The thing about unspoken and unwritten rules is that sometimes people just flat out don't get the memo.
Reddit is here to change that.
Reddit user lofisky asked:
"What’s an unspoken rule that annoys you when people don’t know about it?"
I'm not here to judge why people might not know these rules or whether their reasoning makes any sense - or even if I agree with everything Reddit had to say.
My job is just to let you know that if you're out here doing these things, Reddit probably thinks you're super annoying.
Do with that information what you will. Hopefully, the thing y'all do is start letting people get OFF the elevator/bus/train/thing before you try to squeeze on.
Seriously.
Getting Off
House Rules Fart GIF by Channel 7Giphy"Let people get off the bus before you get on the bus."
- HealthyInPublic
"Same with elevators/lifts."
- pwnicholson
"It's not just being nice. It's literally physics."
"First you need to vacate the space you want to start occupying."
- peepay
"My local hospital started paying people to direct people on elevator etiquette."
"The person makes you stand behind a line until the elevator is clear. The most amazing part is people still try to go against it. The last time I was there a lady budged in front of my kid who is on crutches."
- jn29
Pool Party?
"I am currently sitting at the pool at a resort."
"There is a group who decided to bring their own, rather large, portable speaker to blast music. Don’t do this."
- lincolnfalcon
"Had this in Ibiza last year at a hotel that already played music at a reasonable volume by the pool."
"Someone turned up with a tinny little speaker playing some mix he made on his little DJ setup in his bedroom at his mum’s miserable house in a crappy town in some horrible part of England."
"Don’t know if he was trying to promote himself out there or something, but we all would’ve preferred him to have just f*cked off though."
- LuxuryMustard
"I was by a pool and this girl next to me kept playing this pop song and trying to lip sync to it for a selfie video, she would then watch it and restart it to try and get a better shot."
"It was driving me nuts so I put 'I'll Go Until My Heart Stops' by 36 Crazyfists on full blast. Naturally she stopped; and then her and her friends looked at me like I was the complete crazy one here."
- samjmpage
Sharing Fairly
"When sharing food with the table, you eat your fair share."
"If there’s 4 people and 4 pieces, you don’t eat one and a half pieces or the whole plate, you eat once piece. That's fair. It's called a 'fair share' for a reason."
- Bellabunsxo
"This goes for everything! Notice how much stuff there is to go around and don't use more than your fair share without asking!"
"If you live in a house with 2 other people, and there's 3 towel hooks in the bathroom, you get to use ONE of them."
"If you share a kitchen cabinet with one roommate, your groceries shouldn't occupy more than half the space."
"If your friend cooked you dinner last night, cook them dinner another night!"
"Notice how much you take and don't take more than you give!"
- T-Flexercise
"Add to this. If its 4 pieces of X and 4 pieces of Y. You eat 1 X and 1 Y."
- theultimateThor
Happiness Hater
Cracking Up Reaction GIFGiphy"Making fun of someone laughter or smile."
"I mean making fun of someone is already bad. But.. someone happiness expression??"
- Redfoxaa
"I remember a few years ago I was living with roommates and I unexpectedly had the day off work and was in my bedroom."
"My 2 roommates had thought I was not home and were gossiping about people and casually mentioned how annoying my laugh was to one another."
"To this day I am super self concours about my laugh and is one of the meanest things someone has ever said about me. Really hurt my feelings and was just such a random thing to gossip about."
- AffectionateDealer3
"My ex-husband used to do this. He'd say I have rabbit teeth and occasionally grab them in what he passed off as a quirky, playful act of endearment."
"I rarely bare my teeth when smiling anyhow because as a child and teenager, prior to wearing a retainer, it was truly not a pretty sight. My teeth are actually quite alright after the correction, I've even received compliments on them, rabbit-ish as my ex claimed they are."
- Even-Sympathy5728
Handicapped Enough
"If someone is using a cane/walker/crutches, please move out of their way, and move your children out of the way."
"I have MS, and have balance issues. I don't walk that slowly with a cane, but can't tell you the number of times I've nearly been knocked down by a child."
"Also, don't harass those with handicapped tags, because we 'don't appear handicapped enough' for your standards."
- NO_Cheeto_in_Chief
"My mom actually breaks down crying after almost every store trip because EVERYONE ignores her. Its like she doesn’t exist."
