I’d like to nominate the new Post Office queuing ‘system’ in the expensively Revamped Main Post Office in Manchester City Centre.

Previously when posting stuff, I’d relied on the ridiculously arcane, outdated and frankly luddite routine of

1. Joining back of queue
2. Wait until reaching the front of queue
3. Do whatever it is I came to do

How frightfully 2oth Century! This frankly is the behavior of technophobe dinasaurs. And it needed to change. Now…. thank god!…. It has. Hurray!!!!

Now you walk in to be greeted by a short smiling bloke who asks you which one of their extensive services you require. Depending on the answer, he guides you over to a touch-screen unit which lists said services. The machine then spits out a different type of ticket accordingly.

You then entire a labyrinthine world of disconnected tannoy voices directing different types of ticket holders hither and thither. Staggeringly slowly

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES APPROACH A COUNTER WITHOUT A TICKET. I suspect you might be gunned down.

If you merely want to post a parcel you still can. On one of the self service machines. Or you could do, if any of the expensive touch-screen units actually worked. They don’t of course.

The result of all this needless technology is utter and complete bedlam. Complete anarchy! Its absolutely hilarious!!!

Christ only knows how much all this cost. I dread to think. Some management/IT consultant must be laughing his socks off. While counting his millions by a pool in Monte Carlo.

What on earth was wrong with standing in a queue?

Whats your favourite mindless, stupid IT system then? There must be plenty

Cars that tell you what the speed limit is in the area you are driving. If you cant tell what the speed limit is you obviously aren’t paying attention!

Twitter

My favorite “misuse of IT” was a nursing home where they printed off an e mailed form, pulled the data for it off the computer, filled in the form by hand then faxed it back to the person who e mailed it to them – every week.

Lol..Binners I was in there on Saturday and it’s like being in Argos and waiting for them to bring your purchase out.

The greeter wasn’t evenly friendly…”What are you doing here today?”…no introduction to the new system or anything.

roughly fits into this topic, today tried to sort out a paypal account, apparently I already have one, clicked the request username/password button. “you need to be logged in to access this” WTF obviously if I could log in I wouldn’t need my username/password!

TandemJeremy – Member

My favorite “misuse of IT” was a nursing home where they printed off an e mailed form, pulled the data for it off the computer, filled in the form by hand then faxed it back to the person who e mailed it to them – every week.

My girlfriend works for the NHS and often whinges about this exact same thing going on there.

My pet hate is LCD displays on…well, everything. Toothbrushes and clothes irons being the worst offenders. I mean… WTF?

At the Didsbury medical centre, the receptionists are evidently so ruched off their feet (acting as gatekeepers determining whether you are ill enough to see a doctor, of course), that they have no installed a touch screen “patient arrival” system.

So, you walk in through the door and, as you arrive in the waiting room, the reception desk is stright ahead of you. It has a counter and everything. After waiting for someone to pay attention to you (remember, these people are clearly very important), they then send you away. So, you turn to your left, and are greeted by the practice managed sitting at a desk in the middle of the waiting room – thank god I didn’t arrive on crutches today, as I definitely wouldn’t be seeing the doc – who raises one eyebrow and points you at the little touch screen at the other end of the room.

Immediately, the screnn requests you touch it. Only, it also states that “If you are having difficulty reading this, please speak to a member of staff”. Eh? How, if I can’t read it, the **** would I know to speak to a member of staff when half of them have shoo-ed me over here?

And then, having navigated the variuous options including “Are you male or female?”, I get to sit down at a chair beside the practice manager and wait for the barely audible voice of my doctor to call my name over the Tannoy.

**** me, no wonder waiting lists are so short these days – everyone has taken their own lives rather than navigate all of this. FFS.

saw this at a friends the other day.

LEDs, Mirror, Batteries and voila!:

Technology: where would we be with out it? Rainbowless, that’s where!

My mum types letters on her computer, prints them off and faxes them. She then files a paper copy. But she makes good hot pot with crispy potatoes on the top, so that’s fine

LEDs, Mirror, Batteries and voila!:

WANT IT.

Where it is from, I can get it?

I must have it…

There’s a new ‘fast track’ ticket system down my local leisure centre. you bung yer membership card under the reader, press a few on-screen options, and it’s meant to give you he correct ticket/wristbaynd.

