humans would say. 'Pardon me' or 'come again', or just plain 'what?' I have taken to responding with, 'No, you're good, don't do anything.'

 

[sudbuddy]

Do what?

I don't know if this is strictly southern speak or not. Both my SIL and DIL say 'Do what?' when normal humans would say. 'Pardon me' or 'come again', or just plain 'what?'

Ewww! That would drive me nuts

 

[Rhumbline]

OK, here's my submittal.

The idea that everything gets better by hooking a microcomputer up to it.

Among the countless examples of this are microprocessor controlled toasters. they promise you your toast will be cooked identically every time.

I don't need that kind of control over toast. I like a little chaos in my life just to keep things from getting boring. Know how I cook toast? A cast iron skillet on the stove.

And while I'm at it, THE CLOUD. I have a job that requires sharing a lot of information with a lot of people and getting their input. My way is to call them into a room and lay everything out with everyone throwing ideas and comments back and forth. I'll always have that IT idiot who thinks they'll just videoconference in (from a building 200' away) and wants me to upload crap to the Cloud. instead of sending me a document, they'll say that they put it in the project folder in the cloud, which I have no access to and no interest in using. for the same amount of effort, they could have attached the thing to their email.

It's inefficient, error prone, and offers no added value.

 

[MaxStout]

OK, here's my submittal.

The idea that everything gets better by hooking a microcomputer up to it.

Among the countless examples of this are microprocessor controlled toasters. they promise you your toast will be cooked identically every time.

I don't need that kind of control over toast. I like a little chaos in my life just to keep things from getting boring. Know how I cook toast? A cast iron skillet on the stove.

And while I'm at it, THE CLOUD. I have a job that requires sharing a lot of information with a lot of people and getting their input. My way is to call them into a room and lay everything out with everyone throwing ideas and comments back and forth. I'll always have that IT idiot who thinks they'll just videoconference in (from a building 200' away) and wants me to upload crap to the Cloud. instead of sending me a document, they'll say that they put it in the project folder in the cloud, which I have no access to and no interest in using. for the same amount of effort, they could have attached the thing to their email.

It's inefficient, error prone, and offers no added value.

Now, your appliances can spy on you. This is becoming a marketer's wet dream.

 

[podz]

Among the countless examples of this are microprocessor controlled toasters. they promise you your toast will be cooked identically every time.

I don't need that kind of control over toast. I like a little chaos in my life just to keep things from getting boring. Know how I cook toast? A cast iron skillet on the stove.

This is why I will never have anything to do with sous vide - it can never cook a tomohawk steak with more attitude than I can do while standing in front of my weber with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

 

[Schlenkerla]

On that note, let's give it a rest.

I hate when people say "to where." As in, "let's do something this way, to where we can achieve this"

Ok I think you're reading too much into this. Assume it's more passive-aggressive venting here.

It's easy to say this, and that, ***** and wine here, and make a big deal of it in a thread than give honest feedback to restaurant managers.

I travel quite a bit for work. I eat out three times a week. Maybe two times a year I talk to a restaurant manager. Most of the time my wife is with me and is pissed about the food or the service

I only ask for something to be taken something off the bill when they've really screwed up or there's an obviously quality problem.

My wife once got chunks of a wooden spoon, I think, in an alfredo pasta dish. I once got perch fillet with the biggest black beetle, pinchers and all, in the center of the fillet. Just like it was a cherry on a sundae. I don't know how they missed it.

The instance I referenced where we rejected the food and asked for the bill was where a supposedly hot appetizer came late and was cold, then seconds later the main course comes. The waiter was snooty taking the drink and appetizer order (according to my wife). We just threw in the towel. We paid for the drinks.

Once we have had the appetizer come after the main course.

I'm sorry about the red robin thing. They should have said, "Have you been here before, you need to use the tablet to page the wait staff?" Something along those lines.

 

[Rhumbline]

Now, your appliances can spy on you. This is becoming a marketer's wet dream.

Exactly! My refrigerator does not need internet connection. No, it ain't gonna happen. and the same goes for the washing machine.

 

[JonM]

Watch the recent episode of Nova about cybersecurity. It is frighteningly easy for hackers to access those web-enabled gadgets. It's especially worrisome when people have those door locks you can open and close from a smartphone.

Imagine if a hacker accessed a brew nanny and bumped the temp up to where you'd get esters and fusel alcohols!!!!

 

[podz]

podz. I speak only one language fluently. 2nd is German about 60-70% confidently.

Your English it's definitely better than any other language I'd try to speak.

I wasn't sure if there was a misunderstanding colloquial or slang.

I wasn't intending to be snarky.

Frankly wasn't sure if you were an American living abroad or Finnish.

Don't worry, man. Here, most people are already studying their third language and many already bilingual by the time they are nine years old. If it weren't for the prevalence of english and german language tv, we'd all be restricted to the hell of watching local drama-queen episodes such as Salatut elämät.

Might not be too late for you to take up Spanish lessons - I hear they're taking over large swaths of your country. They might even have some good tv series ;-)

 

[podz]

On that note, let's give it a rest.

I hate when people say "to where." As in, "let's do something this way, to where we can achieve this"

The etymology of many of the strangeties in USA English, are from grammatically perfect Swedish/Finnish/German having been literally translated into English by immigrants and taken into regional use where they settled.

If it really aggravates you, then you can go all Winston Churchill on their arses and tell them "I've had all of this, up with which I can put!"

 

[Schlenkerla]

Don't be that guy.

It would never occur to me to complain to the manager, that's just a whiny d!ck move in my opinion.

I know you said ok let it rest. I'll stop after this unless you want keep going back and forth. Just say so.

You never felt like you were getting bad service, ignored, been shortchanged, or have been mistreated by bad employees? If so how did you resolve the problem?

I don't know what you do for a living. I work in a very large corporation, it's a bureaucracy where people don't always play nice, they have their own agenda, or shirk responsibility. It's a wonder how they keep their jobs.

If you're being held accountable to a goal or deadline and you need to get something done but one person or group is the obstacle you can't blame them and let it go.

If face to face conversations don't work or telephone calls, sometimes you have to cc their boss in an email or call a meeting and invite them and their boss and hammer stuff out with them and your boss.

You can call me winey d!ck, but in the long term I'll keep my job and get a good raise and eventually get promoted.

It's better than being the one who's getting d!cked.

 

[Rhumbline]

The etymology of many of the strangeties in USA English, are from grammatically perfect Swedish/Finnish/German having been literally translated into English by immigrants and taken into regional use where they settled.

If it really aggravates you, then you can go all Winston Churchill on their arses and tell them "I've had all of this, up with which I can put!"

We've got a lot of French Canadians down where I live. it still cracks me up to hear something like "Throw me over the fence, a rake"

...and then there's the German friend of ours who comes over and says something like "You will get me a beer" when he means "Will you get me a beer?" completely different meaning and we gave him endless grief over being the bossy German a-hole.

In the military they always taught us simple phrases when we'd be going overseas. It took a while for me to realize how stupid it was to learn how to say "I don't speak Norwegian" when the average Norwegian would realize pretty quickly that was the case. Likewise, it's pretty dumb to be able to ask "Where is the train station?" if you can't understand the response.