You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

If it really is this simple then why isn’t this presented as an option?
Oh yeah…. Ignorance is profit in this case.

It's on their website.

But you can't possibly expect a gov't bureaucracy to present options to you in a clear manner, can you?

[Fuzz]

Daily, hourly or weekly parking receipts may be credited as partial payment for a monthly parking permit under some circumstances, at the discretion of the zone
parking management team. The value of credited parking receipts over and above the
value of the monthly parking permit will not be refunded.

https://www.albertahealthservices.ca...egulations.pdf


Under some circumstances, at their discretion. Solid.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Parking is operated by AHS. Who are these "for profit" companies that run them?

https://www.albertahealthservices.ca...page12576.aspx

As far as I can remember, hospital parking has cost money, going waaay back to the 1980s.

I find this whole line of reasoning utterly bizarre. Should governments only buy MRI machines from non-profit companies? Or maybe they could design and build their own lol.

OK, well that's interesting, I must have been misinformed at the time the change over happened. They moved from one system to another, and hospital staff had told me they had switched to a private company, which is why the rates jumped and you couldn't bank passes. I remember the parking office closed, and there was no way to talk to anyone. Presumably some of those changes were backtracked, and the hospital staff were mistaken.

The do say

Parking is an ancillary service, which means that no government-provided healthcare dollars can be used to build, lease, maintain or administer parking. All parking-related costs must be fully recovered through fees collected from users of the service

But don't say what excess fees go to. Be curious to see the accounting on it.

[mrkajz44]

I can understand the requirement to pay for parking, even at a hospital. However, it's the pre-pay requirement that is terrible. You have to guess how long you will be at the hospital, so you have to bank on people being on time if you have an appointment and good luck if you are just going as a walk-up.

Just make me take a time-stamped ticket when I arrive and then charge me the appropriate amount when I leave. Don't add on the stress of worrying if I have enough time paid for parking while I'm dealing with a hospital trip.

[Fuzz]

Let's see, is the doctor going to be 1 hour or 5 hours late today? No way of knowing.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

I can understand the requirement to pay for parking, even at a hospital. However, it's the pre-pay requirement that is terrible. You have to guess how long you will be at the hospital, so you have to bank on people being on time if you have an appointment and good luck if you are just going as a walk-up.

Just make me take a time-stamped ticket when I arrive and then charge me the appropriate amount when I leave. Don't add on the stress of worrying if I have enough time paid for parking while I'm dealing with a hospital trip.

Agreed completely, but I will say the app is pretty good. I spent almost every day at the Foothills for months and you can just top up time from your phone if need be. Your way is still way better, though, but the app is better than screwing around at the machines. It also alerts you when you're close to running out of time.

[Erick Estrada]

What's with all the construction zones set up with no work going on? I passed one on Blackfoot and one on Glenmore today on the same drive. Signs and pylons removing a right lane but no sign of crews or any work being done. I guess maybe they are working at night but I couldn't see any evidence of any construction or anything going on inside the pylons.

[getbak]

Different crews set up the barricades than those that do the actual work.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by getbak

Different crews set up the barricades than those that do the actual work.

That seems incredibly efficient.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by getbak

Different crews set up the barricades than those that do the actual work.

And everyone else suffers.

Really, how hard is it? "I think it should take about 30 minutes to safely set up the barricades on this project. The construction people are starting at 10, so we'll get out there at 9:30."

Driving is so inefficient. Definitely a literal gear grinder!

[timun]

If all "the construction people" are out there at 10:00, you can't have crews setting up all pylons for all construction sites at 9:30: there quite literally aren't enough people to do that.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by timun

If all "the construction people" are out there at 10:00, you can't have crews setting up all pylons for all construction sites at 9:30: there quite literally aren't enough people to do that.

Then wages increase for "crews setting up all the pylons", attracting more people to choose to do that than something else, or the public simply accepts this extraordinary inefficiency created by government allocating an insufficient budget to keep people moving.

Very few things are as much of a gear grinder as having a perfectly fine three lane road reduced to two lanes and wasting time because of acceptance of inefficient scheduling and staffing.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

What's with all the construction zones set up with no work going on? I passed one on Blackfoot and one on Glenmore today on the same drive. Signs and pylons removing a right lane but no sign of crews or any work being done. I guess maybe they are working at night but I couldn't see any evidence of any construction or anything going on inside the pylons.

You just noticed this? This happens 5000 times a day in the city. I have daily fantasies where I get out of the car and huck the barriers and pylons off to the side of the road while all the other drivers honk in praise of my heroism throwing wads of cash at my feet.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by butterfly

And everyone else suffers.

