[Closed] Large companies crap ideas..

easy solution, buy british beer, we make a lot of it here and its often jolly pleasant

😆

I'd say the majority of beer I buy is British - I'm an ale person most of the time but sometimes, you can't beat a cold bottle of lager brewed in some exotic country to go with your half cooked sausage in the sunshine. I love, no really really love British beers - but I don't allow that to stop me trying beers made in lots of other places too.

lloyds tsb (and other credit card people) now requiring you to declare that you'll be overseas, and where exactly, and for how long, when using your credit card overseas

That's in your own interests.

PJM 😀

The Co-operative going into banking and buying a building society! Oops.

BA' tail fins - there was always something about seeing the Union Jack as you arrived at a distant airport that made you feel almost at home. The fancy tail fins just didn't do that! Crap idea.

We got a few calls when I was a kid;

Caller: "Can I speak to Mr Walls, please?"

My Dad: "No, I'm sorry he doesn't live here"

Caller: "Is Mrs Walls there?"

MD "No, she doesn't live here either."

C: "Are there any Walls there?"

MD: "No"

C: "Well how do you hold your roof up then?"

The fact he had exactly the same conversation twice over the space of a fortnight was a bit worrying.

Old Simpsons episodes are good for Starbucks names, Amanda Huggenqis etc.

or maybe Starbuck staff are moer forgetful than the kids who work in McDonalds... and they can handle multiple orders in parallel, and drinks that look identical (eg diet/non-diet coke) ?

Not really. The McDonalds kids have a screen in front of them on the till that tells them what is in the order.

And I'd hope any waiter/waitress and fastfood attendant can remember who they are currently serving

Despite the fact the person who took your order in Starbucks probably not going to be the person serving you the coffee? Most places I've eaten / drank in have a 'system' of some sort if there is a delay between ordering and serving. Like recording a table number, or even a name - or does that not happen on Planet Angst?

I don't really get all the angst about the name thing. Baristas were doing this for years before Starbucks came up with it. But because they're a small friendly local coffee shop, it was ok. (They really do serve the most excellent coffee btw.)

I just tell the people in Starbucks (when I ask if I can get an americano) that my name is Jon, because they haven't a chance of spelling my name correctly and I can't be doing with the "How are you spelling that?" and I feel just for a microsecond like I'm sticking it to the man, man. 🙂

Sounds like starbucks is like a vending machine with human disorganistion behind the counter. Do they not have touch screens for orders like McD's?

Plus iirc you still have to do all the sprinkle stuff yourself? Or is that Costa? (not been in a real Starbucks/Costa etc. for ages, only small ones in book shops etc., where they may have one person operating till and sorting cake while a 2nd one makes the requested "coffee").

tomhoward - Member
I like telling the Starbucks people that my name is Spartacus.
Amateur...

Really test them.

'My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.'

I used Inigo Montoya instead. 🙂

Most Starbucks, apart from the motorway services ones, are actually pretty well run, and the staff seem to like working there. A properly organised one at a busy time is quite impressive actually - that goes for all coffee shops of course, but 'bucks seem to be particularly good at it.

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next

"I'll just put Max down then"

"I'll just put Max down then"

Hehehehe 😀

not been in a real Starbucks/Costa etc. for ages, only small ones in book shops etc

You are so niche.

The Co-operative going into banking and buying a building society! Oops.

Beg to differ. ([url= http://www.smile.co.uk ]Smile[/url] FTW).
Buying a dodgy building society, yes, daft idea.
.
Big companies poor ideas?
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I seem to be missing out on all this. I've never been in a Starbucks, or any of the other coffee places.

Lots of people here seem to use Starbucks.

Large company = crap idea - to not allow fund raising for the good people in the armed forces. This means they'll never get any of my money, no matter how nice their coffee is.

Shell Drivers points - Why? There seems to be no benefit unless you spend about £1 million a year on fuel.

Lots of people here seem to use Starbucks.

I used Inigo Montoya instead.

Do you then ask them how many fingers they have on their left hand ?

Nothing they do annoys me, everything they do is for my benefit and customer led such as 650 b

You bunch of ungrateful commies

Lack of standards in MTB is begining to grate. i used to be able to swap all the parts on my bikes now its tapered forks, some OS bars some not, square taper BB, Hollowtech etc

do they have nicer toilets than Mc Donalds?

LloydsTSB - if they suspect fraudulent activity on your account they ring you with an automated voice asking you to confirm certain aspects of your account.

Haven't we been told time and time again never to confirm any personal details unless you know for sure who is calling and you can't verify an automated system...

Possible genius solution to the cold calling ....

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23869462 ]0871[/url]

Large company = crap idea - to not allow fund raising for the good people in the armed forces. This means they'll never get any of my money, no matter how nice their coffee is.

I seem to be missing out on all this. I've never been in a Starbucks, or any of the other coffee places.

Yup, you've certainly missed out.

There's nothing more relaxing than sitting in front of an overpriced pretentiously named pint-size cup of slightly coffee favoured hot watery milk.

to not allow fund raising for the good people in the armed forces

Moleskin trousers are made from real moleskins and if you eat an apple seed, an apple tree will grow in your tummy.

(I just wanted to mess with his troubled mind a little further 😈 )

There's nothing more relaxing than sitting in front of an overpriced pretentiously named pint-size cup of slightly coffee favoured hot watery milk.

If you can't select a beverage that pleases you from the menu they offer, get someone else to order for you.

