AIBU to think commerce has utilised technology in a way that makes some aspects of our lives more cumbersome

[HauntedBungalow]

Supermarket shopping for example, not just the customer physically doing more but also the multi-tiered pricing systems.

Having to book many leisure activities in advance is another, also the pricing of these has gone rogue.

Accessing films, music too is complicated - theoretically we have everything at our fingertips but actually it's all parcelled up in subscription services and ownership/access changes all the time.

And if you hit a bump in service of any kind, your only remedy is to have a bot chat at you.

I thought the technological revolution would look a bit different, from this.

Thank you for this thread, I worry this type of thing is filtering through to how humans behave too. I spent days trying to get hold of someone on the phone, someone who I knew would be pleased to hear from me professionally, imagine he’s a salesman and I’m trying to buy loads of his products urgently. I’d also emailed. Eventually after about 6 calls I left an answerphone message and hey presto he called me back. I asked him as a joke if he had a policy of not picking up the phone and only listening to answerphone messages to see if people were worth calling back and he said bloody yes!! Not joking either, I mean ffs.

We have this at work too, constantly changing who they have contracts with presumably because they promise to charge less up front. But I’m sure what they never take into account is the thousands of staff hours lost not only to signing up to and learning a new system (not opposed to that if it’s worthwhile) but also to the fact that the new system is absolute crapola, crashes constantly, makes mistakes that mean staff spending half an hour on the phone etc. That must cost my employer a FORTUNE but I’m guessing they never count the cost of it? I’d love to know.

I don't like it when websites you have used before snoop on you every time you return. Just having a casual browse for e.g. knitwear... not desperately looking for something to buy... and shortly after leaving the site I get an email saying "Seen something you like, Kettle?" or "Something caught your eye, Kettle?" or similar. I was only looking... leave me alone!

I now have a work phone, an iPad, a iPhone an android phone ( because the battery last s longer and easier to use) a work laptop and a home laptop.
Some have “remembered” passwords others don’t so I can’t use them ( otherwise I need reset all the bloody things).

However, i do love paying in a cheque to my bank account with my phone, that is truly brilliant technology!

Yes!! So cheques have become useful again.You can send money where the recipient can decide which account to put it into and useful for surprises instead of cash

So of course cheques are being phased out…

I love the pre-booking systems. No need to turn up before doors even open, you are guaranteed entrance or access at the time you booked (usually), it's perfect.

My bugbear is subscriptions. I have a subscription for a weekly vegetable box, one for my cat's food (she's a fussy little madam), another one for worm pills for the dog, an additional one for dog biscuits and a fifth one for ethical loo roll. In addition, whenever I order personal care items such as hair dye from Amazon, it tries to persuade me to get that on subscription too.

There's an incentive to subscribing: everything is slightly cheaper (around 5%). But then, I have to decide how often i want my dog biscuits or loo roll to be delivered. I then get lots of extra emails: reminding me to check my order before the deadline, informing me that it's been delivered, or inviting me to try their new cat litter alongside the cat food. If I'm going to be away on holiday, I have to remember to pause all the subscriptions, and if I find that I've run out of loo roll early or I've still got half a sack of dog biscuits left when the next bag is due to be delivered, then I must log into my account in a timely fashion and try to change the delivery dates. So much extra admin!

Really, I'd just like to order most of these things when I need them rather than have to subscribe, but then I know I'm paying over the odds for them.

By the way, fellow posters, there's a wonderful group on Facebook called The Original Dull Women's Club (don't let the name put you off, it's actually quite interesting!). I suspect that if you were to do a Venn diagram of the interests of the ladies in that group and those of posters on this thread, there would be a large overlap. Try it!

So much this!!

Yes it’s so creepy.

That Radio 4 series mentioned earlier is brilliant btw. I think of it every time I’m forced to use a shitty self service checkout. There’s a whole episode (maybe episode 1?) about how businesses are making us work for them for free.

Also - I ventured into Zara recently, and actually bought some things (unusual as a fat menopausal woman). I was directed to their 'self checkout' because there was one assistant on the till and about 20 people in the queue.

The self checkout had instructions on a screen, but I didn't have my glasses on so it was all a bit blurry. Basically, you put your items in 'the box' - it was just an ordinary wooden box next to the till area. The tech is quite impressive as it knew what I'd put in there and it came up on the screen. Fair enough. But then, I have to choose how I get a receipt (email, 'on device', whatever that means), or something else, possibly paper. Do I want a bag? I have to go and get the bag which is 10 feet away. Then I have to take off all the hangers, hang them up on a little rail 10 feet away next to the bags. When I return, someone is trying to put their stuff in the box on top of my stuff which messes everything up and I have to start again. Then I have to remove all of the security tags, which is explained by an animation that didn't look anything like the tags that were on my purchases, so I had to wait for someone to do it for me.

For some unknown reason, my bank card was then declined at the till. Luckily I had another card that was accepted.

