I refuse to use apps on my phone for most things, and I try not to use services that require an app. It particularly annoys me when it seems a government sevice requires the use of a smartphone.
I saw this article which says it well and thoght I'd share it.
Digital divide: App-only services exclude millions
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5790581-app-only-services-inequality
@mlippert This drives me nuts. More and more places are going smartphone-only and making it intentionally impossible not to use one. I went through a whole rigmarole where a concert venue refused to let me print a ticket at home, let me do will call, mail me a ticket, etc. because my friend (on SSDI/very low income) did not have internet access at home. I had purchased his ticket and could not transfer a ticket to him except on their app. "Just do it on a smartphone" Can't. "Well there's a way to do it on a laptop." He does not. Have. Internet. Access. "Well you can just show up together and scan him in on your smartphone." We don't live together. The venue is an hour away. And we're traveling on public transit via multiple connections. Good fucking luck trying to arrive together! Why do you need to make this SO freaking difficult.
In the end I contacted the venue and told them what the ticketing agency was doing and they just wrote down his name at the door as having a ticket under my name because they agreed it was ridiculous.
@sarahv Wow. A perfect example of why this attitude of assuming everyone must have a smartphone is just bad!
I'm glad the venue was able to help in this instance. But you went through so many hoops, and then it was just their good will, rather than policy.
Also, there's common assumption that you'll always have your smartphone with you. 😠
@mlippert Yes! And what if you break or lose your phone or forget to charge it or it got stolen? It's so stupid to base your whole life on a single fragile object.
I have to say the two venues I occasionally go to that were using that ticket service both stopped using it fairly quickly.
After that one debacle, there was another event where we showed up and none of our tickets worked in our phones at all (I went with half a dozen friends and no one's ticket worked). 🥴 Great stuff.
Mike
Sarah 🍕