The Room 101 thread - for things you hate or just having a bloody good moan

[Sly Boots]

Generally speaking if I'm dealing with an actual human for more than 15 seconds and they say I may receive a survey, they get 5 stars and a very positive comment unless they somehow manage to do a wretched job. With those sorts of surveys being a part of my life for ten years, I understand the pressure they're under to receive good ones. If someone does do a wretched job, then I'm probably just not going to respond at all (unless they're clearly doing something wilfully negligent) because we all have bad days and I'm not going to add fuel to a hideous corporate HR practice I don't agree with.

Exactly this for me too, after how I know such surveys affected my dad's job and pay.

And you totally should watch Black Mirror, amazing show... not every episode is a knockout but more are than not.

[Tommy]

He’s a really mundane complaint - why’s there not a user friendly Radio Guide app, in the same vein as TV Guide?

I’ve seen how much some of these radio DJs get paid, so I know it’s still a popular medium. So why is it I have to GUESS when they’re on?!

My irritation at this has really spurred me on to pull almost my full kitchen out, so it’s a double edged sword…

[Animalmother]

I'd be genuinely amazed if there isn't a radio schedule thing somewhere.

So Xbox does this reward thing where you earn points over time by playing games, getting achievements etc. Those points can be turned into a voucher for €25 once you have enough. This used to be very straight forward, click on the claim reward and voucher was added to account, very simple.

Now the points are drip feed so slowly that getting to that reward point is excruciatingly slow. Once you have enough they now want you to scan a QR code, go to a website, log into your MS account, add your phone number, submit the code they just sent you, do this again because it didn't work, try it again, nah sorry there's a problem, maybe try again later? You always end back at square one.

Looking online this seems to be a very common problem with no solution, the suggestion from MS support is to log a ticket and they'll look into it. I presume that this has to be deliberate to dissuade people claiming the discount.

[Raid]

Greetings cards.

I hate these things. They feel like nothing more than a social obligation as otherwise it looks like you've forgotten, and they're just such a massive waste of money and resources. The few people I send them to I call on the day anyway, and they're both expensive and boring. It used to be that you could find some decent, reasonably witty little cartoons, but it's years since I found one that raised more than a smile. And fucking hell do I hate trying to think of something witty to write in them - the second I'm faced with a greetings card my mind goes entirely blank because I over-think everything that comes to mind and decide it's unsuitable.

The selection for birthday cards is attrocious. We're a country with a long and storied history of cutting barbs and satire, but try searching with "funny" or "humour" in the filter and you get a mountain of gormless-looking, hideously drawn people I assume are celebrities holding a cake and pointing at the viewer yelling something their moronic catchphrase. One of the ones I scrolled past earlier today said "Have an Amy-zing birthday" with a crudely drawn-over photo of Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse died 13 years ago from alcohol poisoning after suffering from long-term substance abuse and mental illness. Happy Birthday!

And I hate receiving the bloody things too. I get a birthday card from my mum and brother without fail every year. I have flat-out told them directly to stop doing it. I don't enjoy my birthday, I haven't done since I was a kid, as by the point it rolls around everyone is in the final stages of preparing for christmas and all that happens is that I feel lonely and miserable. I try my very best to forget it exists, to treat it like any other day, but lo and behold there's an expensive piece of cheap cardboard sitting in my kitchen reminding me. There was one year during the worst of my depression where I opened the cards, read the comment, and put them straight in my recycling bin.

I wish this whole industry would just fuck off, save a million trees a year and however many trillion tons of CO2 it takes to manufacture and deliver the things worldwide.

[Wrathbone]

100% agree. I only buy cards for immediate family, and only because it’s easier than trying to explain to my mum why she’s the only one who places any value in them. I bought a birthday card for my sister last week and ended up getting a Star Wars card (despite her having no interest in Star Wars) because every other card was insultingly unfunny. This one was too, but marginally less so - it had Luke mishearing “Feel the Force” and stroking a horse. My sides, how they split.

The funniest card I ever received was a hand-made one from my youngest niece when she was about 8. It read: “Thanos has killed everyone but you. Good job!” I’m not sure if it was the surly depiction of Thanos or the idea that I’d be chuffed with him having annihilated everyone else in the world, but it hit my funny bone.