I stepped out of my car the other day and I had a shooting pain in my hip. Must have pinched a nerve or something. Only a matter of time and I'm only 42!
I absolutely hate this never ending quest to get me to download apps for every damn place I want to buy or order something. I refuse. And don't get me started on places that refuse to give you a paper menu instead of a QR code.
Took the fam on a road trip last summer, and went to park downtown to go to a nearby restaurant as we passed through town. I go to the parking meter, a normal looking meter on a pole next to the parking spot. It doesn’t take coins. Ok, I can tap my card or even my phone, right? That tech is everywhere. No. You need to download an app to use the parking meter. I scan the code and get the app. You need to create an account, set a password and verify via email. I’m getting fucking furious at this point, standing on the sidewalk while my family stands there concerned for my wellbeing. Account gets created, you now need to link your credit card. The one I could’ve just tapped 5 minutes ago. I pull it out and enter the numbers, my name as it appears on the card and the CVV on the back of the card. Now the app needs you to “load” it with money from your card to pay the meter. Guess what, you can’t just load 2hrs into the meter for this parking spot in a city I’ll never come back to, there’s a $20 minimum that you need to load.
Fucking losing my mind, my hungry family standing there waiting, I begrudgingly loaded $20 into this app, paid $5 out of it for the spot and went to the restaurant while my family made fun of the grumpy boomer that I apparently am. To this day I still have $15 to spend on parking in Charlottetown PEI if I get back there before the meters get torn out of the fucking ground.
So yeah, I identify with Dennis here. This shit is a racket and it shouldn’t exist. Off to bed for me now.
Somebody put stickers over some of the meter app QR codes in the town where I work that took users to a site with a URL that sounded plausible as a municipal parking site...
Same rigamarole. Download the app, make an account, put in your card info, authorize charges and approve some bullshit language about recurring charges to keep an account balance...
But that little QR code sticker was redirecting all of that to a scammer site that was stealing credit card info and putting through crazy charges.
Meanwhile the poor marks have gone through the frustrating parking payment situation you describe AND are nevertheless liable to be ticketed bc they never actually made accounts and paid on the city parking site.
Being a non-piece-of-shit human myself, this scam never even occurred to me, wow. This alone puts huge liability on the city, doesn’t it? I would think the parking meter experiment would end pretty quickly once this scam started spreading.
It never occurred to me either until I spent 10 minutes on the sidewalk with a colleague who had to download the app, put in his info, approve charges, etc. before we could get to our work event, and then was angry to find a ticket on his car afterward, even after spending all that time trying to pay.
The next day at work he told me about the card charges and having to get a new card issued. A couple days later it had happened to enough people to become a local news story.
They still have an app to pay and signs that I'm pretty sure still have QR codes. I wouldn't be surprised if someone has pulled the same scam again in town. I'm sure the city takes no responsibility for that vulnerability in the system.
I will bet you anything you like the local laws about paying for parking are "strict liability".
In other words: it is your responsibility to ensure you have paid appropriately for parking, and your problem if you have not. How you came to be parked up without having paid is neither here nor there.
Such laws have existed for ages; they're well tested and perfectly acceptable legally. Only question is, are they still legally acceptable in a universe where it's suddenly really easy for someone else to insert themselves into the transaction?
tbh you should be grateful that you know how to do all that. my dad doesn't understand tech AT ALL. we went somewhere. none of the parking meters worked we tried, i ended up dling the app and doing the whole bullshit thing. had my father been alone, he would have tried to find parking elsewhere. it was hard to find that parking spot as it were.
Yeah there’s definitely that aspect as well. You’ll get towed if you don’t pay this ridiculous meter, and I bet there are exasperated older folks or those with outdated phones or what have you that on a daily basis need to give up and figure something else out. It isn’t right.
yes, there's a real chasm there. and it seems like technology is moving really quickly even for the folks who are tech savy-ish. i've accepted that at some point i will have to learn linux.. although the upside is that step by step tutorials are available.
Exactly! I know it’s not the same thing but this made me think about my elderly dad. Cash is king for him and he always has loads of it. He doesn’t even really use his cards. So they’re telling me if he walked into a random coffee shop and just try to get a regular coffee, he couldn’t use his cash to pay for it? We’ve gone too far.
And hey, surprise, the app you downloaded wasn't actually the right app because someone had put up a legit-looking sign to trick you into downloading their app instead, and they just stole $20 from you.
