Tag: dealing with idiots

Some people have no sense of humour, also snitches get stitches

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As part of moving out of our fixed, assigned office area to hot desks in an open space, we got allocated lockers. I wanted to keep a bit of personal touches by moving some of my wall decorations. Apparently my stick of compliance poster is not compliant, as someone brought it to the attention of my line manager, saying that it might not give a good impression to visitors.

My manager, actually having a sense of humour, gave me this advice: “you need an inspirational sentence (that doesn’t mean anything really) from a famous person (who never pronounced it)” and gave me his approval to put this up:

I love my boss.

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Not my most PC email ever….

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I didn’t have the patience to deal with this BS today. We’ve been trying to get a manuscript published for the last year. It’s been in review for the last 6 months. When the editors ask you for something, it’s hop! hop! to it!! When we ask them something, it’s hurry up and wait. I called the journal’s editorial support staff on it this morning. The same person sent the same answer in two different emails.

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The very stable genius is now a convicted felon

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Will it change anything? Possibly yes, but probably no. The conviction, and even imprisonment, which is highly unlikely to ever happen, will not bar Trump from continuing his pursuit of the White House.

From the AP:

“Though the legal and historical implications of the verdict are readily apparent, the political consequences are less so given its potential to reinforce rather than reshape already-hardened opinions about Trump.”

Trump once boasted that he could shoot someone in the streets of New York and people would still elect him.

Again from the AP:

“For another candidate in another time, a criminal conviction might doom a presidential run, but Trump’s political career has endured through two impeachments, allegations of sexual abuse, investigations into everything from potential ties to Russia [anyone remember the pre-pee tape kompromat story?] to plotting to overturn an election, and personally salacious storylines including the emergence of a recording in which he boasted about grabbing women [by the pussy].”

Trump still has 3 other active felony cases, on election tampering and national security secret document mishandling, but none of those will eb decided before the fall elections. I’m hoping common sense will prevail, but this is ameri Al. Politics we’re talking about, so who the hell knows.

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This is the story of shockingly poor customer service, and general corporate shadiness

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On Oct 27, we bought Katy a new mobile phone from FNAC (Google pixel 7). The phone was listed as a destocking offer and was 50% off. We bought it, paid by credit card, got an order confirmation and waited for it to be dispatched. We got a notice from the Poste that the package was on its way and scheduled to be delivered on Nov 2.

On Nov 2, I check the Poste tracking website and see that the phone was delivered. I let Katy know, as she was out working, and when she comes back home, no phone. I check the Poste website again and see that it’s been delivered, but to the wrong address. I try and call FNAC but the Swiss service center is closed for the day and I have to wait until the following morning to call. A shit night is had by all.

The next morning, I call FNAC and get a nasty surprise. They “realized” that the phone price was a “technical error” on the website and arranged with the Poste to intercept the delivery. The phone support people can give me a refund, but I need to take it up with the reclamation department to “see” if anything else can be possible. The phone support can’t do anything but follow the script, and the reclamation people are only reachable by email. At every occasion, I inform them that I don’t want a refund, but instead want the phone at the price I purchased it.

Then I get an email saying they issued a refund.

According to Swiss e-commerce laws, once an offer has been made and accepted, once payment has been taken, then the transaction is valid and should be honored unless it’s a clearly recognizable error. Putting a phone on a destocking rebate when the newer model has just been released does NOT fall under this category.

However, FNAC, in their fuckery, have a clause in their general T&Cs that gives them carte blanche to freely cancel any order taken online. This cancellation gives you no recourse other than a reimbursement of the purchase price. I found this out while reading the T&Cs, which is something NO ONE does. So fuck you, come again.

What pisses me off the most is that they had a solid week to inform us that they’d cancelled the order, but didn’t. We had to find out the hard, stressful, painful way of calling customer service, thinking that the order had been misdelivered, when instead it had been re-routed to their main Swiss HQ. I did not need all the stress and aggro this caused.

So, in conclusion, FUCK YOU FNAC, I will actively never purchase anything from you again and ask everyone I know from doing the same.

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One of the best email scams I’ve seen in a very very long time

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The oldies called me earlier tonight asking me about a weird email I sent them, asking them to do an urgent Western Union transfer to my friend in Mumbai.

Yeah….

I logged into their email and I was, against my better judgement, impressed.

Their account has to have been compromised, because the scam is using an actual email I wrote to them, and the reply email is rglcote@gmall.com (spot the error). It’s also using the same form of address that I use.

I changed their password, flushed all active sessions, and did a quick scan of settings and sent/deleted emails. Nothing obviously wrong, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on things until I can check out their laptop myself.

Here are the two crap emails they received:

From: Richard Cote <rglcotegmall.com>
Sent: 01 December 2022 15:54
To: Mel And Pam
Subject: Re: Your Google Store shipment is here

Hi Mel and Pam

My apologies to bother you again.
Actually, a colleague of mine is supporting his wife who is in a bit of a medical mess right now and receiving treatment in Mumbai. They’re experiencing issues to meet up with their deadline and requested me to help them with Western Union Transfer.

Please would you be able to settle this on my behalf as it’s a time sensitive matter. I will reimburse you back the equivalent amount. I will forward email trail to you now,

Cheers and thanks,
Richard

From: Richard Cote <rglcotegmail.com>
Sent: 01 December 2022 13:05
To: Mel And Pam Grogan
Subject: Re: Your Google Store shipment is here<

Great, thank you!

On Thu, 1 Dec 2022, 14:00 Mel And Pam Grogan, wrote:
Yes and we have put it with the other envelope, so we can bring them with us xx

From: Richard Cote <rglcotegmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2022 12:37:53 PM
To: ICE – Mel and Pam
Subject: Fwd: Your Google Store shipment is here

Hi Mel and Pam

Did you get a parcel for me today?

