Greatest Product? How about the Worst Invention!

[Bird]

My vote for the worst invention of the century has to go to the automated telephone answering systems where you play telephone roulette. If you want this, press 1; if you want that press 2, and on and on. And eventually you either get cut off or you get "All our customer service representatives are currently assisting other customers. Stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order in which it was received" (MAYBE!) Then you get to sit there and listen interminably to a loud and obnoxious racket that at least some people call "music." And polite language cannot describe my opinion of those contraptions and the companies that use them. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[daedong]

Computers /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I would get more work done without one /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[DaveNH]

All the products from the famous Ron Popeil.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[OkeeDon]

Computer dialing; computer solicitation. Even our local police department has an automated dialing system with recorded messages. When they bought it, they justified it by saying that it would be used for emergency situations, like informing everyone in a specific neighborhood of an evacuation, etc. But, about every 6 months, they dial with stupid messages about community policing or some such, probably just to rationalize the existence of the system. I've never heard of it being used in any sort of emergency.

At my business, we received at least two calls a day for over two weeks, even after using their removal system, offering a vacation in Orlando including air fare. We live 2 hours from Orlando by car.

The solicitors use automated dialing but sometimes can't keep up with it. After you say, "Hello", the computer says, "Please hold on - someone will be with you shortly." Yeah, sure, like I'm going to sit and hold on a call I didn't make! I learned that some of them use a voice recognition system that triggers on the word "Hello". We now try to answer the phone some other way, when we remember.

Blah.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( polite language cannot describe my opinion of those contraptions and the companies that use them. )</font>

It seems the telephone company is one of the worst offenders, followed by the utility companies. I think they have those machines only because they know you really need to contact them and are not going to hang up. When I worked for General Electric, we had to report absences from work by what they called an "interactive voice system" which consisted of multiple levels of a boring, droning voice offering many too wrong choices before getting to a "possible" correct choice. There was no operator at all. At the end, this computer voice would read back the info to you and if it was wrong, you had to repeat the entire frustrating process. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I'm with you. I think we should "nuke" all of those systems.

 

[Egon]

Re: Greatest Product? How about the Worst Inventi

You fellows are all way to modest on the list of undesirables.

Ive got watches I can't set, Tv's with all that ancillary equipment that doesn't respond to that " thing" called a remote. Sound systems tied in also that seem impossible to turn on. A phone that I'm almost able to use. A hand held GPS that require hours reading the manual before I dare try it and will have forgotten for the next use. Vehicles on which one opens the hood and say's "okay it's dealer time" and another $600 dollars. A computer and manuals that defy my feeble comprehensive skills.

And worst of all, a coffee maker with so many buttons it takes a magician to get a cup. Then it also beeps and I try and answer the phone or the phone beeps and I try for a cup of coffee that isn't there.

But all is not lost. In my possession there is a hammer from my Grandfathers time that can alleviate all the previous frustrations.

Egon

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It seems the telephone company is one of the worst offenders, followed by the utility companies )</font>

Yep, a week ago Saturday our phone went out; had to report it to Verizon using the cell phone and never spoke to a human. The automated system eventually told me it would be fixed by 1 p.m. Monday (they actually got it working just before 2 p.m. Monday). Then yesterday morning, the electricity went off shortly after 7 a.m. and I called TXU with the same results. The automated system simply told me the information would be forwarded to the (repair service). An hour later, I tried again, using some different "options" on the automated system and after 18 minutes finally got to speak to a human, who also could tell me nothing except that they knew there was an outage. Service technicians did show up in the area about 9 a.m. and power was restored shortly before 2 p.m.

 

[s1120]

<font color="red">had to report it to Verizon using the cell phone </font>

Ahhh Cell phones! We all have them, we all need them, how meny of us just want to chuck them into the nearest river? /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

How come things that are to make are life easyer, just make it more complcated? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[rancar]

<font color="blue">How about the Worst Invention! </font>

Fast food restaurants.

Many of us would be thinner and healthier if it wasn't for fast food restaurants.

...Bob

 

[Gatorboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Many of us would be thinner and healthier if it wasn't for fast food restaurants. )</font>

But I don't believe they are forcing you to eat there, are they? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[knucklehead]

Gator - you beat me!

Welfare. It hurts people. Always. Belongs in the private sector.

 

[AndyM]

Don,
I don't know if you have ever had a problem of answering the phone and there was no one there, but I found out a reason behind it--

It seems the telemarketing firms have done research that has shown them that someone will answer something like 1 in 3 calls they make. So, their automated dialing machines will dial three phone numbers at once, gambling that one person out of the three will pick up the phone, just as their research dictates. Every great once in a while, two people will pick up the phone at the same time, so while the are giving their sales pitch to the one person, the other person picks up the phone and no one is there. I pick up the phone and say "hello" and no one is there. I thought that was interesting when it was explained to me.

 

[Bird]

That's interesting, Andy, because we have that happen frequently and sometimes if we wait long enough a recorded sales pitch will come on, although we usually just hang up. I didn't know they worked as you described. Thanks for the information.

 

[LWFrisk]

My biggest gripe is the way sound is broadcast on TV. You have to crank up the volume all the way to hear the words, then the music and commercials blast you out of the house. I am told FCC reciently rulled that the broadcasters could not turn up the volume for commercials, so they used the loophole and left the commercials alone, just turned down the programming.

 

[Bird]

Yep, Leo, I agree with that complaint. And it's not only the commercials, but also the "background?" music that all movies seem to have. And if you think it's bad now, wait until you have to wear hearing aids as I do. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[rancar]

<font color="blue"> I don't believe they are forcing you to eat there, are they? </font>

Nope....but then nobody forces anybody to use any kind of invention, whether good or bad. It's an issue of choice and sometimes the temptation is just there for good or for worst. Some are just able to resist the temptation better than others.

...Bob

 

[rancar]

<font color="blue"> It's an issue of choice and sometimes the temptation is just there for good or for worst. </font>

This article appears in today's USA Today online edition. This is really what I'm talking about gatorboy in my previous post. Sure, the choice is mine but the world (ie, the fast food industry) sure doesn't make it easy to resist, does it?

Fast Food -- Unhealthy Trends

...Bob

 

[Gatorboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( This is really what I'm talking about )</font>

I think it needs to start with the Parents. How do kids get fast food and sugary cereals?

Making fast food companies have to change their advertising, etc. is just another "Let's have someone else to blame for our problems, and make them solve them as well."

Today's society is a bunch of cry-babies and blame-deflectors. It's time everyone own up to their own shortcomings and fix their problems on their own.

...as Gatorboy slips and falls off his soapbox /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[fivestring]

"Welfare. It hurts people. Always. Belongs in the private sector. "

YEP!

 

[looch]

Wow, no one mentioned the Windows OS!

I will.