Then I got a text from my bank who had decided that I couldn't possibly have spent £5.50 in M&S at lunchtime, AND £115 in the Zara over the road at 4.30pm and they had blocked my card! So I had to reply to the texts telling them it was indeed me, before they would unblock the card so I could use it on the tube and train home. Absolute madness.

Funnily enough just went to the website for a local restaurant I’ve not been to before, and before I even have a chance to see what they serve it’s demanding I download the app. I mean 1. we’ve just met 2. how much storage do you think I have 3. why the living fuck would I need an app clogging up my life when you have a website WHICH I AM ON.

Card fee charges when you can ONLY pay with CARD! WTF? Yes give me your bank details please and I will be happy do a bank transfer

The extremely delicate operation of ordering something from Amazon, and NOT joining prime by mistake. It’s so easily done.

You're not wrong OP. Life is too complicated now.

Recently we visited an English Heritage place. You now get discounted rates for booking in advance. Different prices on different days of the week. I suggested to DH, as we were browsing the website, that we buy advance tickets to save money. He was on a different page and found that there was actually a bigger discount from using public transport and showing your ticket at the gate. Arrgh, please just ditch the advance booking crap and do a flat rate. I don't want to do all this planning just for an afternoon out!

Timeslots for prebooked attractions are even worse, it's stressful figuring out when you will arrive, and what happens if your train there is cancelled, or you are stuck in traffic. Heaven forbid you want to do two things with timeslots on one day, as you have to figure out how long you want to spend at the first one.

Apps, passwords, reviews - I now feel the need to look at reviews just to buy a spoon or something. Or, I buy a spoon and get nagged and nagged to write a review for it. I've stayed at the same hotel about 15 times now, but each time after leaving I get about 3 emails asking me to review them - surely once is enough.

I go to a website for something and within 2 seconds there is a popup asking me to rate the website. How? I've only just got here. Dismiss that, and then there is a chatbot, "Hi, I'm Kate," (no you're not!) "How can I help you today?"

Fake news on the internet.

Yes to the slow washing machines + dishwashers. You're not supposed to use them when you're out or in bed - so, what should you do? Arrange to be home for half a day safeguarding your washing machine?

I'm sure there is more!

I went clothes shopping today, and two of the three shops wanted to know my address and email address, whereas I just wanted a paper receipt. It's just so annoying and intrusive

@AhTheFuckening
I also find this very annoying. However, the sales assistants are usually pleasant and they’ve been told to do this, so I would love to know a polite way of refusing to give my email address.
Maybe I could say “I’m sorry, but my email has recently been hacked so I’m unable to use it at the moment”.

This is a good rule. I’ll be using that one! Thanks!

@NotUnlessSpermCanGetThroughASashWindow good grief. I think I'd have dumped the shopping and left!

I was having a full-on menopausal sweaty episode (mainly because the shop was about 35 degrees), but I got so far and couldn't give up.

If they'd had a couple of more people on the tills, I'd have been in and out of there in about 10 minutes.

I'm not sure about one of the items I bought, but I'm dithering about changing it for a different size because I'll have to go back and wait in a different queue for most of what's left of my life just to exchange/refund.

Is that what it is, I just leave the website.

Oh the worst is when you buy something complex and then you have to download something to view the set up instructions.

Just had it with a carseat I'd purchased. DH and I were trying to zoom in to a pdf of how to install it so we could get it done during nap time. Damn thing kept going back to the (German) first page every time we so much as glanced at the screen.

Jesus, the entire English instructions were probably 2 sides of A4 and the UK is a big enough bloody market to justify the 5p cost to put them in FFS.

God no 🙈

@MistressoftheDarkSide this deserves a thread of it's own with a poll

I will add that after 15 years on Mumsnet I now can't use it on my desktop PC as it wants me to disable my ad blocker. Well Fuck off, Mumsnet. Those of us who have adblockers have them for a reason. Presumably my phone is acceptable to Mumsnet as I am not getting the same problem when accessing it on my phone, but this has cut down my use of Mumsnet by about 50%: good for me and my general productivity but not for Mumsnet.
I used to enjoy a proper scroll through on an interesting thread. No more, too hard to bother with on the phone.

@WitcheryDivine people have been doing that for absolutely ages, with the answer phone. I never understand people who don't leave messages, for exactly that reason. I would say that was quite normal when I entered the workplace 30 years ago.

However, I do believe that technology has changed people's behaviour. I don't think call screening is an example of technology though. I even remember an old episode of Sex and the City when they talked about it.

Recently I had to go through PayPal automated chat in order to chase a refund. It just gives options where you select the option. It kept telling me that my refund had been issued (I hadn't received it) I couldn't get to speak to a person. I think they make it deliberately bad so you give up. You end up getting stonewalled by them. Then it sends stops messages like " you're all set!" No I'm not. I just want to speak to an actual person!