Cheques: does anybody still use them?

[Pulcinella]

What about dinosaurs like me who are still using a desktop PC?
(The lady wife refuses to get money out of the ATM outside the local branch of our building society, or any other ATM, on the grounds that, if she doesn't help keep the tellers inside the branch occupied, it might be closed - and who's to say she's wrong?)

I refuse to use self-service checkouts in shops for similar reasons!

[DracoM]

[VodkaDilc]

I refuse to use self-service checkouts in shops for similar reasons!

Me too - and I always make a comment about how pleasant it is to deal with a living person.

The only place where I have found there is no alternative to using a machine to pay is one of the W H Smith branches in Birmingham Airport. Here my standard practice is to stand looking helpless until an assistant comes to operate the machine for me. Grey hair and the generally stressed look which airports produce are very helpful in these circumstances.

[MrGongGong]

I only have a PC, and my phone is of the kind which I believe is now called 'dumb'. I don't consider myself a dinosaur, I just don't want to lumber myself with things I don't need and which will cause me aggravation to use - I've discovered the hard way that my idea of 'intuitive controls' bears no resemblance to modern technology's concept of same. Fortunately my home town still has(for now) a choice of financial establishments containing human operatives who are helpful, pleasant and patient, and since one positive of otherwise rather tiresome personal circumstances is that I have time to visit said places I will continue to do so for as long as possible.

"I only have a PC" ......"which will cause me aggravation to use"

the second comment is maybe a perfect definition of the first?

BUT what REALLY angers me is that it's nigh on impossible to get coal for my traction engine when I go into town these days?
I'm no 'dinosaur' but i'm refusing to pander to the modern trend of internal combustion

Sometimes the solutions to the problems in life ARE more technology and sometimes they are LESS
being able to differentiate is the tricky bit

Getting cash out of a bank would seem to me to be something that doesn't require interaction with a person BUT choosing a cheese might.

[Bryn]

I've discovered the hard way that my idea of 'intuitive controls' bears no resemblance to modern technology's concept of same.

I feel your pain. The admittedly free software Rode make available to use in conjuction with their ambisonic microphone cluster is claimed to be "intuitive" and has no documentation to guide one in its use. The old saw of "if all else fails, consult the manual" is not much help when there is no manual to consult.

[Anastasius]

"I only have a PC" ......"which will cause me aggravation to use"

the second comment is maybe a perfect definition of the first?

BUT what REALLY angers me is that it's nigh on impossible to get coal for my traction engine when I go into town these days?
I'm no 'dinosaur' but i'm refusing to pander to the modern trend of internal combustion

Sometimes the solutions to the problems in life ARE more technology and sometimes they are LESS
being able to differentiate is the tricky bit

Getting cash out of a bank would seem to me to be something that doesn't require interaction with a person BUT choosing a cheese might.

I object to the ever-increasing disenfranchisement for anyone without a mobile and/or a decent signal. It's getting to the point now that if you don't have both then you're no longer able to buy anything online, do online banking etc. And since many who don't have a decent mobile signal live out in the sticks, their proximity to an actual bank branch is risible.

My other gripe is the increasing number of ill-thought through IT systems where the systems designers have (a) assumed that everything is perfect and (b) made no attempt to consider 'what-if' and design their systems accordingly.

Oh, and the lack of joined up thinking whereby the screen designers say 'Enter your Verification number' but the people that created the letter sent to you by snail mail have something called a 'Reference number'.

Or online screens that refuse to let you 'continue' and yet won't tell you why. Latest example, trying to order a new washing machine from Curry's for the MIL. We put in our telephone number in both fields (deliver to and bill payment) since it is difficult for her to get to the phone. That wasted fifteen minutes of my life.

Or email systems - RICS has one of these - where if you send in an email or form with the total size of the attachments over a certain (never revealed) limit then their system will send you an acknowledgement but then unceremoniously dump your email...never to be seen again.

Or websites that mean I might as well stick brown paper over the lefthand 3" and the righthand 12" of my screen since the website has been formatted for a tiny mobile screen.

[MrGongGong]

I object to the ever-increasing disenfranchisement for anyone without a mobile and/or a decent signal. It's getting to the point now that if you don't have both then you're no longer able to buy anything online, do online banking etc. And since many who don't have a decent mobile signal live out in the sticks, their proximity to an actual bank branch is risible.

