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Expiration dates are a PLOY!

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  • Expiration dates are a PLOY!

    I always get the crazies when I cover a cashier's break.

    Had a woman hand me an HP 27 ink cartridge, wanting to exchange it for a Canon cartridge.

    One little problem.....the HP cartridge had expired in August 2007.

    Me: Ma'am, I'll only be able to give you a $3 recycling credit for this cartridge because it's expired.

    SC: When?!

    Me: August, 2007 *I pointed to the clearly marked expiration date*

    She took the cartridge and threw it back into her carriage in disgust.

    Then she suddenly looked up, as if she'd just realized she'd been had.

    SC: Wait a minute....ink cartridges don't EXPIRE!!!!

    Me: Yes, they do, ma'am.

    SC: Well that sounds like a PLOY to me, after all, they'd still work just fine!!

    Me: Actually ma'am, in a cartridge that old, the ink may have deteriorated to the point that it could damage the printer if you try to use it.

    SC: Then she mumbled something about having to replace her printer every six months anyway (), paid, and left.

    Yeah, expiration dates are a ploy to get you to spend more money. I guess I shouldn't have poured out that milk that was almost 2 weeks past the date. Sure it smelled funky, but it'd still be just fine, right????
    "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

    RIP Plaidman.

  • #2
    HA! I had a gallon of milk go bad, so I took it out of my fridge, set it on the table and forgot about it. So 2 weeks later I find it again.. it had turned black and bloated...I was scared to touch it for fear it would explode all over me.
    "I'm working for popcorn - what I get paid doesn't rise to the level of peanuts." -Courtesy of Darkwish

    ...Beware the voice without a face...

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    • #3
      But I am sure that it would have been fine to drink
      Began work Aug as casual '08
      Ex-coworkers from current place of work: 26ish
      Current co-workers at current place of work: 15ish - yes he just hired 3 more casuals
      Why do I still work there again?

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      • #4
        So, ink expires, who knew. Probably me, if I paid attention to the packaging. Meh, if the ink ruins my printer, no big loss. I'm sure my printer was about 12 dollars. The ink cart was probably about 40 bucks though, so that'd make me sad.

        I don't get people who don't understand that things deteriorate over time. Just because something might look fine to use doesn't mean it IS fine to use. No, of course it's all a marketing ploy to get us to spend more and more money. I hate people.



        (I will admit to being suspicious of "best by" dates on non perishable food {and food like....items}...well my family all grow an extra head if we make tea after the best by date? We haven't yet.. but there's always next time! My boys would probably think it was cool, being little boys who like that sort of thing...)
        you are = you're. not "your".

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        • #5
          Quoth simplyanother View Post
          well my family all grow an extra head if we make tea after the best by date? We haven't yet.. but there's always next time! My boys would probably think it was cool, being little boys who like that sort of thing...)
          No, but the taste of the tea will alter quite a bit. I wouldn't recommend it, but it won't effect(or is it affect? I can never tell) your health.
          Last edited by SG15Z; 05-18-2009, 04:27 AM.

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          • #6
            Someone please tell my father that nothing lasts forever.....except Twinkies. He says "It's STILL GOOD!" all the damn time...
            You really need to see a neurologist. - Wagegoth

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            • #7
              A few years ago I was helping my uncle pack up his house for a move across town. A mutual friend and I were packing up the non-perishable food when we came across two extra large cans of water chestnuts that were not just severely dented, but were severely rusted as well.

              We threw them out.

              We also threw out a jar of "spicy brown" mustard that was supposed to be yellow mustard, and came across a paper bag filled with old sachets of soy sauce from take out Chinese food. This despite the fact that he had THREE jumbo size bottles of REAL soy sause, and the stuff in those sachets is little more than artificially colored and flavored salt water.

              And he got mad at us for throwing out the water chestnuts!!!

              "They were fine! I BOUGHT them that way!!"

