I’ll give an example. My father and I got a CD player about twenty years ago. We had a choice between the deluxe one and the somewhat cheaper one. We could’ve easily gotten the deluxe one. But for reasons I still can’t fathom, I recommended the cheaper one. I still regret it.
It worked alright at first. But instead of a simple, sensible plug, you have to stick a wire in back. But that’s not the least of it.
I have reload the music CD several times, before the piece of crap acknowledges that I even put a CD in there. I tried cleaning off the dirt and dust. Makes no difference. (I suppose I could try to get it repaired. But that’d cost me more money too.)
But hey, I’m patient, as I said. So I have to ask: how many of the rest of you would be so patient? And how many of you would give up on the first try? I’ve wondered that last one for quite some time.
Same is true with other technological stuff/crap I own. I’m patient. And it usually pays off.
Can anyone else at all relate with me? And tell me your own stories. What do you do in situations like I described?
My job involves designing improvements for software.
Things like planning bugfixes and new functionality.
But it’s also important to just watch people using the existing software. Because people are patient in the way you describe.
For example, when performing a particular kind of medical diagnosis, there are a number of separate files that need to be passed to another system, and our software indeed included a button for doing that.
But, due to bad UI design, and maybe documentation, many users were not aware of that feature. So instead, they would manually send all the separate files which meant dozens of extra clicks.
And here’s the kicker: we regularly meet with our customers, and no-one ever complained about this laborious process. That’s just the way they thought it was done and they were completely used to it.
Jim_B, sorry to be the downer, but I’d be very surprised if you could find someone who could fix it or wouldn’t consider it not worth their time. Then good luck finding parts. Even if you could find one that had never been opened, just sitting on the shelf leads to deteriorating parts (innards).
I for one do not relate. I am your identical evil twin brother. I have zero tolerance for technology hardware that does not work or is hard to use. I even start shouting out “This is supposed to be simple consumer electronics! I should be able to figure it out without a 200 page manual!”
I’m with ASGuy. Three tries and I start looking for a shoe to give the offending device a Brogan Adjustment. 20 years is a long time to fiddle around to play a CD. I try to purchase stuff I hope will last and can be repaired rather than stuff I have to coax into doing its job
I just had my central A/C system replaced, and included in the install was the replacement of a simple thermostat with a cool looking LCD display programmable one, which I always wanted.
Attempting to program it irritated me so much I just said the hell with it, and have it in permament override mode so that it functions like a basic thermostat.
This mode, that mode, press this while it flashes, select this, select that, and if I don’t do so quickly enough ( while I’m trying to read ahead ), it times out. I’ll get around to it once it gets cool enough to where I can fiddle around for an hour and get it right.
Hah - I remember when we got a nice receiver for a stereo setup - and I was horrified that the way you attach the speakers was to get speaker wire, strip off some of the insulation, stick it in a slot at the back of the amp, and flip a lever to lock it in place. WTF?? I guess that allowed you more flexibility in setting up your speakers, with wires of any length necessary.
I can tolerate tech frustration better than my spouse. I’m pretty sure he can never hear me scream profanities at the computer (though I do grumble when something steals focus). But I do hear him yelling at it, at least once a week. He’s also likelier to get frustrated at other things, and yell (drove Moon Unit to tears once, dammit).
I’m more willing to persist. For example I’m typing this on my gaming keyboard, which required some trial and error to get it to (mostly) work with my KVM switch… but I persisted in trying options and now am happy with it.
BTW, if you’re still using that 20 year old CD player, you probably could NOT have it repaired. At best, a repairman would look blankly at you and suggest you replace it; at worst, such a repair would cost more than the replacement. I think 20 years is patient enough
I’m in kind of the same boat as the OP. When I graduated from high school 24 years ago a relative got me a boom box as a graduation present. It’s one of those fairly big ones with detachable speakers, so you can use it as sort of a mini stereo. So it’s a nice one in that sense, but also, the relative that bought it for me cheaped out and bought a very analog model, even by late 1990s standards. The tuner for the radio uses an actual dial, and the switch to select CD/radio/tape(off) mode is a physical switch. But I gladly accepted it because you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.
In the present day, I’m still using it, because it still mostly works, and I can’t bring myself to replace something that works… mostly. I don’t listen to CDs or tapes anymore, so I just use it as a radio for listening to NPR while I work from home nowadays. Except that three position switch that serves as the on/off switch for the radio (the “tape” position doubles off mode for the CD player and radio) has developed an apparent connectivity issue, which is why I say it “mostly” works. When I turn the radio on it will sometimes be “on” but very quiet. I have to jiggle that switch around and find the exact right spot to get it to play at a normal volume. Usually once I get it working it keeps working, but every once in a while the radio gets quiet, and I have to get up, walk over to it, and jiggle the switch again to fix it.
It’s had the problem for probably a few years now, but like the OP I have been patient with it, and I haven’t replaced it. Can you even still buy a standalone radio anymore?
To answer the OP, I guess I’m not very patient in the way you’re talking about. If something stops working and there’s no obvious fix, I’m all for getting a new one.
I used to have a lot of patience with technology because I thought that it would eventually mature.
When you’ve seem the same type of design bug pop up in software repeatedly for a decade or two, it’s really hard to be patient. You start to get the sense that nobody’s really committed to a product anymore. A company decides to make a quick buck, and they hire the most entry-level team they can get away with. The rush a product to market and sell the company while it’s still buzzy. The company offers little to no job security, so none of the engineers or testers really care what happens beyond a 2-year horizon.
Few if any companies nowadays intend to build a lasting product or a lasting relationship with the customer, and it shows.
I’m very patient with technology. I’m not and have never been a tech professional, but dammit, when I buy something, I expect it to work! The most salient thing about me in this context: I read instructions. I don’t know anyone else who does. Not all instructions are well-written, but I do read them. Slowly and meticulously.
Back when things were mostly mechanical, you often could just look at a thing and figure out how to use it. But electronic gadgets are not intuitive. You (usually) can’t just go pushing buttons and combinations of buttons until the thing kicks on and works. My neighbor got a Ring doorbell/camera and one day it stopped working. He hasn’t bothered to try to get it working again. That would NOT be me.
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