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!

DH and I had this in a restaurant once.

"I'll help you download the app," the young waiter offered kindly, when we asked to order from a human, looking sympathetically at the middle-aged couple who doubtless reminded him of his grandparents.

"OK then," I said cheerfully and nudged DH who produced his trusty Nokia brick phone.😄

The waiter quickly got his tablet out!

A city centre in December was so busy. Now there are Christmas markets selling rubbish and mulled wine because there are so few shops selling things I might need and want and nowhere for a mince pie. I have a friend who I go for coffee with...hot cross bun in spring, strawberry tartlet in summer, mince pie in December in our former haunt. Nowhere nearby has seasonal pastries...only seasonal beverages.
Now people google restaurants and book things knowing the menu...nobody just wanders in any more. We are meeting people in a few days and waiting to be told which option they are booking from a shortlist.

Agree with the McDonald’s issue. And not only to choose but to see the price. If I ask for the price of something, the server takes ages to find it, so I assume they don’t have the information either!!

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain - I waited six weeks for a GP appointment. I was just setting off when I received a text saying due to staff sickness it was cancelled and please reschedule. So I rang up and was told that the next available appointment was in… six weeks. Ten minutes later I received a “Rate your appointment” survey.

I remember the excitement of going with my mum and daughter to the city to spend her birthday or Christmas money. Having a good rake round the shops and going for lunch.

Now I've got a granddaughter and it saddens me that we won't get that experience with her.

Lots of regulations were put in place in the name of Covid and are still around and are an excuse for shit service.

Computers in general. They might have been slow back in the day, and did not have fancy graphics, but they were your servants: they did what you told them, no more, no less. Now:

• They update when your back is turned.
• They’re constantly trying to sell you things.
• You don’t own any software. You subscribe to be charged again, and again, and again, and software (and even content) can be snatched away at any moment.

Meeting up with friends. You fixed a time and place, and turned up. None of this "I'll text you on the day and change the arrangements umpteen times , or just cancel because that's so easy by text"

I hate parking apps. They have extra charges that you have to opt out of.

@Streetcargo Completely agree with your post. This made me laugh a lot thank you! '... as you don’t have any doilies lying around'.

Kitchen appliances that were simple to operate - you didn’t need to hunt through the instruction book or download any sodding app.

My ancient tumble dryer has just 2 settings - hot and hotter - and it works fine. Now they mostly have about 14 different settings - for what??

IMO they are probably designed by the sort of blokes who love gadgets (which is IMO a lot of blokes) and enjoy making them as ultra-gadgety as possible.

I had that at opticians, and to praise them (because they were very good) I wrote the consultation had been friendly and professional, and that they explained everything perfectly. Then they asked me to post it on trustpilot. I'm quite happy to praise someone for doing a good job, but I'm not employed as their PR company.

An elderly aunt was staying in an apartment-hotel in London whilst her dh was in hospital. I visited and found her sitting in the dark. You had to work the lights with an app. Ok, fair enough. Did that. Then - aaaargh! - the oven had to be operated with an app! It took me a good hour to crack the very complicated system.

The thing is we will all become old. I have another aunt who is 97 and was a whizz with technology. But… in the last year her eyesight has really deteriorated and she has given up online shopping/banking as she can’t see well and is too slow to enter security codes etc. I don’t think our tech masters imagine that they themselves will ever decline with age - perhaps they won’t…

Ratings are pointless these days.
5 star means "couple of minor niggles"
4 star means "as expected-good"
3 star means "absolutely dreadful"

My nephew is in his forties and works in some very whizzy tech job. Even he says everyday stuff is getting too difficult to understand.
I can't work my daughters telly with its two remotes so if I am babysitting it stays on the same channel.

This is so sad, and what I fear is coming to many of us in our old age.

I find it's very rare, for anyone to figure out how to work someone else's TV !!

I am being bombarded with e-mails from my pharmacy, reminding me it's time to book my flu jab. They e-mail me several times a week. I have booked my flu jab. Why don't they know this?!

😂

Parking machines when you just put money in instead of having to download an app 🙄

I park up and order off the app for McDonald’s.

Not used the drive through in years.

We stay in a few different UK holiday lets each year. The TV's are always a bloody nightmare. Always a "Smart" TV that's virtually impossible to operate. The only good place was the only one we ever stayed in with Sky - it's just so easy to operate, record, etc. We've started taking our own portable DVD player and just watch DVDs instead.

We order via their app and give the code at the drive through.

Thankfully I live in an area where parking apps are rare.
However our nearest concert venue is app only. We nearly missed the start of a show because of the queue of people who could get the bloody thing to work

From the thread on buying fish on line. Whatever happened to high street fishmongers that actually stocked a selection of fresh fish and butchers that sold all sorts of cuts of meat. Supermarkets usually have no fresh fish and a very limited choice of cuts of meat, you are pretty much forced to shop on line for these things.

We recently visited a city in England...we aren't English...massive carpark run by the council at a swish docklands development with cinema and shopping and restaurants.
Six people stood around the machine trying to work out how to pay. All wanting to pay to avoid fines.grrr.