Speak Differently For Me

I don’t understand this habit of adding the phrase “for me” to requests or questions. The dentist has said to me, “Open your mouth wide for me.” The doctor has said, “Take off your shirt for me.” A waiter has said, “Please move that plate for me.” When returning a car to the car-rental place, the receptionist asked me, “Did you fill up the tank for me?” And so on. I may be facilitating something for the person, but I don’t feel like I am really doing it “for” them. It just seems like more false politeness. Stop using this phrase. Please? For me?

--Curly

The 12 Most Annoying Types of Facebookers

One day, I fear, I will come to this blog and Curly will have posted a peeve about co-bloggers who do not post regularly!

But I am back, and I bring with me this funny (and maybe too true) post about "the 12 most annoying types of Facebookers." I've only been a Facebooker for a relatively short time, but already I've noted many of the types delineated within this article. Which type do you find MOST annoying?

--Prunella

Negative Negotiation

I complained in a previous post about late payments and I want to mention another payment-related peeve here. I quote a price before doing a job and the customer and I agree upon it, as you would expect. What you perhaps wouldn’t expect is that some clients try to renege or re-negotiate after they have gotten the completed assignment from me. You don’t go to a clothing store, look at a price tag, then go up to the cashier and offer a lower price, do you? And you certainly wouldn’t go home with a new dress and then go back to the store and ask for some of the money back, do you? So why do people try that with freelancers and small-business owners?

In my own case, I know I am a bit of a pushover and I am female, so perhaps people want to see how far they can push me. But even so, I don’t know what makes them feel they can even try. If we’ve agreed on a fee, that’s the final fee. Don’t expect a discount, especially after I’ve finished the work.

--Curly

Speaking in Tongues

I have nothing against people slipping foreign words into their writing or conversation, just as I know Prunella doesn’t. In fact, we are known to do it ourselves once in awhile. What I do find annoying – and admittedly this is snobbish of me – is when they mispronounce and/or misuse the word. I think if you aren’t sure how a word should be pronounced or employed, you probably should avoid it and go with a word you are more familiar with. N’est-ce pas?

--Curly

Late Payments

I run my own small business and it frequently annoys me how customers pay their bills late. I usually invoice them within a day of sending them the completed work and I give them a month to pay. And yet they can’t seem to get organized and/or to respect me so they can pay me on time. It is a waste of my time to have to keep reminding them and I find it offensive and obnoxious. You would never go to a grocery store or an antiques shop and take the products and then suggest paying a month or two later, or perhaps not at all.

Prunella knows exactly who I am talking about when I mention a recent situation regarding late payment: I had given a lecture somewhere and they’d know I was coming for months, so you’d think they could have cut a check in advance or at least organized themselves to do so shortly after I’d been there. But, no, I had to keep reminding them to pay me and I finally received a check close to a month later.

I pay my bills on time, but I can’t do so unless my clients pay me on time. So why can’t they show me (and the economy!) some respect and pay their bills in a timely fashion?

--Curly

One Price Is Nice

I travel a lot and as such I have many travel-related peeves that I am sure I will explore on this blog. One is about airline companies’ habit of charging extra for things now (this is especially true in the US, I’ve noticed). You think you are getting a good deal on a flight and then it turns out that it costs extra to check even a single piece of luggage, or to print out your boarding pass (last year, an airline actually charged me an additional $10 because I had not printed the ticket at home in advance, even though they never told me I should do that), or for a sandwich or a drink. My feeling is: just tell me how much the ticket costs, including everything, and stop trying to sneak extra fees in there. It just adds unnecessary stress.

I actually feel this way at restaurants too, incidentally. Now they charge extra for bread and tap water and they try to make more money but charging separately for the main dish, potato/pasta/rice/other starch, and vegetables. Just name the price and stop being sneaky.

--Curly