February 28, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Accessing first aid room

An anonymous reader writes:

This is one of at least two first aid rooms with this sign at the corporate headquarters of a major financial services company.

The sign reads:

For entry to first aid room
call security at ext. 58940

I think that first aid supplies shouldn't be locked up. If you are bleeding, who has time to call security? 

If that weren't bad enough, there is no phone near either of these rooms. If someone needed access to the first aid room, they would actually have to go to a different floor to find the closest phone!

February 27, 2007 12:14 AM

Broken: Home Depot "library" display

Following up on yesterday's post about the Home Depot receipt, this is part of the window display of the Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan.

You're seeing this right: apparently, Home Depot's idea of "the library" is a set of tall bookshelves... and a toilet. Complete with several rolls of toilet paper.

I always thought reading was classy...

February 26, 2007 10:57 AM

Broken: (Updated, not AS broken): Home Depot receipt and "customer agreement"

This is the receipt I got from the Home Depot on 23rd Street in Manhattan this past weekend. (I've blacked out my order number. )

Note two bizarre parts of the receipt:

1. "RATE US ONLINE 10-GOOD & 1-BAD SEE BELOW"

See what below? Rate you online where? Maybe this is a way to avoid "1" ratings: just don't make the survey accessible.

2. "CUSTOMER HAS HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO READ AND ACCEPTS THE TERMS OF THE ABOVE CUSTOMER AGREEMENT"

Here I see that I'm agreeing to "customer agreement #156326." But I don't know what that agreement says, or how to get it, and the cashier on this busy checkout line wasn't about to go print one out for me.

So - I can't rate them poorly on the agreement they won't show me, because they won't tell me where the survey is. Great.

I sure hope the agreement doesn't say something nasty, because I signed the receipt.

- - -

Update: It turns out the customer agreement was inside a separate document stapled to a transaction receipt unattached to the first. While the receipt I had to sign was confusing, to be fair, the agreement and survey it referenced were available somewhere in what I was handed. This isn't as broken as I thought, and I apologize for the confusion. -mh

This is an excerpt of the agreement, which doesn't start until after the first page of the stapled packet.

This is an excerpt of the second receipt stapled to the packet. This is what they meant by "seeing below" for the survey.

Finally, thanks to TIB reader Brian for clarifying:

That number corresponds to a special order customer agreement paper that you must have purchased. It is a bigger piece of paper with a bar code on the bottom that designates that you did a Will-Call or Special Order. It is the government of each state that requires this EULA on the Customer Agreement, NOT Home Depot. It doesn't say much except to protect Home Depot from customers who try to jilt HD in certain installation situations. Just letting you know, you have a paper somewhere for S/O or Will call that has that number at the top and that is the "agreement".

- - -

See also:

• Home Depot's CEO leaves with $210 million exit package (Jan. 4, 2007)

• Consumerist: Home Depot being investigated (Nov. 29, 2006)

• Charlie Todd's prank in Home Depot (Aug. 24, 2006)

• Talking frogs review Home Depot's website (March 23, 2006)

• ReasonableAgreement.org (thanks, Cory)

Broken: Parking sign in front of police station

Joel Ballon submits a picture of a sign taken in West View, Pennsylvania:

I photographed the set of signs above in West View, a suburb to the north of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

The set of signs are directly in front of the common entrance of the Borough building and the police station, which is located in a strip mall.

would you park between 7 PM and 10 PM?

February 24, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Zune song transfer error

From Michael Meiser's Flickr photostream:

"Welcome to the anti-social." :)

February 23, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: (Just for Fun) Kline Realty advertisement

A reader submits an advertisement seen in Brooklyn, New York:

I saw this ad for Kline Realty posted around the neighborhood which made me laugh.

My favorite part of the ad is - "Just type in klinerealestate.com and when it comes on, turn up the volume and fasten your seat belt or you'll jump up and start dancing."

February 22, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Mexican jewelry shop sign

Chris Bell submits a picture taken in Huatulco, Mexico:

On my recent trip to Huatulco, Mexico, we came across this nice little jewelry shop called "Gold Silver shop."

If you look closely at the store sign, you will see the store's slogan which is "We wont cheat you too bad,"  which, with the obvious grammar errors, also isn't really the best marketing plan. 

February 21, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Wegman's cake text

From LiveJournal user Nonumnos:

Wegmans is a large and growing grocery chain originating out of Rochester, NY.

Apparently, you can email an order to the Wegman's bakery for cakes - including what message you want on the cake.

The cake above was supposed to be a mix of English and Italian, but the staff apparently knew no Italian. The problem? Wegman's email system also apparently did not recognize some of the proprietary Microsoft HTML extensions!

The email likely feeds directly into their computer that runs the food-grade equivalent of an inkjet printer to place the message on the cake, so it is possible that the message made it onto the cake because someone did not check it on the computer first.

Link to story.

February 20, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Panasonic FX07 camera legal notice

From Larsz's Flickr photostream:

The Panasonic FX07 is a nice little camera.

However, every time you activate the special setting for taking photos on an airplane, this irritating text comes up on the screen:

TURN OFF THE CAMERA DURING THE TAKEOFF AND LANDING. FOLLOW THE
INSTRUCTION OF CABIN ATTENDANT.

February 19, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Construction warning sign

Brett Pemberton submits a picture taken in Melbourne, Australia:

I saw this warning sign guarding a construction site with the text -

Entry to this
site by
unauthorised
persons is
"Prohibited"

I wonder, does the underline cancel out the quotation marks?

February 17, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Zinda couscous package

Milan Davidovic points out:

This package of Zinda couscous is hard to "Push to Open,", since there's no perforation on the package.

