Rant Thread - What really grinds your gears?

[Dngrsone]

As I recall, some states (Florida, some two decades ago at least) also require insurance to cover windshield repair.

My rant-- freakin' management, telling you to do stuff that won't actually fix anything.

 

[bjacks12]

bjacks, I wouldn't be surprised that you will have the coverage you need. With or without a deductible, most full-coverage policies cover windshield repair and replacement.

Things should be peachy.

No rants? Okay, here it goes:

Damned insurance companies. All they do is grab you with a gecko, a C-List actor, or a game show host - right through your television screen. Auto, home, or life...

A proper rant, for the proper forum... LW

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCkl6GYDXaLa2DIXlN5Reo5w

Subscribe to my better half's YouTube page - she's trying to promote my music.

Thank you.

Insurance commercials are hilarious..... Especially the Allstate Mayhem commercials.

 

[LOveWerks]

Insurance commercials are hilarious..... Especially the Allstate Mayhem commercials.

The "Mayhem" guy falls through roofs, and keeps you entertained... while Flo burns at the stake in 1680s Salem, MA... "I didn't turn your daughter into a rooster - she already looked like that!"

Here's an interesting piece of history about insurance, that started in pre-Colonial times in the city of Charleston, SC:

In Charleston back at that time, fires were prevalent in the single-row houses since the city is surrounded by water, and subject to strong, direction-changing winds.

The Fire Department, after receiving a stipend from a homeowner, would place an iron placard on the front of the home. If your home had an iron placard, and it was on fire - the Fire Department horse-drawn wagon would come, and using water carried on the wagon (and, shoveled dirt)... they'd put out the fire.

Charleston was among the first in the territories and colonies to provide insurance and surety... beginning with fire departments.

Very strange, but, true. The development of actuarial tables in the insurance industry made more things able to be insured...

It's a money-making business. No doubt. LW

 

[bjacks12]

Just heard back from my insurance agent. Glass is covered under my comprehensive policy...subject to my $1000 deductible.

Looks like I'm going out of pocket on this one.

 

[PattiCakeUS]

Oh that sucks! Hopefully it's not too expensive...

I also just checked Groupon & there are deals. Not sure I'm remembering right, but aren't you in or near Vegas? There's at least one current Groupon for repair or replacement there, could save you $. It says the average cost is $250 to replace, $39 gets you $100:
http://www.groupon.com/deals/superior-auto-glass-tinting-2

Also check Amazon Local, Crowdcut, or anything else you can think of. I bet you can find a deal to save some bucks.

 

[bjacks12]

Another rant....one of our new tax staff decided to up and quit on us last week. No 2-week notice or anything. Just left. During tax season. He had a ton of projects on his desk that he'd had for a few weeks that he hadn't bothered doing anything on. In fact, nobody can figure out what he did during the time he was here...but now we have to pick up the slack.

 

[Dngrsone]

How does my wife manage to infect her computer with crap on a regular basis?

I mean, seriously... I've managed to infect my machine once over the past twelve years, and she get something every twelve weeks.

 

[LOveWerks]

Another rant....one of our new tax staff decided to up and quit on us last week. No 2-week notice or anything. Just left. During tax season. He had a ton of projects on his desk that he'd had for a few weeks that he hadn't bothered doing anything on. In fact, nobody can figure out what he did during the time he was here...but now we have to pick up the slack.

Damn it. I prepared taxes back in the '90s for a mom & pop outfit that had a customer base that went back 30 + years. If that's the same thing for your concern, then, that truly sux. I wish you all the best in getting things caught up. Your former employee was a jerk. LW

 

[LOveWerks]

How does my wife manage to infect her computer with crap on a regular basis?

I mean, seriously... I've managed to infect my machine once over the past twelve years, and she get something every twelve weeks.

If it wasn't for me making sure that the antivirus is scanning regularly, and protective browser extensions and add-ons have been installed, my better half would have our network in VIRUS HELL.

She likes Pogo. Need I say (write) anymore. It's the only whitelisted
site allowed to be surfed... and my fingers are still crossed. LW

 

[zuben el genub]

Another rant....one of our new tax staff decided to up and quit on us last week. No 2-week notice or anything. Just left. During tax season. He had a ton of projects on his desk that he'd had for a few weeks that he hadn't bothered doing anything on. In fact, nobody can figure out what he did during the time he was here...but now we have to pick up the slack.

I had a job where the former worker took all the paperwork to the dump rather than process it. At least your paperwork was there.

It's fun trying to backtrack. Got most of the paperwork recreated before I left.

 

[zuben el genub]

How does my wife manage to infect her computer with crap on a regular basis?

I mean, seriously... I've managed to infect my machine once over the past twelve years, and she get something every twelve weeks.

The Vulcan did that. I finally got him to ASK before he did anything. I keep sending him articles about safe surfing. His errors are usually the type that says something in your computer is not safe, a virus, or a patch is needed.

