kelpaso1
MEMBER EMERITUS
Never once broke a chrome non impact extension using an impact gun. Maybe because I don't buy cheap **** tools.
What is your Pet Peeve?
- Thread starter autobon7
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bwringer
Well-known member
YES! I detest soft handles. They can't be kept clean, they're bulky, and eventually end up sticky and gross because they're exposed to something that deteriorates them, or they just degrade over time. Bleagh.
This is somewhat forgivable... the email from Amazon really makes it look like some poor soul is reaching out to you directly. If you're not all that internet savvy, you figure it's more polite to answer "I dunno" than to ignore them. Among all the scumbag things scAmazon does, this is a minor annoyance near the bottom of the pile.
Hey, this thread is about pet peeves, not major flaming hatreds.
On a related note, screwdrivers with handles that dissolve in gasoline. Dammit, using screwdrivers to work on carburetors isn't exactly uncommon...
And on the last point, I agree 100%. I ride motorcycles a lot, and every DAMN time I find a piece of riding gear I love, it gets discontinued, or "upgraded" into uselessness, or just changed for no effing reason.
Helmets: the internal shape is critical to comfort and fit, and I've never figured out why manufacturers vary this so wildly when releasing new helmets. For a long time I wore HJC helmets, and then about five years ago they discontinued the last model that fit me, and all the new models have a COMPLETELY different internal shape. No idea why.
Waterproof armored riding pants: I find pants I like and buy a pair. They're effective, reasonably priced, protective, and reasonably waterproof-ish (nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is actually waterproof, but that's another rant). So in a year or two, right when I need a new pair, they "upgrade" the pants model with a bunch of added useless cosmetic ****, that only adds a bunch of stitching and seams so that the pants are far less water-resistant and far less durable, with more **** to get snagged like useless pockets, graphics, and a stupid traction patch on the ******** (yes, really). Oh, and they completely changed the fit and sizing at random without changing the fitment chart. WHY????
Velcro: Satan's *****. I hate the stuff, and it never lasts more than a year or so of regular use. You simply cannot buy textile motorcycle gear that's not festooned with this awful, fuzzy, short-lived ****.
I could go on.... And on.
Takes about a week here, sometimes longer.
The Velcro on my tonneau cover is as good as new at 15 years old but I keep it shut when not using it.
65ranchero
Well-known member
Going to the local Cub Cadet dealer where I bought my GT and Stihl chain saw and Polaris ranger and ask for a part and it's not in stock and "we can order it and it'll be a week or so to get it here "
I can order the same part on Ebay and Amazon and I'll get it in 2 to 3 days ( most times)
I can order the same part on Ebay and Amazon and I'll get it in 2 to 3 days ( most times)
Xcursion88
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2013
- Messages
- 785
Harbor Freight
Two Door
Well-known member
Software prompts, instructions and error messages that are so cryptic they can either be interpreted multiple ways, or can't be interpreted at all. I assume this duty is given to the youngest, most non-native speakers in the department. Why don't companies understand the competency of the user interface IS the product and company in the eyes of the customer, and assign seasoned people who understand language and user experience?
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Raineman
Well-known member
This^. Why are they even in my lane to begin with? They don't even have a clue why I'm showing them they are #1.
Seriously though, I don't even think driving schools teach lane courtesy anymore, its amazing the people who are oblivious to the concept.
When it comes to tools, I can think of two things that bug me.
The first is the tools sets that come in blow molded cases you find in the big box stores and the like. Mostly how they often omit basic things that could be useful to have like a hammer, a 15" or 18" breaker bar for the 1/2 drive tools, or pliers beyond a basic slip joint and needle nose. When looking through a Craftsman catalog from about 20 years ago I noticed some of the blow molded case sets had an empty section that would allow the user to add extras. I think that would be a decent compromise which allows the case the tools come in to actually be useful. That said, I get that most people who buy these things either don't know/care or plan to move the contents to a larger tool box of some sort.
The other is how most slip joint pliers are the same, underwhelming design. I never really liked using slip joint pliers until I got a pair of Snap-On 47acf pliers. They're nicely made, good proportions, cross-hatched teeth at the front, and the extra position is nice. Other than the third position, nothing Snap-On did is particularly earth shattering or new other than combining it into one plier. Channellock had models like the 548 which weren't bad, but then they discontinued it while still making 528 which I don't think is as good. I still don't use slip joint pliers all that often, but it's kind of surprising how useful they can be when you get a pair thats designed well.