One of the attractions of living where I do is the lack of mobile signal (maybe the pub next door has it's attractions as does the field of sheep in the field behind our house.... though they go away for a couple of days in August to allow for the lawnmower racing )
It is a choice though. I choose to live in rural Lincolnshire where I can actually buy a house and see the sky even though I spend most of my life travelling to other places. If it was simpler then folks with lots of money would move in a commute and make it impossible for the rest of us..........I've never been to my bank "branch" i'm not even sure that there is a physical one anymore ?

My other gripe is the increasing number of ill-thought through IT systems where the systems designers have (a) assumed that everything is perfect and (b) made no attempt to consider 'what-if' and design their systems accordingly.

Oh, and the lack of joined up thinking whereby the screen designers say 'Enter your Verification number' but the people that created the letter sent to you by snail mail have something called a 'Reference number'.

Or online screens that refuse to let you 'continue' and yet won't tell you why. Latest example, trying to order a new washing machine from Curry's for the MIL. We put in our telephone number in both fields (deliver to and bill payment) since it is difficult for her to get to the phone. That wasted fifteen minutes of my life.

Or email systems - RICS has one of these - where if you send in an email or form with the total size of the attachments over a certain (never revealed) limit then their system will send you an acknowledgement but then unceremoniously dump your email...never to be seen again.

Or websites that mean I might as well stick brown paper over the lefthand 3" and the righthand 12" of my screen since the website has been formatted for a tiny mobile screen.

Same as it ever was.... the assumption that somehow EVERYTHING will be perfect at some unspecified date in the future needs challenging

BUT there are many things that simply DO work..I used to spend hours messing about with audio drivers, not anymore. I used to waste my life going to shops to buy things that don't require a great deal of thought and so on and so on

and with all the time I save I can make more music

[oddoneout]

"I only have a PC" ......"which will cause me aggravation to use"

the second comment is maybe a perfect definition of the first?

BUT what REALLY angers me is that it's nigh on impossible to get coal for my traction engine when I go into town these days?
I'm no 'dinosaur' but i'm refusing to pander to the modern trend of internal combustion

Sometimes the solutions to the problems in life ARE more technology and sometimes they are LESS
being able to differentiate is the tricky bit

Getting cash out of a bank would seem to me to be something that doesn't require interaction with a person BUT choosing a cheese might.

In some respects yes but it's aggravation I can tolerate for the benefits. The aggravation from 'devices' is, apart from the circumstances which actually might require their use being virtually non-existent in my life, a physical one. Painful and increasingly stiff hands and fingers make the concept of handheld anything less than appealing - it won't be too long at current rate of deterioration before choir concerts mean having a stand for the music.
Getting cash doesn't require interaction with a person, but lacking anyone at home or family within easily accessible distance, I appreciate the human interaction from banks and shops. The staff are often people I've known for a long time from parenting or work activities.
Small, sad and boring life perhaps, but it's the one I've got and I try and make the best of it.

I can get the coal for my traction engine but space for parking it has become impossible and the neighbours don't like the mess it makes of the unmade road we live on - they didn't seem keen to vacate their parking slots en masse so my mate with the steam roller could come in every now and then to consolidate the shingle...

[Anastasius]

One of the attractions of living where I do is the lack of mobile signal (maybe the pub next door has it's attractions as does the field of sheep in the field behind our house.... though they go away for a couple of days in August to allow for the lawnmower racing )
It is a choice though. I choose to live in rural Lincolnshire where I can actually buy a house and see the sky even though I spend most of my life travelling to other places. If it was simpler then folks with lots of money would move in a commute and make it impossible for the rest of us..........I've never been to my bank "branch" i'm not even sure that there is a physical one anymore ?



Same as it ever was.... the assumption that somehow EVERYTHING will be perfect at some unspecified date in the future needs challenging

BUT there are many things that simply DO work..I used to spend hours messing about with audio drivers, not anymore. I used to waste my life going to shops to buy things that don't require a great deal of thought and so on and so on

and with all the time I save I can make more music

So if you don't go to the shops then how do you buy stuff ? 'cos without a mobile signal there will come a time when you won't be able to buy online.

