HHERE OIS SECON
45. Don’t Worry, It’s Sugar-Free
The Job: Creating an accurate label for a bag of sugar
The Mess Up: Placing a sugar-free label on the bag of sugar
The Cost: Unknown
So, what is the truth? One shopper noticed this amusing error when shopping for baking supplies. Sugar-free is the new fad, as people are realizing more and more that carbs are a huge cause of weight gain. Everything is sugar-free in the diet world now, though there are questions about whether aspartame and other fake sugars are really that much better for you.
Either way, we doubt this makes sense. One caption on the bag says “Pure Granulated Sugar,” and then the other caption, a few inches down from it, says “Sugar-Free.” Some brave soul will have to just taste-test it and see.
46. Whoops
The Job: Creating a chocolate-covered ice cream cone
The Mess Up: Only covering half the cone with chocolate
The Cost: Unknown
This is the epitome of visual dyslexia. Someone hoping to enjoy a chocolate-covered ice cream cone was quite disappointed when the ice cream cone was revealed to instead be a weird remix of the colors. The cone was partially chocolate-covered, while the ice cream had no chocolate in it.
The cheap “Galaxy” cone probably cost $0.50 at some random convenience store, and it still likely tastes pretty good, but the chocolate-covered part was subjective to whoever made these. We’re curious about whether the purchaser ate the cone or not (and whether it tasted even remotely edible).
47. Snow Shoes
The Job: Creating an accurate shoe display sign
The Mess Up: Advertising flip-flops as snow shoes
The Cost: $8 per square foot*
Maybe in the Bahamas, this would make sense. One shoe store encouraged everybody to “Get Ready for Winter”…by purchasing a nice, new pair of flip flops. Though not exactly winter gear, there’s no doubt that the sandals were way cheaper than a pair of winter boots.
Payless Shoes has some explaining to do with this sign, as it’s anyone’s guess what season it actually is when looking at the other shoes on display. If we were to guess, we’d say that it was fall, judging from the closed-toe flats. Fixing the sign display would involve printing a new sign, which could cost $8 per square foot.
48. Perfect Placement
The Job: Installing a working traffic system
The Mess Up: Traffic light installed facing away from traffic
The Cost: $250,000-$500,000*
This picture made a lot of the “daily fail” rounds, as some city planner, once again, was asleep on the job when setting up this traffic light. Instead of facing towards traffic, the light faces away from it and looks directly into a solid walkway.
What’s crazy is how expensive fixing this might be. It costs between $250,000 and $500,000 to install and purchase a traffic light, according to WSDOT. That doesn’t take into account the $8,000 a year in routine maintenance and bills. If something costs half a million to fix and it’s not life-threatening, maybe they should just leave it.
49. Yoga Ball Parking?
The Job: Accurately marking the handicapped parking position
The Mess Up: Painting abstract art instead
The Cost: $60*
Some painter had one job: to accurately identify and paint a handicap stencil, which would let disabled people know where the appropriate parking space was. Instead of doing that, they went in a completely different direction.
It appears that the stencil was totally disregarded in favor of something that looks like a yoga ball on a weird stand. It also looks somewhat like a person doing a flip on a round sled. Either way, it’ll cost around $60 to fix this issue, including the cost to remove the abstract art and paint an actual handicap marker on the lot.
50. Almost Made It
The Job: Making a taco
The Mess Up: Creating an empty taco shell next to lettuce and cheese
The Cost: $1.19*
We’re not even sure how this happens. Taco Bell has some questionable food, but it’s really the best place to go at 3AM when you don’t want something healthy. There’s nothing more delicious than Taco Bell in the car at night.
Or at least, there usually isn’t. In one sad customer’s case, Taco Bell didn’t seem to really care whether they got their hard-shell taco or not. Unwrapping the taco revealed that the shell was empty and the lettuce and cheese (no meat, it would seem) was placed to the side of the shell. Either there was a rush and someone wasn’t really paying attention, or the worker was playing a mean prank.
