Why is life so difficult?

I love the pay by phone parking apps, and an highly irritated if there is a one that just takes cash. I think people forget that that type of parking was highly irritating, needing the correct money, often broken, efc.

Cid24

But it makes you not want to go anywhere or do anything!!

I appreciate you had a frustrating day, but, wouldn’t you agree that’s taking it a tad too far.

NotSpaghetti
Well I do agree to some extent, I love the Ringo app for all the reasons you’ve listed.
But where we are, it seems you have to phone up, I’ve never got my glasses with me, and I’m always in a rush, but I will have to sort it out.
We went to a seaside town a while ago, which was a different app, it took twenty minutes to download, there were dozens of people with their impatient children hanging around.

It’s maddening isn’t it. If things don’t work on line we ring the company only to be told that the easiest way to solve a problem is to go to www. NO ITISNT THATS WHY IM RINGING!

It isn't just Britain. We are in France and trying to get our phone line fixed. As it is a holiday home we are only here for a week- fortnight at a time and even it has been agreed it is an external fault, orange will not fix it if we are not in residence.

In April a storm brought a run of telephone poles down in our lane. These have been repaired but the line is not working. We have tried to sort it out online but the form requires a mobile phone number, but only accepts FRench mobile phone numbers - and our phones have UK numbers.

On our last visit in June, we visited the Orange shop and queued until we were seen. The phone line was checked, it was agreed the problem was not in the house but outside and it would be fixed on the day before we returned home. It wasn't.

As we can do nothing online or on the phone because of the mobile phone number problem. when we returned here in late July we once again went and queued in the orange shop. After a number of phone calls by them we were told it would be fixed Monday last week. It wasn't.

We were given a number for an English speaking line. We rang it. The person the other end could not understand what the problem was and wanted to know our dates of birth, passport numbers etc. We gave up and went back to the Orange shop and queued. We were told the phone would be fixed last Friday, it wasn't.

On Mondays they are shut, so today we face another visit and queue at the Orange shop, but as we go home on Thursday.............

How am I making this post? We have a dongle, which works intermittently and is costing us a fortune in extra data charges. Aaaaaaaaagh!

It ain't just Britain.

I completely understand the OP comments about booking cinema tickets online. I tried this with two gift cards some time ago but it was impossible despite the cards being allocated to that cinema AND being well in date.

I love the car parking apps Sara1954. I go back to the same car parks but anyway, they know where I am. No queues at the machine where everyone is rummaging in their purse for change.
I can even easily pay someone else's parking on my app if I go with (say) my daughter. I get a reminder when it's running out.
OK on one app it does add 10p for the service but it's particularly useful if in a rush or in the rain as can do it from the car, or as yesterday, whilst queuing in the shop next to the car park at the returns counter!

Not all technology is poor.

Hetty58

I prefer the printed word anyway - so refuse to use the phone. Being officially 'hard of hearing' (I'm not) simplifies things - they can always text or email me. Choose the way you want to communicate.

I take a chance and always have a plan B. I'll try to book things online, (usually succeed) allow plenty of time to get somewhere - then do something else if it doesn't work out.

I have Virgin Media (the fastest around here) for now - with no problems - but I'm happy to return to (the cheaper) Plusnet or TalkTalk when my contract runs out. I really don't find life difficult at all.

I am intrigued.
So you dont phone a doctor? You use econnect or whatever it is called?
How do you manage with an electric company for example? You email them online in the first instance?

Certainly not disasters on a huge scale, but this week so far…

a) Ordered some items online from Boots, to be delivered next day to local store. This was a week ago, still not arrived. Would prefer to buy in the actual shop, but they don’t stock said items. No doubt will end up with re-ordering after a long wait to Customer Services.

b) Unable to book my usual aquacise session online yesterday, the leisure centre have updated their computer system, ended up booking on the old website instead of the app.

c) Upon checking my energy bill, saw they had applied the August bill twice. Sent off an e Mail about it, to be fair, they responded quickly, saying there was some trouble with online accounts and they were correcting the error.

As I said, nothing world shattering, and three relatively minor problems, but all add up to hassle.

I hate it.
I can’t park my car in our town any longer without using an app.
We are paying an horrendous amount of money to Sky every month, I hardly watch television, my husband only really watches the rugby or Netflix.
Apparently they can charge you an extra fifty pounds a month for no reason, and I just can’t face trying to sort it out.
We have a new computer system at work, and I seriously doubt I’m actually ever going to understand it.
We tend to do self scanning when we shop, but if you want to go through a check out, there are probably only about two now, and I reckon soon they’ll be none.
We think the time will come, when doing anything will be a problem

I’ve had several problems with the Office of the Public Guardian, always errors on their part. The latest is I contacted them via email to change the donors address but they’ve changed mine (I’m the attorney) instead! I couldn’t have made it any clearer and now I’m repeatedly contacting them to correct their error. On the plus side Plusnet have always been great and they’re based in Yorkshire so a gold star for them, also First Direct are excellent I find.

