I thought that seeing as it's likely to occur fairly frequently, I'd start a thread about instances of Fail that we meet in our daily lives.

The only rule is that it has to have actually happened to you or whilst you were there.

>> Linky to Tales of Win Thread <<

Fail Nominee of the day: Asda

1. Whilst in Asda I saw TVs over the main concourse advertising HD. They were using that football clip that shows a side-by-side comparison of SD and HD... ...except there was no difference. The Reason? The TVs were connected by a cheap composite lead (that's the crap yellow phono lead if you don't know). FAIL
   
   
2. I went to Asda to buy a mobile because they're advertised as being unlocked to any network. Got the phone home only to find out that it's locked to Asda Mobile only. Talk about forgetting your unique selling point. MORE FAIL...
   
   
3. ... So I rang the helpline to get the unlock code that their T&Cs says should be free. The droid on the other end then informed me that because it was a special promotional handset they would charge me £10 to unlock a phone that SHOULD HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED IN THE FIRST BLOODY PLACE!

FAIL!

I hope you took it back for a refund.

X404 fail.
Both last night and now, I've tried posting in teh Dis or Dat thread, only to recieve an error.
Strangely other threads aren't affected. Has anyone else had this problem?

EDIT

Turns out it won't post if the text has an o with that little wavey line above it.

Commute fail

Many years ago, I'd been made redundant and, to top things off my my car was hit by an uninsured driver and written off. Having only third party insurance, I was stuffed (it took over two and a half years to get a pay-out from the MIB).

So, being skint, I was confined to public transport for almost a year.

Things picked up - I got a new job, and could afford to buy a car again.

The weekend arrives, and I treat myself to the luxury of driving into town on the Saturday for a spot of self indulgent shopping.

Shopping trip over, time to go home. I had become so accustomed to public transport, I caught the bus home.

I only realised my mistake, when, after getting off the bus I was hunting through my pockets for my lighter and pulled out my car keys! At which point, I swore softly, crossed the road, and caught the next bus back into town.

My wife did something similar. She left work and went to the car park only to find the car had been "stolen". She'd completely forgotten that I'd dropped her off at work that day so I could use the car.

It's going back tomorrow.

I'm currently practising emergency phrases such as "Not fit for purpose".

Also remember "false advertising" and "trading standards".

And say it loud enough that the people behind you in the queue can hear.

Perhaps also turn to someone and say "did you know it was this tough to return an item here??"

You cannot describe someones wife as not fit for purpose even if it is true!

It won't work with any non-English characters. I think it might be the database settings.

This is my third attempt at replying to this post...

I'll see if I can find any settings for this

Amex

Looked at the Amex bill at the weekend – saw a transaction I didn’t recognise so thought I would call them. Range their number only to get a recorded message saying they were shut for the Bank Holiday and to call back Tuesday!

So if someone has cloned the card then they have all weekend to go shopping with it

FAIL

Monster FAIL!

That's spectacularly dumb

Not really. It's no longer the case that you're liable for any fraudulent purchases made on your card before you notify the issuer. IIRC you're now liable for only the first £50 of any total of fraudulent purchases provided you notify the issuer within a reasonable period of time and even then they tend to waive that £50 excess. The only thing wrong about this is it will obviously take them a day longer to get your replacement card to you, which might be a pain.

Jon