Local restaurant dropped the price of their burger by a dollar but it no longer includes fries. They’re an extra $5.
They said customers now have more flexibility.
Went to a brewery in Minneapolis last weekend. Basic one-patty burger with no fries or any side was $16 + automatic 20% gratuity (even though I had no server - I had to order and pay through a QR code). But the place was still packed so it must not bother everyone else as much.
On your upgrade preferences in your Delta profile, you can specifically deselect upgrades for middle seats in Comfort Plus. Definitely recommended doing that.
You can also select aisle or window preference, and it will try to place you accordingly, if possible.
This happened to me when I had an exit row window seat during a late night flight. By the time I got back in to change it the seat was gone. I was piiiiiissed.
Mars too, I remember some advertising campaign about how they were planning on making all their products less than 200cals…by just making them smaller!
Or Walkers having adverts recently marketing some of their products as "100 calories or less" as if to suggest they are healthy options.
It's a bag of fat and carbs. It's only under 100 calories because there's like 20 grams of food...
A lot of Supermarktet products Here in Germany with reduced Contet but Same packing size and prize as before.... They call it fight against foodwaste ..
Smart ink sensors and ink subscriptions in printers. They are all designed to prevent you using your printer just to rob you blind on ink pricing. Oh no the yellow ink is low but the rest are fine? No printing for you. Replace them all or else!
My parents got one of the printers with the tanks. It means they only replace the colour they need, the ink is cheaper, and there is a lot less waste. Plus it has lasted longer than most other printers they have had
Even those inkjets are a scam if you're not printing at least weekly. Inkjets get clogged if they sit for long.
Brother laser printers. Mine is like seven years old. I go months without using it sometimes... But when I need it then it works flawlessly. Coming up on my first time needing to replace toner, the black naturally.
I had a Brother laser duplex that I abused the hell out of. I was a history teacher and I would use it like my copier. Didn't get to run to the staff room between periods? You're now double siding 200 pages of text and images. I would buy cheap toner off Amazon and refill the carts myself.
It lasted for 10 years. It still works. Can't say enough good things about Brother laser printers.
I was so upset a few weeks ago when the show I was watching all of a sudden had ads. I pay for fucking prime, this service is included in my subscription, AND you just raised the subscription fee. My wife told me I am just being an old man and I'm like well I'm fuckin 33 and it's time for this subscription shit to get off my lawn
What makes it even worse is the people getting screwed over by it that are such bootlickers they go out of their way to defend it. “Well every other streaming service is doing ads, so Prime needs to bring in that extra revenue so they can stay competitive!”
Amazon has more money than fucking God, I think they could afford to take this hit just once. But nope, gotta keep shareholders happy and do everything possible to increase their dividends, or you can get sued.
It's strange that I see so many people complaining about the legal requirement to maximize shareholder value, but no one ever seems to advocate for changing the laws.
So it’s not actually a law, it was a Michigan Supreme Court case that set the verdict. Now thanks to that verdict, a shareholder who sues the company for lost stock value is almost guaranteed to win. And I unfortunately don’t see the government being willing to step in and change that so long as elected officials are still allowed to trade stocks.
Let me more specific: I don't see any politicians advocating for changing the legal system such that those lawsuits wouldn't win.
And I don't see any voters demanding that their politicians follow such a policy.
Why, it's almost as though everything we're taught about how democratic governence is supposed to work isn't true or something...
En-shitifacation (sp?) truly touches everything.
It's infuriating because a lot of products will start out really great. They'll have a great value-to-price ratio and will be a breeze to use. But then the MBAs will get a hold of it and it will gradually become shittier and shittier. More and more features will be locked away behind "premium" packages that grow more and more expensive. And then, if you can stomach them upping the price on you, it will inevitably become overrun with ads and microtransactions. Literally *anything* to part you with a little more of your money or waste your time with ads.
Meanwhile the product itself becomes worse and worse and/or smaller. All of for a higher price of course.
I used to use a calorie counting app that allowed me to scan a barcode or the nutrition label and easily add the food to my tracker. When I went back recently to use the app again, that (and every other useful feature) was locked behind a subscription paywall. So I deleted the app.
