AIBU to think everyday life admin has become far too complicated?

[Samben2014]

I just can’t believe how difficult it is to just the most basic of things these days. I forgot my password for my savings account online and I have just been on the phone for over an hour being passed between so many different bots and AI generated response systems before I could even speak with a human. I find doing these things that used to be so straight forward have become overly complicated in the last 12 months. I have no idea how the older generation cope. The NHS trust I work for are pushing everything down the APP route and if you’re not tech savvy you’re going to get left sitting on the waiting list. We are just not prepared for this new way of doing things, I miss talking to humans! I’m only late 30’s and find this is becoming unbearable. Am I being unreasonable?

Exactly. So many people blindly promoting LLMs at the 'let's make everyone dependant while its free' stage but I'm dreading when we get to 'you can't function without paying £x a month or be left with the free but strangled by adverts version and its all controlled by a few billionaires' like we are with social media and online news.

Also what's happened to Amazon and the rise of the exploitative Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat models where instead of just phoning or visiting your local takeaway you have to use their app to pay more for the same food to be delivered by someone earning a pittance from a takeaway who gets less money for the food they sell because of the cut taken by the platform. And the service is worse because the driver is making multiple drops and had to stop to pick up someone else's grocery order on the way.

Then we have Get Your Guide muscling in on tourism. So instead of picking up a flyer while you're on holiday and booking something to do in 2 days time they're acting as a third party getting people to book in advance and yet again the consumer pays more and the provider gets less due to platform fees.

And every time you use one of these you endlessly get pestered to review every aspect of the process and people get hung up on every last bad review of a service provider even when it was outside the provider's control or fairly inconsequential. How often do you see people on here panicking because they've booked a hotel and then find there's some bad reviews from strangers where they've no idea whether they're reasonable people with similar preferences or have unrealistic expectations or are the type of people who will complain at anything and just like different things to what is in offer?

I have adhd and find stuff like this so exhausting to even just think about and put it off and put it off until I forget about it or am out of a contract paying more then actually have to do it and it’s soo mentally exhausting, not accessible at all!

Yes I agree. It's exhausting and wastes so much time.

The NHS in particular is awful to interact with now. It's no wonder so many people end up at A&E, it's the only place open with humans on a desk.

I said the exact same thing yesterday!

I'm increasingly frustrated by having to go to an app when I am doing something on my PC.

I just want to check what is in my bank account.

Use of AI is causing a lot of this and BOTS as you say.

I used to do this I with My surgery but they've stopped people being able to do this now.

In Ireland they’ve brought in a law where you legally can ask to talk to a human instead of a bot. I find technology easier in some cases, ridiculously difficult in others, I think if companies would stop cutting human jobs right down there’d be a nice middle ground

Neither had I until yesterday, that was the straw that broke the camels back for me! Like I said, these things used to be straight forward, but I’ve noticed in the last 12 months things are becoming increasingly long winded. Getting passed AI assisted security isn’t as easy as it should be!

I did t even k ow you could have joint names on insurance or a clubcard, that’s insane.

I agree that if you're not tech-savvy it's probably much more difficult.

But otherwise, no. I have everything possible automated and most other things can be done with a few taps whilst I sit on the toilet or wait for a kettle to boil.

It’s your personal info and bank details hackers are after not how much gas and electric you’ve used

Yay Ireland! And yay Leeds. I spent 6 months trying to pay my council tax in Newcastle, when they eventually allowed it if course I had to pay twice as much per month because it was overdue...but like most people I want to budget monthly. I bet some of the arrears pile up that way. Oh yes and the annoying 10 payments per instead of 12. Durham on the other hand a breeze, 12 payments no problems and set up in minutes, one easy access online account for everything.

Apps for parking are ridiculous. I once couldnt pay because you needed an app, which I didn't have, and there was no Internet signal.

Texting a code is a pain when I'm at work and not allowed to have my phone out. Or when I was on my online banking app which logs me out everytime I navigate away from the banking screen.

BT recently wanted to email me a code so that I could log in to my emails. 🤨

It's all quite annoying.

I resent being asked if I want to add a tip when you order and pay and on a qr code....how do I even know if the food or service is even average when ive encountered neither?