Cheers and thanks,
Richard

And here’s the sob story between myself and my friends Brenton and Sandra:

Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 2:49 PM
From: “Richard Cote”
To: “Brenton Cobb”
Subject: Re: Hi Richard

Brenton,

I can send by transfer to your account and not Western Union. I will check and get back to you soon if I can make other arrangement.

Sending my love to you both.

Cheers and thanks,
Richard

On Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 04:52:53 PM PST, Brenton Cobb wrote:

Richard,

Thank you for getting back to me and thanks for your concern on this matter.
I need it ASAP, the surgery is scheduled for Monday.

Please send it to my Name and present location via Western Union transfer.

My details are:
Name: Brenton Cobb
Address: No. 15, Mansarovar Building, 24, S. N. Road, Andheri (East), Mumbai 400069, Maharashtra, India

Please send me the necessary details on the receipt including the details you use in sending it, it’s important.
Kindly let me know how much I will receive here in rupees.

Looking forward to your reply.
Thanks Brenton

Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 1:49 PM
From: “Richard Cote”
To: “Brenton Cobb”
Subject: Re: Hi Richard

Brenton,
When do you need it and how can I get the funds to you?

Cheers and thanks,
Richard

On Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 03:52:53 PM PST, Brenton Cobb wrote:

Richard,

Thank you for getting back to me.

Please I wanted to ask if you could help me with a loan of $1,500. I will make arrangement to refund you when we return. Could you please let me know just so I can advise on what to do to help.

Please forgive me for the short notice and I hope you can understand I will like to keep this between us, which is why I have asked via Email for your record.

Looking forward to your reply.

Thanks Brenton

Sent: Monday, November 28, 2022 at 8:44 PM
From: “Richard Cote”
To: “Brenton Cobb”
Subject: Re: Hi Richard

Brenton,
Sending my love to you both. You are in good hands and I wish quick recovery.

Please let me know if you need my help in anyway.

Cheers and thanks,
Richard

On Monday, November 28, 2022 at 05:28:14 PM PST, Brenton Cobb wrote:

Good Evening Richard,

Hope you’re well. I and Sandra are fine. We arrived this morning in Mumbai and Sandra is trying to relax as she did few test and scan.

She’s dealing with shingles, and have pain. Scrambling to get her potassium levels up before her scheduled surgery for Monday.

I’m experiencing issues with our account from here while I was trying to pay for deposit. It should be alright by midnite I guess.

Thanks Brenton

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The UK’s continuing downward spiral…

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From the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/28/rebuke-from-imf-is-a-global-embarrassment-for-truss-and-kwarteng

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have taken on the economic orthodoxy. They have announced extra borrowing to pay for tax cuts. They have sacked the Treasury’s top mandarin. They have insisted they will press on with their dash for growth despite a hostile reaction in the markets. Now the economic orthodoxy has struck back – and in the most high-profile way possible: a public and stinging rebuke from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It is hard to overstate just how severe an embarrassment the dressing down from the IMF is for the government, which has been told to rethink last week’s mini-budget. The blunt language used by the IMF spokesperson was the sort normally reserved for a struggling emerging market economy seeking financial support.

The UK is not in that position. There is no immediate prospect of Kwarteng needing a bailout but the IMF’s intervention highlights just how quickly the chancellor’s strategy has unravelled. It also illustrates the IMF’s concern that a full-on financial crisis in the UK could have ripple effects through an already vulnerable global economy. The IMF has two main concerns. First, it is worried that what the Treasury is doing with tax and spending (fiscal policy) is at odds with what the Bank of England is doing with interest rates (monetary policy).

[…]

The IMF is itself taking a risk because by issuing such a public rebuke it might further undermine confidence in the UK. Kwarteng and the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, have been trying to reassure markets and put a floor under the pound. The IMF’s intervention is not helpful to their cause, and could conceivably be the catalyst for a fresh run on the pound that would prompt emergency action from the Bank’s monetary policy committee.

Truss and Kwarteng now have a big decision to make. They can ignore the IMF’s advice, which is what they would prefer to do. Or they can bow to the mounting pressure – which is coming not only from the IMF but also from the US and German governments – and have a rapid rethink.

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Well that was expectedly annoying

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Roger Waters is coming to Zurich next year for a one-day stop in Switzerland as part of his farewell tour. Through my mobile phone provider, I had access to a ticket pre-sale. Or so I thought. The sale opened at 10am yesterday. I was on the website, I had tickets selected. And then the ticketcorner website completely bogged down under scalper bot load, and I couldn’t complete my purchase. When I refreshed the browser, all the top-tier tickets were already sold out. When I tried to get another set of tickets, those disappeared before my eyes. Within 5 minutes, all the tickets were sold out. And now those tickets, that were 200chf, are available on ticket resale websites for more than three times face value.

I’m going to try my luck again when the main sale starts later this week, but I’m not holding my breath.

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Break out the coffee and pass the popcorn

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So first there was this:


Then the orange shitgibbon started foaming at the mouth on twitter

Then the inevitable happened.

And now we have magidiots in halls of power, teargas, gunshots, and national guard has been called in. Exciting!

Update:

So apparently it takes actual sedition and coup attempts to get a response from social media. ‘S good to be the king…

And its ugly-beautiful to see people compare and contrast the response for these American terrorists (erm, sorry, they have the right skin tone, so that makes them patriots. Ivanka said so…) with that of the BLM protests last year.


Question:

Answer:

Update 2:
It’s done, it’s over, the fat lady has sung!

Yet, still the orange shitgibbon rages against the coming of the night (albeit via a mouthpiece who is not currently banned from Twitter)

As a side note, I love the little footnote the Guardian felt obliged to put :)

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