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Went to a bank branch today to make a payment I have to make in person due to various factors.
Was waiting to be seen and overheard a conversation between a bank employee and another customer. The employee was dumbstruck by the customer not having internet access and therefore struggling to suggest next steps.
We are storing up *so* much trouble. Building systems that are failing people
Dumbfounded.
I do not deal with companies that want an email addy.
They think everyone can afford crappy internet.
I was surprised to discover that some amazon lockers are a faceless slab of steel with zero interfaces. I'm sure someone at amazon thought this was "slick" but if you're not willing (or unable, due to device age) to install an amazon app on your phone and let it use your bluetooth, you don't get to have your packages.
Somehow, amazon managed to discriminate against every unaugmented member of the human race.
Thanks for all the interest in the above anecdote. Didn’t expect it to resonate with so many. Glad it has.
I have some weird shit going on in my own life today so may not be responsive to any replies x
This reminds me of the time my in-laws applied for a credit card so they could book hotel rooms. Their whole lives, they paid cash and never used credit. They lived in their house while they built it.
You should hear them tell their experience of how the credit card company was left rudderless upon finding they did not have credit histories or ratings.
I don’t see a climb down from this trajectory coming. We have to wait for cascading failure for the system to internalise the need for course correction
Teller: Do you have your debit card?
Me: I don't have one.
T: Okay, I'll just text you a code.
M: I don't have a cell phone.
T: ...
M: Here's my ID. Can I just have the deposit slip to fill out and sign? I've had the account number memorized for _thirty years._
Is that part of the reason this particular bank company has closed a lot of the more rural branches? Doubtful, but it probably doesn't help the organization's understanding of the technological problems of a rural state, with an aging and increasingly-poorer population.
You forget how much of rural America lacked electricity and clean water before FDR.
Capitalism simply doesn't care about people where the scale of economy doesn't pay off.
@urlyman I recently tried to sell a table on Facebook Market Place. I had a person who was interested in buying it, but backed out, because he couldn't pay with Zelle or Venmo. I have neither and wanted cash. I asked if this was normal on Reddit. I got slammed for being a Luddite and got all sorts of bigoted/agest remarks.
In my town there are 3 banks left, soon to be 2.
My mum banks with one that's still open, the one I bank with is closing in Sept.
I tried to make an apt for my mum so she could discuss options for a loan as she wants to replace the conservatory and can't afford to pay it all cash.
They offered to make her an apt with some one in the branch.
Then proceeded to tell me, she needed to bring her laptop with her and install zoom for the apt.
I looked at her and said 'she doesn't have a laptop, nor does she use zoom... she's 79yrs old'
She was unable to offer an actual solution that involved... actually making an apt with a person face to face. I left, telling them exactly how stupid and pathetic it was and that the treatment of people without expensive electronic devices, or unable to use them was discriminatory.
I walked around the corner to my bank and made a face to face apt for her with them... and they're the branch that's closing... But because she's not a customer of theirs, they couldn't offer her favourable rates.
My brother in law banks with Barclays... the nearest branch for his is now 35 miles away... in a tourist town with expensive and hard to find parking.
We need legislation that forces banks to participate in banking hubs, so that people have actual access to in person banking on at least 1 or 2 days a week.
Or we continue to punish anyone who can't or won;t participate in the enshitification of everything as 'undesirables'
this happened in my in-laws' town apart from that there are no banks now. they have to go to another town around 1/2 hour away. to a branch that only allows its employees to deal with business customers (it's not even a big town. at all).
in-laws aren't so old, but fil doesn't use tech at all and needed to do something on his account. mil went with him ... he went up to the counter, and the woman said no, sorry, we can only help you if you're a business customer. (there were no other customers in there, btw) she told him to use the machine in the corner. which he couldn't do, because he does not tech. (ok probably he *could*, but he refused and that seems to be acceptable in their household and whatever, not my place as we're not that close!)
so mil set about doing it for him, but the machine kept breaking/freezing/not doing what it was meant to do. i think she managed whatever it was in the end, but.
absurdity. total absurdity.
…this is not the customer’s fault. This is the entire system planning, incrementally, to fail
Building everything on a digital system that can melt down what could go wrong?
And that's while we still have bank branches to visit.
Humans are being routinely removed from business processes, with physical premises replaced by websites and call centres replaced by smartphone apps.
Even the act of *finding* an actual telephone number to call or an email address that isn't a smart form on a website is becoming impossible.
Always reminds me of this:
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