Comment On CAN'T READ

1:00 AM'th post!

That bank shot looks suspiciously like the one where I live. It was like that for pretty much all of winter. I can't believe it took that long to get posted though.

The ARP card - "Cant read" is, as we all realise just the system message for "can't read this damned value!".


The "card protection" shot, try looking at the *bottom* values, which is after they've deducted the savings....it does work out cheaper for additional years (barely).

Yeah, someone either can't read the Sears ad or they don't understand the idea of net savings. Of course, Sears are increasing the Gross cost of the plan, but after the savings discount you still get a net saving per year.

Mr. CANT READ seems to have posted today's WTF... :~)

I could not figure out how Feature 1: Option 1 ensured food safety until I moved down to the next image. And Bart really seems to be trying to make his point about the misuse of Excel.

Yay, a WTF on The Daily WTF!

jordteic:

Yay, a WTF on The Daily WTF!

more than 1! is it someone's birthday?

The numbers in the sears one check out. They arent laid out in a clear fashion - but they check out.

jordteic:

Yay, a WTF on The Daily WTF!

Just one? I usually count the poor selection of highlighted-blue comments as the first.

Joseph Knight:

Mr. CANT READ seems to have posted today's WTF... :~)

I could not figure out how Feature 1: Option 1 ensured food safety until I moved down to the next image. And Bart really seems to be trying to make his point about the misuse of Excel.

Is it intentional irony that this post is titled "Can't Read"?

I see no less than THREE WTFs in the post itself.

1 & 2) Captions for two of the images are switched
3) Caption for the T-Mobile image appended to the Facebook WTF.

I think that makes ... more WTFs in the post formatting than were in the post itself!

JamesKilton:

I see no less than THREE WTFs in the post itself.

1 & 2) Captions for two of the images are switched
3) Caption for the T-Mobile image appended to the Facebook WTF.

I think that makes ... more WTFs in the post formatting than were in the post itself!

Another apparent misuse of Excel

Well, the Sears advert is honest with the bracketed numbers denoting a negative saving. I think we can safely say that German postcodes are the real WTF.

ParkinT:

Joseph Knight:

Mr. CANT READ seems to have posted today's WTF... :~)

I could not figure out how Feature 1: Option 1 ensured food safety until I moved down to the next image. And Bart really seems to be trying to make his point about the misuse of Excel.

Is it intentional irony that this post is titled "Can't Read"?

After this rampant shambles, and yesterday's eloquent use of 'citation needed', I think the baton of 'best WTF writer' passes on to Jake. Maybe this place needs the Google-Mail Sobriety Test to prevent Alex posting while blitzed.

The Real WTF is that there's actually a town called King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

I liked the fact that the Sears card being issued to the King of Prussia.

I wonder how many very senior foreign dignitaries (in this case of non-existent countries) are the proud owners of a membership card to such an austere corporation?

I once was the proud owner of a membership card to the 'Irish Club' in Nottingham UK in the name of Julius Caesar. No one ever checked though :-)

jordteic:

Yay, a WTF on The Daily WTF!

I assume you are talking about mixing up the pictures with captions for the printer versus the food?

Clbuttic.

PS: Now the captchas are backwards: amet

Another WTF is that parts of the address on the T-mobile envelop are blurred away, but the barcode below is not. The barcode can be easily decoded and contains address.

occasional reader:

... (snip) ...
I once was the proud owner of a membership card to the 'Irish Club' in Nottingham UK in the name of Julius Caesar. No one ever checked though :-)

Did you get to meet the "Irish I Were Drunk" girl?

The barcode (Intelligent Mail Barcode) on the T-Mobile letter contains the same information as the blurred-out address on the envelope, guys.

occasional reader:

I liked the fact that the Sears card being issued to the King of Prussia.

It's an AARP card, and King of Prussia is a real place in PA.

Someone You Know:

The Real WTF is that there's actually a town called King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Lol, yeah I had to go look that up myself. At first I thought "ok, some asshat faked his information and gave the names Cant Read as their first and last names just so they could post a WTF on TDWTF". Then I saw it on Google maps!