**** thing never works propply, so I have to queue up anyway.

Internet enabled fridges
Bluetooth headsets for Audi drivers (unless they’re actually Cybermenlite)
Mobile phones -you’d think after 20 years that someone would make one that didn’t require an inch think manual. Oh, actually someone did.

The self service payment kiosks in Argos that nobody ever seems to notice until a member of the shop staff cuffs you round the ear and drags you to one.

The keyless entry system to get into the yard at work the code changes automatically at midnight. However 2 days a week I dont get back to the yard till 2 am and as the code is randomly generated and the only computer that displays the new code is in the managers office I cant get in to park my wagon.

The problem has been solved ten grands worth of security and the pass code is now set to 123456 and a big padlock has been fitted, amusingly the same padlock that was taken off the gate 2 weeks ago.

Biscuit Powered – Member
My pet hate is LCD displays on…well, everything. Toothbrushes and clothes irons being the worst offenders. I mean… WTF?

My pet hate is people that talk about technology but clearly know f all 😉 do you have a pin number also, and and a dvd disc?

Self service checkouts in supermarkets.

“UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA” – it’s my bag for life YOU IDIOT MACHINE. Can’t you see I’ve not swiped anything and the Unexpected item weighs about 10 grams? No? Either that or it’s my hand. The one that should be thumping your idiot touchscreen. Hard.

“PLEASE SEEK ASSISTANCE” – Oh I’m buying alcohol/ vinegar/ ibuprofen/ toilet duck/ CDs/ razor blades – I need someone to come and authorise the sale to check I’m old enough or the sort of person the supermarket staff would be happy to see take an overdose.

Only sensible use for the things would be for school trips. Take classes of 11 year olds down, get them to fill a trolley and run the lot through the self service check out, swipe-beep-swipe-beep-swipe-beep. Then explain if they don’t work hard at school they could be doing this for life. That would do more for society than 1,000 educational sociologists.

dont get me started……

i have to admit life was easier 10/15 years ago, im getting old…

pet hate is

The FAST (notice i put FAST in CAPITALS) ‘Self Service Checkouts’ in supermarkets, i have tried and tried and tried to use them but EVERYTIME it f*cks up through no fault of my own! “ITEM NO RECOGNISED!” – “PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN THE BAG PROVIDED” – I F****ING HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have to say though im a big fan of the ‘self service’ petrol station pumps, my karma with these is much better, all they need to do now is sort out the fekin idiots who dont realise the filling pipe can stretch over to the other side of your car… 😉

OMG…. you read my mind ^^

Tesco self service machines.

These are the work of the devil! They beep, don’t except my notes and tell me to put things in bags that don’t exist.

Even the still drunk 14 year old that used to grunt at me is far more bearable then these aweful beeping machines.

OMG You read mine!!!!!

I always thought those self service checkouts were a red rag to a bull as far as shoplifting went.

Ha ha a stu N those **** machines mug me off good style!! The’re a complete waste of time! I had a few funny looks when I told the machine to **** off and stop telling me what to do!!!!!!!

The only ones that work are the ones in ikea as they just work!

racing_ralph – Member

My pet hate is people that talk about technology but clearly know f all do you have a pin number also, and and a dvd disc?

Using normal everyday (though not technically 100% correct) wording on a forum means I know F all about technology? FFS get a life.

Five blade razors. Just imagine the R&D meeting.

” Right the punters bought it that our three blade razor shaved them closer. We need something new for this year what’s it going to be?”

“How about sticking another couple of blades on and spending a fortune on advertising- it worked before?”

Great idea- right who’s going down the pub?

Passwords.

F**KING C**TING PASSWORDS.

I got an e-mail at work from our IT head reminding me not to write down any passwords….

I need 17 passwords/door codes/just let me in the **** thing codes just to do my job….

I hate having to remember all these useless sh1te codes, and at every opportunity I change them to the most abusive, foul mouthed phrases that I can.

got to be self service checkouts in tesco. i refuse to use them but i’m fed up of the stupid conversation you are then forced to have with the checkout supervisors.
them – you only have a few items you should use the self service
me – no thanks
them – can i ask why not
my head – FFS you just did!
me – would rather be served by a person
them – but why
my head – FFS!!!
me – because i’d rather you guys were working here than on the dole
them – nobody’s loosing their jobs sir, infact it takes more people just to supervise the self service <nervous laugh as realisation sets in> nobodys loosing their jobs sir……

Biscuit Powered – Member

racing_ralph – Member

My pet hate is people that talk about technology but clearly know f all do you have a pin number also, and and a dvd disc?