 

[bjacks12]

If you call yourself a 'bookkeeper' please please please stop using ledger paper and start using a computer.

I CAN'T READ YOUR DAMN HANDWRITING.

 

[LOveWerks]

On Wintel computers, I go back to the days of DOS... like early AutoCad, Lotus 123, and later, Peachtree.

Still, my favorite bookkeeping software is Apple-based FileMaker Pro. You can set it up anyway you like; i.e., dedicated point-of-sale entry points for tax-free and exempt accounts; profit & loss, taxes, from a monthly perspective in Apple's right-brained presentation.

You can go right into a spreadsheet format whenever you click your one-button mouse in the way to get there.

Mac fan? Yep - LW

 

[bjacks12]

90% of our clients use Quickbooks. 85% of our clients do not know how to use Quickbooks.

We get a few that are photogs and graphic designers that use Quickbooks for Mac....a real complication for us in an enterprise PC environment. We have to keep a mac on hand in the office for those times when we get a QB file from a Mac.

 

[zuben el genub]

Get an old bookkeeping machine and someone to use it. Burroughs made one.

 

[PattiCakeUS]

I know I shouldn't eat fast food, and fast food workers don't make a lot, but still... I stopped at DQ (went through the drive through) & ordered a small cone & a salad, I figured I'd eat the cone on my way home & have the salad once I was home. The lady asked what kind of dressing? I asked if they have a vinaigrette or light italian, & was offered a balsamic vinaigrette. I said OK, I'll take that, but do you also happen to have light ranch? If so, I'd like one of those too. She says OK, I drive around & pay.

After a minute she hands me the cone & says my salad will be a couple minutes. OK... so I'll just sit here & hold the cone in my right hand while I wait, since I'm not going to eat it in front of the window, & I can't set it down. After a short wait she hands me my salad with 2 dressings & plastic silverware balanced on top. I ask if there's a bag it could all go in? Nope, we don't have bags that size. OK... so I take the stuff from her with my left hand to grab the precariously balanced stuff she's handing me, & then (since I have a cone in my right hand) I have to reach across my body & down to put it on the passenger seat & keep it all balanced so stuff doesn't fall all over my car. GRRR!

Then I get home, the dressing she gave me isn't even what I asked for so I threw it away. Good thing I have Light Ranch in my fridge.

 

[Kaat72]

Rub it in. They don't sell Ranch here.

 

[mikedt]

Quickbooks is a classic example of vendor lock-in. Nothing else is compatible with it, nothing else can read the format, so they're guaranteed to get lots of $$$ from you, force you into upgrades more $$$, and no way to escape.

 

[CrimsonToker]

People interrupting me in the middle of my sentence annoys the living hell out of me. I don't care if I'm talking about the dumbest thing, interrupting me to suddenly start talking about what you want to talk about is so disrespectful. I will turn and just walk away from a person when they do that.

 

[Unforgiven]

People interrupting me in the middle of my sentence annoys the living ...

So, my dog came running up to me, and...

 

[Dngrsone]

Unfortunately, I do a lot of walking away.

Or maybe fortunately-- the less I talk, the less trouble I can get myself in.

 

[bjacks12]

Get an old bookkeeping machine and someone to use it. Burroughs made one.

Quickbooks is a classic example of vendor lock-in. Nothing else is compatible with it, nothing else can read the format, so they're guaranteed to get lots of $$$ from you, force you into upgrades more $$$, and no way to escape.

Despite the user error by clients, Quickbooks is actually pretty useful for what we do with it. The vast majority of our clientele are small business owners. Doctors, chiropractors, real estate investors, etc. Most of our clients do their own bookkeeping, for others, we do it. QB is an instant go-to for most people so it makes sense for us to use it as our standard BK software too. I much prefer that to having some other software to which we'd have to find a way to import a client's quickbooks file.

 

[LOveWerks]

Get an old bookkeeping machine and someone to use it. Burroughs made one.

zuben, I think you may be referring to those Burroughs devices called "adding machines"...

Ka-clang ka-clang (twelve times or more, depending upon how many figures were entered) - then, the total finally prints out in red... my parents had one when I was a kid back in the '60s - LW

 

[LOveWerks]

Despite the user error by clients, Quickbooks is actually pretty useful for what we do with it. The vast majority of our clientele are small business owners. Doctors, chiropractors, real estate investors, etc. Most of our clients do their own bookkeeping, for others, we do it. QB is an instant go-to for most people so it makes sense for us to use it as our standard BK software too. I much prefer that to having some other software to which we'd have to find a way to import a client's quickbooks file.

Beats the hell out of an .xml spreadsheet file in
Microflop Office... LW

 

[bjacks12]

For sure. Although there is something to be said for working with a Trial Balance in Excel. For those clients who don't use QB, and for whom we don't bookkeeping, Excel is arguably the quickest and easiest solution. I just take their tallies and plug it all in to the template I made and it works real good. Quicker and easier to make an adjustment than QB.