The first is the tools sets that come in blow molded cases you find in the big box stores and the like. Mostly how they often omit basic things that could be useful to have like a hammer, a 15" or 18" breaker bar for the 1/2 drive tools, or pliers beyond a basic slip joint and needle nose. When looking through a Craftsman catalog from about 20 years ago I noticed some of the blow molded case sets had an empty section that would allow the user to add extras. I think that would be a decent compromise which allows the case the tools come in to actually be useful. That said, I get that most people who buy these things either don't know/care or plan to move the contents to a larger tool box of some sort.
The other is how most slip joint pliers are the same, underwhelming design. I never really liked using slip joint pliers until I got a pair of Snap-On 47acf pliers. They're nicely made, good proportions, cross-hatched teeth at the front, and the extra position is nice. Other than the third position, nothing Snap-On did is particularly earth shattering or new other than combining it into one plier. Channellock had models like the 548 which weren't bad, but then they discontinued it while still making 528 which I don't think is as good. I still don't use slip joint pliers all that often, but it's kind of surprising how useful they can be when you get a pair thats designed well.
Jamie in wv
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2016
- Messages
- 31
When someone gives a tool or anything a 10 out of 10 after one use or owning it for less than a week, Amazon is awful for this.
RTM
Well-known member
^^^^ Well, you know, you do get that survey, sometimes before you get the order, asking you to review the item you just bought. When you've actually had the time to get to know it after 3-6 months, the link is expired.
SILVERPLATE
Well-known member
Mine is watching someone do sub standard poor quality, short cut work and they think it was an awesome job.
FuzzyTiger
Well-known member
How hard it is to get hardware and fasteners that should be absurdly common.
I recently needed some aluminum crush washers for the banjo bolts on my power steering pump. None of my local auto parts stores had them. None of the industrial suppliers did either. A couple could get me copper in a couple days. Fastenal could get me a thousand or some other stupid number in a month... I even tried calling around to oil change places figuring that maybe they change them like you're supposed to on drain plugs but nope. In the end I stole a couple that just happened to come with the oil filters for my Hyundai.
Metric fasteners. Anything metric seems to be asking for too much. I consider myself lucky if anyone in town actually stocks something so obscure as a M6 bolt.
I recently needed some aluminum crush washers for the banjo bolts on my power steering pump. None of my local auto parts stores had them. None of the industrial suppliers did either. A couple could get me copper in a couple days. Fastenal could get me a thousand or some other stupid number in a month... I even tried calling around to oil change places figuring that maybe they change them like you're supposed to on drain plugs but nope. In the end I stole a couple that just happened to come with the oil filters for my Hyundai.
Metric fasteners. Anything metric seems to be asking for too much. I consider myself lucky if anyone in town actually stocks something so obscure as a M6 bolt.
bubinga
Well-known member
I think because they get the question in an email they feel like they are obligated to answer it. I actually think there's a automated link to tap that says I do not know the answer.
bubinga
Well-known member
Well on that note I don't like to be in the left lane when I'm not supposed to, backseat drivers telling me to get in the left lane because we have to turn left up ahead you know maybe a mile and a half up the road.
bubinga
Well-known member
Place I worked at, it was the boss that was the pig.
"Hey Jim where's the grease gun? Oh it's around here somewhere"
Nothing ever ever once put back in the same place twice.
Then he's bleeding brakes, the car was up on a rack, instead of using one of the oil drain wheel around container things to catch the brake fluid he lets it go on the floor I was flabbergasted.
Then he walks through it I was really fibergasted I gave up after a while I tried to keep it nice when I first started there I told him too I said I don't get no cooperation I tried to keep it nice but I don't get no cooperation he said from me? I said you're the only other one here........lol
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bubinga
Well-known member
Yes or like I was tired of seeing the old wheel weights all over the floors so I put a 5 gallon bucket over by the tire balancer for the old weights.
This jag-off comes along real crude, and mean like, dumps the weights out on the floor next to the machine and takes the bucket to drain antifreeze out of something, pissed me right off. I complain to the supervisors but they didn't care.
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bubinga
Well-known member
And probably cheaper too and this is why people are, often times not supporting local businesses.
Again first of all they don't have nothing in stock and tell you "they can order it"
And number two it's so damn expensive locally.
bubinga
Well-known member
This one guy when him and I work together I couldn't stand working with him he wanted to do everything half *** it was almost like a competition you know are we going to do it properly or are we going to do it your half-assed way?
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bubinga
Well-known member
Yeah then if they do have it, it's like $6 for two 6 mm X 30 mm in a blister pack.
gatewaysysop
Well-known member
People who constantly ask for advice and almost never take it, or worse yet, do the complete polar opposite of what you tell them.
