Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Reviews and thanks

So there I was walking down the main street in our village at 7:30 in the morning wearing pyjamas and wrapped in a blanket, with various cars passing with their drivers no doubt looking at me and thinking I was some kind of weirdo, and I thought to myself “This is an interesting situation. I ought to blog about it.”

And then I woke up. I was dreaming, but you can see how the search for a blog post even invades my sleep.

Today I don’t have a problem, though. I’ve been thinking about how every interaction on the internet seems to involve a request for a review. Does it annoy you? It does me.

If you could just give a star rating, I could put up with it. But they want you to write and say WHY you gave that star rating. Several times I’ve been asked to sign in and use a password - what? -  and then I have to agree to their terms and conditions. I’m doing THEM a favour. They should be agreeing to MY terms and conditions if they want a comment.

Then there are the times you’re asked to review a purchase when you haven’t yet received the item you’ve ordered. How does that make sense?

Recently I bought some bulbs online and was asked to review those. I shan’t be able to do that until they come up in the spring, will I?

And then there are the times you want to return an item and there is a perfectly legitimate reason but you don't want to give it e.g. I bought these beautiful corduroy trousers in this lovely colour because I was seduced by the pictures on your website and now they’re here, I am ashamed of my extravagance because I don’t need them and really should not be buying them. 

And then there are the reviews that add your name without asking you. Outrageous!

Rant over.

Friends have been recommending The Repair Shop on BBC TV for ages and Dave has refused to watch it. Dave is someone who is always repairing things for people - taps, bikes, chairs, lights, rocking horses, toddler toys, you name it and  he will have a go and he almost always succeeds. But he refused to watch the programme with me because he said that he's seen an episode on Youtube and it was very upsetting, because the punters were just not appreciative enough of all the difficult and delicate work put in by the craftspeople. 

But he has finally been persuaded and now we are watching an episode a night. Having seen half a dozen episodes, I have to agree with him. There are some people who are visibly moved by the beautiful repair done to their cherished object and yet they don't say more than one quiet throwaway 'Thank you.' Yes, they're delighted with the repair, but they don't look the craftsperson in the eye and give heartfelt thanks.

Dave thinks there should be a trapdoor outside the repair shed and if they haven't been thankful enough when they leave they should drop through it into the pit of ingratitude, along with their beloved object. 

As an alternative, I suggested we rate them on thankfulness when they leave. Last night there were two punters with 3 out of 10, one with 8, and one with 10. It's just not good enough.

Dave just finished eating an apple crumble I made for him and he said he'd like to live on nothing but apple crumble. 

"Do you think it would be possible?"

"Yes," I said, "but would it be healthy?"

"I wonder if somewhere there's a bunch of cavemen who discovered apple crumble by chance and live on it."

Last up - my painting this week. I have finished the quiet harebell painting. It's called Trapped.


'Trapped'
Acrylic on canvas board  42 x 57 cms

Our new grandchild is due tomorrow, and Isaac and co are arriving from Boulder on Saturday. It's busy here.


1 comment:

marmee said...

What wonderful excitements are coming your way!