Okay this has been on my chest for a while, and I have to rant.
How frick’n hard is it to use a movie theater ticket computer kiosk?
I swear it’s like standing in line behind 30 old people at a ATM!
I went to Harry Potter last night with Stainz and I decided to stand in the kiosk line, and Stainz went to line manned by a person. There were about 20 people in font of her and 5 in front of me, and she got the tickets first! There were still 2 people ahead of me.
When ever I use the ticket kisok, it seriously takes me 30 seconds to do the transaction if I use my Visa, and maybe a 45 seconds if I use my ATM card.
Anyone else experience this, or is my city the only one with kiosk challenged people?
MtM
Oooooo, I hate this, too. But then, in my city, it seems to take most people much longer to do anything - pay for groceries, exit a parking lot, complete a banking transaction, etc…than I do.
My biggest problem with these machines is this:
(This happened to me last week):
I go to one, it takes me all the way through the steps, and tells me the machine is printing the tickets. Well, a minute later it says ‘Error. Please use another machine.’ Great. So I go to another machine. Nope. Not working. So I go to another machine, but some guy gets there first. So I go to another machine. Nope. Not working. Finally, the fifth machine I use gets me all the way through and prints the tickets. Yep, that was a good use of my time.
The transit ticket kiosks/machines are the same way here. They are SOOOO SIMPLE to use and some people just cannot wrap their minds around it. I was behind some lady who put $5 in one once and then just stood there. “Now what?” Well, it SAYS now what right on it. Where are you going? How much does it cost? Do you need to add or subtract money? She just didn’t know. We figured out where she was going and how much it was going to cost and I showed her how to subtract money from $5 five cents at a time and then she still just stood there. “Now what?” YOU PRINT THE TICKET!!! Jeez. It’s not going to teleport you from that exact spot! Repeat this scenario with a different person every single time I go to the train station.
This is all about paying attention and reading skills, or the lack thereof.
My father is famous for this kind of crap. He goes to a new place where he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do or where he’s supposed to go, like an airport. Does he bother to look around to see what signs are posted and if they’ll help him? Oh, no. He’ll turn to me and ask, “Where are we supposed to go? What are we supposed to do? How does this machine work? What button am I supposed to press?”
Earlier, in my 20s, I cut him a little more slack because I still believed I knew far more than him. So I’d help him out, read the signs myself and tell him what to do or where to go. Thus, I was always the hero, but I also wondered how in the hell my folks functioned in every day life without me? Now that I’m in my 30’s I just chide my dad, “Pay attention? Are you new? Read the freaking directions!”
Usually this shames him into paying attention to his surroundings, reading the signs, figuring out the directions, and he’ll stop asking stupid questions. To me. 