It's broke...as in not working

[Trixie]

So tonight our photo machine went down....again. It broke over the weekend and just got fixed Monday. I managed to call a few people who had orders come through before I left tonight but I'm sure when I go back in the morning I'll have an angry mob waiting for me.

But a few people came up to our kiosks before I could put signs up and just seemed very perplexed that the their photos couldn't magically be done.

Me: No can print photos. Printer broke. Sorry.
Customer: So you can't print anything.
Me: Printer broke. No photos.
Customer: <stares at kiosk>
Me: Other store still good.
Customer wanders away.

Yes, I dumbed it down but basically that's how it went. In a way I'm glad that I'm back in the morning (need to sleep now) but I kinda wish I worked tomorrow afternoon and hope the problem would be fixed when I went in even though it's my responsibility to make sure the lab keeps running.

[Food Lady]

I get this all the time with our slushie machine. Sign right in front of the customer's face, literally taped to the register....

[pudddykat]

Slightly off topic but related to dumb and too dumb to read signs. I was walking past a particular building where I work and there was a girl about to chain her bicycle the railing at the bottom of some stairs. These are a wide set of stairs so there is railings in the middle too. On each railing (at least four signs) had a circle with a line through it over a picture of a bicycle. Oh, and there are bike racks not too far from there on either side of the road. Someone called her on it and she went off to tie it off properly. Eesh. Seriously? Not only were there signs but if you have a modicum of common sense and decency you don't attach a bike to railing where #1 someone may need to hold on to it and #2 where it will be in the way and possibly trip someone. I wish I was still surprised by all the stupid but well...

[Ironclad Alibi]

Slightly off topic but related to dumb and too dumb to read signs. I was walking past a particular building where I work and there was a girl about to chain her bicycle the railing at the bottom of some stairs.

Here is a short scene showing how not to chain your bicycles.

[carryonnow]

Last week, I placed signs over the PIN pads on 13 fuel dispensers and two registers because debit was not working due to a system upgrade. Since many of my customers are non-English speakers, I provided Spanish and French translations of the phrase "Due to a system upgrade debit is not available. Please choose CREDIT to complete your purchase."

You would have thought I was asking customers to sacrifice their first born child over a raging fire. "what do you mean I can't use debit??--I ALWAYS use debit here." "so, you mean that I have to pay with cash--I never carry CASH!!" "This is utter bull---I cannot believe that YOU are inconveniencing me like this....can't you see I am in a hurry!?!"

Just another fine example of customers unable or unwilling to READ--not one, not two....but THREE language options available.

[Marmalady]

Some weeks ago, the ladies' bathroom at the store was seriously blocked, to the extent where it was beyond anything that cleaners could do, so the store technician was called in. Meanwhile there was a large sign taped to the door (which was locked, because we all know they'll still try to get in) saying 'This bathroom is temporarily closed for essential maintenance work, please use the disabled bathroom instead, apologies for any inconvenience'

As I was working nearby, I saw a woman come up to the door, read the sign in its entirety, THEN try to open the door..... when she found she couldn't, she turned to me and asked 'So, can this toilet not be used today, then?'

[RealUnimportant]

It's a special kind of blind spot. I've given up even trying to count the number of people who look at where I am behind the CLOSED sign, as if it wasn't even there.

[manybellsdown]

I'm volunteering at a museum that's currently re-purposed what's usually a freight elevator so that we have ADA access to a gallery. There's a sign on it that says "ADA Access Only. Please see a staff member for access." If we don't have someone more or less guarding the elevator constantly, people still try to use it.

Here's the thing though: the elevator requires an access code. So people go in, the doors shut ... and they're stuck in there. Security will have to come get them out. Security is getting really tired of doing that.

[earl colby pottinger]

Add to the sign

Here's the thing though: the elevator requires an access code. So people go in, the doors shut ... and they're stuck in there. Security will have to come get them out. Security is getting really tired of doing that.

Add to the sign "Security will check the elevator once an hour on the hour only" and have security stick to that timetable.

[Food Lady]

I should tape the sign to my forehead.

[wolfie]

Here's the thing though: the elevator requires an access code. So people go in, the doors shut ... and they're stuck in there. Security will have to come get them out. Security is getting really tired of doing that.

Sounds like the design document for the elevator programming was faulty. If it needs an access code to operate, it should stop and wait with the doors open at the last floor it was sent to. The doors don't need to shut until it's ready to move, and since moving requires the code, it shouldn't shut them until after the code is entered.

[manybellsdown]

The elevator is really weird, because it goes freely between the main and lower floors, but the upper galleries require the code. So the new problem I'm having is that I'll take someone in the elevator to go to the upper gallery ... and end up in the lower gallery because someone called the elevator down. It's a problem because the gallery I'm in is a separate admission ticket from the rest of the museum and I can't bring random guests from the lower level up there!

Also I found out last week that my temp keycard is not authorized to override the elevator. Took me a good 5 minutes to figure out why we weren't moving. That was embarrassing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's how it is whenever the air and water tower is broken. Humungous sign, but do customers see? Nope! Once, when the end of the hose had been cut off, we still saw loads of idiots trying to use it, even tho there was no pump, just a broken off end.