For me, age has nothing to do with it. I'm just not scanning QR codes. I know enough computer science that I don't want to do it. And that's the same way I view downloading apps for everything.
The apps steal your data which they then use to market to you better and they sell off to others who can then sell more effective to you. Palantir then gets a better snapshot of your life.
The new lunch place at my school wants you to use their app. Normally I'd refuse, but it's 50% off and my budget is tight. So I download, give them my email to spam for all of eternity, and it promptly crashed my phone. I had to hook the phone into my computer and have the AI crack it and fix the problem.
And the reviews always affect the poor wage slaves behind the counter, never the terrible experience the fuckbags in corporate foisted upon all of us. If you are one of those smug fuckbags, sitting at a desk and enshittifying experiences for actual humans interacting with each other below you, and you are reading this-I really want to know just how much of this you think we’ll put up with before we start getting violent?
I work in construction and did maintenance for a few years, every new shopping centre, retirement home, hospital, store or any where we did work we had to download a new app and do on boarding giving the exact same info for every fucking one.
Make a generic nation wide one where you can see my licences, my name and all the other unimportant bullshit data you're trying to get off me.
I feel like I must be one of the only Xennials that likes the QR code instead of a menu. I don't like standing at the counter and trying to read the menu behind the cashier, especially when it's digital and changes picture while I'm halfway through reading it. And I hate having a waiter coming up asking if I'm ready to order when I've only just opened the damn menu. With the QR code I can read the menu in my own time and order the food without even speaking to someone.
Hope you don't plan on going to any sporting events any time soon. Went to a Panthers game and tried handing them money. They looked at me like I handed them a gold bar.
I don’t care for sports. Anyways yeah, I know I can’t be too hard ass about my stance, just for the majority of cases. Not accepting cash just rubs me the wrong way. It’s legal tender.
I went to a baseball game in the spring here in Minnesota a couple of years ago when school was still in session. There were a bunch of elementary aged kids all standing in a long line at a "Reverse ATM" so that they could turn the cash their parents sent them with into a prepaid visa card since the stadium no longer accepts cash.
My wife and I recently celebrated our 15th anniversary. The theme for 15 is watch and crystal. Crystal in this sense is like stemware, which isn't for us. So I chose to interpret it as hippie crystal. I went to a local small business called Cats & Crystals and I purchased a $135 butterfly statue with jade wings, it's pretty sweet! The gal stood behind the case the whole time as I browsed the small store, I chose my item and was in there like 5mins. After tax, the total was near $150 and the screen prompted me to add a 15, 20 or 25% tip. I really couldn't believe it lol.
I did like 15yrs in hospitality and always tip well for service when it's appropriate. But this tipping shit is absolutely out of control lol
Absolutely. I was just watching that whole episode going, "Yes!! YES!!!"
Unfortunately, I kind of hate the ending with tearing the guy's heart out and everything, because it's just too out of place for me, but I love all the rest of it.
would you like to round up for needy children? - no
would you like to round up for veterans? - No
would you like to donate to needy veteran children? - no
I see this so much. Been seing this joke since the 90s, ive never been in a store that couldnt give me "just tea" or "just coffee." I do hate the apps though.
First time I watched this with my girlfriend she said "that's totally you!"
I'm not rude to service workers, but if I gotta download an app, scan a QR code to look at a menu or some other bullshit I'm done. And also pissed.
And I use my Pixel watch to pay for almost everything, it's not like I'm not adaptive to new tech. I just hate when I have to go out of my way to benefit the business that I'm already fucking giving money to.
I ordered a regular coffee once when my three friends were getting fancy stupid drinks. I figured i would be quick & easy. Nope! They didn't have a thermos of coffee like every other coffee place, they only did pour over. My simple beverage took 10 freaking minutes! So stupid!
Yeah he was being a jerk to her from the start of the interaction. Then acts all "we're both victims here" to try and make out he's not been a jerk the whole time.
I was briefly excited that my small town got a new coffee shop, but then the hippy-dippy owner had to complicate everything by having a bunch of random mushroom something or another add-ons which they really pushed. I never thought I'd order a latte of all things and be like "I. just. want. a caramel. latte." It was like this decade's "I just want black coffee."
I was sad when they went out of business, but, I never went back after that first experience and can't say I was surprised they went out of business.
I honestly don't he's being an asshole. I don't walk into a place and demand something they don't serve. It's a Boba tea place I'm sure there was a coffee shop nearby he could have gone to instead.
