To wonder what stupid questions you've been asked

[backtolifebacktoreality]

Last weekend I phoned a local florists
and asked them to send some flowers to a nearby friend.

The friend lives in a relatively small cul de sac. The florist obviously asked the address for them to be delivered to. I advised they lived at No 12.

She then went on asking all sorts of questions about how she could find the house once in the street, ie what side of the road etc. She then asked questions about what would make the house recognisable to her, ie what colour front door.

I had to bite my lip but really wanted to respond "the fact that is has the number 12 on the door"!

I’m currently working on plans for our company’s stand at a big trade show in the new year. We have a weekly planning call and every week, without fail, someone asks ‘Is it definitely going ahead? I mean with the new variant and everything?’ What do they expect the response to be - ‘Yeah, it’s been cancelled, but we thought we wouldn’t bother telling anyone - and that we’d continue spending huge amounts of time and money planning for an event we know won’t happen’?!

In my first job years back, one of the sales team asked our buying manager what discount she could give for bulk orders. Manager said 30%. Sales girl replied ‘Is that 30% off the total or 30% per item?’

Ex-boyfriend left his jacket behind after a corporate do. He phoned the venue the next day and asked if anyone had handed in a black tuxedo jacket. The woman on reception replies ‘Has it got a hood?’ He replies ‘No, it’s a TUXEDO jacket’. Long pause… ‘So…. it hasn’t got a hood?’

@PinkWednesdays

Went to the doctor complaining of a lot of rectal bleeding. Doctor asked me if I’m getting it mixed up with my period…

I wasn’t, and it turned out I had bowel cancer (all fine now).

I'm sorry to hear that and glad you're ok but not the daftest of questions. I used to work in medical complainants and the amount of people who are unclear where they're bleeding from is astounding. We had one who just couldn't explain where she was bleeding from and when the poor consultant asked to carry out a examination she stormed out of the room and went to to report him to the Police. Unclear what for but according to her only a 'special therapist' is allowed to carry out intimate examinations and he wasn't allowed to examine her.

People often ask me how to spell my surname which is Jones. Im always polite but do an inward eye roll.

@backtolifebacktoreality

And another stupid question this morning ...

I dropped my son's college application off at our local college this morning.

I passed the envelope to the receptionist and she asked "is the application form complete"?

As if we are going to drop off an incomplete form!

This makes sense to me. What if you’d answered “we didn’t know about X so I’ve left that part but the rest is done.”

Then the receptionist would be able to tell you if that was acceptable or not and if not how to find out the info.

@Santahatesbraisedcabbage

I have been asked more than once how I have so many dc. Straight faced I told a boss if he didn't know how babies were made it really wasn't my place to tell him.

My doctor expressed shock at my (gasp!) 5th pregnancy. I'm almost certain that she believed me when I said, "I know, I thought we'd worked out what was causing it, but obviously not!"

I loved working in a bookshop because there are so many really easy questions that people don’t know the answer to and you can help them out no bother at all! My favourite I think was, ‘I’m looking at this Chronological History of the Americas, but which comes first Vol 1 or Vol 2?’

During a rather heated, work related, telephone conversion:

Guy "who am I talking to?"
Me "my name is Miss (English county name)"
Guy "did you win that title?"

talking to the bereavement department of a gas supplier after my mother's death to get the final bill sent to me. "Do you have your mother's permission to discuss her account?"

@FatOaf

My maiden name was a colour. A common, everyday colour. One syllable. Can only be spelled one way. Yet endless people asked me how to spell it! For years!

Unless it's Black (or possibly Blue), I'm not sure about this:

Green/Greene/Gryn
White/Whyte
Brown/Browne/Braun

Gryn?!

Also wondering what this mysterious colour name is though!

I am visibly disabled as I have Cerebral Palsy.
Proudly pushing my newborn down the road, I was asked " is he yours?"
I said he was
Her jaw dropped and she said " What? You actually gave birth to him?"
erm... he has two older brothers at home too!