              I love my uncle, but he can be an idiot sometimes.......
              Last edited by Dave1982; 06-18-2009, 06:47 PM. Reason: tpyos
              "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

              RIP Plaidman.

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              • #8
                Quoth simplyanother View Post
                (I will admit to being suspicious of "best by" dates on non perishable food {and food like....items}...well my family all grow an extra head if we make tea after the best by date? We haven't yet.. but there's always next time! My boys would probably think it was cool, being little boys who like that sort of thing...)
                "Best before" dates and "expiry" dates are different, best before means just that best before, they loose flavour or go a bit stale, expiry dates are just that too, they go bad milk curdles, meat develops bacteria, they can be hazardous to your health.
                If I dropped everybody who occasionally said something stupid from my list of potential partners, I wouldn’t even be able to masturbate

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                • #9
                  Quoth tigerlily0
                  When I was a kid, I had apparently hidden some of my Halloween chocolate amongst the Halloween decorations, and then promptly forgot about it. I found the chocolate a year later when getting out the decorations for the next Halloween. Half of the chocolate had turned white (I presume through whatever kind of chemical reaction chocolate goes through over time). I ate it anyway Didn't taste so good, though, if I recall correctly, but I didn't get sick or anything...
                  That white stuff is the cocoa separating and rising to the top. It's pretty harmless, but, like you said, doesn't taste that good.

                  I ran into the "expiration date" debate at a day care I used to go to. The owner was a complete cheapskate and would serve milk in tiny little Dixie cups to make it last longer and bought it just before it was about to go bad. One day, I drank the milk and it tasted off. In fact, it tasted just like some milk I had a year before. And I got violently sick a few hours later and didn't get better until a couple of days later. (Turned out the milk had gone bad.)

                  When I asked what the date was on the milk, I got sharply reprimanded, told that I was just a stupid kid that didn't know anything and the expired milk was still good as long as she shook it every once in a while.

                  My brother and I started bringing our own lunches to day care from then on and drinking water when we were thirsty.
                  A smile is just a grimace that's been edited for public consumption. -- Tony Cochran

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                  • #10
                    Quoth NightWatch View Post
                    HA! I had a gallon of milk go bad, so I took it out of my fridge, set it on the table and forgot about it. So 2 weeks later I find it again.. it had turned black and bloated...I was scared to touch it for fear it would explode all over me.
                    Ew. EWEWEW.

                    I didn't know milk could turn black!


                    Man, that made me gag.

                    (I'm very nitpicky about my fridge. I will not eat or drink anything past the date that's on it, whether it's sell-by or use-by. It's a compulsion, like repetitive handwashing.)
                    "Do not quibble with me over apostrophes. I have my shit together when it comes to apostrophes." - BookBint

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                    • #11
                      HP ink tends to solidify after awhile. I've had that happen even in "new" packages. Not really much you can do about it, but use them ASAP.

                      I wonder what she'd say when she realizes that even batteries "go bad." The electrolyte eventually breaks down, and will no longer carry a charge. I bet that would make her mind explode
                      Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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                      • #12
                        Want to hear a really disgusting story, plus the dumbest reason I ever got grounded?

                        I had a friend spend the night....I was probably 16 or 17....

                        The next morning, we were fixing to make breakfast, and my friend shrieked when she saw that the milk was two weeks expired, but still in full frontal view when the fridge door was open.

                        I was humiliated, so I drug the garbage over, and we proceeded to find more and more and more expired things in the fridge and the freezer. Freezing things does not make things last forever, dimwitted parents of mine!

                        It was so humiliating to have a friend over and discover that my parents kept the most foul, nasty expired food. Well of course, being 16, it felt like the most humiliating thing on earth.

                        I mean, there was cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, more milk (and this one expired months ago, there was barely 1/2 cup left, but still!) fruits and veggies that looked more like shriveled up penises in the bathtub.....we filled up an entire garbage bag with it!