"No one sees her, they cut her off ALL the f*cking time, they get annoyed because she's not going fast enough, they don't move when she's coming."
"She gets so upset that she's slowly not wanting to go anywhere - she just has a leg injury and is only 53 years old. The injury was already traumatic and people are just so rude!"
- HappyHappyUnbirthday
Honesty
"Being an a-hole isn't 'just being honest' - that's an excuse to be cruel and you know it.”
- LEE-3314
" 'Brutally honest' usually just means brutal."
- nocatpicspls
"My first college roommate once told one of my friends 'You're fat and you can't be upset I said that cause it's the truth.' "
"She did awful things like that regularly to me and my friends. I made sure never to room with her again and she kept giving me apology jolly ranchers through mutual friends."
"Well, she made my very sweet bipolar friend lock himself in his room for 3 days with depression refusing to come out or eat."
"Actions have consequences. After she roomed with 4 other of my friends, they all came forward and apologized because they didn't realize just how awful she really could be at times."
- asad_potatoe
Respect The Circle
episode 8 hug GIFGiphy"If you’re out with a group of friends standing in a circle, make sure to make space for everyone."
"Feeling like you’re not included cause you have to force your way into the circle is the worst feeling ever! Just be courteous & mindful of others."
- LeonardoDeFarto
"Standing on the outskirts of the circle sucks."
- sunsetskye_
"This exact situation causes me so much social anxiety it is crippling. I DETEST approaching groups, even groups of well-known and well-loved friends."
"I was taught to watch out for others, especially to make sure shorter people were included and could get to a position where they can see and hear, and weren't left staring at backs. I wish everyone showed this courtesy."
- TiffyVella
"Feedback"
"I remember my brother was telling a story and my dad interrupted him to say, 'your voice is really nasally. You should try to speak more with your diaphragm and sound less annoying. Alright, continue.' "
"Needless to say my brother didn't finish the story."
"Don't offer 'feedback' that's really just an insult."
- Sunupu
"I've had a teacher in high school, point at me and loudly say, 'Look at how she laughs!' "
"Good thing she's just a substitute teacher as our usual, and far nicer, one is on maternity leave. She's a jerk, trying to be the cool bad b*tch that's brutally honest with 'feedback,' but ends up being plain rude and intolerable. And so much cringe."
- totallynicehedgehog
Shopping Showdowns
"Taking up the entire aisle at the grocery store. Don't take every member of the family and walk side by side."
"Some folks actually make a list, and are trying to get in and out quickly."
- NO_Cheeto_in_Chief
"When you're walking in a shopping centre or down the street and you stop to look at something, step aside. Let other people through, f*ckwits!"
- Green_Prompt_6386
"God this one is true. If you ever believe that humans don’t need more natural predators, walk through Wal-Mart and tell me you haven’t changed your mind."
- Whosagoodboyyyyyy
"To that, I might add, don’t abandon your cart to go get something."
"Now instead of occupying a singular space, a cart is in one part of the isle, and a person is in another part of the isle. 2 or 3 people do this, the isle is twice as clogged, and I have to move their cart to get something because they are not attending to it."
"Also, doing the same at the end of isles. You pull out of an isle to turn to go into another, there is someone’s abandoned cart that all other traffic has to go around."
"Keep yourself to yourself."
- Mermaid_La_Reine
Micro-Manners
Salad Dressing Cooking GIF by Rooster TeethGiphy"Never microwave seafood at work."
"It’s a very strong smell that many people find extremely unpleasant, plus it always seems to carry across the entire building/floor."
- xodanielleelise
"Or eggs."
"Both places I worked at previously, someone microwaved eggs regularly. I like eggs, but the smell they make from the microwave is dreadful."
- idontknowdudess
"I still recall the trash-like stench from a woman who microwaved a bowl of broccoli on our floor twenty years ago."
- anne_jumps
"Cauliflower especially."
"I recently bought one of those cauliflower crust hot pockets and made the mistake of microwaving it (at home, thankfully)."
"The whole house stank for DAYS. Never again- those are for the oven only."
- youstupidcorn
Vacate to occupy
"Let people get off the bus before you get on the bus."
- HealthyInPublic
"Same with elevators/lifts"
- pwnicholson
"Same for trains. It's not hard to understand that if you let people off, you'll have more room!"