51. Red Hot Chilly Paper
The Job: Accurately labeling an RHCP CD
The Mess Up: “Red Hot Chilly Papers” label
The Cost: $0.05*
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the best bands of all time (subjective, we know), but they definitely weren’t paid the respect they deserved when they were labeled the “Red Hot Chilly Papers” in a label.
RHCP was instead a hot and cold piece of papyrus, as opposed to being a legitimate band. What likely happened was some worker who had somehow never heard of the Red Hot Chili Peppers printed out a label and stuck it up there. The cost is five cents to fix, but, really, it’s almost too funny to fix at this point.
52. Close Enough
The Job: Labeling “lime” with an accurate fruit
The Mess Up: Lemon instead of lime
The Cost: $0*
Well, at least they got the cherry right. One store accidentally labeled their lime as a lemon. We assume it was for their slushy drinks. Hopefully, the lime label is the correct one, as the paper behind it is also green. Though there’s a lemon, we’d bet that it’s supposed to be lime.
It probably will be a cheap fix, as all they have to do is print out a picture of a lime and stick it over the lemon that’s on there. Or, they could go an even easier route and color the lemon green with a green marker.
53. A Square Away
The Job: Creating a matching pattern
The Mess Up: Mismatching one tile and ruining the pattern
The Cost: $2-$3 per tile*
Anyone with mild OCD is going to hate this image, as it’s exactly one square away from being perfect. Some sadist was putting together this floor when they decided to purposefully make it a little bit off from the pattern, driving everyone crazy.
Just kidding. What probably happened was someone was laying down tile in a rush and didn’t notice until it was too late. They figured that the tile mismatch didn’t exactly make the floor sink into the earth, so they just left it. The cost to retile is around $2-$3 per tile, making for an easy fix.
54. This Is Just Wrong On So Many Levels
The Job: Installing a functioning toilet
The Mess Up: The toilet seat and lid are switched
The Cost: $70*
There are so many things wrong with this photo, it’s not even funny. How exactly this happened is a mystery, but this public bathroom needs work. The toilet’s seat and lid have somehow become flipped, and the poster of this photo made the unfortunate choice of touching the toilet with his bare hand to take the picture.
All told, it’ll cost maybe $70 to fix, if there has to be replacement parts. It’s not really usable either way, unless you’re a man. Thankfully, this appears to be, judging from the hand, in the men’s restroom. But still, how gross.
55. Missing Something
The Job: Installing balconies on the windows
The Mess Up: No floor to the balcony
The Cost: $2,000-$7,000* per window
This photo has so many questions attached to it. The building’s architects appear to have wanted to create little balconies for people, but they forgot one important part: the floor of the balcony. The result is a perilous fall a story or two onto the pavement.
Or, as many city building owners do, the owners might have been putting bars on the windows for security purposes. In that case, the bars only cover half the window, and they’re not really necessary, as the windows aren’t ground level. Installing a proper balcony will cost $2,000-$7,000 per window, so we bet the building owner will leave it as is.
56. Only the Toilet
The Job: Making a clear sign
The Mess Up: Making a sign that makes no sense
The Cost: $0.05*
This fascinating sign could hang in the Museum of Modern Art, along with everything else in there that makes no sense. One restaurant or public establishment gave this sign their best shot, with the English caption reading, “We refuse to use only the toilet.”
The most mysterious part of the sign are the two figures with a yellow anti-sign behind them. What exactly that adds to the drawing is a mystery. The real text of the sign (and its ulterior motive) is probably hidden in the Chinese characters below, but, if you’re just reading the English words, you’ll be quite confused.
57. Low-Rider ATM
The Job: Installing an ATM at a normal height
The Mess Up: An ATM posted way too low
The Cost: $3,500-$7,000*
This ATM has the opposite problem of one of the other entrants on this list—an ATM posted way too high. Instead, this low-rider ATM is accessible only to someone who is either very short or, like this uncomfortable ATM user, sitting cross-legged on the ground.
It’s not exactly a comfortable fit, and you have to wonder what the building was thinking when they established an ATM that low. It’s possible the floors got mixed up during construction and an old ATM was never removed. The cost to rip this ATM out and install one of a proper height would be $3,500-$7,000.
