Unbelievable

[D_B]

When I worked in the service department of a large car dealer, customers would come in and ask, “Is my car ready?”. (300 cars in service at the time.)
Or
A customer would call and say, “My car won’t start, what is wrong with it?”. I was many times tempted to say “Please hold on a minute.”, hold the phone at arms length and loudly ask, “Hey Bill, where is that crystal ball?”
Or
When I was working as a mechanic, a customer sternly asked me:
Customer “Are you going to rip me off?”,
Me, “Yep.”
Customer “How bad?”
Me “Not bad, don’t worry.”
Customer… “Good, I was worried.”

:lol:
Heh, they usually say "It's the white chevy"

I love the reply to "are you going to rip me off?"
gonna have to remember it

 

[chipwd]

....and it's not just idiots......

I am a district manager for a small sub shop chain and many of our employees are young kids of college or high school age. Most are very bright and quite computer literate but very, very few can do even simple math in their head. God forbid the order be complete in the computer and then the customer hand them the extra change to make the return change in even dollars. They just can't figure it out! Oftentimes the customer has to tell them what change should be given back.

I blame society for allowing them to use calculators and computers to do all the figuring for them. And this has been going on for years, even most of my managers (ages in the upper 20's and 30's) can't do the simple adding and subtracting in their heads.

Very scary.......

 

[D_B]

I remember when calculators first came out .. and I still remember the advice about using them .. dont blindly trust the answer, you've got to have a rough idea of the proper answer so you can tell if you hit the wrong key, or set up the problem wrong

heh, kinda like a dive computer

 

[miked]

....and it's not just idiots......

I am a district manager for a small sub shop chain and many of our employees are young kids of college or high school age. Most are very bright and quite computer literate but very, very few can do even simple math in their head. God forbid the order be complete in the computer and then the customer hand them the extra change to make the return change in even dollars. They just can't figure it out! Oftentimes the customer has to tell them what change should be given back.

I blame society for allowing them to use calculators and computers to do all the figuring for them. And this has been going on for years, even most of my managers (ages in the upper 20's and 30's) can't do the simple adding and subtracting in their heads.

Very scary.......

Amen!
As a HS Math teacher for 37 years (now retired), I can tell you that many of the math teachers fought the use of the calculators for thast very reason. Too many people lack the basic number sense to do even the simplest math. We would use the phrase "calculator dependent" to describe this situation.

The problem was/ is exacerbated by:
a) Administrators/supervisors/professional groups buying in to the calculator manufacturer's/salesperson's hype about the great advantages to calculator use-and there are many- while ignoring the downside. (I'm not anti-technology, just "anti-the downside" the loss of basic, common sense math skills resulting from the misuse of technology.)

b) The need to prepare the students for the type of questions mandated state tests-regardless of thos topics relevancy to the course of study, which decreased the time available to help on toher skills. Also,the requirements to prepare students for using calculators on those tests.
Once the upper level of the administration buys into an idea, it becomes like a lemming stampede, and the "footsoldiers"(teachers) can't do anything about it.


d) Being told "don't worry if an 11th grader can't do 5th grade Math-they have the calculators, and we don't have the time to remediate"

Sometimes, it stinks to be right...

 

[MartianBeerPig]

You're right. I wasn't thinking to hard when I posted the message. I actually made up the $5.87. I know the items where $0.99 each but I don't know how much the breakfast sandwich was.



Actually, in Ontario they charge tax on stamps. So a $0.45 stamp is more than $0.45. :shocked2:

Ah yes. Forgot about the habit here in North America of not including sales tax in the final price. I've always found that annoying. I'm used to an environment where the advertised price is sales tax inclusive.

 

[scubadiver888]

....and it's not just idiots......

I am a district manager for a small sub shop chain and many of our employees are young kids of college or high school age. Most are very bright and quite computer literate but very, very few can do even simple math in their head. God forbid the order be complete in the computer and then the customer hand them the extra change to make the return change in even dollars. They just can't figure it out! Oftentimes the customer has to tell them what change should be given back.

I blame society for allowing them to use calculators and computers to do all the figuring for them. And this has been going on for years, even most of my managers (ages in the upper 20's and 30's) can't do the simple adding and subtracting in their heads.

Very scary.......

It is scary. I used to go through the grocery store and add up the items as I went and add the tax to the total. Depending on how the cash register rounded things I might be off by a penny. I'd tell the person at the cash register the total and they were totally amazed. Sad.

I cannot do it anymore because we have two taxes (Provincial and Federal) and I never know which item has which tax applied to it.

 

[Teamcasa]

Teacher issues moved to Homework and Teachers *Split from Unbelievable*
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[mikerault]

I was sitting with a service technician when I worked for a hardware company, he got a phone call and as I got up to leave he signalled me to stay and said "Hold on, you have to hear this." He told the guy on the other end he needed another expert to consult and turned on the speaker phone and asked him to repeat what he just said.

"There is a shiny spot on the back of my system that gives me a shock when I touch it."

The tech said "Try a ctrl-D and touch it again."

click, click, "Oouch! It still shocks me."

"Ok, try a ctrl-C and touch it again."

click, click, "Oouch"

and so on for a couple of more tests. Then as we were about to fall on the floor laughing the tech tells him "The cover has come off your fuse holder."

The guy thanked us.

Mike