SPAM random annoying things

[TdC]

I ate a burger on the late train. Most, if not everyone, hated me.

 

[Moriath]

I ate a burger on the late train. Most, if not everyone, hated me.

Was it a dirty burger? Sloppy with onions and gerkins ?

 

[Raven]

Amazon Prime, not being particularly "prime"

Ordered a new scope for my rifle, it said it was in stock and available for prime, next day delivery. Select free next day delivery and get an email confirmation that it will be delivered today. Lunch time today I get an email that it won't be delivered after all and that "they will try" to deliver tomorrow...what fucking use is "will try" I need it for the weekend as I am doing a lot of shooting and had hoped to get it zeroed in time.

Cancelled and ordered from elsewhere.

 

[CorNokZ]

If you want a physical product right away, you should go buy it at a store. The price will be higher for obvious reasons, but you'll get the product. If you want it within a week or two, purchase it online so you don't have to bother with standing in line and being around plebs, who still go to physical stores.

I even have my groceries delivered now. Costs about 5 quid, but it saves me time and time is money, so that's fine by me. And I don't get to stand in line like an idiot

 

[Raven]

Ordinarily I would agree but I pay for prime for the next day delivery and if a listing states that it is available on prime, I expect it to be.
I don't really do shops if I can help it. I just can't stand the faffing about that shops involve, especially those in town. Travelling there, parking, having to deal with mouth breathers who have nothing better to do than get in the way etc

Pretty much everything I buy I get on Amazon now, its just easier. Food I get online, except for fresh meat that I get from the butcher.

 

[CorNokZ]

We don't have Amazon in Denmark, so didn't know you paid for Prime or what it was.. Then your complaint was more than fair.

I don't do dairy, meats and soft veggies/fruit from the online shop. I get that at the high end supermarket on my way home from work. It is nice and big and always have a lot of open checkouts, regardless of the amount of customers, so no waiting in line.

 

[Tom]

The ordering computer things in McDonald's. I ask a person "chicken sandwich and small fries please, no drink" and that's that. It took me nearly 5 minutes to do the same on the computer. What a load of shit.

 

[Raven]

Amazon have responded to my whinging and given me a 30 day extension to my membership, which was nice.

 

[Ormorof]

The ordering computer things in McDonald's. I ask a person "chicken sandwich and small fries please, no drink" and that's that. It took me nearly 5 minutes to do the same on the computer. What a load of shit.

Isnt the meal with a drink cheaper than buying just burger and fries separately?

 

[DaGaffer]

The ordering computer things in McDonald's. I ask a person "chicken sandwich and small fries please, no drink" and that's that. It took me nearly 5 minutes to do the same on the computer. What a load of shit.

Haven't seen these. Do they send you to a different queue? Can you store preferences? Might be an evolving thing (although these days if they want to do electronic ordering in-store why not do it via an app?)

 

[Ormorof]

Location based stuff is hard

Also if you need to encrypt any data and you want app to be available in US app store you need an arms import license

 

[Raven]

Another user name and password to forget and then go through all the horse shit to recover it. Another company that holds your information for no discernible reason.

Plus mailing lists and all that bollocks. I am a big fan of technology but not when its completely pointless. Talk to man, get food. Go. Why does it need a computer?

 

[caLLous]

Haven't seen these. Do they send you to a different queue? Can you store preferences? Might be an evolving thing (although these days if they want to do electronic ordering in-store why not do it via an app?)

It's just a touch-screen terminal that you walk up to and step through the options of what you want to order. You then get a ticket with a queue number. You can pay by card at the terminal itself or by cash at the till.

They prefer you to use them if it's busy (especially if you're in a group) and they do have their uses but it's often quicker to just walk up to the counter and order something.

 

[caLLous]

Also, in their current form, there's no option for remembering preferences because you can't identify yourself unless you pay by card and that doesn't happen until the end. It's probably a good way of dealing with those infuriating customers who stand at the checkout umming and ahhing while they're thinking about what they want to order.

 

[Moriath]

The ordering computer things in McDonald's. I ask a person "chicken sandwich and small fries please, no drink" and that's that. It took me nearly 5 minutes to do the same on the computer. What a load of shit.

Only used them when i been abroad. And then it was useful as i could get it in english and not have the translation issues. But it did take time and i agree. Also i never buy sugar water from fast food places as well. It is hard so etimes getting through to them that you dont want the meal.

 

[caLLous]

Yeah the translation issue as well. The ones I've seen can walk you through it in 5 different languages and all of the options have big pictures next to them anyway so you can't go wrong really.

 

[DaGaffer]

Location based stuff is hard

Also if you need to encrypt any data and you want app to be available in US app store you need an arms import license

Its not that hard. McDonald's branches generally aren't on wheels so you could do an order by map app fairly easily. You could even do turn by turn nav for the tourists. The hard part would be time slots; in an ideal world you would set it up so that even when the order is taken you don't start cooking anything until the customer (or rather their phone) is within x metres of the restaurant.

This type of thing is definitely going to happen and fast food places are the obvious start point because they have the scale to make the mapping investment work, and can probably absorb any cancellation/tomfoolery issues.

