Government incompetence. Share your story.

[Vaquero]

Used to work in the financial industry and every single time we had to deal with the SEC, whether regular audits or something else, it was a complete fucking shakedown. Could be clean as a whistle and they would find something, oftentimes manufactured or completely made up. And they were never shy about reminding you how they could put you out of business even though most of the auditors I dealt with were complete neophytes and maybe a year or two out of college, but on a rampage. Reminded me of a former IRS worker who told me one time how the more they collected, the more they made. Even if it wasn't owed. Fear was their biggest asset.

Customs.....don't get me started.

Honeymoon, we get searched (which they said is random, but would be quick) in Miami. But we had to wait so long for them to begin their quick search that we missed our connecting flight to Dallas, had to stay an extra night, which we had to pay for, and both missed getting back to work.

Last time the wife and I left the country, we were coming back through customs at DFW. Get to the line and there's at least 1K people in front of us and those on our flight, so probably 4-5 planeloads of people in line with the line snaked around and out the door.....with ZERO agents at their stations to process people. Asked a couple of people and they said it had been like that for at least an hour. It was literally standing still with not a thing happening. Finally after we'd been in line for a half hour or so, every single customs agent (8-10) came out to their post at the same time and began processing people through. Turns out they'd all been on their lunch break at the same time and let the line get so long that it took 5 hours for us to get processed. Had someone picking us up at 1:30 and finally texted them to forget it and we Uber'd home at after 6:00.

Always amazes me when people think the government and/or federal bureaucracy is the answer to anything. Corrupt, profitless, and inefficient.

I'd forgotten about the DFW customs and immigration bullshit.
I swore those asshats off long ago.

 

[WT_Foxtrot]

I'd forgotten about the DFW customs and immigration bullshit.
I swore those asshat off long ago.

No shit....I was furious and I wasn't the only one. People were really getting restless and I remember one guy yelling out really loud, "C'Mon America!!!!" Lightened the mood a bit.

Shit....Jamaica and Mexico were more efficient than US customs.

 

[Vaquero]

No shit....I was furious and I wasn't the only one. People were really getting restless and I remember one guy yelling out really loud, "C'Mon America!!!!" Lightened the mood a bit.

Shit....Jamaica and Mexico were more efficient than US customs.

Holy shit! I'm pretty sure that was me.
Yeah. Really. Like 5 international flights hit the hall and no one was working. My wife was embarrassed. I was just livid at the incompetence of our public servants. Especially the" nope. Don't want to hear it" bitch who suddenly needed to leave her post. The crowd growled at her as she strutted her fat ass towards the employee exit.

 

[WT_Foxtrot]

Holy shit! I'm pretty sure that was me.
Yeah. Really. Like 5 international flights hit the hall and no one was working. My wife was embarrassed. I was just livid at the incompetence of our public servants. Especially the" nope. Don't want to hear it" bitch who suddenly needed to leave her post. The crowd growled at her as she strutted her fat ass towards the employee exit.

Wow....really? Sure you haven't been the only one. And you're right NO ONE was working and hadn't been for awhile by the time we got there. But it was summer of 2013, I think late July when this happened to us. Same time for you?

I felt the exact same way and wanted to raise hell and say something, but at the same time didn't want to piss off the bureaucrat who could delay me even more just out of spite.

 

[Dawico]

I avoid flying at all costs. It's a joke nowadays.

 

[Dawico]

OSHA is another of my favorites. Though each state runs their own it is ultimately all federal.

They just keep making the rules up as they go.

 

[TxStetson]

I avoid flying at all costs. It's a joke nowadays.

I have not stepped on a plane since I retired from the military. I don’t have to fly anymore, so I don’t. The last time I flew, we spent 7 hours on the tarmac waiting for approval to approach the gate. Nothing to eat or drink, and all the toilets on the plane were backed up and stinking. Not so much as an apology from American Airlines, so I said f**k ‘em, they’ll never get another dime from me.

 

[SQLGeek]

The FDA. Practically crippled my family's business. I laugh every time someone suggests they exist to ensure public safety.

 

[benenglish]

Reminded me of a former IRS worker who told me one time how the more they collected, the more they made.

Anyone who tells you that is lying. Pay, awards, and advancement are totally, legally divorced from dollars collected. Statistics on dollars collected are aggregated such that it would be impossible to use them for employee evaluations.

That all-too-common lie is one of the most pernicious ever told about the IRS. I suspect that any former IRS worker who told you such a thing was also lying about ever being an IRS employee.

