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.

This is the worst, just means people don't use it and fly tip because they can only get an appointment if you book a day in advance!

We need a modern Consumer Act. Part of it could be stopping some of the practices highlighted in this thread. A simple one should be the obligation to provide a paper receipt unless you refuse one, before offering an email option.

i wouldn't even mind saying "no, I'll have a paper receipt please" if the staff didn't get so huffy about it so often.

An app for paying for parking. And each place seems to have its own app.

It is all the above plus no recognition that for some we did not grow up with it/work with it and it is too late to catch up with all the 'advances'. No allowance is made for that whatsoever. In addition I get so cross when instructions how to
use some app for example are poorly written and/or incorrect - do they never test them on people who have no experience at all. I can remember years ago when the word dashboard was used and I had no idea what the company was talking about, a dashboard was in my car. If they want us to use tech then at least make it easy, sensible and open to all but they don't give a shit. Customers are a pain, all they care about is the shareholders.

I was at our recycling centre recently, and saw them turn someone away who hadn't prebooked. They weren't at all busy.

On the parking app front, we were abroad and tried to park in a car park where the only method of payment was by app. Only DH had damta, and he tried to download the app, but it failed. We drove a couple of streets away and parked for free!

Also on the same holiday, it turned out that a local bus fare bought on the bus was 4euros, but if you got an app and got a ticket in advance it was 1.5. So, we all did that, added our cards, bought 3 tickets each. First journey, fine. Second journey, we missed the bus and got a taxi, complete waste of our bus fare #2. Kind of our fault, but annoying all the same. Third journey, my app froze. DH tried to add a ticket for me on his app but failed, so I had to stump up the full 4euros. Honestly, what is the point of all that? It's just a bus, it shouldn't be so hard! And why such a massive price difference between the app and the onboard price?

Why are some places still requiring booking a slot to visit a tip? The tips around here dropped this around May 2021.

Any organisation that still operates like it’s in Covid times - why?

All parking and bus fares (I would say trains but that's another story especially with all the nonsense going on), should use a standard machine, coins accepted, cards accepted, app accepted, and a pre pay card accepted.
Bus fares, don't get me on this - all get their money from the same big government pot, standard oyster type ticket across the country, top up like you do with gas/elec/phone or online etc..,

Hospital parking - the same.

Standard machines across the board, means one type of training on them, one type of back end and payment process, customer (the voter or a tourist), only has to access one single place to gain access to parking and travel across the country - how simple is that?

Except, it'll take at least 10 years to introduce, and 27 million departmental meetings and a bunch of nonsense to implement.

Oh I've probably saved the government and local councils enough to bring back the winter fuel allowance

Oh I couldn't agree more. Being a parent with kids in different schools doing different activities is incredibly difficult (for some). Different apps different payment platforms not to mention WhatsApp groups. The children also don't learn any responsibilities because they are often not told that class will start late next week or the competition fees are due etc because the parents are informed.

My village has 3 different parking zones so I need an app, debit card and change because I don't know where I'm going to get a space. Not surprisingly the app controlled area is always very last to fill and often half empty. So that to me proves the system is unpopular and uneconomical

It infuriates me when you get a pop-up for some silly feature that you don't really want - usually one that benefits the website and their marketing prospects rather than you as a user - and the only options they give you are something like 'YES!!' or 'Maybe/Remind me later'.

The BBC websites are especially bad for this.

To be fair, some pop-ups do offer you options for 'Not interested' or 'Don't ask again' - I'd still prefer 'Bugger off!', though!

Dh and I went camping in France a few times, different locations but the same operators. Our kids loved the kids camps so we would put their names down for activities, usually this meant calling to the tent during open hours or sometimes putting a name on a list. Sometimes they fill up out so we'd book in advance. One year we arrived to be told its now on an app and the usual 'it's so easy now you just download the app...' which irritated me anyhow as the previous system was fine. The only issue was there was no WiFi or mobile data on the site, so the app was unusable unless you walked to the main common areas which had WiFi. Which was, you guessed it, by the kids club tent. So we had to walk there to mess around with the app but couldn't just tell the staff anymore. Ffs. Still annoyed 2 years later.

Businesses generally hate giving up benefits, even when they're no longer justified.

Blaming covid rather than doing more work is popular.

Places that used to send out physical tickets and charge for postage and packing at significantly more than an envelope and the postage actually cost them were loath to give it up once customers could press a button to automatically download tickets, so they brought in a 'booking fee'.

Once analogue landlines are gone in the next year or so, and amalgamated as just another function of your broadband, telecoms companies will still be charging per call or for something to replace the old line rental charges (on top of your BB provision, of course).