@Mumoblue

I can’t count how many times people have asked me if I’m left-handed while I’m actively writing with my left hand.

Also I worked in a DIY store a few years ago and a guy asked me if we sold milk. Uh, no.

There's a chain of DIY stores in Portugal called Matdiver which sells booze and personal hygiene products, so perhaps not as daft as one might think!

With friends talking about the film Suffragette

Daft mate: What's that about then?

We bring this up often

I think the op got off lightly here with so many lighthearted anecdotes after her op. It doesn't take much empathy to realise there will be a very good reason that you got asked those questions both times.

And it takes zero empathy to have an unnecessary dig when several people have already pointed out that there might have been good reasons for those questions.

Not a stupid comment, but a stupid response to a question.

In a card shop at Christmas:

Me to shop assistant: "Can I also have 12 first class stamps please?"
SA: "Sorry - we only sell them in books of 6"
Me: "er... OK - I'll take two of those then"
SA: "..."
Me: "...because 2 x 6 = 12??"
SA: "er... OK then" (all while looking at me like I'd grown two heads suddenly!)

My ex was a travel agent in Cambridge.

American tourist: is there a bus from Sydney to Aukland?

American tourist (a different one): Is there a bridge from Wales to Ireland?

Somebody I went to school with asked how to spell GCSE

I had to bite my lip but really wanted to respond "the fact that is has the number 12 on the door"!

I went to pick a bike up the other day, collected from someone's house that I'd never been to before. I can't see very well and asked the person where in the road the house was so I didn't have to walk up everyone's drive until I was close enough to see the numbers. Asking what colour the door is is a good idea I might use in future

If only having the number was enough @backtolifebacktoreality, I get post and things for the same number on the road the circle I live on connects to regularly. I'm thinking a big sign with the number and street name by the door may help (that and a 'please ring the bell' sign because even with a large doorbell, people keep waving at me to come to the door when I'm in my front room and I find that really off putting & don't understand it).

I used to find people who asked where my kids when at an adult event a little silly, possibly because one person felt the need to ask me every time they saw me after finding out I had kids. I would think up equally silly answers though always replied that they were with their father - but I guess that was more small talk than anything foolish.

Mum died so I phoned the post office to inform them that mum has died, we will have to close the account etc. The wally on the phone tells me I'm not authorised to speak on my mum's behalf and could he possibly speak to her first to get authorisation??

That was my first and ever "now look here sonny boy..."

What a dick!

At least the bridge is possible, if unlikely. The bus, not quite so much

I remember chatting to a holiday rep in Gran Canaria who had had to deal with a stroppy woman insisting that she’d been told there was a bus she could catch to Tenerife, and why couldn’t he just tell her where it stopped

when enquiring about nursery places for my twins, I went through answering the questions, such as

Name - Give Both Names
Age - 9 months
Question from nursery: Are they both 9 months??

errr yes, my twins are both the same age

@Youdoyoutoday

Mum died so I phoned the post office to inform them that mum has died, we will have to close the account etc. The wally on the phone tells me I'm not authorised to speak on my mum's behalf and could he possibly speak to her first to get authorisation??

That was my first and ever "now look here sonny boy..."

What a dick!

My mother phoned BT to tell them my grandad had died and asked them to cut off the phone line and send a final bill. She was told they needed a week’s notice to cut off a phone line. My mother replied that her father hadn’t had the foresight to tell her he was planning to die in a week’s time.

One evening a couple of weeks ago I scattered some treats on our front lawn for my dog to sniff for… he’s a lab/collie cross.. not a big dog but definitely a dog.. and someone drove past and stopped, rolled down their window and asked why I was feeding a badger… I had no answer….

Quite often don't have the numbers on the door. I couldn't find my friend's house the other day as none of the houses had numbers (and they are numbered not named). Stupid.

Beggar's belief, doesn't it?

Surely they are reading from a script so surely as soon as death is mentioned, they should know what to say? I was especially annoyed when he didn't even give his condolences so he may have got a sterner talking to then I first intended but after all the calls I'd made, his was the least sympathetic and cold!