“download an ‘app’”
Drives me crazy. Every company says that, even if I only want to do something with them one time. I’ve got 4 or 5 parking apps for our travels. In Leavenworth, WA, it took me about 30 minutes to download the app, set up a new account, make a new virtual credit card number and all that bother just to pay for an hour of parking time. Then, when we were leaving the lot, I found a hidden payment kiosk that takes credit cards! On top of that, I missed my hour park time by 5 minutes and got a $75 ticket! Fortunately, city hall was right there and I went in to complain. They cancelled the ticket. But what a time suck!
Jasper, Alberta has the right idea. I just scanned a code on a sign on the street and paid with my credit card. Easy. No app required. Of course, these days, scammers print up fake codes and fake web sites, so you could be paying a scammer.
Life used to be so much easier before all these modern “conveniences” made life even “easier.”
/soapbox /rant
“Life used to be so much easier before all these modern ‘conveniences’ made life even ‘easier.’”
Amen!
Last month we went to a new restaurant’s opening, and we were supposed to scan a QR code to see the menu. We told the waitress we only had flip phones 😉 so she had to tell us the menu. 😁
(We lied. I don’t “do” QR scanning.)
Don’t get me started on flippin’ parking ‘kiosks’...
Used to be I could go downtown, park, drop a quarter or two in the meter right next to my car (or use CC), and immediately go about enjoying lunch or some shopping with friends and local merchants. Parking was seamless, quick, and uncomplicated. Now I go downtown and the first thing that happens is I get a homework assignment (and tell some data center where I am, at what time, for how long, and in what vehicle... but that’s another subject entirely... kinda...). All just because some unclear-on-the-concept bureaucrat at City Hall fell for some salesman’s pitch. I avoid going downtown now, sadly. More sadly downtown businesses are closing right and left, after reporting massive reductions in foot traffic and revenue immediately upon removal of the ‘outdated’ meters and installation of the kiosks. It’s been over two years, and we just lost another decades-old mainstay retailer last week. Not good.