Really, how hard is it? "I think it should take about 30 minutes to safely set up the barricades on this project. The construction people are starting at 10, so we'll get out there at 9:30."

Driving is so inefficient. Definitely a literal gear grinder!

seconds, not minutes

slow down, my dad works here.

No he bloody well doesn't, no one works here, that's the problem.

Unless he has a pointy head and is orange.

[AC]

Originally Posted by AC

I can't believe how poor customer service has become.

We took possession of a new construction in December and have your mostly standard deficiencies we're still waiting to have installed / replaced.

A couple of the items (damaged dryer door) started the replacement process in January and the appliance store said they expect it to take 1-3 months. It took several emails and a phone call in order to get confirmation they even received the information needed to submit the claim to begin with. Fast forward to 3 months later and it's been pulling teeth to get anybody to respond when I'm trying to find out if there's an update as it's been more than the 3 months they initially said. Nobody responds.

We've had the wrong fridge for 4.5 months now since we pointed it out in the pre-possession walkthrough. Our warranty specialist only updates us with "the supplier isn't responding to me".

Just to update on this. Our correct fridge was finally supposed to be delivered today after 5.5 months... except Coast Appliances no-showed.

Booked last week for today from 8am-12pm and we called in at 1:30 to find out they had no record of a fridge being picked up for delivery...

On top of that, we discovered last week during a big rainfall that our Plygem sliding windows were not actually weatherproof. The weeping holes connecting the interior to the exterior were not drilled through so the water couldn't drain and spilled into one of our bedrooms.

At the very least a Plygem tech came out to confirm their ####-up, and drilled and tested all the windows as needed. Of course our warranty specialist had arranged the appointment because he also wanted to be present, but HE no-showed too! It's also the 3rd time he's failed to show up for appointments he set with various trades.

Last month Regal Shelf and Mirror finally came to install our melamine built-ins, after a no-show appointment of their own. When I called the guy that booked the appointment with me he said his system had no record of the appointment and he asked who I booked it with. He was shocked to learn that it was him. His excuse was that he was behind on his emails, yet he emailed me to book the appointment to begin with.

I honestly cannot believe how much hand holding I have to do when it comes to what should be basic customer service.

[Swift]

Me on a call today: "Hi, can I get your name please?"
Her: "Christina"
Me, groaning internally as if that's enough to look her up in our database: "And your last name?"
Her: "Jones"
Me, not being able to find her: "Is that Kristina with a K?"
Her: "No, with a C"
Me: "I'm having trouble finding you here"
Her: "And with a Y"
Me: [!?!]


How come people with unusually spelled names from the norm aren't prepared for this kind of thing? Does Crystina think I'll intuitively go to that spelling for my first guess?

[butterfly]

Yeah, a really poor incentive model. They know you're going nowhere else for help, so it's all on their terms, whenever they get to it.

Meanwhile, you have to pay interest on your house which is supposed to include weatherproof windows (hello), a dryer with a door, a fridge, and cabinets. Sorry friend.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by Swift

Me on a call today: "Hi, can I get your name please?"
Her: "Christina"
Me, groaning internally as if that's enough to look her up in our database: "And your last name?"
Her: "Jones"
Me, not being able to find her: "Is that Kristina with a K?"
Her: "No, with a C"
Me: "I'm having trouble finding you here"
Her: "And with a Y"
Me: [!?!]


How come people with unusually spelled names from the norm aren't prepared for this kind of thing? Does Crystina think I'll intuitively go to that spelling for my first guess?

Easy fix. "May I please have the spelling of your first and last names?"

[AC]

Originally Posted by butterfly

Yeah, a really poor incentive model. They know you're going nowhere else for help, so it's all on their terms, whenever they get to it.

Meanwhile, you have to pay interest on your house which is supposed to include weatherproof windows (hello), a dryer with a door, a fridge, and cabinets. Sorry friend.

I'm honestly not even a difficult or nagging customer/client, and I'm fully aware of the supply chain issues that affect most of the companies I'm dealing with.

I really just want basic customer service. If someone emails or calls me to schedule an appointment, just show up.

[dubc80]

Our house chose The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers to watch together as a family over the weekend. Its 2 seasons, 20 episodes total.

We watched 2 episodes on Friday and tried to watch again on Sunday and then found out it has been removed/deleted from the platform (Disney +).

Do you know how hard it is for my family to finally agree to a show to watch together?

Now I have to spend another 2 months trying to get my 8 yr old boy, 6 yr old girl and wife to agree to something. MAN!