2ndGearRubber
Well-known member
This is why I basically refuse to clean, organize, or do anything to maintain the shop.
Goobers sit around with their finger up their *** all day doing literally 3 cars, trash the place, and then I'm expected to take out trash cans, fill washer jugs, and sweep floors.... all after finishing the profitable work that pays their hourly *** to **** around all day. I'm not a naturally messy person, so it's tough to step over piles of trash around garbage cans, etc. I can't stand having nowhere to put trash, so I do still do the cans near my area when they're full.
I quit smoking last year.... and I'm expected to clean up the ash piles on the floor? LOL
dutchgray
Well-known member
When you get a package and they have used broken up polystyrene (stryofoam) as a packing material.
bwringer
Well-known member
The most useless, limp, lame, and slightly damp and annoyingly sticky six words on the planet are: "Ah kin order thet fer ya...?" Rage increases exponentially with the commonness of the object under discussion.
Well, so can I, Sparky. I'll get it sooner and cheaper, I won't have to look at your stupid useless face again, and I won't have to call to see if it arrived because you can't be arsed to call me if and when it shows up.
I mean, if it's something fairly rare, no problem. But stuff like spark plugs or lug nuts for one of the most common vehicles on the planet... laaaaaame.
And on a related note, stores that don't have what they think they have. FFS, please, PLEASE get a handle on theft and inventory, would ya?
Or stores that won't even pick up the phone. Lots of that.
But again, that's more of a "nuclear rage" issue than a "pet peeve"...
Again, this is a nuclear rage issue... rows and rows and rows of gleaming and virtually untouched shelves containing useless inch ****, a few desperately pawed-through and jumbled bins that used to contain the metric fasteners I and everyone else needs.
It's been this way for years at every hardware store I've ever been to. It's like they hate money -- they'd rather run a nice neat museum for mostly useless inch **** than actually sell stuff people need. I mean, cars are almost universally metric now and have been for decades.
Yes, I know there are still a lot of agricultural machines like Harleys and mowers that still use inch stuff, but 99% of the time someone looking for a bolt needs a metric bolt.
The worst was when a buddy needed an M6x25 bolt for his old Suzuki. The doddering wight haunting the fastener aisle had apparently never heard that they started making motorcycles in Japan, or of such foolishment as millimeters. After an exhaustive search, he finally sold my buddy a 1/4" X 1" bolt with fine 28 pitch threads for $3. Which led to a fun time with destroyed M6 threads.
Over on the vintage motorcycle forums, we call them "askholes". A bike from, say, 1978 or 1983 is very thoroughly understood. For damn near anything that can go wrong, there's a well-established answer derived from decades of experience, and a large community happy to share knowledge.
Yet quite regularly, some askhole with a pre-installed shoulder chip will come along, ask for and receive advice and complete clear instructions, yet insist that the collective and proven wisdom simply cannot be correct. Or simply refuse to even try the simplest things. They get more and more testy, explode in anger, and then vanish, although a few linger and repeat the cycle now and again.
For a specific example, charging problems are part of the package with old motorcycles. The path to reliability and electron flow is EXTREMELY well understood. Yet askholes regularly show up and then refuse to provide the most basic data like voltage readings. They get quite rude about it.
This ain't a nuclear reactor; a $5 or $10 voltage meter will be perfectly fine for diagnosing motorcycle charging issues. And if you can't afford that, you have zero business fooling with motorcycles. Yet askholes routinely refuse to provide voltage readings. If they don't have a meter, they refuse to obtain one. If they have one, they refuse to employ it even given clear, explicit instructions.
"Look, my bike won't start, and I ain't got time to fool around with wires. Just tell me how to fix it." Um...
A buddy of mine used to collect those "free" Harbor Freight multimeters just to mail them to askholes who said "I don't got no fancy meter like you rich people. Just tell me what's wrong with my bike and shut up about them stupid numbers."
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BlakeTheCarGuy
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Does it have to be tool related? If not then every time my dad gets in one of my vehicles he pushes and scoots the floor mat all over the place because he doesn’t care and one he even tore it. It makes my OCD rage. Then in one car he pulls the seat cover off getting in because he doesn’t care and says I don’t need to worry about stuff like that. Another thing that makes my OCD rage LOL.
If tool related then coworkers getting in my tool box because they don’t have what they need. Everyday one guy comes to me needing oil filter sockets for the cartridge filters. Or telling me they need a flat head screwdriver for a hose clamp then I see them prying with it. Yes I have coworkers without screwdrivers because they feel they are a waste of money. Those are my pet peeves.