"I'll add people that hang out right in front of the door and don't really get out of the way to let people in when there is plenty of room in the rest of the train or bus."
- RamenNoodles620
"This one, I hate when people try to barge their way through"
- lofisky
"It's not just being nice. It's literally physics. First you need to vacate the space you want to start occupying."
- peepay
A bit close there buddy.
Waiting In Line GIFGiphy"How to stand in lines. Riding my ass doesn't make the line move any faster."
- FrenchJabroni
"Living in various parts of the world I’ve learned that personal bubble size in lines varies a lot depending on where you are."
- SuperMadCow
"Since covid times this is now literally a written rule and people still don't get it."
- Craw__
"Hoping on the top comment to agree. Need some personal space please"
- SeaAd4548
"My mother gave me the greatest piece of advice to deal with line-neck-breathers."
"Just take a step back. They'll move."
- ThatLousyGamer
Walk with a purpose
"Not taking up the entire sidewalk when people are walking the opposite direction towards you."
- togeko_
"Or if you’re in a group move to single file when someone is approaching from the opposite direction"
- likespeopleandbooks
"I stop when they close in on me — since I'm a disabled, elderly woman — and brace myself. I've only been knocked down once, by a somewhat drunk individual, and he was shamed to a ludicrous extent by the passersby who helped me. love Granny"
- Poldark_Lite
"Also, look the direction you are intending to go. When people don't know where you are trying to walk, they instinctively briefly glance at your eyes to see what direction you are heading. Learned this in NYC. Crowd group think is a marvelous thing. Like a school of fish."
- 8Blackbart8
"Door!"
looking episode 12 GIFGiphy"Don't stand in a doorway."
- famously
"That’s actually annoying, like of all the places you can be"
- lofisky
"Don’t lay in a doorway either. Yes, I’m talking to you pupper."
- momvetty
"I cannot tell you the amount of times i’ve opened the door into someone because they have decided to stop and text(?) or generally f*ck around on the other side. Then of course look at me like i’m the monster for using a doorway properly."
- FeralXhild
"Don't obstruct any bottleneck, whether it's a door, a narrow point on a sidewalk, or wherever."
- BubbhaJebus
Bout that time... *yawn*
"When you see party hosts starting to clean up, hint at being tired etc., don’t continue the drinks/conversations. Quickly get ready to leave and offer to help clean up"
- WrongNeedleworker579
"Sometimes when I have friends over, my adhd kicks into gear and makes me want to get up and clear the table a bit. Just to move around and because the clutter is messing with my head."
"For most people this is a sign of wanting to wrap the evening up and get the company going. But that’s not my intention, I just can’t sit still anymore. So I make it a habit of mentioning 'I am not trying to kick you out, I’m just gonna get this out of the way. Want another drink? I’m going to the kitchen anyway'."
- Ietsmetdingen
"Also in general when the party is over ask the host how can you help clean up instead of just saying bye and leaving"
- TinyNuggins1
"i once had to tell a friend years ago to get out of my house because they simply wouldn't leave."
"i had two friends over for a mini game night, one was staying the night and the other wasn't. i told my friend who wasn't sleeping over, for a solid hour and half that i was tired, that it was getting late and he should get going and he just refused to listen. i even cleaned up my kitchen, put everything away, took all the empties out, the whole nine, and he was still sitting there not leaving."
"It was about 12:45am and he's still not leaving. so i say once again that i'm exhausted and it's time for him to go and he needs to leave. instead, he tells me to just go to bed and that he'll let himself out and proceeds to suggest putting a movie on and just chilling out. i snapped and said in a very sharp tone 'absolutely not! i am not putting on a movie and staying up for another two hours because you want to chill. i want to go to bed and set the house alarm. you need to leave now! and stop telling me to go to bed, i cant until you fucking leave! i need to set the alarm, what are you not getting!?'."
"After me snapping, it still took him a solid 15 minutes to finally leave. i never invited him over to my house again after that, and lucky for me we stopped being friends within the last year so i'll never have to deal with that again."
- urbanlulu
Public DJ's
Lets Be Heroes Ko GIF by Cartoon NetworkGiphy"On a train or bus and you're playing music?
Use. Your. Headphones."