Also I think im reasonable at navigating tech stuff but if you have an issue that's not straightforward or can't be resolved on the website, portal, app whatever, most companies seem to make it as difficult as possible to find a phone number to speak to a person. Then when you do call, youre put in a queue (because guess what, not everyone wants to use the app, or has a problem it cant deal with) which plays horrific lift music interspersed with a recorded message every 2 minutes, telling you its much easier to do online or using their app! Well duh, im not waiting 50 min listening to shit if I could do it in 5 min online!

I will admit I’m the reason that parking apps are so prevalent, I love them. Even before cash was rare, I never had the right change for a parking machine and paid a lot of fines or just didn’t park (plus it has to be said got away with a lot of times where I didn’t pay). I love that I can park, walk away and pay as I do so.

I also find the NHS app, the .gov.uk website and the council website pretty good.

However, I 100% agree that losing the human backup to all this has been an unmixed disaster. I’ll never forget my first encounter with the Evri chatbot, it was so hilariously bad I stayed on it almost in awe (as well as fury - I still avoid any company that use them). The human chat encounter has disappeared and they used to be quite good! I had my first ever encounter with an AI voice service the other day and it was fantastically alien and horrible. The fact that voice services are going to be enshitted as well is bloody depressing.

Big up First Direct and their ongoing phone based services. But for how long?

I was in a Lloyds branch the other day for an essential service that had to be done face to face. The branch is closing and I commiserated with the lady who was dealing with me (efficiently and with minimum stress). She said ‘oh no it’s fine, we all wanted to retire’. No wonder youth unemployment is skyrocketing.

I agree everything is much more complicated. I wanted to book swimming and include a free carer but you can’t do that on line so I ring but every option leads to being hung up on! Same when I wanted to book a fridge repair.
or you sit on hold for ages while a voice tells you they are experiencing higher call rate on average than usual. Funny how they are always experiencing that, it’s not really how averages work!

I miss the days where you walked a short walk to your local doctor/ dentist/ swimming baths/ bank etc saw a human you knew who knows your needs and you get them met.

And I’m In my forties I’ve got the years of this chaos to go.

Then perhaps we need to start acknowledging just how vulnerable this technology is, and how unsuited it is to the myriad purposes that have been piled on it, solely to allow private companies to make more and more profit for less and less work.

Computers have been forced on us at every level and increasingly the human ways were better. Now we’ve got AI being pushed in daily life, despite the huge environmental costs, because the companies have sunk so much money into it they have to find uses for it, whether it has them or not. There used to be a middle ground, back in the 90s/ early 2000s. And don’t tell me it’s too expensive to do things with people now instead of machines, we’ve managed building civilisations without computers for thousands of years.

I was in the doctors’ waiting room the other day (large village GP practice). An older man (80s) came in and asked at reception if he could make an appointment to see a doctor. She told him she couldn’t do that as it all had to be done online now (online triage appointment system), he said he didn’t know how to do that, she said don’t worry I’ll text you a link. He walked away looking utterly dejected. Absolutely ridiculous.
I get how the online system is better than having to ring at 8am and wait in a queue for an hour, but there should be the ability to make in-person appointments.

I think one of the issues is that companies use technology as an excuse to cut staff, customer service provision and overheads to make more profit.

Putting everything online and using AI is mainly to their benefit rather than the customers.

I agree that the endless need for password, signing in, verifying and dealing with AI bots is draining rather than helpful.

I agree. It is not possible to talk to a person at EE about a phone upgrade. Chat function only. You can communicate with a person (sorry…agent), but I find it So Bloody Slow. I want a conversation using my voice, not to be staring at a chat box with “agent is typing”.

I have rung the bereavement line in sheer desperation, having completely failed to get hold of anyone by any other method...

Apps/ systems are great for simple, routine tasks when your phone has plenty of battery life and access to reliable WiFi. But there needs to be a real life human being available to help when those conditions aren't met.

Just for entertainment, our IT system blocks the NHS on line booking system for appointments. I work in supported living, one of my tasks at work is making appointments for residents 😭

You used to be able to phone and talk to a person. With so many of the AI bots, when you do manage to fight your way through to the “we will put you in touch with an agent” option they say “this may take 15 mins” (or whatever) ie they will contact you when it suits them, not taking into account I (the customer) have contacted them at a time to suit me.

I kept getting an “error, try again later” when trying to book a car park space. The auto response to my effort to get help was “someone will reply within 24hrs” - well after the time I needed the booking.
I used a different App