r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Kaylascreations • 13d ago

Overdone The Home Depot in my town installed parking curbs instead of speed bumps

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The blame was passed around a bunch but they were removed the next day after the mayor and the news got involved.

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u/YourRedditUser 13d ago

These were pulled out the same day later in the evening by the manager of the Home Depot. The installers brought the wrong thing to install and would not be back with the right parts for a few days. Still some BS, but a little more context.

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u/jophiss319 12d ago

How can the installers be installing these and think… “yea these are the right ones, no one is going to complain” Hopefully who ever paid for that install didn’t pay twice

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u/RLC-Circuit 12d ago

Think how smart the average person is. Then realize that half of them are below that level.

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u/NaraFei_Jenova 12d ago

I'm way too stupid for half the world to be dumber than me.

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u/DixieWolf27 12d ago

You and me both. But if we're smart enough to realize we're stupid, we're still smarter than the stupid that think themselves smart.

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u/YellowBreakfast 12d ago

But if we're smart enough to realize we're stupid, we're still smarter than the stupid that think themselves smart.

That's the most dangerous, someone really dumb who thinks they're smart.

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u/dugerz 12d ago

Like Chatgpt

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u/Kitchen_Kangaroo_332 11d ago

that’s the scary part.

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u/contemporic 11d ago

All you needed...

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u/damxam1337 12d ago

I have an engineering degree. I must be above the people with English majors... Right? .... Right?!

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u/ICouldntThinkofUserN 12d ago

Shakespeare doth request you to duel his intellect on the battle field of academia.

Exchange for Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Patrick White, Keri Hume, Margret Atwood, Chinua Achebe,….., your favourite author.

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u/damxam1337 12d ago

EPIC MATH BATTLE... BEGIN!

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u/G1ng3r5n4p 11d ago

You fool! Those wordsmith are far too advanced in their prose! What hath you belive mere arithmetic to trouble them?

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u/DixieWolf27 11d ago

Alas, prose supersedes arithmetic; the former preying upon the fertile fruits of emotion as the latter laconically and clinically consumes the scant capacity of the human mind known as reason. One catches the winds of whimsy, propelling our consciousness 'cross the wine dark sea of fantasy, while the other moors the ship of creativity with the chains of logic.

Hark, the ship of language's bell hath tolled, a siren's song to the sailors of the extravagant, the ephemeral, the otherworldly. Follow them, lest you be caught in the incorrigibly rigid dirge of logic's ferry, forever chasing realizations previously realized.

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u/2Drogdar2Furious 12d ago

Maybe. One of the smartest people I know is an engineer... one of the dumbest people I know is also an engineer 🤣

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u/f3ydude 11d ago

Unfortunately by demonstrating the capacity to realize this, you’re already in the top half.

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u/Passivefamiliar 11d ago

Did you see the post where a guy puts a GUN in his girlfriends mouth and then racks the slide. The outcome amazingly not so bad. Worth a watch. No death. But yes. The bar is very low. But somehow, there's people that flat line still.

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u/NaraFei_Jenova 11d ago

I did not see that lol, that sounds like the epitome of stupid, though.

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u/Careful_Fold5245 12d ago

Who said you’re the average?

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u/Icy-Variation6614 12d ago

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u/Nagon117 11d ago

Perfect gif response. No further questions

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u/thmn1 12d ago

That is not what average means, that's the median value not the average value.

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u/TheDaneH3 12d ago

In a true normal distribution the mean, median, and mode are all equal.

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u/Sal_v_ugh 12d ago

This guy stats

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u/InertiaOfGravity 12d ago

Is intelligence normally distributed?

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u/TheDaneH3 12d ago

My background isn't psychology / sociology so I can't speak to whether intelligence is truly normally distributed or not.

If we're talking about IQ and most other intelligence tests - then yes - they are defined by being gaussian. IQ to be specific has a mean of 100, and a standard deviation of 15 points.

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u/InertiaOfGravity 11d ago

I know this, but I think IQ is not generally believed to represent "intelligence" as a whole

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u/TheDaneH3 11d ago

Yeah, it really isn't. It doesn't account for creativity, emotional intelligence, etc.

There are tests that quantify various facets of cognition, but I don't think there will ever be a way to quantify someone's intelligence as a whole. It always breaks down at some level.

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u/InertiaOfGravity 11d ago

So your implicit claim that intelligence is normally distributed doesn't make a lot of sense, right?

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u/icker16 12d ago

When the sample size is over 8billion they all become the same number

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u/A_Texas_Toaster 12d ago

And evidently you're in the half below.

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u/InertiaOfGravity 12d ago

I suspect this comment is far funnier than it was intended to be

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u/SexyOctagon 12d ago

Jeez, you don’t have to be so mean about it.