 

[Brains]

I'd been living Texas two years when I got parking tickets in Chicago on the care I sold when I moved here. Chicago also once gave my grandfather a parking ticket during the time they wintered in Florida. Chicago is a corrupt town going back to the roaring 20's. I believe it's always been under Devilcrap rule!

I, long ago, got a parking ticket at 11:59pm and another at 12:01am in Chicago. I was parked legally.

 

[WT_Foxtrot]

Anyone who tells you that is lying. Pay, awards, and advancement are totally, legally divorced from dollars collected. Statistics on dollars collected are aggregated such that it would be impossible to use them for employee evaluations.

That all-too-common lie is one of the most pernicious ever told about the IRS. I suspect that any former IRS worker who told you such a thing was also lying about ever being an IRS employee.

Might have been lying about the awards based on collections, but I can guarantee you they weren't about being an IRS employee....and a long term, highly tenured and high-up one at that. Probably plays into that fear thing I mentioned as being an asset. Was said more than once and usually in a group setting. Many eyes were rolled.

 

[Texasjack]

Firearms related: Early 2002, I found a pretty neat store that mostly carried bow hunting and primitive type stuff. (Weird place, like 10 feet wide by 100 feet deep.) I noticed they had smokeless powder for sale, and it had been many years since I bought gun powder for a couple of cap lock firearms I had, so I asked about gunpowder. "Nope, haven't got any. Department of Homeland Security came and confiscated it all in the name of preventing terrorist bombing." Wait, you have SMOKELESS powder on the shelf, but no GUNPOWDER? You do realize that the smokeless stuff is more powerful. "Yeah, we pointed that out, but they said they had been sent there for gunpowder and they believe that's what terrorists would be looking for, so that's what they took."

I feel safer. Do you feel safer?

 

[Texasjack]

My son was on business in Oklahoma. The folks he was with decided to go into a liquor store near the hotel and get a bottle of wine. They picked out a bottle and then told the clerk they needed a cork screw. "Nope, we're not allowed to sell cork screws in a store that sells wine in Oklahoma."

The government protecting us from ourselves.

 

[Texasgordo]

Having lived in CA for over 45 years, there’s really no way to capture all of the retardedness that I’ve witnessed over the last 20 years.


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When did it start going downhill?

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[AustinN4]

I avoid flying at all costs. It's a joke nowadays.

I fly all the time and have no problems at all, except for the occasional weather delay. I have TSA precheck, Passport & Global Entry. It also helps to be at the elite level of the airlines' FF programs. I read posts like yours and wonder why some of you are having so many problems?

 

[Sublime]

Flying is usually problematic for me but my wife says I look Middle Eastern. Delays, lost luggage, rude airline employees, rude people, stupid policies. Going thru TSA screening is usually not too bad.

A screwed up state agency? CPS. I got a ton of stories about them.

 

[Dawico]

I fly all the time and have no problems at all, except for the occasional weather delay. I have TSA precheck, Passport & Global Entry. It also helps to be at the elite level of the airlines' FF programs. I read posts like yours and wonder why some of you are having so many problems?

The only big problem I had was buying a ticket online then trying to fly shortly after 9/11.

I got "randomly" searched three times before getting on my first flight. All three searches had me waiting with the same exact "randomly" chosen people. Found it funny that we were all white too while passengers with towels on their heads or wearing burkas were walking right through.

Keep in mind we knew who the terrorists were at this point. You want to be "safe" or you want to be PC?

If I hadn't been three hours early for my flight then I would have missed it.

You didn't know you can get searched at the gate after being searched at check in and searched again going through security?
Now you do.

Don't even get me started on all the horror stories you hear or the fact that the scanner can see my junk but I still have to take my shoes off and empty my pockets.

Way too much hassle for me. I'd rather drive.

 

[AustinN4]

Don't even get me started on all the horror stories you hear or the fact that the scanner can see my junk but I still have to take my shoes off and empty my pockets.

That all goes away if you become TSA Precheck, unless you set off some type of alarm like leaving your phone in your pocket instead of putting it in a bin so it goes thru the xray scanner.

It is well worth it to me to apply for PreCheck and Global Entry since I fly so much and don't have to go thru that crap.

 

[toddnjoyce]

I fly all the time and have no problems at all, except for the occasional weather delay. I have TSA precheck, Passport & Global Entry. It also helps to be at the elite level of the airlines' FF programs. I read posts like yours and wonder why some of you are having so many problems?

My problem with flying commercially has to do with having to fly with everyone else.

 

[AustinN4]

My problem with flying commercially has to do with having to fly with everyone else.

There is that, I'll grant, but with my FF status I rarely sit in the cattle car section.