If tool related then coworkers getting in my tool box because they don’t have what they need. Everyday one guy comes to me needing oil filter sockets for the cartridge filters. Or telling me they need a flat head screwdriver for a hose clamp then I see them prying with it. Yes I have coworkers without screwdrivers because they feel they are a waste of money. Those are my pet peeves.
A fellow Able Bodied Seaman asking to borrow a knife. SMFH. You knock down 100K a year and it's the only thing you're supposed to supply besides your clothes and you ask to borrow mine?
There. That's tool related. And aggravating AF.
There. That's tool related. And aggravating AF.
RickyPetite
Well-known member
Searching for tools made in USA has devolved into: Search: XXXXX tool USA Result: long list of Chinese-made tools that SHIP from a USA warehouse.
Why?? I do that all the time. It helps to keep the object you're packing centered in the box where it's the safest.
dutchgray
Well-known member
Because when you open the thing, a small cloud of styrene balls comes out all over the place that have come loose from the bits used and they static themselves to absolutely everything and the item you have bought will be full of it so you have to take it out to the garage and blow them all off with an air line.
Shredded paper is almost as bad but at least it doesn't stick to everything.
FuzzyTiger
Well-known member
I just remembered one... This might not be a pet peeve but rather the reason I'm going to end up in jail one day.
People who you invite to your garage to help them fix their thing whatever it is. And they take it upon themselves to try and reorganize your tools. No. Absolutely not. No no no no no no no no. If you don't know where something goes don't you dare try to organize anything. Ask where it goes or leave it in a neat pile on the counter and let the tool owner know. If I say to just toss it in a disorganized box full of stuff - do exactly that. It's my mess and it doesn't matter if it could make more sense to you.
And then there is the just slightly lesser version of that. Touching tools that don't belong to you without permission. You never touch another person's tools without their invitation. And especially not a trades person's. Doesn't matter if they left their tool in your way - ask before you touch it. I think most people are too polite to tell someone to get lost if they reach into their tool bag to look at something but I don't think anyone that actually uses their tools would be okay it. I've had to pull away a few people's hands away when I saw them reaching for someone else's tools.
People who you invite to your garage to help them fix their thing whatever it is. And they take it upon themselves to try and reorganize your tools. No. Absolutely not. No no no no no no no no. If you don't know where something goes don't you dare try to organize anything. Ask where it goes or leave it in a neat pile on the counter and let the tool owner know. If I say to just toss it in a disorganized box full of stuff - do exactly that. It's my mess and it doesn't matter if it could make more sense to you.
And then there is the just slightly lesser version of that. Touching tools that don't belong to you without permission. You never touch another person's tools without their invitation. And especially not a trades person's. Doesn't matter if they left their tool in your way - ask before you touch it. I think most people are too polite to tell someone to get lost if they reach into their tool bag to look at something but I don't think anyone that actually uses their tools would be okay it. I've had to pull away a few people's hands away when I saw them reaching for someone else's tools.
Today's peeve- interlocking fast-food napkins. I take the pile out of the bag, set it on the dash. Go to grab ONE napkin and it's interlocked to the next, and the next, it pulls the whole pile like a slinky and they all go on the floor. Drives me nuts every time, yet I still manage to repeat this process every time.
Speleo
Well-known member
And then have him draw the blade across a nylon ******** a coil of sheet metal.
Speleo
bwringer
Well-known member
Yep, but the velcro at the wrists on a riding jacket gets opened a lot more frequently, many times a day usually. If you ride a lot, you'll get maybe a year before it's useless.
pizza
Well-known member
i can't believe it, but i'm in too good of a mood today to partake in the outrage ****.
gatewaysysop
Well-known member
100% Agree.
Solid pieces are fine for the most part, if that's what you're talking about, but when someone just snaps apart or throws in loose, random chunks of styrofoam, it always ends up like what is described below:
People who pack their wares like this need to be strung up. I am convinced it is pure laziness on their part. At least put the item in a plastic bag or something, so the damned tiny bits of styrofoam don't end up in every single nook and cranny of whatever it is. They cling to everything thanks to static electricity too, making cleanup an even bigger hassle. I once spent nearly an hour carefully picking these damn things out of nearly every inch of a block grinder I purchased.
Kscardsfan
Well-known member
Abusing knives/edged tools makes my blood boil. I spend too much time and money maintaining good sharp edges on my stuff for you to ruin it.
gatewaysysop
Well-known member
toddmorr
Well-known member
Left lane cruisers.
Women that ask me to fix something at their house, have zero clue what to do, and then proceed to micromanage me as I work it in front of them
Women that ask me to fix something at their house, have zero clue what to do, and then proceed to micromanage me as I work it in front of them