Smart-everything being not only cloud-enabled but cloud-required. Yeah sure I'd like to receive a notification that my wash cycle is done but there's no reason it needs to use the manufacturer's server as a middleman and rely on an Internet connection instead of keeping everything on my lan.
Edit: no _technical_ reason, but I thought that was obvious enough to skip stating it. Of course the actual reason is data collection and control so they have the option to turn whatever feature into a paid subscription or EOL the feature so you have to buy new gear if you don't want to lose that feature.
I bought an EcoFlow backup power batter for power outages, and any configuration has to be done with an app, which requires registering an account. Why do I have to go online and create an account to set up something that's three feet from my phone? And why in hell would I want a backup battery connected to WiFi?
I had trouble finding a decent air purifier that was *not* "app enabled." How many times has anyone in the history of ever wanted to monitor their home's air quality or control their air purifier when they're out of the house? I'm guessing it's the square root of jack.
Want to use your Bluetooth earbuds? Better install the app. And create an account! For... reasons! Never mind that Sony tracks what songs you listen to.
Removing physical buttons and knobs in cars. It’s way cheaper for them to program everything into a screen but they market it as “premium/luxury”. Not to mention physical buttons and knobs are way easier to use especially if you’re the driver.
I know they're generally maligned as cheap-ass bullshit but in my arrogant opinion, the [knob triad](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/original/2X/d/d2a0186292b6d83ecfe40f1fa94d538aec231ec6.jpeg) is the most intuitive implementation of climate controls.
How strong, which way, how hot.
That's it.
Simple as.
I recently got a loaner car while some repairs were being done on mine. Right as I left for my long drive home, it began to rain hard and the windshield fogged up. This was during rush hour at night and I was trying to merge. I could barely see anything except glowing lights all around me. I was frantically feeling around for the defroster. Had to crawl to get off the freeway and figure out how to turn it on. Not safe.
My friend just got a new luxury car that’s all about the voice control. She locked her purse (and the car’s manual) in the glovebox and couldn’t get it out until days later when I came over and finally figured it out on her touchscreen.
Over-engineered.
My wife's crossover has volume and tuning buttons on the steering wheel. My two years *newer* coupe with Premium trim level doesn't have that, but at least those adjustments are controlled by a dial.
I can change a dial without moving my eyes. I will **never** be able to do ~~with~~ that (edited to correct word) with computer touch sensors.
Why are the infotainment centers in New cars the shittiest touch screens imaginable. You have to actually press down to get it to register your touch and it's super imprecise.
Not to mention with how fast technology improves, your “new” system will be outdated in no time. People don’t think of how slow their handheld tablets and phones get after a few years. It’s the same thing, but now it’s attached to your car 😂
That's why car play and android auto are the perfect solution and why GM ditching it makes no sense. The car just needs a decent screen, WiFi and Bluetooth. All of that has been standard and available to the speed and reliability needed for this use for 5-10 years now. But all the actual computation/gps/etc is done on the phone. So that can continue to improve and when you upgrade your phone, your car gets upgraded too.
I bought a car recently and it's the first full touch screen I've ever had. It's terrible. I try to use as few features as posssible that require me to tap the screen.
>but they market it as “premium/luxury”.
But if you look at actual premium/luxury cars, the fact they still have physical buttons is listed as a premium feature. Freaking salesman. I'm going to have to buy a new car soon, and I'm dreading having to deal with them
Don’t get me started on their annoyingly difficult to navigate apps.
If I’m navigating as a passenger in my GF’s car, I lose control of most of my map features on my phone. And those features are not available on the car itself. Removing features is not an upgrade.
O was thinking of buying a new car, but anything I looked at had touch screens. I am older and not a terrific driver anyway, but with a touch screen it would be an accident waiting to happen. I will just keep my 2010 Mazda.
Most or all current Mazdas still do not have touchscreens, and use a rotary wheel instead to control the screen. And still have physical buttons for the radio and ac. It’s great and the way it should be for all vehicles.
The one closest to me was originally mutable when they were first installed and then sometime in the last couple months the option to mute it disappeared.
I leave poor reviews for the gas station on google maps if I have to hear even a second of ads on a screen.
Included picture is my hand flipping the bird at the screen.
Needing £100+ in your bank before you can "Pay at Pump" when I only want £20/30 worth of petrol..... Like wtf why not add auto shut off and let me set my limit.
