...to expect to be able to buy something online without registering?

.......and DON'T send me adverts!

and can it please not need "home assembly". When I buy something I don't want to have to build it myself!

Not unreasonable at all!
With all the faffing, it often feels as if it would be quicker to drive into town and just buy the thing.

Doesn't bother me! Of course you have to register - you've got to create an account in order to pay. If they give a phone number, you could always order by phone...

('unsubscribe' to any advertising emails you may get subsequently)

No you aren't being unreasonable and no haven't got to create an account to pay. it is marketing - a way of capturing your personal information so they can send you emails for ever and sometimes sell your data to others. It also makes online shopping really tedious. And then they hit you with the 'verified by visa' thing. just when you though you had completed your 'one click experience'
Reserve at the store, as in Argos, is a good one. They get it ready for you, and then you pay when you get there. Really quick.

My tip for the password thing - start a little list on your computer that goes like this:

bank - son's first dog
trainline - mother in law's maiden name
booking.com - grandson's full name

And to make it more secure, change the letter o to a zero and/or the letter l to number 1.
And don't name the file "passwords"

I have all my passwords in a single password protected file.

One site I went to recently invited you to register, but also offered the opportunity to be a 'guest'. ie buy the goods, give a dispatch address and that's it.

I agree I hate having to register to make a purchase and often go elsewhere. I also click all boxes saying I do not want more information on their products or anyone else's and when I do get caught promptly unsubscribe when the first email arrives.

Yes there are companies who give the option of just buying rather than registering - but they are not always selling what you want! Today I found the ideal birthday present for my DD and put it in my basket and then went through all the rigmarole, when I know I will never shop there again. And I got to the paymeny page and they said they could not proceed because I had not given my birth date (!!!) on a previous page. I tried to return to the registration page to indicate that my birth date was irrelevant, but was redirected to the empty form again and had to fill it all in again!

Clearly we have to give details like address etc or we would not receive the goods; but the necessity to register is just a marketing ploy and I find it pretty irritating.

I suspect that if companies made it all easier we would choose to go back to shop with them again.

As to passwords, my trick for those that need to be secure is to use a word or name and then translate that into the letters/numbers immediately to the left/right/above below of each letter in its spelling.

And several sites I've been to recently wouldn't let me complete the transaction until I gave them a phone number! So they can endlessly ring me up with 'offers' I don't want.

Mishap I hope you gave them a ludicrously inaccurate date of birth

It is indeed annoying- but then we have the choice... not to shop there, I suppose. I have written to some companies in the past, to tell them why I didn't purchase from them, because of their marketing questions on registration. Unless we write to tell them, complaining here is not going to make much difference.

Jess I do exactly that sort of stuff as well, but some times the coding I have given it is so obscure I can't work out what they are about.
I do keep stuff in different files though.

The ultimate, to my mind, was trying to buy a phone from carphone warehouse. Tehy insited on needing our name, address etc. I refused, but my better half gave the info.and we got the phone.
Afew weeks later I was in the same store enquiring after a charging cord, luckily for me they did not have it. However whilst in there there was a young woman buying a phone and she was asked for the usual name and address then they went on to ask the name of her husband and how many children she had!!!
This is completely over the top!!!

Recently at work I had to give the system 4 questions (from a list) and the answers. The common complaint among the fellow-sufferers was "I'll never remember the answers to general questions like that". Then it occurred to me (I am quite slow, I admit) that the computer wouldn't know if the answers were true, so I had great fun giving silly answers to silly questions, but at least remembered to write them down so that if I'm ever asked, I can find what I said. (Assuming I can find the list...)

The other day I wanted to try a possibly lucky number on a Yeo Valley yogurt carton, but lost the will to do it when I had to register first. Can't be bothered.

Jess your p/w system is a hacker's dream those are the things they can found out very easily. Better to use the first letters of a 12 word sentence
with a few numbers.

First car Reg No is a good one.

Husband....jolly organised ..... has his passwords just written out on a piece of paper in a filing cabinet that is organised in such a random way I can never find anything....be beyond any burglar.