Things that worked better in the old days

[blondeseaside]

Just been for a drive thru Mcdonalds. In the good old days, the whole menu would be hanging above the car on a metal sign. What do we have now? One big screen that just shows a couple of menu "highlights", so it only showed one wrap, one burger....so yeah, we get that you do burgers and wraps, but which ones? Where is the full menu? There are 16 burger types at Mcdonalds, but only 1 burger was on the screen. There are 4 wrap types, but only the Tikka one was on the screen (so I ordered that). How on earth are you meant to know what you want to order, if they only show a fraction of the menu? I asked Gemini and she said you're meant to look at the menu on your phone now....but I am driving!

First world problem, but it did my head in!

Agree with everything. (Apart from online banking: love that.)

But Christmas! Reading a few threads here about children’s disappointment with presents, Amazon wish lists etc - there are no surprises any more (even nasty surprises!) as one has seen everything online and you know the price of everything. People have everything so there’s this exhausting search for “unique” gifts or ruinous branded/luxury items.

Sad about Christmas cards. We used to have masses strung about the room when I was a child. Now I send/receive about five. The postage is ridiculous and dispiritingly I see on here people moaning that they are “clutter”.

Men.

We have to get the train to Manchester for almost every holiday we take. Can't remember the last time it went to plan. Trains are either outright cancelled or just terminate half way through.

Last year we were about to set off and my DH said, "blimey wouldn't it be awful if our train was cancelled", so I said "don't say that! Best just check though".....Yep, cancelled. We'd booked 1st class for a treat, when we got on the alternative train there was no 1st class, but there was a preferred section. So we sat there, but were chucked out. On the way back the train ran ok, but there was no food in 1st class as the cooker was broken. Also, no toilet roll on the entire train. It's not ROCKET science, how can we not get this right?!

And these aren't one off's, it's almost every bloody time!

Google maps and GPS - total game changer
Booking flights and accomadation ( booking, vbro airbnb) sooo much better, I remeber my mother writing to hotels in French !
I think the NHS app works well most of the time....will think of some more

Every website you go onto, and you're just about to look for what you want, and then POOF "Do you accept Cookies?"

YYEESSSSS - I have said so a MILLION times. And that's just this week. Can't you ask me once, and then we can just fly with that assumption from now on?

Customer service. No stupid chatbots. You just phoned up and spoke to a human.

Ordering a coffee. Choice of black or white and served in a minute. No faffing about with machines and having to wait for ages.

I miss when you used to go on Facebook and see an array of funny recent posts from your actual friends. And I really, REALLY miss original Twitter.

Rubbish collections and supermarket pricing. Customer service was a lot better growing up. Its all so impersonal nowadays

Dating. In the 'old days' we'd meet someone at uni, or work, or out and about. You'd start dating and would not think about seeing other people unless the current situation didn't work out.

Nowadays, from what I can glean from my young adult DC, you see someone on an app, swipe, start talking, move the convo to text or WA, have a date, often sleep together after a couple of dates. Meanwhile either of you could be dating other people. You don't get to be their girlfriend until invited to be so. It's not a relationship until your 'Insta official'. It's all madness. My DD had been seeing a bloke for a few months and I made the error of referring to him as her boyfriend. Big mistake!

Applying for jobs, in the old days you had to print off your CV and decide if it was worth spending the money on a stamp to send it off, now it’s all online and loads of people just click to apply to anything and everything so employers get thousands of applications and the people who are actually qualified can be easily missed.

Oh not Gregg's. They are just as bad, they were Gregg's Bakeries, now you can't buy bread in their stores,

Back in the day, you could use post to invite someone to afternoon tea, and receive a reply the same day.

As to what worked better in the past: where do we begin?

Oh just don't. DD had been 'seeing' a bloke for 5 months. They'd been on a week long hiking break in Spain. They were planning another holiday in a few month's time. But apparently that only meant they were 'exclusive' though they certainly weren't 'official'.

She then started to explain the difference between a Hard Vs. Soft Launch on Instagram at which point my brain short circuited and I had to have a sit down.

Yes, absolute nightmare and so incredibly bad for mental and physical health.

I am not sure calling it second class is actually correct. Trade descriptions law exists.

Pubs. You could have a night down the pub and it didn't cost a fortune. Ditto eating out.

This is my answer too!
I just want to speak to a person FFS! And a person who actually works for your company too and knows what I’m asking about.
I don’t want to talk to a chatbot, I don’t want to talk to someone in a centre overseas who you’ve outsourced your “customer service” to, and who consequently cannot give me any useful information, I don’t want to submit my enquiry to an anonymous page. I want to speak to a real person.

Buying fruit & veg - in my childhood town there were two greengrocers and market stalls on Saturdays. Nice fresh produce, a lot of it local. Just buy what you needed and it came unwrapped or in paper bags.

Also milk and “pop” - glass bottles, reused. Delivered to your doorstep

Buying appliances. We had so much palaver buying a new oven recently with the electrical supply etc and no straightforward shop with an actual person to ask!

Actual school reading books, not Sparx reader thats almost finished any reading enjoyment

Telephones . Ring a number , speak to someone in real life . If not answered , call back later.
Travel . Go to an agency , get advice and make a choices , get tickets . You could go name change , add another person , even change flights if in advance . And always assume that you were taking luggage .
Utilities. Pay your Gas bill, Electricity bill , rates . All to your local provider . You could even post a cheque .
NHS . Ring GP office , get answered, make an appointment. Even same day if a child was ill.
Food . Local, fresh , reasonable .
Police . Reliable and reactive.

God I sound ancient .

The Shitification of life, agree with all of these. Apps for bloody everything. I used to always wonder why I'd get a discount checking out on an app but not website. Now I realise the bigger plan was to enslave us to phones.

High Street clothing was so much better before ‘fast fashion’. I miss properly tailored garments, good quality denim, sturdy fabrics, well made zips…so much of it! And each shop having a really different, signature style rather than not being able to tell if a dress is from BooHoo, Mango or M&S!

The postal system. First class mail was so reliable. Now you have to pay ££££ for tracked special delivery.

Vinyl & CDs. Love streaming music, but miss the excitement of record shop-shopping and reading the album sleeves cover to cover!

Pavements worked better when they were just for pedestrians. Now they are a no man’s land of random silent bikers who can take you out at any time. They never have a bell to signal that they are behind you and will not use their voices to alert you.
Conversations were better when people were not constantly distracted by their phones.
I see a lot of very young children coming home from school with their mum or dad and they are silent because the adult is on the phone and they know not to bother speaking. That is sad.

Oh, and doctors. Having ‘your’ GP, who would do home visits out of hours if necessary.

Beibg able to make an appointment to speak to your bank manager!

I think so much frustration and alienation comes from the lack of interaction with another human, preferably someone who knows you personally. The doctor, bank manager etc used to actually know their clients/customers personally, and often the families too. Everything now is just an anonymous wasteland where we are forced to interact with computer software or bots. It's dehumanising. Even when we do get to speak to a person , it's someone in another country with a different cultural frame of reference who can often barely speak English. Also, they don't give a shit about customer satisfaction and often cut off a call or sound like they're lying in bed having just woken up.