 

[Ormorof]

Or they could start by letting you create your order on phone then beeping it with nfc or somesuch

Gps is poor for true location and it gets worse inside buildings, having some other ways to confirm you are there would be better (theres free wifi on most mcds can use that as location tracker much easier)

 

[DaGaffer]

Or they could start by letting you create your order on phone then beeping it with nfc or somesuch

Gps is poor for true location and it gets worse inside buildings, having some other ways to confirm you are there would be better (theres free wifi on most mcds can use that as location tracker much easier)

Yup, we're looking at something similar for selling lottery tickets right now. Not NFC though, half the market doesn't have it.

 

[Raven]

I already piss £10 a week up the wall by direct debit.

 

[DaGaffer]

I already piss £10 a week up the wall by direct debit.

Yeah, I'm also working on subs, but there will always be a big section of the population who will never play online, but we can still offer better options for them than pen and paper.

 

[Scouse]

I already piss £10 a week up the wall by direct debit.

Or you could take that £520 per year and go on holiday with it.

 

[Tom]

It's just a touch-screen terminal that you walk up to and step through the options of what you want to order. You then get a ticket with a queue number. You can pay by card at the terminal itself or by cash at the till.

They prefer you to use them if it's busy (especially if you're in a group) and they do have their uses but it's often quicker to just walk up to the counter and order something.

Thems the ones. In hamburg airport. Whoever invented them is a thundercunt.

 

[Moriath]

Yeah, I'm also working on subs, but there will always be a big section of the population who will never play online, but we can still offer better options for them than pen and paper.

Lottery. Poor mans dream tax

 

[DaGaffer]

Lottery. Poor mans dream tax

Wow, searing insight there chief, think that up all by yourself?

 

[caLLous]

There's a new Euromillions add-on in France called Etoile+ which, if I understand it correctly, allows you to have a wildcard on one of the stars. With that gimmick included, it's now € 3.50 a line.

 

[DaGaffer]

There's a new Euromillions add-on in France called Etoile+ which, if I understand it correctly, allows you to have a wildcard on one of the stars. With that gimmick included, it's now € 3.50 a line.

We have a "plus" addon that brings the price to the same. But hey, 1.15 of that goes to good causes, so I have no problem with it.

 

[caLLous]

We have a "plus" addon that brings the price to the same. But hey, 1.15 of that goes to good causes, so I have no problem with it.

Is that Euromillions or your domestic lottery? Do they do the "My Million" thing over there too (were you get a randomly generated code per line bought that guarantees a millionaire every week)? I always assume the UK/Ireland has all of the new stuff that France has because France isn't exactly on the bleeding edge... of anything. Whenever they bring some new feature out they say it's "exclusive to France " but they probably mean just that version of it is exclusive to France.

Anyway, they're bastards for doing that Etoile+ thing. You write it off as a gimmick but if I got 5 numbers and 1 star and hadn't done it I'd be kicking myself. That's the difference between € ~180k and whatever the jackpot is. It's actually scandalous, if you get 4 numbers and 2 stars that's only about 3 grand. You'd think getting 6 out of the 7 numbers right would net you a lot more than that.

Edit - the Etoile+ thing doesn't seem to exist in any form for the UK Euromillions. I was looking for an English explanation of it because I think I've got "how it works" completely wrong.

 

[Raven]

For every line you buy you get a "free" (Came in with the price increase iirc) entry into a raffle, can't remember the prize though, might be 20k I think.

 

[DaGaffer]

Is that Euromillions or your domestic lottery? Do they do the "My Million" thing over there too (were you get a randomly generated code per line bought that guarantees a millionaire every week)? I always assume the UK/Ireland has all of the new stuff that France has because France isn't exactly on the bleeding edge... of anything. Whenever they bring some new feature out they say it's "exclusive to France " but they probably mean just that version of it is exclusive to France.

Anyway, they're bastards for doing that Etoile+ thing. You write it off as a gimmick but if I got 5 numbers and 1 star and hadn't done it I'd be kicking myself. That's the difference between € ~180k and whatever the jackpot is. It's actually scandalous, if you get 4 numbers and 2 stars that's only about 3 grand. You'd think getting 6 out of the 7 numbers right would net you a lot more than that.

Edit - the Etoile+ thing doesn't seem to exist in any form for the UK Euromillions. I was looking for an English explanation of it because I think I've got "how it works" completely wrong.

EM, but we have a Plus game on the Lotto game as well. Very popular, most people play it.

As for EM, the add-on games are all different in each country. Basically, everyone wanted higher jackpots (€100M+) more often, so you have to have a. more liquidity in the game, b. slightly worse odds (its amazing how loads of people say smaller jackpots that people have more chance of winning is what they want, but the experience of every single lottery on the planet disproves it; for every player who plays at the base level jackpots, there are three who won't get out of bed for anything less than €100M). So everyone agreed to put the price up by 20c (except France I believe, who'd already done it?) but in most countries the customer research said they didn't like "fiddly" numbers like 2.20, so countries rounded up to 2.50 and created add on games with the extra 30c/30p. Each add on is suited to the size of the country, so the UK and France can create big(ish) games for 1M plus prizes, and small countries like Ireland do smaller prizes. There's also this regular "make a bunch of millionaires" raffle game across Europe (first one is in a couple of weeks) which is a straight copy of the millionaire maker add-on the UK has been doing for years.

Its funny you say France isn't on the bleeding edge; they're quite innovative in some areas, although online is a bit behind the curve (App especially) imho, and they're a bit slow to change. Having said that, I don't think I could point at any lottery's online presence and say "yeah that's brilliant". We're getting there but I still don't like our clunky login (there's complicated history behind it and most lotteries have similar issues), and our website will get a lot better in a few weeks.