- Sentinowl
"kids in my high school walk around with speakers playing loud music from inside their backpacks actin like they're in a movie or some sh*t"
- leoscoven
"This drives me nuts! At work in the break room I just want to quietly chill on my phone, not listen to the bizarre telenovela one coworker watches, listen to another coworker’s heavy metal, and another coworker’s anime. Like how can they even enjoy what they’re watching or listening to with everyone else’s noise going on?"
- Low-Stick6746
"And the gym."
- bikesandtacos
If its yellow, still flush.
"shouldn’t have to be said but flush the toilet after using it :)"
- NoDesigner44
"And wipe the seat if you piss all over it"
- jackjams18
"I've lived on a well, in placed I paid for water, and places where I didn't worry about any of it. My opinion on a single pee changes depending, but always flush the poo poo, and make sure that shit is gone. Double flush if you gotta, hell triple flush... but if that doesn't work, you're carrying it out by hand."
- ImBeingArchAgain
"and stay for a second to make sure that it fully flushes."
- youcancallmet
Clean It Like You Mean It
"cleaning tools before you give them back to who you're borrowing them from"
- stomachdropper
"At least wipe them down with a half-ass rag to at least create the illusion that you even remotely took care of the possession they let you borrow. Even worse is when somebody returns something BROKEN."
- dashberlin1991
"broken is another thing, it's understandable when it happens cause accidents happen and it's something I take into consideration when lending tools out, warranty is a thing and usually replacing a tool isn't a hassle when broken but atleast let me know don't let me find out myself"
- stomachdropper
"Yeah, the problem is when they do not return you your tools back."
- kusashinra
So yeah, the whole point of unspoken rules is that you shouldn't have to speak them... but this is a written article so it doesn't really count, right?
Yeah, that's my way of saying I hope y'all learned something today.
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Companies are typically in business for profit, and very few have the goal of keeping the customer's interests in mind.
But some corporations go even further to get more out of their customer in exchange for their "quality services" and as a result, the line between general business and scam becomes blurred.
Redditor jwwin asked:
"What is a predatory business that shouldn't be legal, but is?"
Students paying an exorbitant amount in tuition in order to seek higher learning should be warned there are additional expenses to cover for.
A Textbook Example
"College textbooks, they will release an 'updated' edition every semester but the information doesn't change. And then after you spent a fortune on the books the places that buy textbooks will give you like 5% of what you paid for the book."
– teethalarm
A "Double Whammy"
"Former Prof here. I talked with a book rep about this once and learned a lot. It is a bit complicated but worth understanding. Book publishers rely on large quantity sales to make any money on a book because the cost of production is so high up front (author, editors, printing, etc.). So, for a book to be profitable, it has to sell a lot of copies to spread the cost of production across all the books. A paperback in the fiction section might sell 100,000 or more. A textbook might sell as few as 1,000. So, the publisher needs everyone to buy the book to break even."
"Now add colleges into the mix. Somewhere in the 1980s (give or take), colleges saw publishers selling books and making larger profits on them than the college bookstore was making per book. So they got the bright idea to start buying used texts and reselling them. Before that, a text would come out and 97% (making the number up but it was close to that) of the students would buy the book in year one, 85% in year two, 75% in year three, 60% in year four and 50% in year five. A $50 dollar book would cost $25 to make (again, making the numbers up), sell to the bookstore for $40 ($15 publisher profit), and be sold to the student for $50 ($10 bookstore profit). Across the five years, the producer would make a profit."
"Then, college bookstores began offering students $25 for a used book and selling it for $40 ($15 profit - $5 higher than that of a new book). Students would then prefer the $40 used book over the $50 new book. But that cut the publisher's sales from 97% to 50% in the first year. Because they could not sell as many books they had to do two things: (1) raise the initial price of the text to cover the production cost in 1-2 years rather than 4-5 years, and (2) cut the cycle down from 4-5 years to 1-2 years to ensure that they got sales of the book. That is a double whammy. Texts that used to cost $50 now cost $300 or more. And they have a new version out every 18 months or so. Students refuse to pay that price and that cuts the sales numbers even further forcing the price up again. And, with new editions out so frequently, it is harder to sell them back to the bookstore."