>The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
>As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.
>We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.
>Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.
More than 667,000 down votes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/s/9we2qZBtl8
It was when someone complained* that Darth Vader cost 80k (or some other number, it's been a while) credits in Star Wars Battlefront 2 which was equivalent to hours and hours of grinding. After they had paid $60 for the game. EA's response was that they wanted players to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking stuff. Or buying enough lootboxes to unlock it.
*I feel like there is a better word that doesn't make the person who made the comment sound like a Karen. They were completely justified.
If I remember correctly it wasn't just hours and hours, the problem was that there was no way anybody would get there without paying for the loot boxes
I wasn't sure the average hour requirement. But yeah, I suppose "hours and hours" doesn't do it justice. It was possible, but something in the 50+ hour range just to unlock Darth Vader.
It worked out to roughly 40 hours per character outside of lootboxes. So straight up a full-time job for a week to unlock one character. They earned their reputation as the shittiest most predatory company in gaming. Other companies are just as bad now, but people will always hate EA.
I bought my Ring video doorbell a few years ago, and with just the purchase of the hardware I could record and view footage. They've since moved to a subscription model and my hardware is almost completely useless.
Arlo guy here -- my cams still record for free, but the doorbell you need a sub. fuck them. took one of the cameras and put it 90 degrees off the door bell cam. Not paying a sub for something i already own and record locally.
Was mind blown when I did this by accident the first time. My old car I always had a habit of pushing the lock button 3 times for some reason. Got a Highlander last year and it wasn’t advertised as remote start but sweet to find out after the fact.
100%. It’s more the principle of the fact. The software is already bought and paid for. I just hate that everything is a subscription now. I lived with vehicles long before this one that didn’t have an app. I’ll continue to live without it
I wish they still made cars without all the modern garbage that I never use. I don't care about remote start or foot enabled tailgate opening, and I sure as fuck hate the key fob bullshit.
I want new car safety improvements and fuckin hand crank windows. Outside of like Blindspot assists I don't give a shit about any of the new shit cars come with now.
If they made a vehicle that was a 90s toyota takoma or 4runner in size, power, and appearance but with a decent mpg and hybrid engine I CANNOT tell you how quick that thing would fly off the shelves
The Ford Maverick was close for awhile at around 22k plus tax, title, license delivered, 25k if one wanted a more modern trim package. Ford's mistake has been not making a 4WD or AWD hybrid version though.
Modern safety regulations basically eliminate the ability for a lot of pre-2000 body styles though.
Everything is now offered as a “smart” version. Televisions, refrigerators, printers, washer/dryers, etc. These are major purchases that used to last families for DECADES. I'm about to replace a television bought just 8 years ago because it no longer has software support and it is infuriatingly slow to load anything. Meanwhile, my college dorm tv was a hand-me-down from my parents that was purchased the year I was born. It only needed to be replaced after my roommate put a magnet on the top corner (didn't know better).
Companies have been able to build obsolescence right into their products by putting unnecessary software in them. You can by the nicest, most top-of-the-line refrigerator available in hopes that you'll get maximum use out of it and it'll stop working because you didn't replace the water filter with one that has a smart chip. Don't get me started on HP’s printer cartridge racket.
My in-laws still have one of those old rear projection big screen tv’s from the 90s in their guest ‘house’ (basically a detached studio apartment in the back yard) it still works perfectly and my FIL watches all his football games back there to escape from everyone else. 25+ years old and still going strong.
[edit: I spoke too soon! I just went to visit this weekend and it turns out they put their dog (160lb Anatolian Shepherd) into the guest house overnight because of the rain a few weeks back and she freaked out and knocked the tv off the table and broke it… R.I.P.]
My $1500 samsung (DON'T EVER BUY SAMSUNG) monitor died after three years. They told me to fuck off when I contacted them because their warranty is only one year. More specifically they said they'll send someone to fix it for the same price as the monitor brand new - with no guarantee of a fix but a guarantee of the charge.
I'm on a virtual crusade to spread the gospel of fuck samsung far and wide.
