Strange Formalities & Conventions You've Encountered

[Revoltingest]

I wanted to join & support a museum that I've admired for years.
I've never been to one of its shows, so I wasn't familiar with the crowd there.
I called. I found out that to join, I must....
- Drive the 8 hours round trip to attend the monthly meeting.
- Find a current member to sponsor me.
- Apply for membership.
- Drive another 8 hours round trip to attend the next monthly
meeting to discover the board's decision.

I'm not used to that. The museum I currently support with many hours
& hefty donations of money & engines has a simpler procedure....
- Pay a pittance in dues.
- Give'm your name.
That's all. You don't need to visit or know anyone.

I might attend one of their shows.
But I won't become a member.

So, fellow posters....what archaic oddities have you encountered?

 

[sun rise]

That is a classic illustration in the OP. I've never run into an organization that wanted my money that made it so hard to give them some. Typically it's the opposite - a few seconds after getting my cash, they ask for more cash and ask for more cash and plead for more cash and beg for more cash and grovel for more cash.

Those who have dealt with "world class" bureaucracies the OP to me illustrates can understand the general idea.

I used to work for a very large bank. We would need to make changes to online banking software. We'd do our group testing, go over the details and let a scheduling group know so they could make sure we did not step on each other's toes. Simple.

Too simple. Human nature and the general cussedness of the universe meant that things went wrong. Management which preached "6 sigma" meaning that mistakes will happen but can and should be minimized decided in a zero mistake policy.

So they now wanted to review all changes. To no surprise, having first level managers look at things they hazily understood only slowed down the process and mistakes happened.

Second level manager realizing that the first level were idiots decided that they were the ones to review changes. So time was spent putting what was going on in simple powerpoint presentations for them to gaze at. To no surprise, mistakes happened.

Third level managers knew of course the levels below them were only marginally intelligent and competent so took over the review process. The powerpoints were simplified to basically say that if we don't do x, things will crash and really senior mangers will get pissed. Mistakes still happened.

So in their infinite wisdom they decided everyone was incompetent and the answer was to force people to fill out a complex form which had nothing to do with the changes but made them feel good.

They knew of course that their time was too valuable to look at the bloody forms, so they hired a group in India to review the forms and make sure 't's were crossed etc. Of course mistakes still happened.

After I retired, I happened to chat with someone still working there. I asked "are things better with this particular mess". The simple answer was "No. They're worse".

 

[Revoltingest]

When son signed up for Obamacare, he (a non-smoker)
was assigned smoker status. It took nearly a year to fix.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Hand shaking.
Eye contact.
The assumption certain foods are supposed to be eaten at certain times.
Graduation commencements.
Different "levels" of casual, business, and formal attire.
Things done purely out of a sense of tradition.
A high degree of obedience and submission towards authority.
Funny rituals acting troupes often do before a performance.
Fantasy sports.
Most real sports.
A more specific example, my current car (2012 Scion xD), I forgot to make a payment by a few days and when I tried to pay it online it said my account was closed. I called them up to say "I have your money" but they said the account was closed and they had nothing more to do with it and I'd have to call the dealership.
I call the dealership up "I have your money." They tell me they have washed their hands of it and it's all between the bank and me.
I call the bank back up "I have your money and the dealership said they don't have anything to do with it anymore and it's on you." They tell me the account is closed and it's definitely not on them.
I call the dealership back up "I have someone's money and bank is saying it is definitely not on them and it's all on you." They tell me they don't know why I was told that and they absolutely have nothing to do with it.
So I just held on to the money until eventually I got a letter explaining I had to take the car back. I went to the dealership (and parked away from it), and due to the troubles I've had (that was the second return letter I got; the first one came after the first bank just decided to apparently back out) the dealership owner let me have the car for what I paid up to that point.

 

[Revoltingest]

The last graduation ceremony (of my own) I attended was for
kindergarten. High school & college...I was old enuf to refuse.

