Tag Archives: Annoyance

Where’s the Card?

Rant, , ,

In addition to packing, finishing laundry, finishing planning, cleaning the house and finishing some documentation for work and possibly more file conversions before our 19 day trip to Ireland on Friday evening, I need to run back to Costco to pick up some SD cards that I bought over a week ago, but didn’t realize that I just got two empty Styrofoam cartons. The outside of the package gives a lot of information about the SD cards, so I expected them to be in the package. The outside of the package says “Take to Cashier” — but nowhere does it say “This box is empty. Take to service desk for the actual product.”

I think the cashier was supposed to tell me to take it to the service desk for the actual cards, but didn’t. I think that the guy at the door who checks your cart and marks on your receipt was supposed tell me to take it to the service desk but didn’t.

Now I need to waste an extra couple of hours and gas to run up to Gaithersburg to pick up the actual cards.

Oh, and I threw the receipt away.

I’m annoyed. Can you tell?

As per

Rant, , , ,

Until I was in grad school I’d never heard of the phrase “as per”. I’m not sure in what context I first saw it, but I know who wrote it. She was a nice 20- or 30-something woman who worked in the food industry or something like that. I believe she may have been an executive assistant, but I’m not sure. She and another 20- 30-something woman were friends and I don’t remember what each of them did for a living, but what they did was very similar and somehow business related.

To get to the point, however, I hate the phrase. It makes no sense. It is supposed to mean “in accordance with” as in “Enclosed is a check for $200 as per our discussion…” but it makes me gag. Why not say “as we discussed?” or “as we agreed”? Why use words that mean little to those outside the business field when writing to someone outside that field?

Whenever I see it I feel as if the person writing it is deliberately being cold and distant or else showing off his or her knowledge of business jargon.

It turns out I’m not the only one who thinks this way.