Using normal everyday (though not technically 100% correct) wording on a forum means I know F all about technology? FFS get a life.

nob – did you not see the piss take smilie?

Anything that you see in betterware or kleeneze catalogues. Who buys that pointless crap?

FFS get a life

Shouldn’t that be FFS sake get a life?

I-Phone apps – Some of them are good/fun/handy, but really, if you need an app to tell you where you parked your car you’re either too stupid or too drunk to get it into gear

Facebook/Bebo et al – keeping you in touch with those people that you thought never have to see again just so you can tell them interesting facts like “I just had a w@nk watching the One Show”

World of Warcraft/Second Life – just get a fooking life, that elf that just helped you slay a minotaur is not your new best friend, he’s probably a peadophile

aslongasithaswheels

I-Phone apps – Some of them are good/fun/handy, but really, if you need an app to tell you where you parked your car you’re either too stupid or too drunk to get it into gear

That’s not such a bad idea you know. I’d have used that when I lived in central Edinburgh and didn’t use my car much, maybe a couple of times a week at most. Imagine coming back from biking on a Wednesday night when parking is so limited it could be anywhere within 5 mins walk of the flat. Then on Sunday morning having to go looking for the **** thing having only a vague notion of where it was parked recently, and not being entirely clear on whether it was last week or the week before you might have left it where you think it might be. There’s a lot of streets to walk up and down when you can’t quite remember where you parked last. 🙂

i have to say though im a big fan of the ‘self service’ petrol station pumps

No. They still seem to have limits based on prices a couple of years ago (that or nobody’s realised that quite normal cars have 70l tanks), hence I can’t fill my car completely if I’m anywhere below 1/4 full.

Though to be fair, Tesco self-service checkouts are worse.

Mobile phones -you’d think after 20 years that someone would make one that didn’t require an inch think manual.

You’d have thought that after 20 years you’d have worked them out 🙂

My vote: the new fingerprint ID entry system at work. The one at the gym works great. The one at my main client’s office works great. The only thing positive I can say about the one at work is that all the time I spend 5 minutes getting the bloody thing to recognise me I’m giving work the finger…

I like the Tesco self-service thingamibobs.

I lack ‘small talk’ skills and I don’t look very friendly/happy so like to avoid human interaction if possible.
Plus, if you scan items in fast enough, the thing can’t process it quickly enough and you get free food (obviously need to put on the whole ‘grrrr, stupid machine, I’m doing it right I tell you!’ act whilst doing this so that you can protest innocence if one of the supervisors picks up on it)

I am also a firm believer that we should adopt technology such as Octopus Cards instead of carrying around loads of coins and petty cash.

So yeah, I’ve not really contributed to this thread properly.. 😳

When I go to the paper shop to pay the bill they always ask me “do you know what your customer number is?”. When I say “no, but I can tell you my address because you deliver the papers to it” there’s much tutting and shaking of heads as if my paper shop customer number is a vital piece of information.

I saw the title and thought “I’ll add Tesco’s self service checkouts to the list”… but half the world has beaten me to it.

They are **** rubbish. The staff at our local branch patrol the queues trying to tempt people to use them.

Utter, utter bobbins.

Another vote for self serve tills here!

Only sensible use for the things would be for school trips. Take classes of 11 year olds down, get them to fill a trolley and run the lot through the self service check out, swipe-beep-swipe-beep-swipe-beep. Then explain if they don’t work hard at school they could be doing this for life. That would do more for society than 1,000 educational sociologists.

Best use for them yet!!!

Although I have also found them to be a good way to get rid of several pounds worth of coppers (if you can be arsed). You just keep piling them in – the machine didn’t huff at me once 🙂

The supermarket self checkout tills are great 🙂

If you can’t use a self service till then its generally user error

If you can’t use a self service till then its generally user error

If they were well-designed in the first place then user error would be virtually inexistent… QED they’re badly designed.