"Feel free" and "go ahead"

[+ friendofsheila]

Anybody else notice the mis-use of the above phrases these days?

 

People are now saying "feel free to bring dinner when you come to visit!" or other stuff like it, and they're not entirely kidding, really. It used to be used when the speaker had something they were offering the listener, like "feel free to take some of my cookies home when you go!"

 

And now I've had some customer service idiot say to me, "Okay, you can just go ahead and call us to check on when we'll ship this out to you." I think people are taking advantage of the fact that it seems to mean that the action named was already agreed upon. Here, they're handing me a responsibility, but half-pretending like I shouldn't be surprised to be getting it.

[+ azdr0710]

I know what you're saying, friend, but probably not a big enough thing to get upset about in the overall scheme of things.....but, please, feel free to go ahead and dispute my reply!.....