                        My parents came home and they threw a FIT that we threw away all that perfectly good food! After my friend went home, I was grounded for 2 weeks for being "so wasteful", and that "expiration dates do not always mean that it's not good anymore!" I tried to argue the shapes and colors and sizes of the fruits and veggies (keeping the penis parts out, of course) and the curdled milk, but they'd have nothing of it.

                        In fact, my parents actually went THROUGH that garbage bag and put some of the stuff back IN the fridge!

                        And yes, I stayed grounded for 2 weeks.

                        It's a miracle I never got hospitalized from food poisoning.....think of all the food I ate growing up with packrat parents!
                        You really need to see a neurologist. - Wagegoth

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                        • #13
                          Quoth SG15Z View Post
                          No, but the taste of the tea will alter quite a bit. I wouldn't recommend it, but it won't effect(or is it affect? I can never tell) your health.
                          I had a conversation on my Linkshell in Final Fantasy XI about this one time. I used "affect" as a verb and some guy argued with me. Turns out I was right. Affect is a verb. Effect is the noun.
                          To right the countless wrongs of our days... We shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise...Oh, what a wonderful world such would be...

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                          • #14
                            Just being pedantic, but HP cartridges will generally not damage your printer if they dry out. Most HP's include a fresh printer head with every cartridge, so the potential for damage is pretty much zero. (They do make some business-use printers with ink tanks, ala Canon.)

                            Of course, the horribly expired cartridges won't actually work, but they won't break stuff either.

                            SirWired

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Dave1982 View Post
                              A mutual friend and I were packing up the non-perishable food when we came across two extra large cans of water chestnuts that were not just severely dented, but were severely rusted as well.

                              We threw them out.

                              "They were fine! I BOUGHT them that way!!"
                              Good grief. I wonder if he tried to haggle a discount based on the condition...? Fat lot of good a discount does if you let them rot.

                              Last time I went out west, I was "hired" by my dad to clean out his fridge and pantry (not something I mind at all, typically leads to interesting dinner ideas for the food that's still good but needs to be eaten soon).

                              Fridge wasn't too scary (a bit of slime in the back of the drawers, but nothing soap and water couldn't handle), but in the pantry I found six cans of salmon that were not only rusted, but seriously bloated I considered tossing one on an old tarp to see how little of an impact it would take for one to blow, but (probably fortunately) never actually did it.

                              Every so often at his place, I start to expect something akin to the movie Evolution where the slime grows into something with teeth in a matter of hours.

                              Quoth blas87 View Post
                              My parents came home and they threw a FIT that we threw away all that perfectly good food! After my friend went home, I was grounded for 2 weeks for being "so wasteful", and that "expiration dates do not always mean that it's not good anymore!" I tried to argue the shapes and colors and sizes of the fruits and veggies and the curdled milk, but they'd have nothing of it.

                              In fact, my parents actually went THROUGH that garbage bag and put some of the stuff back IN the fridge!

                              It's a miracle I never got hospitalized from food poisoning.....
                              My stepfather and grandmother were the same way. After my stepfather's father died, he took all the canned food that was in his basement and brought it back. Cans of Contadina tomatoes that were starting to bulge, stuff like that. One day my mom tossed one off the back deck and it exploded in midair, only that would convince him to get rid of it all.

                              My grandmother made her own spaghetti sauce, but didn't really know about safe cooking/canning practices (my grandfather always liked to tell the story of how she left a pot of sauce on the stove overnight, he came down for breakfast and there was a mouse floating in it...quite an epic battle to convince her NOT to serve it for dinner). We would always have to do a ninja-clean of the fridge when she was in the bath or otherwise occupied so she wouldn't see the trash bag and start going through it. (yes we know you lived through the Depression and so learned to save everything, but when the foodstuffs start talking that should be a clue that they're no longer welcome).
                              Last edited by Dreamstalker; 05-18-2009, 04:47 PM.
                              "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                              "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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