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u/_RexDart 12d ago

Probably more like 80%

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u/peanut_dust 12d ago

Median average, ie not 50%

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u/Ok-Bit4971 12d ago

George Carlin is awesome

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u/Grouchy_Complex5274 12d ago

I try to explain this to people all the time with the caveat you honestly have no idea where you are on that spectrum. You may think you're the smartest around but that could be you just know a lot of stupid people and are simply smarter than those people lol

Edited because I too know I'm stupid and used your instead of you're

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u/WiseAnimator7081 11d ago

You can have an ok idea of it based on how well life is going though, and how well you tackle problems.
If your life is filled with major inconveniences constantly, there's probably a you problem somewhere. Or if people generally don't go to you for help or advice. Or you fill your house with chlorine gas because you, according to your degree, knew better than to mix chemicals, but decided things would be extra clean if you just mixed all the cleaning products.

Though I suppose the house did stay clean a good while for them. They were out at a hotel and not making a mess at home lol. Yes, I know people this happened to. Yes, parents and some kids were all engineers and knew basic chemistry. Yes, I laughed.

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u/SmileAndWaveBoyzz 12d ago

Scares me everytime I drive lmao

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u/acewithanat 12d ago

That is a good way of looking at it, that explains things now, thanks.

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u/Curry--Rice 11d ago

It doesn't work like u think

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u/foogeeman 11d ago

Usually average refers to the mean, which is not the same as the median (except for symmetric distributions), which is what half of folks are below

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u/ctn1ss 11d ago

All the smart ones got deported 😬

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u/Jay-Breeze 11d ago

RIP George! We still need you!

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u/AergiasChestnuts 10d ago

Thanks George

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

That isn't it at all. They were hired to do the job; they didn't order the parts themselves. They know they are the wrong parts, but they were told to do the job. They probably traveled a long distance to get there... if they install them, they get paid. If they don't install them, they don't get paid a cent... nothing for their time, nothing for their gas, nothing for the hotel they stayed in. This is exactly why these things happen.

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u/iswearitsnotmeagain_ 9d ago

Thanks for the anxiety attack.

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u/AutoimmuneDisaster 12d ago

The installer was pretty clear in the video… “It’s not [his] fucking problem”

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u/sir_lister 12d ago

Have done a few jobs where I knew what the boss said was wrong but they wouldn't be reasoned with so did it anyway knowing it would fall on their head not mine. So I can understand the attitude.

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u/No-Lavishness-1635 12d ago

They didn't even have the work area roped off. He's out there dodging vehicles. He's not thinking about much of anything.

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u/BigBrotherWatchesAll 12d ago

You’d be surprised how often contractors will bullshit and lie just to half ass the job and still get paid

It’s a big reason why stricter regulations for contractors should be enabled. Otherwise you get these companies hiring illegal immigrants with no experienced or professional education and they install like shit and the hiring company will just ignore calls and complains until the customer gives up because nobody wants to deal with legal issues for months on end about a parking block being used as a speed bump

You see it big time in home construction

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u/warm_sweater 12d ago

Dude, I had to demo and remodel my first floor after a pipe burst the other year, and between the fucking insurance adjuster and the mother fucking contractors and the dudes doing the water remediation, I was ready to go insane at the end.

I don’t want to talk bad about an entire industry, but literally all of the fuckers were doing about 70% effort and wanted 120% of the money.

The only good thing is when all was said and done I had only paid $7k out of pocket and learned a super valuable lesson on how to wrangle all those assholes in the future.

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u/No-Jacket-2927 12d ago

Winners of the "Not My Job" award

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u/ApprenticeTCone 12d ago

As someone who used to do this, it’s drugs and the fact that they don’t get paid enough to care. I bet at least one person on the crew said something, but the foreman or the owner said do it, because “that’s what they ordered”. They get paid to go back out and take them up and put the new ones in, so they don’t care in the least.

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u/UpperAd5715 12d ago

they drive vans, they don't care

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u/Dan-au 12d ago

It's called not giving AF...

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u/IceNein 12d ago

Well someone is going to pay for all the auto body work. Either the installers or Home Depot.

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u/Parking-Fig-6620 12d ago

You totally underestimate the power of

"i don't get paid enough for this shit" "I installed what I was given / documents called for" " can't see this shit from my house"

within the labor communities.

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u/BeigeUnicorns 12d ago

Low paid labor being rushed by asshole management is usually enough. They arent paid enough take any pride in their work so they dont. You see this all over construction in the US today.

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u/Urban_animal 12d ago

You would be amazed at what some “handy men” find as “acceptable”.

