Blind Side

[ian]

I was in Woolies. There was a printed and laminated sign on one of the cash register lanes saying:

"This register is closed due to an unexpected computer error"

I picked up the sign and walked up to the service desk and asked: "So if you were not expecting it, why did you have a printed and laminated sign made up for it?"

After about thirty seconds of silence, the misfit responded: "Ummmm welllll ummmm we knew we would get an unexpected outage at some time I suppose..."

Me: "Ok so if you knew it would come at some time you were expecting it, but the sign says it was unexpected. Isn't that misleading your customers?

I played with his head for a minute or so along similar lines until he figured it out that the best thing to do was to just put up a "register closed" sign and not try to explain it too much, just like all the other closed registers on the day.

Hi Doug

sounds to me as though you don't have enough things to do with your time.

with apologies to Shakespeare's Hamlet ...
"Get thee to thy shed
wouldst thou be a creature of idleness ..."

[Boringgeoff]

Well Doug, if you're getting it on a daily basis at your work then you should know better than do the same to someone else. They are an employee and don't make the rules. I'm with Grumpy John on this. As a pre-mixed concrete deliverer we drivers were the first in line when the customer was having a complain whether the fault was of our making or not, I learnt from that and am always respectful and polite with employees in shops whether I think they know what they're doing or not. If you've got a problem with the employee take it up with the manager.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[doug3030]

I played with his head for a minute or so along similar lines until he figured it out that the best thing to do was to just put up a "register closed" sign and not try to explain it too much, just like all the other closed registers on the day.

For all those who might think I am callous and heartless, the conversation ended with the Woolies guy and I both laughing about how absurd the sign was. We parted with no animosity between us and always exchanged pleasantries whenever we saw each other after that.

Really, I feel sorry for people who always run with the worst possible scenario they can imagine from what is presented to them.

CHeers

Doug

[BobL]

I was in Woolies. There was a printed and laminated sign on one of the cash register lanes saying:

"This register is closed due to an unexpected computer error"

This sounds like the management just didn't know the very subtle difference between "unexpected" and "unpredictable".

Unpredictable acknowledges or incorporates more clearly that there may be an error at some time but they don't know when it will happen and it would be perfectly reasonable to be prepared with a laminated sign.

The same subtle "if" / "when" interpretation could well be said about "unexpected".

Some online thesauri and dictionaries even give "unexpected" as a perfectly acceptable synonym for "Unpredictable" , so I'd say the sign was far from being absurd.

[rrich]

As with the shoe on the other foot. . . .

I used to get 3 or 4 calls a day offering me wonderful deals on home repairs, home improvements, solar energy, carpet cleaning, student loan forgiveness, etc.

Since I started asking for a credit card number, "We accept Master Card or Visa." the calls have dropped to maybe one a week. Who ever was the bloke that suggested this solution (Here on this forum.) has my undying gratitude. It also makes for wonderful entertainment.

[doug3030]

Since I started asking for a credit card number, "We accept Master Card or Visa." the calls have dropped to maybe one a week. Who ever was the bloke that suggested this solution (Here on this forum.) has my undying gratitude. It also makes for wonderful entertainment.

That was me

[boldor]

as for reporting, the NSW police HWP face book page encourages people to upload pics of unsafe driving or actions...and they do follow up