 

[Meow Mix]

This might barely be on topic, but I tried to get a car in the Virgin Islands once. During the sale I got everything notarized, which required a copy of the seller's driver's license.

When I tried to get tagged at the BMV (that's Bureau of Motor Vehicles), they said I needed to provide a copy of the seller's driver's license. My girlfriend at the time was helping, so she pointed out that everything was notarized by an official notary: meaning the license was confirmed at the time of the notarization. They didn't care. The seller had left the island and I had no contact information for them.

This led to being totally unable to tag the vehicle for months. Through a long process of appeals, I got all the way up to an elected official who finally waived the requirement, and I finally had a working vehicle for maybe 3 months before something went wrong with the car, a tropical storm came through and caused my girlfriend to lose her job because she had no way to get to work and wasn't going to walk during a tropical storm (plus we lived on a mountain; we did walk a lot especially during the time the car was not tagged, but that's dangerous during a storm), and finally the university lost accreditation which made staying pointless.

Was happy to sell that POS car and get the hell out of there. It's not just the BMV, the post office has dumb rules as well, but I barely remember the specifics of those. Instead of shipping my TV back I chose to just sell it to Ronnie Lockhart (who owns pretty much half the island) when we stayed with him towards the end.

He tried to haggle with me and I'm like "really dude? I'm a broke 20-something, you're a bazillionaire, and you're going to haggle with me over my TV I can't afford to ship back to the mainland?" (I guess that's how some people get so rich though...)

(Edit: actually I was 30, this was 2014, whatever. Still, really, going to haggle with me over this TV? lmao)

He paid for it with what I can only describe as a money book (so imagine like a card collector's book with the sleeves that hold cards, except for money) full of $5 bills... he said basically every time he makes change and gets $5's, they go in the book, and that's how he pays for small things. That part was interesting I guess.

 

[Revoltingest]

This might barely be on topic, but I tried to get a car in the Virgin Islands once. During the sale I got everything notarized, which required a copy of the seller's driver's license.

When I tried to get tagged at the BMV (that's Bureau of Motor Vehicles), they said I needed to provide a copy of the seller's driver's license. My girlfriend at the time was helping, so she pointed out that everything was notarized by an official notary: meaning the license was confirmed at the time of the notarization. They didn't care. The seller had left the island and I had no contact information for them.

This led to being totally unable to tag the vehicle for months. Through a long process of appeals, I got all the way up to an elected official who finally waived the requirement, and I finally had a working vehicle for maybe 3 months before something went wrong with the car, a tropical storm came through and caused my girlfriend to lose her job because she had no way to get to work and wasn't going to walk during a tropical storm (plus we lived on a mountain; we did walk a lot especially during the time the car was not tagged, but that's dangerous during a storm), and finally the university lost accreditation which made staying pointless.

Was happy to sell that POS car and get the hell out of there. It's not just the BMV, the post office has dumb rules as well, but I barely remember the specifics of those. Instead of shipping my TV back I chose to just sell it to Ronnie Lockhart (who owns pretty much half the island) when we stayed with him towards the end.

He tried to haggle with me and I'm like "really dude? I'm a broke 20-something, you're a bazillionaire, and you're going to haggle with me over my TV I can't afford to ship back to the mainland?" (I guess that's how some people get so rich though...)

(Edit: actually I was a broke early 30's something if I do the mental math, whatever. Still, really, going to haggle with me over this TV? lmao)

He paid for it with what I can only describe as a money book (so imagine like a card collector's book with the sleeves that hold cards, except for money) full of $5 bills... he said basically every time he makes change and gets $5's, they go in the book, and that's how he pays for small things. That part was interesting I guess.

That was very much on topic.
(This is a fact on a subject on which I'm an authority.
So I don't have to qualify it as merely my opinion.)

 

[Meow Mix]

That was very much on topic.
(This is a fact on a subject on which I'm an authority.
So I don't have to qualify it as merely my opinion.)

