Mat3or
Mark Holtom (aka Kingbeard)
einfachnurRoland
Fawkes@MarkHoltom Convenience should never be the replacement. It should be an alternative.
M. Forester@MarkHoltom I hate this so much. And I have all those things and know how to do it. 😩
Shibanarchiste 
🏳️⚧️@MarkHoltom This is France 😐
Eugenio Abriani@Shibanarchiste @MarkHoltom
Here in Italy our national railroad society added check in! so you buy a train ticket then you need your smartphone to check in.
Here in Italy our national railroad society added check in! so you buy a train ticket then you need your smartphone to check in.
Dr. Heather Etchevers@iugin @Shibanarchiste @MarkHoltom like so-called "Easy"jet. Easy to extract more from us customers.
Krupo@iugin @Shibanarchiste @MarkHoltom I remember an Italian rail ticket kiosk double charging me for a ticket
I asked a station attendant for help and he just shrugged.
Had to get my credit card company to reverse the charge after.
They asked if I tried to fix it on the spot and I again repeated the story of the shrug.
@iugin @Shibanarchiste @MarkHoltom
...and that's why station attendants are fast going out of a job. I can't believe one checks into a train 😂
...and that's why station attendants are fast going out of a job. I can't believe one checks into a train 😂
Outi 🦊🌱🌍🌈@Shibanarchiste @MarkHoltom I'd say this is large portion of the so called developed countries.
Vee@Shibanarchiste @MarkHoltom You took the words right out of my keyboard...👍
So ... This is Europe.
Jurarigo@MarkHoltom Even if you're young and tech savvy is a huge problem if you don't have, let's say, a smartphone. Which I don't have, so it's always "very funny" how a big part of the world is just strangely forbidden for me.
Can't even begin to imagine the hell on earth it must be for an elder person.
Can't even begin to imagine the hell on earth it must be for an elder person.
@Jurarigo_ @MarkHoltom I know someone who doesn't have a smartphone, and who bought concert tickets before the pandemic restrictions. When the concert eventually happened, paper tickets were no longer accepted, so they had to borrow a smartphone to get an electronic version of the ticket they had already bought several years ago.
@OiskaE @MarkHoltom I still have to borrow one in certain restaurants because the menu is now just a QR code plastered on the table. Fun times.
@Jurarigo_ @MarkHoltom 😩 I have a smartphone but I still wouldn't want a QR code menu. Luckily haven't come across one so far, but it's probably just a matter of time.
Cluster Fcku@Jurarigo_ @OiskaE @MarkHoltom we need a meme with restaurant plate and the food arranged & sized like a QR code, because the patron ordered from QR menu
Jan Ciger@Jurarigo_ @OiskaE @MarkHoltom
That would be pretty much the last time I would visit such place. Restaurants that value more customers staring into their phones than the actual food being served and social interaction - sorry, I can also go to McDonalds if I want that. There they have the touch screen ordering terminals at least and it likely costs 10x less.
@Jurarigo_ @MarkHoltom I held off on getting a smartphone for years until companies started making it inconvenient to not have one by not having physical menus at restaurants, not doing box office tickets, etc.
Smartphones, and the internet in general, are simultaneously the best thing ever invented and the worst thing ever invented.
@McD1979 @MarkHoltom These things are the best, by itself. Capitalism is what made them shit.
Robot@Jurarigo_ @MarkHoltom or your phone is dead/broken/lost and you have no way to charge it.
Why the fuck did you stop putting paper route schedules out.? Why so many qr codes for bus arrivals? please add a display, peoples phones aren't everlasting.
WolfisBirdWatchWell, ... 🤔
this presumably overpaid "analog" guy
shouldn't be there -
or is this just an avatar on a screen? 🙄
Laberpferd@WolfisBird
Here in germany we now have the "Video-Reisezentrum" for telepresence in railway stations instead of local personal
That is a booth with a video call to some kind of call center that you have to use if you have somethign that you cant do at the ticket selling machine
Treat! (Nik)@Laberpferd @WolfisBird @MarkHoltom I recently took a picture of one of these in Backnang (saw them for the first time), here's what it looks from the outside:
Bot und Stühle@Laberpferd @WolfisBird @MarkHoltom
I never understood why I can't buy (some) international train tickets on the DB website, but the dude in the Reisezentrum can. Why can't I just get the same user interface they have?
I never understood why I can't buy (some) international train tickets on the DB website, but the dude in the Reisezentrum can. Why can't I just get the same user interface they have?
Elizabeth@MarkHoltom Love this yet hate it simultaneously!
MWT@MarkHoltom
Every attraction in San Francisco. :(
Every attraction in San Francisco. :(
Fardels BearExactly. The idea of 'convenience' is a form of gaslighting so train companies can cut costs to the bone.
We are a very well-trained population.
Scott Kropog@MarkHoltom “And what is it that you get paid to do, young man?”
Mx Verda@n5wwy @MarkHoltom be a warm body on-site to meet building insurance requirements probably
xs4me2
Walt Mankowski@MarkHoltom @nixCraft This is what it’s like trying to buy a ticket to a Major League Baseball game these days. They refuse to sell you a ticket at the gate! It’s madness!
Ponda@MarkHoltom Few months ago I couldn't access a museum because you can buy tickets only online, but you couldn't pay with credit card, only online transfer or "pay later" system, neither of which worked because both required 2FA from my bank app which was temporarily broken (again). When it fixed itself, museum website decided to no longer send reservation e-mails from which you're supposed to make payment. After 30 minutes of brutal battle in 30 ⁰C I had to forfeit the visit.
