People using up your time

DCFC79

Piggywiggy wrote: »

It annoys me when people are late without sending a text or a quick phone call to say they sorry they running late, sometimes you can spend a few hours waiting for someone when you could have been doing something else.

I used to know someone like this, we would arrange a time to meet or she would pick me up but she would end up being late, her excuses were I was doing my hair, hadnt washed it for ages so decided to wash it at last minute, doing the washing up or waiting for the washer to finish so I could hang it out.

She would text to say be there in 5 mins which turns into 10 and then 15.

Its not hard, you leave enough time to do your hair or put the washing machine on earlier.

onlyroz

Ooh hospital appointments. Try antenatal ultrasound appointments, where you have to drink a litre of water and then sit in the waiting room with your legs crossed until the sonographer finally gets round to seeing you. During my last pregnancy I was having fortnightly appointments for Doppler scans due to my anti-D sensitisation. The consultant was lovely, but was routinely two hours behind schedule, no matter what time of day you booked appointments. Try sitting that out with a full bladder and a pregnant belly...

gayleygoo

Surely this is something that most of us hate but also are guilty of from time to time? "Dawdlers" annoy me in a hurry, but I sometimes dawdle myself, if in no particular hurry, and apologise if I have absent-mindedly held someone up.

The other day I was ready to crack at two women in a community centre. They stood, talking, at the top of the stairs, blocking it and I politely waited for them to move. I said excuse me, met their eye contact, and waited some more until they finally decided they'd descend a step. They continued talking, but stopped on every other stair to chat, without any regard of the queue now building up behind them. When they finally got to the bottom, they stood there and I squeezed through them (courtesy done away with), as did everyone else behind me as the women still stood in the way.

One time we were the bad guys on holiday we'd booked a trip hiking down a mountain and were to be picked up from the hotel at 5am. Our hotel door knocked at 5.30am, the tour guide telling is we had 5 minutes to get down there! We'd used the hotel lobby's clock to set our watches and alarm the day before, but it was an hour slow and we were still in bed. We just threw clothes on us and ran down, and ashamedly got on the bus!

DCFC79

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

People who pull into petrol stations to get petrol/diesel then wait near the entrance from the road so they can dive on the first pump that becomes free rather than just go and pull up behind random car at random pump.

Then get the !!!! with me cos I'll drive around them to wait at a pump. Invariably, I've got my petrol quicker than them :rotfl:

Yep there's a lot of them round here, why can't they just pick a pump and queue up, so what if they have to wait to fill up.

Slinky

onlyroz wrote: »

Another thing hat happened to me recently was in Halfords. I bought a bike for my daughter and was told that it would be ready to pick up in an hour. I returned a few hours later to find that they hadn't even started setting it up. And so I had to hang around in the shop for another 45 mins or so while they did the thing they told me would already have been done.

What is it with bikes that they 'have to be set up?'. I've never understood this. Why aren't they ready to take off the shelf?

missbiggles1

Indie_Kid wrote: »

I used to know someone like this:
He once agreed to meet me at 6pm and picked me up 6.15pm with the excuse of running out of petrol. (funny how this has never happened to anyone else?)
If it was a morning, he'd always be late with the excuse of oversleeping.

I'd get a right telling off if I was two minutes late.

I gave up in the end because he was either at least 15 minutes or very early. When he was very early, he'd whinge at me for making him wait. I'm not rushing myself because you've decided to turn up early.

I have a friend who picks me up on a Wednesday at 6.45pm. It's done on the understanding that because he comes from another town, he might be a few minutes late. He's been picking me up most weeks for some 2 years now. I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times he's been late. If he's a few minutes late, he won't (and no, I don't moan either) say anything. I remember one time, he sent me a text and said there's traffic / roadworks and he'll be late. Fine. He was some 15 minutes late.

I have to say, if someone's good enough to be giving you a lift
(particularly on a regular basis), it seems pretty churlish to complain that they don't meet your standards of punctuality.

peaceandfreedom

fierystormcloud wrote: »

And I tell you what, this happens to me around 2 in every 5 times that I go into a foodstore/hypermarket. Iceland are the worst offenders, but Tesco and Sainsbury's are almost as bad. I have had countless times when I am not greeted at the checkout, and I have no eye contact, and then the checkout assistant starts chatting to one of her mates about NOTHING work related. Completely ignoring me the whole time.

I have even had some transactions where the assistant doesn't say one single word to me throughout the entire transaction, despite me saying 'hello and 'thank you.' Amongst other things.

So unbelievably and utterly, utterly RUDE.(

Agree with every word and I am now determined to note down the cashier's name and complain about them next time it happens. How dare they go through an entire transaction, chatting to another cashier, without even acknowledging my existence - I am a paying customer. It drives me INSANE :mad:!

On the other hand, I also don't like it when supermarket cashiers ask me entirely forced questions such as 'Doing anything for the weekend?'. I am totally confident that a 20-year-old young man has absolutely no interest in what this middle-aged old bag is doing for the weekend. I wish they weren't trained to ask stupid questions like this.

I like Lidl - fast, polite, no chit-chat, you're out of there in no time. I hate supermarket shopping, so the quicker it is, the better .

Slinky

fierystormcloud wrote: »

Absolutely right Pollycat!

Another bugbear of mine is the dentist, the doctor, the optician, the hairdresser...

I have yet to go to the doctor OR the dentist, and get in on time. I almost always have to wait 15 to 30 minutes after my appointment time.

One time my doctor's appointment was 8.40am (ten minutes after they opened,) and I wasn't called in til 9.05am. He was 25 minutes behind, by the SECOND appointment of the day! (The doctor turning up 10 minutes late didn't help either.)

I have also been to the dentist for 2pm before (the first appointment after lunch,) and he waltzes in at 2.07pm, and calls me in at 2.10pm, so he is already 10 minutes behind before he has started! 3 out of every 4 times, I don't get into my dental appointment until half an hour to 40 minutes after the appointment time...

Annoying though it is to wait at the doctor's on the rare occasion I visit, I try to take the view I'd rather have my little-time-wasting-problem to talk to the doctor about rather than whatever it is that the person in front of me has time-taking problems with. I'm sure my friend with incurable brain cancer wishes she only takes up 5-10 mins of the doctor's time.


My first visit to a new dentist, I had to wait over 90 minutes and eventually they called another dentist in from home to see me. The dentist I was supposed to see was 'dealing with a difficult extraction'. He was still dealing with it when I came out 20 mins later. I'm darned sure I'd rather be stuck sitting in the waiting room rather than being the poor sod stuck in the chair on that day.

Nargleblast

Supermarket cashiers/shop assistants - annoy me when they carry on a conversation with another colleague or customer whilst serving me!

Hospital appointments - I know a consultant who sometimes does a clinic with another consultant. One time the two of them had EIGHT people booked in for the 9 am slot!

JIL

pickledonionspaceraider wrote: »

The other week I used the bus, first time in a couple of years. Half way to town (a ten minute drive) the driver got off, and lit up a cigarette - leaving a full busload of passengers waiting!

I complained via twitter to the company

This happened to me when I was on a train, the driver and the trolley person got off jumped over the barrier, lit uphad a smoke and got back on and off we went again.
I was once one bus, one with a conducter,it was a really hot day. The bus stopped, the conducter jumped off and ran to the ice cream van. Bought two cones and then sat on the bus drivers knee, while they both ate their ice creams. None of the passengers said a word although there were a few tuts.