Things that are meant to be better but are not better

Why oh why don't people have a bit of cash on them at least as a back up?

On Saturday I was helping out at our local community cafe. The mobile signal there is pretty rubbish and people kept trying to pay on their phones. (I don't have it so I don't really know how it works). They would order, I would ring it up on till (nothing over about £15), they would wave their phone over the payment machine. Nothing. They would then wander all over and back outside trying to get a signal and then, when that didn't work took ages to log on to our internet. All the while the queue was getting longer and longer and some peope were giving up and leaving, losing us trade. Must have happened about half a dozen times. One woman must have taken at least 5 minutes to try and pay on her phone and then got a debit card out and paid within seconds. Why the absolute necessity to pay by phone?

And don't get me started on the attempts to unlock their phones by facial recognition.

Yes, this annoys me too - my mast near home has been not working properly for over 5 years meaning everyone misses calls and no option for voicemail on mobiles. I hate it. No amount of complaints get them to fix it.

Suspect you've posted on the wrong thread, @Chedder123 but, since you're here ... there's probably an app for that! 😜

So a decision maker (but not my one) called me as I asked yesterday for an update and they said they will get someone to call me. They didn’t ask any questions but I was told that my decision maker is on AL until Thursday! When my 25 weeks is tomorrow…mines an MR 2/10

Our landline got upgraded and now we have no phone during power cuts. Also this is a mobile blackspot so we'd have to walk half a mile to get a signal if we needed the emergency services.
When the upgrade was about to happen they said we'd get a battery pack that we could use in power cuts but that never materialised.

Re the elderly being stubborn etc I was on a train opposite 2 elderly ladies, one of whom had booked their tickets on the app. When she got to the barrier there was either no signal (rural Scotland) or she couldn't get the app to load. The guy was going to make her buy the return tickets all over again but luckily another staff member saw sense.

So not all elderly people are useless with tech - sometimes it doesn't work. I'd far rather have a paper ticket in my hand but no doubt this option will become obsolete in the future.

I can't stand ordering food on apps. Firstly I don't want my phone cluttered up with apps I will probably never use again and secondly it took us about 20 minutes to order a roast dinner in a pub.

What meat do you want?
Boiled, mashed or roast potatoes?
Which vegetables do you want?
Do you want gravy?
Which sauce do you want?
And on and on and on

Whereas I could have told a human my order in about 10 seconds.

Now if there's app only "service" I walk out.

What a nasty attitude.
Be interesting to see how you get on when you're 80 and there's new tech to learn all the time for basic society transactions
Let's hope you're just "stubborn" rather than any physical / cognitive impediments which most 80 year old have to some degree

If I'm carrying more than one bag, I always put a print out in each bag, if not I put one in my coat pocket as well as my main bag.

I don't know who Neil Postman is but its often good to take a step back if you don't understand the point of something and consider its maybe not designed for you. Both smart lights and in app ordering are huge benefits to the Visually Impaired. Since in app ordering has come in I meet with a group regularly and every one of us, even those with no useful vision at all, can just turn up, access the menu independently, order independently, it might not seem like much but its a huge deal to some who may never have had the confidence to go to the pub and meet friends by themselves before.

Being an adult!
When you are a kid you can't wait to grow up and do what you want, but 90% adulting is really dull! 🤣

Yes of course.

@ColourlessGreenIdeasSleepFuriouslyMajority of elderly are stubborn and don't do any tech, Even them owning a CD player is a stretch for them.

A relative who turns 90 next month frequents WhatApps family and friends, has her shopping lists and apps on there. She said one of her DGD showed her the ropes initially and rest of it, she has downloaded, signed up etc herself.

Apart from tech that improves the lives of people with disabilites

I find all these company apps easier to connect with than pre app days, either chat bot, what's app, facebook, Twitter - they're ususlly fast to respond, use the tech to communicate with the tech

Tickets can be lost too, as can hand bags

I have one, the pods are recycled by the council.

I got it because I don't have milk in the house on a regular basis so it means I can offer visitors a drink.

Dunelm send out a lovely shiny catalogue with furniture and stuff that I’m interested in buying… but my local Dunelm store looks like a village hall that’s just finished hosting a jumble sale.

I caused havoc because having waited for 20 minutes for someone to measure out and cut some braid (and I had asked for assistance), I went ahead and did it myself.

When I presented it at the till without some kind of tag or barcode on it for the price to be scanned in, the cashier blew a fuse.

Just HOW long was I supposed to wait?

I posted on their FB page, but no response.

All of these ,oh all of these.

So then you say no , and try again and again and again at increasing volume until you end up howling “FOR FUCKS SAKE CAN I JUST SPEAK TO A FUCKING PERSON , ITS NOT THAT FUCKING DIFFICULT…

I did do this the other day, when I got what sounded just like a recorded message about to give me yet another options menu, only to realise to my horror that it was a real live person speaking on the other end of the line. Mortifying.

@MistressoftheDarkSide Ah, that reminds me of more app-based rage. My local cab firm - who are excellent, generally - have developed an app. It looks like it's been developed by the work experience kid - the app equivalent of a frames website with primary coloured comic sans font - and it it won't let me choose my home as a destination. Or select my current location as a starting point. Or, as of this evening, let me log in <weeps>

Everything's on the phone, tickets, airport check.in etc, what if you lose the phone?
Nobody sends tickets out anymore.

So then you say no , and try again and again and again at increasing volume until you end up howling “FOR FUCKS SAKE CAN I JUST SPEAK TO A FUCKING PERSON , ITS NOT THAT FUCKING DIFFICULT……..”

Companies do sometimes employ consultant companies to listen to what people say when they're on hold/waiting, so I use the time to explain - at length and quite swearily - exactly what I think of their tin pot service.

At worst, I've vented my spleen in a most cathartic manner and maybe, just maybe, someone who matters will know what customers think of them!

Yes to this. I hate it when I can't quickly scan across or down the menu or go back to an item to have another look at it again. The ones online make that difficult to do.

Ha. Sounds similar to my local taxi firms automated phone system. I'm a regular user. It asks you to say the pick up point and destination and it's like playing Russian roulette. It still tries to deliver me to either my old address (I moved ten months ago) or my old business address (obsolete for over a year). It often tells me my new address doesn't exist, despite having dropped me there on average twice a week for the last ten months. After three goes you get through to the operator. Today I clearly told the operator my pick up point and destination, and the poor woman on the other end said "I'm really sorry but I didn't take any of that in at all, can we start again". At least we had a chuckle about it. Computers don't chuckle. But with advances in AI I'm sure they will soon.

Having wrestled with HMRC’s system today …

Automated phone lines that start “in order to help you quicker , can you just give us your NI number / post code / date of birth ot account number” , which you then say into the phone , and then , no matter how clearly you say it , or at what volume , or whether you have any accent , or none , the system then totally fucks it up and parrots back something totally different and then says “is that right ? “. So then you say no , and try again and again and again at increasing volume until you end up howling “FOR FUCKS SAKE CAN I JUST SPEAK TO A FUCKING PERSON , ITS NOT THAT FUCKING DIFFICULT……..”

Or is that just me ?