The "Master Protection Agreement" is more of a mess than the red squares would suggest.

The "Pay Only" line justifies their claim "the longer the coverage the better the value". At those prices, two years costs less than 2 times one year, and 3 years is lower still.

BUT

The "Save 10%" and "Save 15%" claims are pretty misleading. You "save" 15% off the "price", but that price is more than 3 times the one year price. In other words, they could just as well have priced the 3 year plan at $1,000,250.40 and then advertised "save a million dollars"!

ParkinT:

Joseph Knight:

Mr. CANT READ seems to have posted today's WTF... :~)

I could not figure out how Feature 1: Option 1 ensured food safety until I moved down to the next image. And Bart really seems to be trying to make his point about the misuse of Excel.

Is it intentional irony that this post is titled "Can't Read"?

It should be CANT WRITE.

Another apparent misuse of a CMS, as not all pictures have the correct label.

I tried forever to figure out what printing had to do with food! Reminds me of when Pringles printed Trivial Pursuit questions on their chips. Yummy Yummy knowledge.

Were you a bit drunk when you put this post together, Alex?

The real WTF is that whoever posted it didn't match the images to the text!

Prosthetic Lips:

occasional reader:

... (snip) ...
I once was the proud owner of a membership card to the 'Irish Club' in Nottingham UK in the name of Julius Caesar. No one ever checked though :-)

Did you get to meet the "Irish I Were Drunk" girl?

You must have been there too! The quality of clientele was not exactly of the highest standard and there were more than a couple of swamp donkeys on the prowl there!

I think the temperature output is just a misspelling of "Brr"

On the bank's sign, change the 'E' to a 'B' and you have a pretty accurate description of the temperature!

jordteic:

Yay, a WTF on The Daily WTF!

I noticed it too.

Wow, good job on the descriptions!

SpoonMeiser:

I think the temperature output is just a misspelling of "Brr"

I think they just didn't expect negative temperatures. Maybe it was coded by someone in Florida, or someone who set it to celsius by accident

So TRWTF is the summary itself?

JamesKilton:

I see no less than THREE WTFs in the post itself.

1 & 2) Captions for two of the images are switched
3) Caption for the T-Mobile image appended to the Facebook WTF.

I think that makes ... more WTFs in the post formatting than were in the post itself!

plus the can't do math error in the sears post.
last time I checked 87.86 * 3 = 263.58 which would be more than what you would pay for the 3 year plan of 250.40 Not to mention, that if you bought the 1 year plan 3 years in a row, it would probably go up every year as the dishwasher would be a year older, so you would end up paying even more than 263.58

occasional reader:

I liked the fact that the Sears card being issued to the King of Prussia.

Well, if I hadn't known about King of Prussia, PA beforehand, I would have liked the fact that the King of Prussia would grace Pennsylvania with his residency. :-)

fruey:

I think they just didn't expect negative temperatures. Maybe it was coded by someone in Florida, or someone who set it to celsius by accident

It's still pretty stupid if they didn't think about negative numbers: 0F is pretty common in the Great White North (We call it -17C around here... ).

Of course, we could always all just use Kelvin or Rankine, it would be impractical but it wouldn't crash computers :)

Jesus Christ people. The sears one is a WTF because the 'price' should be proportional! One would expect that 3 years costs 3*1 year, and then the 'you save' results in a lower 'pay only'. I.e. the 'price' should be $243.48, $162.32, $81.16. It's not that hard to grasp!

Lincoln Spendthrift:

The "Master Protection Agreement" is more of a mess than the red squares would suggest.

The "Pay Only" line justifies their claim "the longer the coverage the better the value". At those prices, two years costs less than 2 times one year, and 3 years is lower still.

BUT

The "Save 10%" and "Save 15%" claims are pretty misleading. You "save" 15% off the "price", but that price is more than 3 times the one year price. In other words, they could just as well have priced the 3 year plan at $1,000,250.40 and then advertised "save a million dollars"!

