You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

[Flick James]

"Reply to All" fails.

Actually, they crack me up too. It is absolutely mystifying.

What I'm referring to happened yesterday at work. One person, who meant well but didn't realize the mistake she was making, sent a piece of advise about an internal matter to a very large distribution list within my very large organization. Then one person hit "reply to all" and said "Please take me off this distribution list."

Then the snowball begins. Within 15 minutes, my inbox was filled with at least 40 emails with messages such as "Please take me off this list," "Please stop replying to all." Before long, people were replying to all to keep saying stop replying to all.

The idiocy of this phenomenon is what makes it at once annoying, amusing, and mystifying. Every one of those idiots truly believed that only their message, which was not in any way distinguishable from the 40 other "stop replying to all" message that preceded it, would be the one that everybody listened to. What causes this strange compulsion? What twisted part of our human nature causes this?

I had that happen a while ago, with somebody spamming a whole list of businesses like mine. Must have been a huge list. It went on for hours, and kept filling up the box, all these idiots freaking out about why they're getting all this mail and angrily demanding to be taken off the mailing list. Naturally, every one of these replies went to the entire list. There were plenty of "stop replying to all" messages too, but they seemed to just blend in with all the other angry shouting. I resisted the temptation for a long time, because I knew I could just make things worse. I finally sent out a carefully worded message with a carefully worded subject (that might actually induce someone to read), telling people that if they want to stop receiving these messages DO NOT REPLY IN ANY WAY, because all the demands for the flood to stop were keeping it going. TO STOP THESE EMAILS, DO NOT REPLY IN ANY WAY.

Seriously, anybody who bothered to look at the messages piling up should have been able to deduce what was happening. But a good number of the messages were indignantly demanding to know why they were getting all this junk. These people were either idiots or they were just impulsively firing off b!tchy replies without any thought or understanding of what was happening.

Anyway, the messages tapered off pretty quickly after that. Don't know if I had any effect, or everybody just finally got wise, gave up or whatever. It was later in the afternoon, so maybe it stopped when everybody started going home.

I refer to it as the "quarterly reply to all fail," because it seems to happen with about that frequency. It's funny because when it starts, when the realization starts hitting the floor of what's about to happen, the entire floor starts erupting in laughter.

[bob]

Over a week ago I purchased online using a giftcard I got for Christmas. It still hasn't arrived. I get that California, which it is being shipped from, is a long away from Wisconsin, where live, but come on.

 

[The Gravekeeper]

Over a week ago I purchased online using a giftcard I got for Christmas. It still hasn't arrived. I get that California, which it is being shipped from, is a long away from Wisconsin, where live, but come on.

 

And that's what it's like to ship from pretty much anywhere in my country. I remember one artist around here mentioning that she got curious about how long it would take a letter to get from the postal box to her mail box (they were less than a foot apart) if she mailed it to herself. Total time? 11 days.

[bob]

Over a week ago I purchased online using a giftcard I got for Christmas. It still hasn't arrived. I get that California, which it is being shipped from, is a long away from Wisconsin, where live, but come on.

 

And that's what it's like to ship from pretty much anywhere in my country. I remember one artist around here mentioning that she got curious about how long it would take a letter to get from the postal box to her mail box (they were less than a foot apart) if she mailed it to herself. Total time? 11 days.

damn!!! That's crazy, I do'nt see how you can put up with that.

it's not just so much that it's taking forever but that other items I purchased which were shipped from New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania along with a place in Wisconsin arrived in a super speedy fashion. I expected the one from Wisconsin to arrive quicker then the others and it did. but the other states are also quite a distance from where I live.

[Jack]

^ Don't complain too much, I remember reading an article about Russia where the mail service was bragging that 90% of the packages shipped with them arrived at their destination.  Only 10% were stolen by their employees   

[Psycho Circus]

^ Don't complain too much, I remember reading an article about Russia where the mail service was bragging that 90% of the packages shipped with them arrived at their destination.  Only 10% were stolen by their employees   

I'm having a pretty rotten time with the mail service over here currently. They never knock when delivering large packages, which has become something of a national problem.

There was an article highlighting this in the daily mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081603/Complaints-soar-Sorry-cards-doors-postmen--residents-IN.html

[Newt]

Mail delivery!     My name is Becky Ashwell.  There is a person on the same rural delivery route named Ashley Buswell.  I get some of her mail - which I promptly replace in the box with a written note saying it was delivered to the wrong address.  Some of my mail goes missing, fairly regularly.  Seems safe to assume it gets delivered to her address instead of mine since I know it works in the opposite direction.  I know the mail in question is correctly addressed (complete with house number; it is often random issues of subscribed magazines) so it is not a case of the sorter or delivery person making their best guess based on the name alone; I have made the Post Office aware of the problem (more than once) AND I have spoken with Ms. Buswell on the phone (she was listed in the book) politely explaining what has happened on my end and asking her to simply leave anything of mine in her mailbox for the delivery person to pick up for re-delivery: yet it continues.  Hard to prove it is going on, and the only ways I can avoid it is to insist all mail be addressed to a different name, or registered ($$) or to avoid using the post at all.   

[Mr. DS]

Whatever makes Newt mad upsets me.

[Newt]

^ Aw, you are so sweet.  Yes, Newt has a temper: just don't mess with her stuff!

[bob]

my purchase STILL hasn't arrived 

[Jack]

When we got our girls an apartment at school we filled out a change of address form - just for the two of them.  Of course they forwarded ALL the mail for the house over to their apartment.  Sigh...  We got that straightened out, they moved back home for the summer, then the next school year began.  Do I even need to say it?  I mean, you'd think that would stick in someone's head:  "Last year I got a change of address for these two, I screwed it up and assumed it was for the whole household, and now here's the same thing again."  Nah, I guess that doesn't stick in someone's head.   

And nobody ever knocks on our door, not UPS, FedEx, or the USPS.  My favorite was when my UFO DVD set was left sitting on the back step.  Of course the snow was melting off the roof all day, right on top of it, then in the afternoon it got colder and by the time I noticed it there was a solid inch of ice on it.  Thank god for shrink wrap I guess.

[El Misfit]

Rick Santorum Comparing Homosexuality to Beastiality! Such a f**ktard, how the hell is he still running for president?! Does he know anyone who's gay? My uncle is gay and he's perfectly fine!!!!

[indianasmith]

Both are a form of sexual deviancy.  That was his point.

  (and yes, one of my best friends is gay, and he is a kind person whom I love dearly.)

[Jim H]

Both are a form of sexual deviancy.  That was his point.

  (and yes, one of my best friends is gay, and he is a kind person whom I love dearly.)

Have you ever heard someone say, "one of my best friends is black"?

It comes across exactly the same, if you're not aware of it.

[Psycho Circus]

Both are a form of sexual deviancy.  That was his point.

  (and yes, one of my best friends is gay, and he is a kind person whom I love dearly.)

Your belief, your opinion. Not a fact.