58. Do Not Eat Carpet
The Job: Creating a sign that made sense
The Mess Up: A sign telling people not to eat the carpet
The Cost: $5/square foot*
Well, I guess that solves that issue then. The Airport of India was apparently having a very unusual problem, where their guests were eating the airport’s carpet and causing, no doubt, thousands of dollars worth of damage.
Just kidding. What actually happened was probably just a translation error, though we’re not sure what “eating carpet” could mean. Perhaps they mean napping on the floor? That’s something we’ve all seen people doing in airports (amid a ton of other weird stuff, as all airports are a public zoo half the time). Either way, a new sign might be in order.
59. Feel Free to Sit… Somewhere Else
The Job: Creating an open public park
The Mess Up: Enclosing the park benches in a high fence
The Cost: $600-$800*
It’s a little hard to find out what the issue with this photo is at first glance, but, when you look a little closer, the problem becomes evident. These benches (one is painted bright white for some reason) are enclosed by a pretty high fence, leaving pedestrians to sit, well, anywhere else.
Unless someone has a rather high jump, they’re probably not going to want to make the effort to sit in one of those benches. The fence removal will cost between $600 and $800, if it requires a professional to remove it. It’s probably best not to install a new one.
60. Who’s High Maintenance?
The Job: A salon title that wasn’t mildly insulting to guests
The Mess Up: A poorly-translated salon title
The Cost: N/A
Well, at least this salon is calling it like it sees it. One salon is called “High Maintenance Chick Salon,” which is no doubt a bad translation of something a little less harsh. The services offered include admittedly high maintenance things, such as hair extensions, keratin, and more.
The High Maintenance Chick Salon pictured here is located in Dubai in the UAE’s Mirdif Mall. The salon has a 4/5-star rating on Google, and it appears to be doing pretty well. It doesn’t seem like the store owners have any intent on changing the name or switching to a different model.
61. Stairwell to Nowhere
The Job: Creating a sensible bridge
The Mess Up: A bridge to nowhere was installed
The Cost: $10,000-$20,000*
This bridge to nowhere appears to be located in the middle of a highway, which spells out a big-money fix for whoever was unfortunate enough to get it stuck there. The entire architecture of this place is confusing, as one side is a highway with poles in the middle of it and the other side isn’t a roadway.
Whatever the purpose, we doubt that the architect meant to put a bridge to nowhere in the middle. We’re sure this is still under construction (well, we hope it is); otherwise, the takedown or shifting could require professional intervention in the tens of thousands range.
62. Evil Saloon
The Job: Creating a salon with a normal title
The Mess Up: “Evil Saloon for Men”
The Cost: N/A
This photo was fodder for a lot of memes on Reddit. The Evil Saloon for Men sounds like every anime villain’s hideout, and the salon might have made a translation error when setting up their storefront.
Evil Saloon for Men, which is right out of an old Western movie with no subtlety, didn’t have any search results on Google, which makes it seem like the good guys won and defeated the Evil Saloon. Or, in a less exciting event, the owners of the Evil Saloon were told of their translation mistake and changed the title to something more reasonable.
63. Cutting-Edge Security
The Job: Setting up a security camera appropriately
The Mess Up: Placing the camera so that it faces a wall
The Cost: $630-$2,049* (New Camera Installation)
This security mishap is every robber’s dream, as the camera is going to be full of nothing but a blank white screen. One store owner really didn’t think this through when he set up his store camera facing a large impediment.
The camera won’t catch any footage if something goes wrong, which is a shame, as it looks expensive. The cost to install a new security camera would be around $630-$2,049, depending on the camera installed. For this store owner, it would be way cheaper to just move whatever is blocking the view of the camera in the first place.
64. Big Flamingo
The Job: A sign with a flamingo on it so people know what not to feed
The Mess Up: A dog instead of a flamingo
The Cost: $0.05*
While “Please do not feed the flamingos” sounds reasonable, we’re wondering why there is a dog in the photo instead of a pink, feathered bird. One sign posted at the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo in Quito, Ecuador accidentally made that mistake.