But you are missing the point of buying a one year plan for a 2006 Dishwasher now, would be $86. Buying another 1 year plan a year later, when the dishwasher was a year older and more likely to break would probably cost you 90-95 dollars. A third plan another year later would probably be 100-105 dollars. So the 273 without a discount is still cheaper than buying a one year plan 3 years in a row.

I think we can safely say that German postcodes ...

Where do you see German postcodes on this site?

... are the real WTF.

"The Daily WTF" managed to defend its continual WTF-yness for one more day.

Tim:

Jesus Christ people. The sears one is a WTF because the 'price' should be proportional! One would expect that 3 years costs 3*1 year, and then the 'you save' results in a lower 'pay only'. I.e. the 'price' should be $243.48, $162.32, $81.16. It's not that hard to grasp!

See my last post

occasional reader:

I once was the proud owner of a membership card to the 'Irish Club' in Nottingham UK in the name of Julius Caesar. No one ever checked though :-)

Gimme back my card! I'm searching for it for ages and I need it to meet Irish Girl again

Well based on the numbers in the image, the sears one doesn't make sense... maybe there was something cut out of the image...

The tax in the 1 year plan is 8.2%, the second year plan is 7.4%, and the third is 7% tax...

It's impossible to tell where the "You save $x.xx" numbers are coming from.

And even if you go by the bottom line, the "savings" don't add up to anywhere near the 10% or 15% numbers.

It looks like they were just making up random numbers. You can't tell where any of them come from.

SpoonMeiser:

I think the temperature output is just a misspelling of "Brr"

Now "Brr" would make great output on a public temp display on a frigid day!

Someone You Know:

The Real WTF is that there's actually a town called King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

There is also a town called 'Intercourse' which my wife always accuses me of driving too fast through.

My favorite town in PA however is 'Blue Ball'. Other favorites include Bath PA and Jim Thorpe PA.

Captcha == venio (as in Venio PA)

Don't you think it's a bit morbid to put an expiry date on an AARP card?

Also, maybe someone else can make sense of the FSA advising UK ministers to implement voluntary action by manufacturers.

But it seems to me that if a government implements actions, it's hardly voluntary.

JamesKilton:

I see no less than THREE WTFs in the post itself.
1 & 2) Captions for two of the images are switched
3) Caption for the T-Mobile image appended to the Facebook WTF.
I think that makes ... more WTFs in the post formatting than were in the post itself!

Even when you count the transposed captions as two errors, that still only brings your total up to three.
So 3 > 7 now? Brillant!

amischiefr:

At first I thought "ok, some asshat faked his information and gave the names Cant Read as their first and last names just so they could post a WTF on TDWTF". Then I saw it on Google maps!

You found a dude Google maps by name? Wow, I guess they've added some features since the last time I checked.

campkev:

Tim:

I.e. the 'price' should be $243.48, $162.32, $81.16. It's not that hard to grasp!

See my last post

If you can't be bothered to repeat your argument why bother commenting at all?

I'm with this one being a WTF, but not on technical grounds. The flyer is misleading, as it suggests a 3 year policy has a 15% saving against buying yearly policies (quotes: The longer your coverage the better the value; save 15%), but the figures do not support this: you simply save 15% off the cost of a 3 yearly policy which itself is more than 3x the cost of a 1 year policy - i.e. worse value on a $/year basis. Sears should've made some comparison to the cost of 3 1 yearly policies if they wanted to use that tag line, to demonstrate the value of the longer plans.

jonnyq:

The tax in the 1 year plan is 8.2%, the second year plan is 7.4%, and the third is 7% tax...

It looks like they were just making up random numbers. You can't tell where any of them come from.

Okay, if you replace 174.15 with 156.73 and replace 272.14 with 230.92 then the tax numbers make sense with the bottom line and the tax is still around 8.25%.

So, the price of a two year or three year plan has nothing to do with the price of a one year plan, but if you do the rest of the math (% savings, plus tax), it adds up.