I HATE it!

I've decided that even though, I prefer to be a "positive" person, there are so many things that drive me nuts. So I thought I would devote a page to those things.

I think I’ll begin with something that encounter practically every day when I’m driving.

Tailgating - I HATE it! I can sort of (not really) understand it when you're driving well under the speed limit, but still, in most cases cars can pass you. I always give drivers the option to do that.

So many drivers are impatient and reckless. They drive so close to the car in front of them that they can’t react in time if the car in front of them brakes suddenly, swerves or makes a turn. Any sudden movement from the car that is being tailgating is a danger to both vehicles.

Fatal accidents have happened when a driver dangerously tailgated another driver at high speeds. Tailgating can also cause “chain reaction” car accidents. A car accident will occur and the other cars that are following too closely behind the accident don’t have time to react and avoid the crash. The result is a car accident that involves multiple vehicles.

There has been research done by the Highways’ Agency and the result was that 40% of drivers on the roads tailgate and that tailgating is a contributing factor in more than 1/3 (one third) of all crashes on the roads that result in personal injury. It’s one of the TOP causes of car accidents.

I used to be a Driving Instructor in New York City in the late 70’s and this was one of the most important things that I taught to a new driver.

Another thing I wanted to mention was that where I live, we are allowed to drive up to 20 miles BELOW the speed limit. Some of us choose that option because we don’t want to chance hitting animals. I’m not talking about high speed highways. I’m talking about country, residential and rural roads. The state in which I live has a thing for “speed”. I live off of a rural road where the speed limit is 60mph. TOO FAST. There’s no reason for that high of a speed limit. What can it take, 3 to five minutes more to get to the end? I choose not to go the 60 mph because I see at least 10 dead animals per week and that’s NOT an exaggeration. We have dead Armadillos, raccoons, deer, possum, squirrels, and more, and there are so many dogs and cats as well. Recently I encountered a beautiful dog dead on the side of the road. It broke my heart.

While drivers are required to know the rules of the roadway (yeah like they do duh), wild animals, and domestic ones as well, DON’T take driver’s education. Animals will wander out into the street, and it’s up to us to make sure that we don’t get into a car accident with them. If someone is tailgating you, and an animal happens to wander out suddenly, it can cause a major accident, not to mention, the death of an innocent creature. And it isn’t rare. I’ve had to avoid it many times. I’ve been driving nearly 40 years and I’ve NEVER hit an animal, and I intend to everything in my power to hold that record. So tailgaters get the hell off my ass.

Don’t be a dweeb ass. Avoiding tailgating is simple. You just have to make sure that you allow ONE car length between you and the car in front of you for each ten miles of speed. In other words, at 60mph, you should allow at least 6 car lengths between you and the car in front of you. To hell with the “counting seconds” rule. Why the hell would they recommend you “count”? It seems that tailgaters can’t think straight to begin with. Counting seconds might fry their brains. Judging car lengths is something that should come naturally just by sight, and won’t take a whole lot of intelligence. It’s not something you should have to think about. It would make things easier on the dumb ass tailgaters.



Friday 22 October, 2010

Customer service representatives that don't understand jack - I HATE It! I had a Satellite TV company that was pretty awful. I recently switched and so far I find it awesome. There were so many things that I hated about my former company. When we would look at the guide listings, it was hardly ever up to date. We would be watching one show and the guide would say something else was on. We had a DVR and when we set it to record new episodes it would record all. We tried all sorts of tricks and hints but nothing worked. They basically just sucked. Our programming would go off at the slightest "hint" of rain. It really was an awful company.

The worst thing though was that when you called customer service, it was directed to a foreign country where no one spoke english well. Now I assure you, I have nothing against any body. I don't care where you come from or what language you speak, I do not judge anyone. However, when it comes to trying to get tech support and you speak only English because you were born an bred in an English speaking nation and the service you're calling about was also bought in an English speaking nation, you would expect that you could get tech support from someone that speaks English well enough for you to understand.

I have to admit I have used "English" words that I cannot repeat here, which indicates just how annoyed and frustrated I have been when I've tried to get some tech support. I grant you that if I bought something from a country that spoke another language, I wouldn't expect to get English speaking tech support and I would have to come up with a solution of some kind.

This is not the only company that I've had that problem with. The worst of it is that the same people that cannot speak English well, do not have the proper training either. They either read from a manual or ask someone else who has been there a week or two longer. It's frustrating to say the least, because I can't seem to get hired at McDonald's, but these electronic and media companies will hire people that can't speak the main language needed, well and they don't even have the proper training or answers. In fact, whenever I've had these problems I've wound up solving the problems myself.

They won't hire me either, and I'm not asking for a huge salary or hourly wage. I just want a job that know I could do. Oh well what can you do? Nothing except complain I guess.