HTH

@ Molgrips

"There is a patisserie called cocorico on whitchurch road that has amazing cakes! it doesn't look like much from the outside really but worth a visit. run by a proper french patisserie. its a bit out of town though.

in town there is pettigrews. it can be a bit pricey but they have massive portions of cake and more tea than anyone could drink.

theres a fairly new creperie called sophies which do nice crepes but not so much cake, but they're good, there's also a place called 'the plan' and a deli called 'wally's' which has a cafe upstairs - mostly german foods i think, and good savoury stuff too.

think that's about it really. there's always costa, neros, john lewis and other more generic places too.
hope this helps. "

I asked the foremost tea, coffee and cake taster in Cardiff for you, my friend the Dr. - I trust her advice implicitly
🙂 🙂 🙂

slightly coffee favoured hot watery milk.

There's a way around this:

"Can I get an extra shot in that please."

"And your name please sir?"

"Che...
...with a 'C'"

😀

pete68 - Member

I seem to be missing out on all this. I've never been in a Starbucks, or any of the other coffee places.

Me neither, if I'm out shopping I have a very limited amount of time available. the rest of my day seems to shoot past with coffee or tea getting scant time too (water at work/wine at home)

There's a way around this:

"Can I get an extra shot in that please."

Why would I want to spoil my half a bucket of watery milk by overloading it with coffee flavour ?

Just been across the road to a Barclays cash machine - one of those with a big LCD screen which advertises various bank services in between making itself useful and giving out cash.

Today it had three or four screens worth of gumph (gumf?) explaining how they had received a commendation from the RNIB for making their cash machines accessible to the blind etc and then finished off with a screen explaining that to use the service all you needed to do was put your headphones into the socket and press 5 to get the audio instructions...

Why would I want to spoil my half a bucket of watery milk by overloading it with coffee flavour ?

It sounded from your post that you didn't really like it only tasting slightly of coffee. My bad.

There's nothing more relaxing than sitting in front of an overpriced pretentiously named pint-size cup of slightly coffee favoured hot watery milk

There's another way around the coffee flavoured milk thing. "Double espresso please"

No idea why people love to spout on about how much they hate something that they needn't ever buy. It makes you sound like a bell end.

Molgrips - have you seen the last post on page 2 of this thread?

Also: Flat White>Americano

[img] [/img]

I love the fern too, it's a Kiwi thing, and a great addition to the types of coffee available in chain coffee-houses.

Yes, ta, will try some of those. Generally we have coffee when out and about in town.

🙂

I like Starbucks Americano when it has an neutral shot in it. Not the best coffee in the world, but pretty good.

I like getting my coffee with Adolf or Ghengis written on it. No I don't like giving them my first name, but I think they're generally more embarrassed about asking than I am about answering.

Find me one in Cardiff with better coffee and cakes.

Our local Dominos pizza ask for your name if you go into the shop and order. I've only been in a few times, but they asked my name when I was in on my own one lunchtime.

They have now started getting their delivery drivers to put roof boxes in the cars with Dominos in big letters so we now have loads of kids bombing around it their Corsas lit up like Xmas trees.

Oh well at least they can't deny what their journey is for if the Police pull them in and see if they have Business insurance.

Barclays now have free WiFi - how long do they think we want to spend in the branch that we have to have Internet access ?

Tescos " love every mouthful " campaign - annoying

CRC changing the website

Halfords trying to be a LBS when the kids in there don't have a clue

I'd better stop else I'm going to have a nosebleed..........

I've never been in Starbucks but I will now, my name will be Herpes on the 1st visit, Hitler on the 2nd, and so on.

It's the little things that brighten your day 😆

natwest card security. I was off to singapore so I rang them and said I'm off to singapore please put a note on my file that my cards will be doing transactions there so you don't block them .They said "we don't do that sir but don't worry we have a sophisticated system to ensure that won't happen". Cue one missed call on my mobile at 3am local time followed by blocked card in the most embarrasing circumstances .Response to my angry and expensive call" We tried to ring you to find out why your card was being used in singapore you didn't answer so we blocked it."

Today it had three or four screens worth of gumph (gumf?) explaining how they had received a commendation from the RNIB for making their cash machines accessible to the blind etc and then finished off with a screen explaining that to use the service all you needed to do was put your headphones into the socket and press 5 to get the audio instructions...

There's always braille on the 5 in a cash machine (and many other numerical keypads) and blind people know about the headphones. It's just letting Joe Bloggs know how customer friendly they are (even though they've done nothing special)

samuri - Member
This. In fact if a company said 'our bogroll isn't soft but it's hard as nails' and showed a dock worker grimacing as he scrubbed his backside, I'd buy that one...

Only the once though. Bogrolls used to be hard as nails. The very thought makes my cheeks quiver with postcipitation. (Perfectly cromulent word, that)

Civilisation didn't start until we had soft bogrolls IMO. 🙂

There's nothing more relaxing than sitting in front of an overpriced pretentiously named pint-size cup of slightly coffee favoured hot watery milk.

I think the worst idea most companies had was putting gaggia machines everywhere. If I want a big coffee, filter will do just fine. I'm not really into waiting 10 minutes for while somebody clanks about making dozens of potentially passable espressos, then sloppping in a load of tepid water and milk.

If you buy filter at most Stabucks, the cashier pours it for you there and then so you can remain anonymous.

If I want a big coffee, filter will do just fine

I, on the other hand, prefer lattes to filter. So I like the machines 🙂