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My "Ridiculous" Pet Peeve

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  • My "Ridiculous" Pet Peeve

    A few of us once had a short conversation about the word "ridiculous" and how our customers love to use it. If you don't feel like clicking the link, the gist of it was that customers don't use "ridiculous" to mean what it really means, which is something deserving of mockery or ridicule.

    I had a "ridiculous" winner yesterday.

    Guy comes in and stares at our display of computer monitors.
    I ask if he needs help selecting one.

    Ridiculous Customer: No, I think I'm going to take that <brand> one there.
    Me: That's a good one, and it's on sale this week. Do you need some help up to the front with that.
    RC: Nah, I can get it. (picks up two of said monitors) I do have a question for you, though.
    Me: Fire away.
    RC: I'm going to buy these two monitors so I can set up a dual-monitor display on my computer. What else do I need to do that?
    Me: Aside from two monitors, your computer just needs to have two video outputs. Two VGA, two DVI, or one of each.
    RC: And if it doesn't?
    Me: You would need to buy a video card upgrade so that it would have those two outputs.
    RC: Can't I just buy a splitter or something?
    Me: Well, yes, you could buy a VGA splitter. We don't carry them in the store, but I could get one ordered for you.
    RC: And that would work?
    Me: Sort of. It would get a display onto both monitors, but it would be a duplicate display. It wouldn't extend your desktop at all.
    RC: That's ridiculous!

    That's right, folks. It's "ridiculous" that the computer device he was looking for would do just what it was designed to do. (For those who are a little less computer savvy, this is like having two land-line phones in one house, both on the same line, and complaining that you can't call Grandma with one phone and the pharmacy with the other phone at the same time.)

    He ended up buying a new video card anyway, but it made me wonder what other absurd complaints of ridiculousness are being made out there.

    Stories anybody?
    I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
    - Bill Watterson

    My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
    - IPF

  • #2
    I suppose this is OT because he didn't use the actual word 'Ridiculous'.

    We once had a researcher who declared that it was 'illogical and preposterous' that the library was located in a major urban area instead of his suburban town.
    Research is the art of reading what everyone has read and seeing what no one else has seen.

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    • #3
      Where I live, 'ridiculous' apparently is something you say when someone is being unreasonable or says something you don't want to hear. It's a magic word that if you repeat often enough, the irritating person will realize how stupid they're being and

      It's ridiculous that I cannot...

      ...return a $200 infant car seat without a receipt.
      ...magically reproduce a sale item that we've been out of for two days (air conditioners during a heat wave).
      ...override our system to return items without a receipt after they've reached their limit.
      ...return a clearance item that we haven't sold since LAST summer.
      ...return obviously worn or washed clothes, or any other obviously used item.
      ...have another store deliver an item to us that we're out of. (Repeat if other stores are also out of the item.)
      ...refund shipping from our online store.
      ...guarantee that their credit card application will be approved.
      ...pull extra cashiers out of thin air so they don't have to wait in line to check out.
      ...clean the restrooms with a wave of a magic wand. (Not allowed to leave the desk unattended, and my job doesn't cover the restrooms anyways.)
      It's little things that make the difference between 'enjoyable', 'tolerable', and 'gimme a spoon, I'm digging an escape tunnel'.

      Comment


      • #4
        my favorite R word encounter was the guy who complained that it was ridiculas that all our new york hotels were sold out... he was calling on december 30... asking for a room on new years eve.
        If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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        • #5
          Quoth LibraryLady View Post
          I suppose this is OT because he didn't use the actual word 'Ridiculous'.

          We once had a researcher who declared that it was 'illogical and preposterous' that the library was located in a major urban area instead of his suburban town.
          Was it Leonard Nimoy?

          Comment


          • #6
            Please, let us not insult Mr. Spock.

            The comment was especially ripe coming from this guy because he kept asking for stuff that didn't exist. He was embarked on a mission to read and assemble all the "Sacred Texts" in the world and would do it if he had to 'read every book in this library' as he once put it.

            Of course, he was working at a distinct disadvantage because he could only read English and over half of our collection is in other languages . Also, some of the civilizations he was studying didn't have 'Sacred Texts' in the Sense of a Bible or a Koran.

            We really cringed ever time he showed up because we knew what was going to happen..
            Research is the art of reading what everyone has read and seeing what no one else has seen.

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth LibraryLady View Post
              We really cringed ever time he showed up because we knew what was going to happen..
              Lemme guess : He was about to ridicule himself ?
              "I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

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