"That's why you see so many 'course packs' now - where a professor will pick a few pages from a book to give to the students. I went from having nearly every student purchasing a text in my early career to having zero students with a text late in my career. Your professor probably dislikes the state of affairs as much as you do. I cut down what books I would select because I could not justify students paying that much for what they were getting. I would also recommend students look for older editions on Amazon and the like which got me in trouble with my administration because I was not supporting the bookstore. But, it was difficult to teach from a text that no one had or had access to. The University's desire to generate revenue from texts truly was killing the chicken because it was not producing enough eggs."
"So look for an older edition on Chegg, Amazon, or the like and match it up with what your professor is teaching from the new edition. You are right, it probably has not changed. Be careful for the problems at the end of the chapter - that is often where the changes are."
– BewnieBound
These businesses parade as services but they are notorious for taking more than what you're willing to pay for.
For A Future Owner
"Rent to Own (furniture, appliances, TVs, video game systems, etc.) The mark up on the interest over time ends up costing 4 times the purchase - or more."
– PartyAlarmed3796
"Well the trick is to not pay (seems to be what a lot of people do)."
– Expensive_Ad2695
"Which is why those places are so expensive and why they're actually kinda necessary for some people."
"They're taking a pretty big risk on people with no credit, and if a person with shi*ty credit needs a refrigerator or other necessary appliance, there's usually nobody else willing to work with them. Also, most of them report to credit agencies so you can build your credit through them."
"I'm not a fan by any means and I hate that people are buying video game systems and couches through them, but I still think they're filling a need."
– Pitiful-Pension-6535
Money Sucker
"Payday loan companies – they're like financial vampires, sucking the life out of people with high-interest rates."
– neonliolia
"And yet most of them are owned by major banks... hmmmm."
"Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, JP Morgan/Chase collectively all own the largest payday lender companies."
– Bramtyre
"In Canada, there is an effort to turn Canada Post into a kind of bank that offers basic banking services to the most vulnerable. Not sure what happened to that, but it was an alternative to check cashing and payday loan rackets."
– hobbitlover
Greedy Event Vendor
"Ticket Master."
– LTVOLT
"Agreed. We went to a preseason hockey game the other week. Tickets were $5 each but there was around $8 of Ticketmaster fees for each one and you had to use their app to get in the door because the barcodes change like every 30 seconds or something. It's ridiculous."
– darfus1895
Where can citizens turn to receive genuine care without drying up their financial resources?
Big Pharma
"Health Insurance and over priced perscription drugs."
"Wife is type 1 diabetic. Her pump is over $1000 a month WITH 50% coverage. $177 for just the sensor pack. We have the best coverage we can afford."
– Dukeboys_
"US pays the middle man for health care coverage. The middle man and the health care provider come up with "health packages" you can buy into, just in case you get sick. It's just sick how they funnel money from the middle class into this."
– dcoolidge
"Healthcare insurance industry. They can straight up reject claims you should be covered for and make you jump through near endless hoops to get them to pay for the service that is part of your plan."
– ColdHardPocketChange
All Out To Get Ya
"Homeopathic 'medicine' sellers."
"Psychics"
"Domain search engine registration scams (fake emails or physical mail that shows up saying 'your domain search registration is about to expire' and look exactly like warnings that your domain name is about to expire)"
"Fake homeowner warranty/car warranty scams loaded with so many limitations and exclusions they’ll basically never pay out."
"Multilevel marketing systems like Amway."
– 4wqrewtety
Losing Sight Of Kids' Well-Being
"From my experience working in group homes for youth are awful. The owners only want money and the more kids in care the more money."
– OddReputation3765
Going Nowhere Fast
"Car insurance."
"You get penalized for using it. Even just once in some cases."
– Effective_Sundae_839
"1000% agree. I was rear ended by a hit and run driver while i was stopped at a stop sign. Literally came to a stop for 3 seconds max and got destroyed. Car insurance wanted to give me 4k and shut me up. It’s called the nuisance fee. I eventually lawyered up and got 25k out of it. But like wtf. B*tch that’s what we PAY FOR, following renewal of my policy it increased hundreds of dollars a month and that was even after i switched to a different company. 'A claim is a claim regardless who is at fault.'”
– HitBackZach
Businesses taking advantage of their customers should be a crime, yet here we are.
What companies can you think of that legally continue to look after their own profitable interests above providing a decent service?