Same as the government encouraged loads of people to buy electric cars with the promise of zero-rated VED - that didn't last long, did it?

Can I also complain about using an app to park when it's a sunny day and you are a photosensitive person who needs reading glasses. Sunglasses have to come off for a moment which is blinding and often painful and reading glasses have to come on which involves rummaging in a bag and of course remembering to bring reading glasses specifically just to park the car because I don't need them otherwise. Even then the backlight is kept extremely low on the phone usually but needs to be very high to see on the street so settings have to be fiddled with. As opposed to keeping a few coins in my back pocket...

So true!! I had a brief and totally futile moment of revenge recently. I was filling out an insurance claim and the app was user friendly with lots of drop down menus but it took ages inputting all the data and scanning receipts. It suddenly occurred to me that it looked much like the system I used when working in insurance admin in the early 2000s. It made me realise I was doing their job unpaid. I put all the receipts into an envelope with a handwritten letter and walked to the post office to post it. The whole thing was faster than the app would have been. It took them ages to process, I'd say they didn't know what to do with the written letter, it probably wouldn't scan for them. Ha.

@Lonelydave Your idea for standard machines across the board is very good - I wish you were minister for transport!

Yeah, but @Barbadossunset very little opportunity for back handers though...... I'm obviously not ministerial type!

Seems to be par for the course where I am. They also never reintroduced weighing clinics for babies after covid, they tell you to do it yourself at home. It's just been used as an excuse to reduce services.

We stayed at a Premier Inn a couple of years ago. It was unplanned (cancelled train) so we looked online for prices, and found a room for £50. We didn't book, and when we arrived they wanted £55. I pointed out the website said £50, and the receptionist said, "Oh, that's the online price." So we sat in chairs in reception and booked ourselves in rather than the actual receptionist doing it.

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/25234499.dorset-council-announce-booking-system-local-tips/

Booking tips you say.... we're just about to enter such a glorious golden age of waste disposal in my area.

But they say it won't lead to extra fly tipping with great confidence. We'll see.

We have the same issue except my mum doesn’t have any acceptable photo ID. The hospital and GP keep suggesting we get the NHS app to help us manage her many appointments and test results. I use the NHS app myself and thought it would be a good idea.
The problem is that she doesn’t have an in-date passport (hasn’t been abroad for years) and doesn’t drive.

The NHS website gives this advice - I am pretty technically confident and this makes my eyes bleed. How on earth they think my 85 year old Mum can manage it I don’t know.

How to prove who you are without photo ID:
You can prove who you are without sending photo ID if your GP is in England. If you are registered for your GP surgery's online services, you will have been given 3 registration details.
The 3 registration details are:

• Linkage Key (could be called Passphrase)
• ODS Code (could be called Organisation Code or Practice ID)
• Account ID

You can use these 3 registration details to prove who you are instead of using photo ID. This is not the same as email address and password you use to log into your GP surgery's online services.

The only other way is to register with the GPs online system first. To do this we have been given …. A paper form!

Oh my word, talk about tortuous x

Commiserations and solidarity xxx

The answer to the bus conundrum, as to so many other things, is Margaret Thatcher. She deregulated the bus companies, and actually banned them from being council owned. So the buses are being run by competing private concerns. I think Labour have already scrapped this ban, so let's see what happens.

@crackofdoom oh I know, but they are all subsidised by the same pool of money so to me, they can compete, but have to use the same method of payment and have a one ticket serves all policy - it would actually improve competition as you would have a joined up service - but then that would fail what privatisation actually meant which was to make money for, rather than provide a service for.
Give me a fence and I'll sit on it 😁

I’m always torn with music- if my dad were alive he’d be amazed that you could listen to any song but then it means you don’t find gems on an album like you used to.

Tv watching is bleurgh now- too many streaming services and again you have to have even a rough idea what you’re looking for, whereas before you found random programs

Touchscreen most things are horrendous when they break!!

Fab point about shopping- the wifi in Tesco is terrible so you can’t get your app open and their special price is mostly the normal price!!

I do live for my kindle though!

When you just want to speak to a sensible human being about, for instance, your bank account or your insurance, and you have to go through tons of automated crap on the phone then if you're lucky, you get to speak to an actual person, but you've been put through to the wrong department and they transfer you, at which point you have to go through all the same bloody nonsense again. And when you're on hold you keep getting recorded messages telling you to try using their website, which you already have, and it's completely useless. You can't even go into a branch because they're closing them all!!!!! The above scenario refers to the Halifax.