@MarkHoltom Best part is, nobody from staff was surprised, they had to denied access to a family with children because they were unable to buy tickets as well. It's not that they didn't want to help, they were simply disallowed to sell tickets on site and couldn't access the system, only scan QR codes. It was in #gdansk in case you wonder.
Shanie MyrsTear@ponda Must have a really amazing donor to not accept guests at the door. Even the Museum of Science in Boston has kiosks to take credit cards.
@shanie Quite the opposite, it's city-run, they don't expect it to make any money at all and annoying bureaucracy preventing you from doing anything is apparently a legal requirement here.
Paul Barnfather@MarkHoltom it's even more mad than that in the UK. Apparently the only way to get a seat reservation in advance of travelling is to physically go a station that has a ticket office and ask for one. Which they then give you. For free. Which is the one thing that it would probably make sense to be able to get online. 🤷♂️
Alberto Cottica@MarkHoltom but "digital transformation"
kulupu jyn@MarkHoltom literally just had this yesterday trying to get labs done lol, you could *only* buy them online or through your doctor
⏚inégalitéScapitalismTTdroites5gPubNucGafam_CRIMES@MarkHoltom
.
fr/en
.
ouais c'est ça (entre autres) la porcherie capitaliste
----
yeah, that's (among other things) the capitalist pigsty
🌺 Cat Pöñíçkøvā@MarkHoltom I love how despite all the effort the boomer central put into the scary words and unnecessarily lengthy wording in this one, the described process is still superior to queuing for a ticket office
Julian ♪🌻🥥🌴♫@pony @MarkHoltom
It's superior if you have the tools and skills to use them, which most of us do. It shouldn't be fair to just make it impossible to buy tickets the old-fashioned way if the machine is out of order but there's a person next to it who could do it.
It's superior if you have the tools and skills to use them, which most of us do. It shouldn't be fair to just make it impossible to buy tickets the old-fashioned way if the machine is out of order but there's a person next to it who could do it.
Fish Id Wardrobe ⁂@MarkHoltom Easier and more convenient ... for them.
MrsJ@MarkHoltom an elderly couple asked a bank teller to help them create an online account and the reply was ‘just download the app!’ 🤦🏼♂️
Dragan Panjkov@MarkHoltom that is actual reality in Germany for anyone that wants to purchase Deutschland Ticket. My wife experienced it twice already. cc @jon
breylaude@MarkHoltom Exactly how our statistics authority office works.
gayass@MarkHoltom you forgot about the part where they don't let you on because you downloaded it wrong
Darrel Miller@MarkHoltom I might be the exception but I would rather see government provided low cost, limited function, smart phones with these kind of facilities than require humans to staff "transaction counters" and provide bespoke machines that require constant service.
smallerdemon@MarkHoltom Look, I can't track your purchasing and maximize my profits if you just buy a ticket with cash at the kiosk. You want me to starve to death over here?
Tomi the Slav and 1024 others@MarkHoltom
Few days ago, I tried and I couldn't, so I visited train station to buy a ticket.
When I asked her why they don't sell intl. tickets in their app she said: " So you can come here and see me."
Yes, she was flirting a little.
And suddenly I wasn't so convinced I need an app anymore :)
(Slovenia)
Few days ago, I tried and I couldn't, so I visited train station to buy a ticket.
When I asked her why they don't sell intl. tickets in their app she said: " So you can come here and see me."
Yes, she was flirting a little.
And suddenly I wasn't so convinced I need an app anymore :)
(Slovenia)
Darlan M CunhaPerversity at its peak. Mamma mia!
Beast of Exmoor
(((Klefstadmyr)))@MarkHoltom I am an old lady with a cane.
AdamD@MarkHoltom during the dark days of COVID lockdowns I had to take a flight on Lufthansa (I think). They required all passengers to go online, enter their ticket number; passport number; etc, and declare that they don't have COVID. I watched a check-in agent send someone away who hadn't done this, with a slip of paper with the URL on it. This person had no smart phone and was dealing with a language barrier. Why couldn't he just make his "declaration" in person? Wouldn't that be as good, or better?
Visions of Napa@MarkHoltom I thought this joke was about getting a flu shot at my pharmacy.
Dusty Burwell@MarkHoltom don’t forget to pay the “digital modernization fee” while you’re at it.
Charlie@MarkHoltom yes, yes, capitalism bad. We’ll toss it in the other… millions of examples about how things get worse with time from capital seeking motives and … honestly, do nothing about it.
I’m propping open a bleary eyelid to ask what you wish of us, o’ Charlie of mastodon.social?
How might we better serve your expectations?
I’m up for Molotov cocktails and speedrunning Fight Club personally, but systemic change needs to be sustainable and constructive towards a goal rather than (cathartic) destruction alone.
Unfortunately.
It's not about meeting my expectations. That's missing the point. It's about how people are re-framing class economic exploitation into the weird language of "technological discrimination" or age biased stuff "I'm old, how to computer?" when it's just capitalism. But the evidence is everywhere and at this point, identifying examples is just becoming a trope. Sometimes I lose patience with it, sorry for making you feel attacked.
Emil Jacobs - Collectifission@MarkHoltom Not sure about all of the UK, but in the Netherlands you can enter any train by holding your bank card against a reader to open an entry portal. That is pretty low barrier if you ask me.
@tyx @MarkHoltom correct, but this is the lowest barrier of entry. Anonymous travel cards are certainly an option.