February 16, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Association of International Glaucoma Societies website

Barbara Young writes:

I came upon the web site of the Association of International Glaucoma Societies and had to share it. I thought it was a spoof at first, but it isn't.

Check out the bobbing heads at the upper left, the flying-in heading, the spinning globe in the middle, and the staring eyeball that appears if you scroll down to the bottom of the left-side menu, and the fact that you can't get back to the home page if you leave it without using the Back button. Oh, and there seems to be no actual information about glaucoma on the site.

Another funny feature in this site is the "Glaucoma Hymn" , which is on the lower right corner of the site I dare anyone to download the "hymn" and listen to it all the way through. Here is an excerpt:

Glaucoma, Glaucoma, Glaucoma
Constricting vision slowly
Halted by progress of science
Vision of a world united
Beyond all science knowing

February 15, 2007 09:27 AM

Broken: Misuse of the word "some"

From a New York Times story today:

"Firedoglake.com has offered intensive trial coverage, using some six contributors in rotation."

What does "some six contributors" mean? Wouldn't "six contributors" be more accurate? Or does the reporter not know how many contributors there are? Then the word should be "about", not "some."

I see this all the time: newspapers and magazines say "some" when they really mean "about." The summary above could have said that the site is "using about six contributors."

I think that journalists don't like "about" because it clearly states that they don't know quite what the number is. "Some" sounds more accurate without actually being accurate. That's a cheap upgrade.

Broken: Road border paint job

Benedict Herold writes in:

I watched Seth Godin's talk from the Gel 2006 conference. This picture illustrates the 'Not my job' category that Seth discusses in his talk.

This picture, taken in India, shows a tree branch lying on the road.  Whoever painted the border on the road did not bother to move the branch and instead painted the border around the wood, which resulted in a crooked line.

February 14, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Hidden "No Parking" sign in San Francisco

Mike Kaufman submits a picture taken in San Francisco, CA:

"In August 2006, my daughter got a parking ticket in San Francisco for parking on Marina Boulevard on a street cleaning day.  However, as shown by photograph above which I took a few days later (as part of an appeal of the ticket), the relevant "No Parking" sign cannot be seen because a tree has grown around it."

P.S. Mike wrote in after his original submission to add: "My daughter Tanya's appeal of the parking ticket was successful! However, I'm not sure whether the city has bothered to fix the problem of the hidden sign."

February 13, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Lawn care advertisement

Mark Crummett writes in:

I found this ad on my driveway for a local lawncare and landscaping company here in North Carolina - delivered in a ziplock bag with some rocks!

I understand why the ad was packaged this way - the plastic bag keeps it dry, and the rocks make it easier to throw from a vehicle. Kinda clever, I suppose. But the idea of using this bit of non-recycleable trash to advertise a lawn care business seems ironic to me. (The ad looked a lot like another piece of trash in the gutter.)

February 12, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Utility bill happytalk

From the envelope containing my recent electric bill, in big, red, bold letters:

"Your Con Edison bill is inside - in a NEW SIZE!"

Wow, a new paper size. I guess it doesn't take much to get them excited. Do they really think customers might be excited by that?

The bill inside looked the same, just printed on bigger paper.

February 10, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Lawyer sign

From Oswego, Illinois, Brooke Novak shows us the sign for the "drive thru lawyer".

February 9, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Fake invoice in the mail

Ryan Marle writes in:

I received in the mail something from "ListingCorp" that looks exactly like an invoice, except for the fact that I know I didn't register ryanmarle.com with this company.  In fact I've never even heard of Listing Corp.  It's a solicitation to pay a lot more money to switch my domain registrar.  It makes me wonder how many people would pay it without even thinking about it.

They did manage to put one line in small print on the back that says, "This is not a bill. This is a solicitation." How nice of them to cover themselves like that.

February 8, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: iPhoto popup

Which option tells iPhoto not to rebuild the thumbnails - "Rebuild Now" or "OK"?

C'mon, Apple, you can do better than this.

February 7, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Disney DVD credits

Randall Cooper points out:

The latest collectible set of Disney Treasures DVDs came out, with the long-awaited title - Your Host, Walt Disney.  It features over seven and a half hours of material featuring the familiar, kindly visage of “Uncle” Walt as we came to know him growing up in the 1950s and 60s. 

But at the end of one piece, the credits include an unfortunate misspelling (emphasis mine): "We hope you have enjoyed this special presentation of Disnelyand U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall..."

February 6, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Santiago metro elevator

Ken Erickson writes:

Local station personnel say they often have to rescue stranded and frightened people from this lift.

A station attendant said, "The first thing I have to do to get them out is to unlock the door, then climb in and calm them down."

February 5, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Hammacher Schlemmer wall map (in Sky Mall)

This is one of my all-time favorites. Flying on Continental a few weeks ago, I flipped through the SkyMall magazine and found this wall map from Hammacher Schlemmer.

See how intently the father teaches his daughter world geography!

February 3, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Yahoo thesaurus page

The Yahoo thesaurus provides a good example of how not to focus a page on its primary goal. (How many dozens of distracting elements are on the page?)

February 2, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Nesquick instructions

Robert Hoekman Jr. points out:

This Nesquick bottle of chocolate milk instructs thirsty consumers to:

Remove seal
Shake well

...in that order.

Obviously, this is not an ideal workflow. And to think - several people with decision-making powers must have seen this label before it reached my hands!

February 1, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Impassable staircase

From Esther Dyson's Flickr photostream:

This staircase that goes neither up nor down is part of the Lloyd's heaqduarters building, at the corner of Leadenhallband Lime Street in London.

This is the kind of staircase you see in anxiety dreams.