Posted On: Friday - May 10th 2024 12:41PM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Artificial Stupidity Customer Care
The reader may or may not be sick of these continual AOC's (Anecdotes Of Curmudgeonry), but well, I write these for
I came into the drugstore for a box of candy. The way it goes now, you have to get someone to come to the counter to ring you up, unless you have good timing. I guess so many people are making purchases online, for anything, that these stores can't afford to run with more than 1 employee, excepting those at the pharmacy. This lady had just left the counter when I walked in, so my after 30 seconds of shopping, I had to tell her - don't know a nice way to say it - "Hey, I wanna' buy something." I apologized for interrupting her duties though. Really, the way they put them to work, I imagine it is a real interruption of one's work flow to go all the way to the front and sell some stuff.
I had cash in hand. An additional good thing about paying with cash - one of our big campaigns here at Peak Stupidity - is that one should not have to interact with any software. The lady did, of course.
Old-timers may still use the term "cash register", but it's a computer with a screen and a cash drawer. If you come to pay for something and you hear that "I've got no 'drawer'" or "We don't have a 'bank'", that means there's no cash drawer. The latter term confused me the first 5 times. Either way, my answer is "See ya."
Drugstores till take cash, so that's good. She asked me if I had the whatever card. (We've been though that one here 6 years back. See BIG DATA can kiss my ass.) I didn't have one, and it wouldn't have helped. Then, a bit oddly, after I gave her a $5 bill for what should be $1.99 + tax, this cashier never repeated the full amount or the change amount. Is this a new thing? She just took the bill and gave me change, which was the right amount.
"Oh, and put in your ...." something - she was pointing at the little screen on my side of the counter off to the left. I was headed the other way out the door. "Nah, I bought this. I'm good. See ya'."
After thinking about this later, I'm pretty sure she just wanted me to input an answer as to how I wanted my receipt: paper, emailed, or whatever else, texted? OK, if I needed a receipt, I suppose I would have started touching the screen. She could have just asked me, but then that'd have required more human interaction. That's not a thing so much ...
Someone really, really wants me to keep interfacing with computers. I'm not gonna. Please let me buy things without those kinds of interactons.
PS: I've got a quick follow-up to my story of computer bureaucracy at the YMCA. I talked to a much younger guy about this. He told me that all he wanted to do was to work out when out of town one time - he must be a member or he was going to pay. All that I experienced was too much for him too. He didn't bother working out. It's a thing with "The Y", apparently. BTW, maybe that should be "Compocracy" or "Bureauputing". Anyone got a better one?
* Coined by John Derbyshire, or at least that's where I got it from.
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[UPDATED 05/11:] Oh. As I talked to a friend about this, I realized what that last request for my input was almost surely about. Added a paragraph about this.
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Comments:
Moderator
Saturday - May 11th 2024 7:19AM MST
PS: Haha, M. You reminded me that for a while a few years back, I'd hear gate agents at the airport and some flight attendants talk about being here "to service you today". I don't think it means what they thought it meant ... unless they did!
Moderator
Saturday - May 11th 2024 7:18AM MST
PS: Yeah, the people can be decent, Alarmist, but I think they used to be more than now. Perhaps it's my attitude instead. I used to just ask "got a card I can swipe", and they were fine with that. It's just a game anyway - explained in that old post I linked to. However, now often, they will refuse giving me a break, so I have to sign up right then and there. Then I just toss the thing in the trash on the way out.
OTOH, that's only if I haven't given out that one old phone number. That seems to work most of the time. Here, there was no savings, I don't need points of some sort, and finally, I just wanted to not deal with computers at the store that day.
BTW, I figured out yesterday while talking to a friend what the lady was (obviously, now) trying to get me to do. It was very likely a question about whether I wanted an email receipt, a paper one, and maybe a texted one?
She could have just asked me, I guess...
OTOH, that's only if I haven't given out that one old phone number. That seems to work most of the time. Here, there was no savings, I don't need points of some sort, and finally, I just wanted to not deal with computers at the store that day.
BTW, I figured out yesterday while talking to a friend what the lady was (obviously, now) trying to get me to do. It was very likely a question about whether I wanted an email receipt, a paper one, and maybe a texted one?
She could have just asked me, I guess...
Moderator
Saturday - May 11th 2024 7:13AM MST
PS: Good morning, commenters!
I watched that video, Adam. I noticed that a White man gets no breaks in America, as millions of dark people a year from all over would not take something this egregious. Hell, they make demands the first month they get here.
It's not like this guy has a representative in Congress to do constituent services for him - not for some old White guy.
BTW, it's interesting that he's been paying into his SS account his whole life, and the money is not sitting right there for him. After all, it goes into an account right, making interest and waiting for him to turn 62 or 65 and withdraw it? I mean, all our money payed into these accounts are in one big lockbox right? That's what they told me, anyway.
For those not getting the full effect of the sarcasm, that supposed "lockbox" and talk thereof was a big discussion point about SS back in the 1990s, as I recall. That's when this money was put "ON" budget, meaning no longer even accounted for separately. That's why people think there was an actual budget surplus in the late '90s. Nah, SS was still in the black, with more money coming in than being paid out. So, when this was merged into the full national budget, that national budget looked better... that was fleeting ..
They call SS witholding "payroll taxes" now, this and medicare withdrawals from one's paycheck. I actually like that term OK, because I think of it as simply another big chunk of tax - 6 1/2% or double that if your self-employed and buy into all that stuff.
(I won't mention any names here, haha.)
I watched that video, Adam. I noticed that a White man gets no breaks in America, as millions of dark people a year from all over would not take something this egregious. Hell, they make demands the first month they get here.
It's not like this guy has a representative in Congress to do constituent services for him - not for some old White guy.
BTW, it's interesting that he's been paying into his SS account his whole life, and the money is not sitting right there for him. After all, it goes into an account right, making interest and waiting for him to turn 62 or 65 and withdraw it? I mean, all our money payed into these accounts are in one big lockbox right? That's what they told me, anyway.
For those not getting the full effect of the sarcasm, that supposed "lockbox" and talk thereof was a big discussion point about SS back in the 1990s, as I recall. That's when this money was put "ON" budget, meaning no longer even accounted for separately. That's why people think there was an actual budget surplus in the late '90s. Nah, SS was still in the black, with more money coming in than being paid out. So, when this was merged into the full national budget, that national budget looked better... that was fleeting ..
They call SS witholding "payroll taxes" now, this and medicare withdrawals from one's paycheck. I actually like that term OK, because I think of it as simply another big chunk of tax - 6 1/2% or double that if your self-employed and buy into all that stuff.
(I won't mention any names here, haha.)
M
Saturday - May 11th 2024 6:00AM MST
PS
Yes, "Customer Service" is more like being "customer serviced" as it were.
Yes, "Customer Service" is more like being "customer serviced" as it were.
The Alarmist
Friday - May 10th 2024 11:41PM MST
PS
When they ask if I have their loyalty card, I tell them I'm from Europe. They often remark that my English is so good that I don't have an accent. Sometimes they give me a discount anyway if one was to be had.
Many Americans are good people; they don't deserve the foreign occupation government that has been inflicted on them.
When they ask if I have their loyalty card, I tell them I'm from Europe. They often remark that my English is so good that I don't have an accent. Sometimes they give me a discount anyway if one was to be had.
Many Americans are good people; they don't deserve the foreign occupation government that has been inflicted on them.
Adam Smith
Friday - May 10th 2024 4:07PM MST
PS: Bureaucracy, eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfaCQKusgGE
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfaCQKusgGE
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