Room 101 - what single aspect of modern life should be consigned to oblivion?

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  • Old Grumpy
    Full Member
    • Jan 2011
    • 3602

    #31
    Originally posted by Old Grumpy View Post
    People who assume that everyone listening to their presentation, reading their messageboard post (or whatever) know what all the abbreviations mean.

    Oh, and people who say "whatever" all the time.

    OG

    Comment

    • Serial_Apologist
      Full Member
      • Dec 2010
      • 37639

      #32
      TV ads which are YEARS OLD!

      One which has a young woman making up a list of expenses, and writes down £160 for a TV license.

      Comment

      • Petrushka
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 12242

        #33
        My job involves a lot of telephone work so I am more than well aware of the horrors mentioned here. Really hate ringing a UK number and finding myself in a call centre in Calcutta. Just as bad as being presented with 83 options (the one I want is always last) then being informed by voicemail that the person I want is away from their desk please call later. Sometimes I have been known, when ringing insurance companies, to be take a tour of the entire country before ending up speaking to the first person I'd contacted half an hour before.

        More seriously, those endless scam phone calls that plague one at weekends should be outlawed and ditto the similarly endless stream of junk mail promising the recipient that they have 'won' millions. Frequently targetting the elderly these criminals are aided and abetted by the Royal Mail who own a stake in the Dutch distribution company that sends the stuff out. Consign this modern day pestilence to Room 101!
        "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

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        • VodkaDilc

          #34
          Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
          My job involves a lot of telephone work so I am more than well aware of the horrors mentioned here. Really hate ringing a UK number and finding myself in a call centre in Calcutta. Just as bad as being presented with 83 options (the one I want is always last) then being informed by voicemail that the person I want is away from their desk please call later. Sometimes I have been known, when ringing insurance companies, to be take a tour of the entire country before ending up speaking to the first person I'd contacted half an hour before.
          A particular aspect of the options list which annoys me is the insistence on finding alternative ways of saying "Press 1." Instead we get: "For sales: Press 1; for existing orders: Hit 2; For advice: It's 3" and so on. What's wrong with Press for all of them? I'm usually waiting for the one which lets me speak to a person anyway.
          Last edited by Guest; 24-02-12, 06:07.

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          • Nick Armstrong
            Host
            • Nov 2010
            • 26525

            #35
            Originally posted by VodkaDilc View Post
            I'm usually waiting for the one which let's me speak to a person anyway.
            I tend just to hang on and not listen to the options... 9 times out of 10, they end up putting you through to a humanoid...
            "...the isle is full of noises,
            Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
            Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
            Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

            Comment

            • Mr Pee
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 3285

              #36
              Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
              Mr Pee doesn't contribute to the boards, cloughie- he just advertises for Sky


              Oh, while we're on the subject, this sounds great:-

              Discover a range of Sky Channels – Watch the latest TV shows, blockbuster movies, and live sports. Enjoy Sky Originals, and access on-demand content.


              And this:-

              Sky Arts is dedicated to the best arts programming across all genres, 24 hours a day.


              “Sky Arts leads the way on visual arts, dance, jazz and opera.” The Independent.

              “Sky Arts is showing the BBC how to do its job.” Daily Telegraph.

              “Sky Arts is increasingly proving itself the place to find the most interesting and innovative arts programming.” The Guardian.

              (Blimey, The Guardian has got something right for once....)
              Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

              Mark Twain.

              Comment

              • Chris Newman
                Late Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 2100

                #37
                Satellite dishes and piped music.

                Comment

                • Pabmusic
                  Full Member
                  • May 2011
                  • 5537

                  #38
                  24-hour news, and every other thing that makes the joys of the world available instantly.

                  Comment

                  • cloughie
                    Full Member
                    • Dec 2011
                    • 22118

                    #39
                    Originally posted by johncorrigan View Post
                    Call Centres - then when you phone them they take a couple of minutes to slowly inform you that they are going to be charging you 10p a minute from a bt landmine etc, then that the calls may be saved and used for training purposes, and then how important the call is to them and that you are in position....ONE!!! - all the time I imagine all their operators gathered together having a right good giggle to themselves AT MY EXPENSE. Do you think I'm paranoid?
                    Not if you let them get to you!

                    Comment

                    • cloughie
                      Full Member
                      • Dec 2011
                      • 22118

                      #40
                      Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
                      Mr Pee doesn't contribute to the boards, cloughie- he just advertises for Sky
                      No good to me - don't do Sky!

                      Comment

                      • Beef Oven

                        #41
                        Political correctness.

                        Can I have two? Thanks - atheism.

                        Comment

                        • Pabmusic
                          Full Member
                          • May 2011
                          • 5537

                          #42
                          Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
                          Use of the letter Z when S would suffice: eg Revolutionize; and of "-or" rather than "-er" at the end of certain words: eg Advisor.
                          In the 90s I was for a few months a 'training advisor'. I refused to wear the badge unless it was spelt 'adviser' (I'm awkward like that sometimes). The upshot was that I and the three other 'advisors' were each given new badges. A small victory!

                          The -ise ending is a strange case. Americans always use -ize (and Merriam-Webster doesn't acknowledge -ise at all) and British dictionaries all give -ize as the preferred spelling, though they do acknowledge -ise as an alternative. But here's the thing - it's very rare to find a British writer using anything but -ise, whatever the OED thinks. Dictionaries say one thing; we all do the other. And of course, -ize just looks wrong.

                          Thinking this over, the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) alphabet didn't have Z at all - it's an introduction from Norman-French - and I wonder if there's a sort of 'folk memory' of this that makes the letter Z seem unusual, even after so many years. Because it does seem so, doesn't it?
                          Last edited by Pabmusic; 24-02-12, 00:35. Reason: Expansion and elucidation

                          Comment

                          • cloughie
                            Full Member
                            • Dec 2011
                            • 22118

                            #43
                            Originally posted by Beef Oven View Post
                            Political correctness.

                            Can I have two? Thanks - atheism.
                            That is an interesting choice - when I was a kid used to go on holiday to Westward Ho, Devon. No car then so got the train to Bideford, then took the bus for the last bit of the journey - no word of a lie it was route no 101!

                            Comment

                            • Beef Oven

                              #44
                              Originally posted by cloughie View Post
                              That is an interesting choice - when I was a kid used to go on holiday to Westward Ho, Devon. No car then so got the train to Bideford, then took the bus for the last bit of the journey - no word of a lie it was route no 101!
                              The exclamation mark does not go on the end of 101, but Westward Ho!

                              P.S. That is quite a coincidence

                              Comment

                              • Lateralthinking1

                                #45
                                Originally posted by Beef Oven View Post
                                The exclamation mark does not go on the end of 101, but Westward Ho! P.S. That is quite a coincidence


                                I was unhappy to be placed for two years running in a Room 101 in Mortehoe, Devon although the area itself is fantastic. The hotel subsequently burnt down in mysterious circumstances.

                                It didn't surprise me as astrologists have confirmed such things feature strongly in my birth chart. Sadly it is too late for the Coalition Government and its "professionals". Inadvertently they have already sealed their own fate.

                                http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...?newsfeed=true

                                ("Passionate" - Ha, the word that so often scores zero on the sincerity scales)

                                I would consign any future violent hip-hop culture to oblivion. 33 years of anything is too long. It is preventing too many elderly rich white businessmen from developing any sense of social responsibility. And it is doing its utmost to destroy musical heritage across the globe.

                                (If I can have two, that horrible electronic voicebox thing that makes everyone sound like a dalek!)
                                Last edited by Guest; 24-02-12, 08:26.

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