#326: Office Phone Number Display

You may recall annoyance #246 where I complained about my phone not displaying the number of the call coming in on the second line. Well, my new job's phone does this, but has a new annoyance. It doesn't display the code I've dialed in to access a conference call. So when I call the conf call 800 number and type in the code, when I get the hold music, I'm always unsure if I typed in the wrong digits by accident or if it's just the meeting host being late to start the call. Severity: 2

#325: Voice Mail Blather Before the Beep

When you call a phone and the voicemail precedes the beep with this long-winded message about how to leave a message, pressing numbers for more options, leaving call back numbers, etc. and you're anxious to just skip to the beep and leave the damn message already. Sometimes, you can hit the # button, but sometimes, that doesn't work and causes more mishaps like it did to me today. Severity: 2

#324: Debit Card Usage

I don't understand why I see people using debit cards so much. It's obviously better than writing a check, which you hardly ever see. But my problem is that I know most of these people also have a credit card and so why aren't they using that instead? You get points, you have no chance for overdrafts, your rights for disputing charges are better, and you get interest free float for at least 20 days. Any points rewards programs associated with debit cards are FAR inferior to credit cards, which usually have a standard 1% cash back or gift card back amount, while debit cards are typically 1/3 or less of that reward, if they have any at all, which most don't. Only exception is people that need cash back, so I'm talking about people that use it with a signature, not PIN. Severity: 2

#323: No Print Preview in Outlook

Just pisses me off and wastes paper. Severity: 3

#322: Misleading Price Signs

I don't like the scams businesses do where they put a sign out that tries to trick people. The biggest violators of this are parking garages that advertise some low cost but in small print say it's per 20 minutes, which is not what most people are going to find useful in determining the cost of their parking. Also, I recently noticed a bar put up a sign that said some special beer was $1 off, but the off was small and such that I think they meant to trick people that the price was a $1, not that the savings was $1. Especially since $1 off isn't that great to trumpet. Severity: 2

#321: Sad Microwave Clock

I bought a pretty cheap microwave Best Buy to replace my original one that broke about 3 years ago and the clock is so inaccurate, that after about a week, the time is wrong by 10 minutes. I know I only spent $40 on this appliance, but that is unacceptable and I am tired of having to reset it all the time. On the contrary, a wall clock I bought at Walgreens for $2 is way more accurate. Severity: 1

#320: Good Times

No, not the show, which I love. This is about people that say "Good Tiiiimes" with that elongation of the "i" in a Socal surfer sort of tone. It used to be cool, but has been overused to the point of annoying me. People: try to be cool in some other way and come up with your own hip phrase that will last a few years before I deem it expired, like this one. Serverity: 1

#319: Wamu Credit Card Offers

I don't mind credit card offers, as someone who signs up for one if there's any deal to be had. However, Wamu keeps sending me this scam deal where they trumpet "0% of purchases till [really long time from now]" but then there's an asterisk that says "when you transfer a balance." Of course, the interest rate on the balance transfer is like 8%. In addition, they count on the average Joe not understanding about the payment allocation rules which state that your payments go to pay off the lower interest rate balance before the higher rate balance, which means that keeping to take advantage of the 0% on purchases, you necessarily have to be paying interest on the 8% balance transfer balances. Anyway, it's a bad deal and the fact that I get one of these from them about every two weeks is annoying and makes me not ever want to deal with this bank. Severity: 2

#318: Refuses to Share

This one guy at my pool who I see a lot will sometimes stand wating for a lane to open all for himself for great lengths and it annoys me that he won't share a lane like everyone else. Severity: 1