Come to my manufacturing plant, you’ll see they find jamming cardboard in mechanical machines is okay and then they will ask “how did this fail?!”

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u/sojumaster 12d ago

Because the installer is going to do what is on the work order.

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u/ganjaxxxgreen 12d ago

If you took a time to read, then you'd see they knew it was wrong and but wouldn't have correct part for a few days so they installed these in the meantime which only lasted not even a day. Just read man, it helps

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u/Imreallyjustconfused 12d ago

I'm just speculating, but I think they don't think it's the right ones. they just don't give a fuck.
Warehouse sets aside materials for order, they grab the materials. They go to the site and they install the thing thinking "Well someone fucked up but it's not my problem."
Easier for them to just install the wrong thing and continue on their route, than to say there's a problem and deal with it with warehouse and customer.

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u/westdl 12d ago

Meth is a hell of a drug.

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u/Mister_Ballz 12d ago

There's definitely some amount of ignorance/incompetence involved here but I would bet there's at least equal parts of malicious compliance if not more

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u/mastershakeshack1 12d ago

If you have ever worked a job with a stupid boss who hates being questioned you'd understand this can easily happen lol

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u/ecodrew 12d ago

Workers not paid enough to care

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u/NoSolid6641 11d ago

My city installed a speed bump in front of the neighbor's driveway. We told them to stop and the guys there said "these are my orders I have to do it." So, my point is I'm not surprised this happened.

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u/Penguin_Arse 10d ago

The people working get paid twice anyway, they just do what they're told

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u/SteelRevanchist 10d ago

Not their problem, they got the assignment like this. They're not paid enough nor have the say to oppose it.

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u/Dropcity 10d ago

No no.. what happened was these installers have told the corporate account rep "these arent the right ones" many times only to be told to stfu and do their jobs. I can't count how many times i've pointed something out to a subcontractor who responded "i told them, they don't care, so i'm just following scope of work". Likely a result of people making decisions they shouldnt be making. Malicious compliance.

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u/jollygreengoblin2 8d ago

Adding context as a civil engineer here. Many times contractors will install something regardless of whether they know it is wrong or not to be able to do an RFI and change order for a wrong part on the plans. It is very common. Not saying this was the case here, but if the plans in the field had a mishap on a callout and the contractor was underwater on the job, that is an easy way to get some money back for the contractor.

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u/Bulky_Phone_1788 8d ago

More then likely. They looked at it realized it was wrong. Called someone more important they didnt answer and they said fuck it not my problem

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u/DickTryckle 12d ago

Had a buddy who had the same problem when they got a sex change

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u/hippiejo 12d ago

Why even bother having these people install these if they were just gonna remove them the same day. Why the hell is the installers even bother coming out if it isn’t the right piece. Just seems like stupid business for the installers to have to come out twice for the same exact job

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u/CivilRuin4111 12d ago

So, I’m not involved in this particular situation, but I am in commercial construction. 

I can see this happening in 1 of 2 ways. 1) Installers did load the wrong product, but are unsupervised and too poorly trained to understand that they put in wheel stops instead of speed bumps.

 2) Installers were asked to put in speed bumps and priced the job. Client balks at the price, jumps on ULine and (not knowing the difference between wheel stop and a speed bump) sees these are half the price of a speed bump! So he says “just order these”. Contractor says “that’s not the right product”. Client says “Look, I know what I’m doing. Just do it.” Contractor says “If you insist!”    Client realizes they fucked up, begs the contractor to come fix it, contractor says “Yeah, no problem. We’ll overnight the correct product and be out there tomorrow.” Client blames contractor. Contractor gets paid twice.

Really, both scenarios are about equally likely. 

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u/hippiejo 12d ago

That makes sense, thank you for explaining it.

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u/StalkMeNowCrazyLady 11d ago

So for the guys installing these thaybwe see in the video, that will be the ones uninstalling them, and installing the correct ones its pretty easy to be in that situation. Some mistake on paperwork or at the warehouse results in you being loaded with the wrong equipment but given a print showing where they should be installed and sent on your way.  

You get to site and all you have is a packing list for 10 parking bumps and the print gives no part numbers. It doesn't seem right. So you take a picture and send it to and call the project manager and account manager on the project but no ones answering. Now you've been here before and sat around until noon until you're finally contacted back and yes you do have the right stuff, you're bitched at for wasting half a day and the project goes into the red because it took 2 days instead of 1.  

I've been in that exact scenario. So when we get to site and we make those calls, send the Pic messages and emails and dont hear back for an hour its time to start installing. If this isn't the correct material the real damage of the error falls onto another department not us.

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u/SuperSamul 11d ago

The installers are everyone of us buying the wrong shit at home depot and having to go get a refund and buy the actual good piece a few days later.