You would have liked our landlord, Doc Palancia. He was somebody important for the historical museum on the island; that’s how we met Ronnie and got to stay at the Glass Palace for a month with him.

Our jobs were both defunct so we couldn’t pay rent and he absolutely hooked us up with a mansion so he could rent the place out again.

(I hear you like museums)

 

[Revoltingest]

You would have liked our landlord, Doc Palancia. He was somebody important for the historical museum on the island; that’s how we met Ronnie and got to stay at the Glass Palace for a month with him.

Our jobs were both defunct so we couldn’t pay rent and he absolutely hooked us up with a mansion so he could rent the place out again.

(I hear you like museums)

I like mansions.

 

[Meow Mix]

I like mansions.

That was cool, too. Got to sit in a Rolls-Royce (though it was in disrepair). I’ve got a picture of is in it somewhere.

 

[Meow Mix]

I remember Doc and his wife constantly moved furniture around (we were staying below their house, basically a split level).

Then at some point it sounded like he was moving a couch. And then it kept going, and kept going, and Alicia turns to me and is like “what the **** is Doc doing?”

Then we step outside and it’s reverberating through the mountainside, and we’re like “oh. OH. This is an earthquake.”

 

[Revoltingest]

That was cool, too. Got to sit in a Rolls-Royce (though it was in disrepair). I’ve got a picture of is in it somewhere.

Sit in one?
I have worked on & driven one.

 

[Meow Mix]

Sit in one?
I have worked on & driven one.

That is really neat!! Was it nerve wracking to drive?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The last graduation ceremony (of my own) I attended was for
kindergarten. High school & college...I was old enuf to refuse.

I had to argue with my mom to not go to my high school. Community college my mom again pressured, but I showed up not even hung over but still drunk from the night before and puking on the way to. University, way too many people for the regular commencement but I did go to the smarty pants acknowledgement thingy. It was weird going through with it, but I really like the teacher who was in charge of the honors program. When you answered a lecture question in class she did ask questions about your response and expected you to defend your response. Most didn't like her for that.
The super weird one was when I joined Phi Theta Kappa. That was all entirely new territory for me, bizarre in how ritualized it was, unnerving with the frequent use of the words fellowship and communion, and it made me so uncomfortable I started making jokes in my head about there being kool aid somewhere around the corner. But it was just very weird. I wouldn't have done it had it not been a thing of pride as my GPA when I re enrolled was 1.222. But it assured me I was very much doing the right thing by not doing the proper student thing. No study groups for me, minimal studying for me, and drugs definitely do not bother me (unlike someone in IU honors thingy, who said he won't watch or listen to anything that glorifies drugs).

 

[Revoltingest]

That is really neat!! Was it nerve wracking to drive?

Yes.
The one I drove was made in the 1930s. I was driving it
back from a car show where it set a national record for
winning the Deutsch Award. (That's for the least number
of points scored for a car that arrived under its own power.)
Part way home, the vapor locking became severe. We'd
already removed the windscreen to avoid exhaust buildup
inside.
The one good part was stopping at a Burger King, & getting
the gals working there to come out & pose for pix with us
& the car. Oh, the folly of youth.

 

[Meow Mix]

Yes.
The one I drove was made in the 1930s. I was driving it
back from a car show where it set a national record for
winning the Deutsch Award. (That's for the least number
of points scored for a car that arrived under its own power.)
Part way home, the vapor locking became severe. We'd
already removed the windscreen to avoid exhaust buildup
inside.
The one good part was stopping at a Burger King, & getting
the gals working there to come out & pose for pix with us
& the car. Oh, the folly of youth.

Psh, girls, pictures with cars? Unheard of. Now where did I put mine...

 

[Revoltingest]

Psh, girls, pictures with cars? Unheard of. Now where did I put mine...

To be young & slightly above average looking...great times.