We went with some friends for lunch today. When we lined up to pay they couldn’t work the computer so we waited and waited. We were all paying the same price which was easy to work out so we told them what we owed and were happy to all pay cash. Too hard. It was over half an hour before the first of us got through! They can’t add up these days - not at all.

Life has always been difficult. It's just with technology everything is instant nowadays. Instead of waiting for the post we get text and emails. News is reported as soon as it happens instead of having to wait for a newspaper ,radio or TV news.

People are using technology more and more and expect it to work perfectly. But technology is controlled by people and people are not perfect . You only have to press the wrong button and you lose everything you are doing.

Because of Covid lockdowns people have come to rely on technology more for everyday living and work. I know I had to learn to use it more. Yes it's annoying when it doesn't work but for me it's made my life easier. But saying that I would much rather talk to a person either on the phone or face to face. That way I know things are done .

Think the main problem is companies keep updating their technology and tec people have is classed as out dated even though it works for us. Perfect example. My Samsung smart TV is 8 years old because ITV changed for ITV hub to ITV X I can't get it. But get all other free channels iPlayer etc. When I contacted them about it was told I needed a new TV or I could pay for it. I refuse to pay for TV the license is expensive enough.

I have found the worst offenders are government departments you are either on hold for hour or more or it cuts off after 10 mins. So you have to ring again and again. And still they don't help you by giving the correct information or don't send what you are asking for . Plus when you speak to a person they tell you one thing and when the letter arrives it's the complete opposite of what you where told. 🤬. So then you have to phone them and start all over again .

The problem is often because of the technology. Technology is not wrong it is just that it is being provided by the companies or organisations and is therefore designed for their benefit not ours.

I prefer the printed word anyway - so refuse to use the phone. Being officially 'hard of hearing' (I'm not) simplifies things - they can always text or email me. Choose the way you want to communicate.

I take a chance and always have a plan B. I'll try to book things online, (usually succeed) allow plenty of time to get somewhere - then do something else if it doesn't work out.

I have Virgin Media (the fastest around here) for now - with no problems - but I'm happy to return to (the cheaper) Plusnet or TalkTalk when my contract runs out. I really don't find life difficult at all.

It’s difficult because there is a serious lack of human presence to deal with issues. It starts off at central government that gives responsibility to local government and they are under funded so not managed properly. Every service provided goes out to tender therefore the cheapest provider gets the contract the service user gets a reduced and poorer service.
We use artificial intelligence to make life easier but it actually isn’t at times human intervention is necessary. Lack of communication is the biggest spoiler and it does make life difficult for everyone.

I am fortunate in that, my DH and I split the awkward phone calls/booking things chore.
At least that halves the problems each.

If I find a company that answers the phone easily, I try and stick with them.

I live in a somewhat tourist area.
Shopping, I try and be out and back around 10am, definitely before 11am in Summer time, unless I am going on days out/visiting.

Broken Britain?
It certainly feels like it sometimes.
Road works everywhere and no-one working at them.
I asked why at the ones nearby but was told their container had been broken into during the night and all the equipment stolen.

It makes a change from waiting for tar/concrete/paint to set/dry.

I try not to book on line but often there's no choice. I try not to buy things online but again it's hard.

I'm still waiting for a parcel I sent for a month ago

I’ve just moved over to virgin media! Got a 18 mth contract so hopefully….

But it makes you not want to go anywhere or do anything!!

These things are sent to test your mettle
These things are meant to try us
Nothing ventured nothing gained
If at first you don’t succeed, try again
The Universe is not working for you today
or
The old ways were the best

I do ask companies these days where their call centres are based before I consider using them. I believe everyone should support their local/national economy if possible and I just can't cope with certain accents.

Cid24, I’m not absolutely sure why everything is so DIFFICULT these days but I’m with you on finding it so,

I went to the cinema yesterday with daughter and 2 grandchildren. I drove, she managed to book on line but only after 6 attempts. When we arrived, there were queues of over excited children and exhausted grown ups. The “system’ had crashed, no one had been able to book, plus, they couldn’t take cash, only cards]
Don’t mention virgin media 😵‍💫. I lost 8 hours of my life to them recently. I need to discuss my package with them but haven’t yet built up the stamina

I believe everything on line, help lines outsourced to Mumbai/Phillipenes etc leaves customer service a thing of the past
I’ll stop before I get a headache

Would have to agree! Even the simplest task you think is a 10 minute job... forget it! I think a lot of it comes back to IT and the will it/won't it work scenario