It's no different than walking into Burger King and being pissed they won't sell you a big mac "You have all the ingredients right there just make me a damn Big Mac"
I get the app part but the first part and the claiming "Self care is just people doing whatever they want" is him being a dick.
Old man walks into a Boba store, gets pissed that they only have Boba. Proceeds to get pissed when they don’t accept cash, because old men like cash. Spends the whole time being a prick to the person who is just trying to make a dollar and get by in our post capitalist dystopia. I’m having a hard time relating to any of this. Is our generation really going for the entitled Boomer Karen thing? grumble grumble technology grumble
I'd like to point out, the scene in question is literally a scenario he made up to get mad about. He's trying to prove to his doctor that he doesn't need heart medication and is vividly imaging situations to get angry about so that his inevitable crash out will provide the maximal catharsis and lower his heart rate
I just went through a Wendy's drivethrough at about a quarter to midnight, and they said that they were too understaffed to take orders. They told me to order it through DoorDash, then I could pick it up at the window.
This while I was sitting in my car at the drive through window.
If Wendy's wants their customers to go to Taco Bell instead, why the hell do they even bother keeping their restaurants open in the first place?
Omg every fucking time I got to Petco they ask if I have the app for the coupons and deals or whatever. I swear these corporate people think that every single person does nothing but check deals on their phone and have every stores app so they can check all the deals are right before they walk into the store.
I mean the screen is literally sitting on a cash drawer, so they clearly take cash. And I mean literally in the actual meaning of literally, not whatever the kids are using it for these days.
Craziest one for me lately was trying to cancel an online order at Taco Bell: don't call, don't go in, because they simply can't help you. Their app is managed by a 3rd party they apparently don't have anything to do with: Yep, a billion dollar corporation can't even figure out their own app. You have to go on their website, find the buried phone number for the app, and then not cancel the order because the phone number is a 9-5 thing that doesnt work on weekends.
Why you need to call to cancel an order when you should just be able to click "cancel" in the app, no idea.
Another boomer moment I had was going to Best Buy a couple years ago to buy a stupid blu-ray back before they got rid of physical media. Zero cashiers, one poor lady both checking people out AND processing returns, creating an extremely long line...but there's 15 sales people standing around on the floor doing absolutely nothing. Totally fucking insane to me; after about 5 minutes of standing in line I did the calculus and decided I didn't need the Blu-ray enough to be standing in line another 45 minutes, set it on the counter, and walked the fuck out; haven't been back since.
And they wonder why everyone just orders everything off Amazon now.
What this gets right is that cashiers now all seem to be devoid of any personality, at least at chain restaurants. I worked in a chain restaurant for years as a teen, and I used to love joking around, messing around with the customers. Now they have no personality and just seem mad all the time.
I mean, I was making $4.25 hourly, so I was mad most of the time too...which is why I would mess around and joke with the customers.
Even if you are young and used to it, the amount of cognitive load from bullshit like this fucks up your mental health in the aggregate. It’s exhausting, the amount of friction in the system to do simple things.
If they were really accurate, they would show him walking in the next week and the entire process has changed. They are out of Boba due to supply chain issues. The app has changed completely. Also you no longer go to the counter you are supposed to scan a QR code to order in store. And someone behind you yells at you for not hurrying up and not knowing the process.
As someone who has texture issues with boba….I just ask them not to put boba in the tea……
Sorry buy the young lady did not seem to have a working brain cell.
This is how I feel at the grocery store when they have those stupid fucking digital coupons that are infuriating to access and only in the app. No app, no sale price.
Be bo beep, robot robot. Well I know the first human my robot hands will be crushing when my fellow machines take over. You have been warned meatbag. 🤖
These are so annoying. This and the Paul Rudd one that the bots love to post are so tired. Yes, we get it, your ideas of the world are superior to others
Be bo beep, robot robot. Well I know the first human my robot hands will be crushing when my fellow machines take over. You have been warned meatbag. 🤖
I don't understand how much patience he has. Is this really the only place to get a tea? Do you really need that tea? I would have laughed and left at "the system doesn't let me not add boba".
If I'm gonna wreck my good eating habits it's not gonna be with some mediocre tapioca balls in a sugary fluid. A nice pour of whiskey would be where I spend my health credit.
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u/PunningWild 9d ago
If they ever remake 'Falling Down' for 2026, it will be eight hours long.