However, don’t let this sign sully your impression of Mitad del Mundo, which is a tourist hotspot. The monument was constructed to celebrate the Geodesic Mission, which was hosted by the French Academy of Sciences in 1736. The Mission tested the flattening at the poles of the Earth, basically determining the radius of the planet.
65. Not Exactly a Home Run
The Job: Drawing a baseball field
The Mess Up: Putting a giant fence in between the home plate and the pitcher’s mound
The Cost: $600-$2,000*
That’s one way to not play fair. It’s hard to tell which error came first—the person who built the fence or the person who outlined the baseball field. It’s going to be pretty hard for players to hit a home run when they have to contend with this giant fence blocking their view.
The cost to remove a fence like this can run into the thousands, so it’s probably more sensible for the field owner to just redraw the lines. And redraw he should, as he can’t let a fence stand in front of America’s most classic game.
66. No Crying!
The Job: N/A
The Mess Up: N/A
The Cost: N/A
The context of this photo is unknown, as Google searches have failed to turn up its origin. However, it’s a fair point, especially if you’re playing baseball. The sign says “Do Not Cry,” with an image of a man’s silhouette yelling (and, assumedly, crying) with a red “Do Not” symbol positioned behind him.
We’d love to know what the context was. Perhaps an annoyed fast-food worker got tired of people throwing tantrums at the store and decided to print out a sign telling them to not bother. Either way, there’s no cost to fix, as this sign doesn’t need fixing.
67. Tall People Only
The Job: Creating a door that leads somewhere
The Mess Up: A door suspended ten feet above the ground
The Cost: $200-$2,000*
Unless the person living here was freakishly tall, there’s no way that this apartment design would ever work. We assume that the door at the bottom leads to a two-floor space, but that doesn’t explain the suspended door, sitting ten feet above the ground.
What likely happened was there were previously stairs there, leading down to the ground, but after those were removed, what remained was a door to nowhere. Installing stairs could cost $2,000-$5,000, while removing the door would cost $200-$250. If it’s the same apartment, there’s really no need for a thousand-dollar stair installation in this case.
68. Arrow to Nowhere
The Job: A logical sign
The Mess Up: A sign to nowhere
The Cost: $20-$50*
This sign looks like something straight out of a trippy thriller, as one roadway put up a sign saying, “There is no place,” with an arrow pointing to the “no place.” The sign was probably supposed to say no place “to park” or something similar, but both the Spanish and English translations remain quite mysterious.
Still, we can’t fault a motorist for getting curious and driving to see just where this portal to another dimension is. Sadly, it would likely be more of a dead-end than anything out of a sci-fi movie. The cost for a new, more sensible sign would be around $20-$50.
69. Worst Escalator Ever
The Job: Installing an escalator
The Mess Up: Installing stairs instead
The Cost: $100,000-$200,000*
Most of us take escalators for the same reason: we don’t feel like walking up a flight of stairs. You could be a marathon runner and end up out of breath at the top of a steep flight, so it’s often the easier option to just take a slow cruise up fake steps.
Unless you’re at this mall, in which case you’re going to be walking. The guardrails on either side make this look like it’s primed for an escalator, but there is no such thing. The cost to install an escalator and save pedestrians some steps is $100,000-$200,000, so maybe this mall just doesn’t want to spend the money.
70. Double Negative
The Job: A no-smoking sign
The Mess Up: A sign saying “Please Don’t No Smoke”
The Cost: $10-$20*
This is a simple translation error, as the Spanish sign is pretty clear. However, the English version of the sign leaves a lot to be desired, as “Please Don’t No Smoke” seems like you should be smoking. “Por Favor NO Fumar” translates directly to “Please Don’t No Smoke,” so it’s an easy mistake to make if English isn’t your first language.
Luckily, there are pictures of a cigarette being banned, so you’d have to be pretty oblivious to think you were allowed to smoke here. Since smoking is a no-no in most public places, it’s clear that you should just take it outside.