[Anastasius]

In some respects yes but it's aggravation I can tolerate for the benefits. The aggravation from 'devices' is, apart from the circumstances which actually might require their use being virtually non-existent in my life, a physical one. Painful and increasingly stiff hands and fingers make the concept of handheld anything less than appealing - it won't be too long at current rate of deterioration before choir concerts mean having a stand for the music.
Getting cash doesn't require interaction with a person, but lacking anyone at home or family within easily accessible distance, I appreciate the human interaction from banks and shops. The staff are often people I've known for a long time from parenting or work activities.
Small, sad and boring life perhaps, but it's the one I've got and I try and make the best of it.

I can get the coal for my traction engine but space for parking it has become impossible and the neighbours don't like the mess it makes of the unmade road we live on - they didn't seem keen to vacate their parking slots en masse so my mate with the steam roller could come in every now and then to consolidate the shingle...

Your mate needs a larger steam roller. Then the issue of filled parking slots becomes incidental

I share your concern re hands. Not sure I will have your fortitude as mine worsen.

[MrGongGong]

So if you don't go to the shops then how do you buy stuff ? 'cos without a mobile signal there will come a time when you won't be able to buy online.

I buy food in shops/market
but wouldn't go to a shop to buy something like a washing machine or even go to the station to buy a train ticket etc

My internet at home isn't via a mobile so I can use my mobile via WIFI but as we have several computers I tend not to

Human interaction IS important but I don't really get that from someone in a bank

[MrGongGong]

I can get the coal for my traction engine but space for parking it has become impossible and the neighbours don't like the mess it makes of the unmade road we live on - they didn't seem keen to vacate their parking slots en masse so my mate with the steam roller could come in every now and then to consolidate the shingle...

Given the state of the roads where I live we would welcome the cinders from your roller to fill in a few holes...

[Pulcinella]

One of my ATM bugbears:

Options appear:
Cash with receipt
Cash without receipt

I choose Cash with receipt

Enter amount.......cash dispensed.

Notice then appears:
We are unable to issue a receipt
(Presumably because the paper stock has run out!)

Surely it is a simple programming matter to avoid giving the option 'Cash with receipt' if the machine can't do this?

[Anastasius]

I buy food in shops/market
but wouldn't go to a shop to buy something like a washing machine or even go to the station to buy a train ticket etc

My internet at home isn't via a mobile so I can use my mobile via WIFI but as we have several computers I tend not to

Human interaction IS important but I don't really get that from someone in a bank

Ah yes...using a mobile via wi-fi. Great in theory and probably brilliant in an area without ANY mobile signal. But unfortunately where I live the mobile signal depends. So Vodafone wifi calling will kick in and out and sometimes part way through a call. Basically the concept from my perspective is flakey as hell. It actually gets to the point where I will switch off the wi-fi on the phone and accept that the call might get cut off (but nowhere nearly as often if I have wifi calling as an option.

Said flakey mobile coverage also confuses the hell out of our security camera (a Nest cam) that has a nifty (in theory) Home/Away Assist that recognises when I leave home and will automatically turn the camera on. Only it relies heavily on triangulation based on signal strength of the mobile masts. Since that is a moveable feast here, I can take the phone into the garden and because it picks up a different set of triangulation data, thinks sometimes that I've gone Away.

[Anastasius]

One of my ATM bugbears:

Options appear:
Cash with receipt
Cash without receipt

I choose Cash with receipt

Enter amount.......cash dispensed.

Notice then appears:
We are unable to issue a receipt
(Presumably because the paper stock has run out!)

Surely it is a simple programming matter to avoid giving the option 'Cash with receipt' if the machine can't do this?

Precisely my point. Systems designers rarely consider 'What if'...as in 'What if there is no paper'. As you say, it is a simple task to program but only if specified in the first place. I do have a very dim view of todays' Systems non-Designers.

You just reminded me of another beef...this time with Legal and General. If you apply online for life insurance one of the questions on the first page asks if you have ever been advised to cut down on alcohol consumption. If the answer is 'yes' then it is an automatic refusal. Only their system does not terminate the process at that point but makes you waste 20-30 minutes of your life entering all the other health question minutiae and only THEN tells you that they won't cover you. When you call to ask why don't they automatically decline up front, yo get a load of BS saying that their underwriting system has to know all the health details before it can make a decision. When you point out that a hypothetical application with a perfect health record marred only by the alcohol question still results in a refusal, they still continue with their BS. They've done this for two years now. No intention of changing their system as it will cost them money. Sod you, me and thousands of others wasting our time.