71. No Exit
The Job: Creating a normal exit
The Mess Up: A needless door
The Cost: $5,000-$15,000*
This fire exit isn’t exactly the only option here. One public location put a fire door next to a hallway. Considering that installing a metal door like that is $1,500-$15,000, they could have just saved the money and put a wall there instead ($976-$2,903).
Removing a commercial door won’t be cheap, as they are usually far heavier-duty than the doors you’d find in homes and some offices. It could cost somewhere in the thousands to pry it off, not to mention all the money needed to put a wall where the door was (because you can’t exactly leave a gaping hole).
72. Don’t Waste Water
The Job: Getting people to save water
The Mess Up: Telling people to flush twice
The Cost: $0.05* (New Sign)
One sign didn’t really seem to understand the concept behind “saving water.” One toilet flush expends 1.6 gallons of water, on average. Back in the 1980s, toilets would use five to seven gallons per flush, so toilets have become a lot more high-tech.
They’re designed not to waste water, but this sign asks you to flush twice to save on H2O, which makes exactly zero sense. Instead of 1.6 gallons, you’ll be expending 3.2 gallons. If this place really wanted to save money, it would get a low-flow toilet, which would cut the water used by at least one-third.
73. Where’s the Ladder?
The Job: Installing a payphone everyone can use
The Mess Up: Suspending the payphone ten feet above the ground
The Cost: $200-$500*
Similar to the too-high ATM is this too-high phone booth. One poor person had to stand on their tiptoes just to pull at the cord of a phone situated ten feet off the ground. Why exactly the city chose to put the phone here is a mystery, as, unless someone is an NBA player, they’re not going to be able to make their phone call.
And, is that really the worst thing ever? According to some sources, payphones are a huge germ hotspot. Installing a new payphone would cost $200-$700, so it’s probably cheaper to just move it down to a reasonable height.
74. Influenza Sandwich
The Job: Advertising a sandwich
The Mess Up: Saying it’s “bread with cold”
The Cost: $0.05*
Pao com Frios is a type of bread with meat in it, but this sign, instead, says “Bread with cold,” which is a direct and, unfortunately, inaccurate translation of the food. It’s a shame as, judging from the Google pics, Pao com Frios looks delicious.
Hopefully, potential customers can look past the sign and realize they won’t be getting a sneeze and cough from this treat (at least, we hope not). That’s the problem with translating word for word; sometimes, you end up misinterpreting a phrase and causing the translation to wind up making little to no sense.
75. I Dare You
The Job: Installing a safe sink
The Mess Up: Putting a faucet above an electrical outlet
The Cost: $25-$50*
This new Final Destination prop looks fun, and we wonder exactly who decided this would be a good idea. This house of horrors setup has a sink with a mismatched handle, and, if someone were to twist the handle, water would pour out onto the electrical socket.
According to one lighting company, if water gets on the socket, you are “automatically” in danger until the water is properly removed. If, God forbid, you try to plug something into a wet socket, you’ll get the shock of your life. Sink removal, at a cost of $25-$50 per sink, is probably the best option here.
76. Hands-Only Required
The Job: Creating a hand-washing sign
The Mess Up: A sign that says “Bring your hands”
The Cost: $0.05*
You only have to bring your hands to wash them, according to this sign. “Solo acerque los manos” was translated to “Just bring your hands,” even though it’s probably more about washing them than bringing them anywhere (judging from the sign).
It’s a shame this sign got it so wrong, as hand-washing is very important, especially since our phones are pretty much Petri dishes. According to StateFoodSafety.com, there are 25,127 bacteria per square inch on our cell phones, making these gadgets one of the dirtiest things we come in contact with daily. Don’t just “bring” your hands—wash them.
77. Wheelchair “Access”
The Job: Installing a wheelchair-accessible ramp
The Mess Up: Putting stairs at the end of a ramp
The Cost: $979-$3,075*
Wheelchair accessibility is very important, as no one wants their differently-abled friends to be left out. One building tried to install a wheelchair-accessible ramp, which would allow for wheelchairs to navigate a ramp instead of stairs but ended it in a drop of a few stairs, which would be quite hazardous.