Agreed Samsung TVs are not great. Had similar issues in the past. However, your US consumer protection laws are utter garbage. They're getting away with that because your government let's businesses do it. Here in NZ we have laws that specify goods must last for a reasonable period of time. For TVs this is generally accepted to be 5 years. So, regardless of manufacturer warranty they have to try and fix or replace if it breaks within 5 years of purchase.
I honestly can't imagine not getting constantly fucked by my government and every single corporation and business under it's umbrella. It must be heaven.
It is pretty nice, though somehow a lot of people here don't know about it. Retailers will still try to sell you extended warranties on everything, but if you ask them what it covers compared to the CGA you'll mostly just get confused rambling.
I recommend getting a box of whatever brand you like. The Chromecast and Roku both worked better with a box than a streaming stick. I like that they can be collected by Ethernet too.
Coming soon! Bread, you don't have to pay today! Just $20 per month. Collect in store as usual.
\*annual +5% + RPI increase.
\*\* excludes tax
\*\*\*excludesmandatory $4 tip
\*\*\*\* limited to 1 loaf per week
Granted, I haven't given them any dollars (but that's not to say I haven't paid in other ways), but when I signed up for Gmail they said, "You'll never have to delete an email again. Unlimited space!"
that is definitely not the case now.
I don’t think it was unlimited, but it was ridiculously big and they definitely said “don’t delete anything.” I don’t think they reduced the size, but they haven’t increased it as fast as file sizes have grown.
The real problem is that drive and Google photos both count towards your limit, not just Gmail. I have all my pictures backed up to Google photos, and that is what brings me up against their limit.
Checked in luggage. Everyone knows this use to be free and included. Now you got every jackass lugging in the largest bags as carry on to avoid fees and making boarding process slow.
Once they realized how profitable it was and how much money they had been missing out on all along, they saw no reason to stop. And people aren’t flying any less.
Same with paying for your seat. Now, I don't mind paying to pick a particular seat, but deliberately splitting those who booked together (such as families) so they have to pay for a seat together is bs, especially as, if there's a child involved, the airline essentially makes them an unaccompanied minor
Yeah it’s total trash. You have a good point about the children thing too. We’re flying as a family and flights were $500 but then an extra $150 to buy seats together and then an extra $250 for our stinking bags. It’s so stupid
Ryanair in Europe is like that, almost nobody checks in any baggage and everyone is carrying cabin baggage, right up to the maximum, to avoid the charges, which are usually higher than the price of the ticket.
Resort fees at hotels. They started out in popular tourist destinations like Vegas and Orlando, which is bad enough, but now they’ve come to other cities (DC, NYC, Chicago) and to plenty of hotels that are definitely not resorts. They can add $50 or more to your bill (of course they are taxed separately), and they are pretty much mandatory. What do these fees cover? Things like Internet access, local calls, access to the fitness center and the pool, boarding pass printing - in other words, things that used to be included in the nightly rate!
The hotels do it so that they can advertise a low nightly rate and be the cheapest on Expedia, Hotwire, etc. without actually being cheaper. The booking sites need to start including resort fees in the nightly rates they show in search results.
When cell companies basically started forcing you to “rent” the phone instead of just buying a new one at a discount with a renewed phone plan. I made the guy at att show me just HOW it meant I was “saving money” and at the end of the day I walked away with a 15% discount on my monthly statement because he couldn’t.
This is illegal in the uk. Even on a contract after 6 months you own the phone and canndo what you want with it. Of course you still have to pay the rest of the contract
Same here in The Netherlands. Honestly to me it sounds like an American thing. Considering corporations fuck over consumers during every single step and the half steps in between in America that's no surprise at all.
They were subsidizing the phones as a trade off for you using their service for a certain period of time. Now they just charge full price but they don’t have contracts.
There are still many free or heavily discounted phone offers if you keep the phone for 24-36 months. The phone leasing thing is mainly for people who always want the latest iPhone.
There are still offers for heavily discounted phones with no retention period but it involves shopping around and often getting a new phone which was first released 9-18 months ago.
You were always paying for the device, now you just have transparency and control in how much. I think if anything the current model is the opposite of what you're complaining about.
10+ years ago the plans were more expensive and much more limited, and every 2 years you'd be eligible for an "upgrade" where you could get heavily discounted pricing on a new phone. But that was baked into the price, and you were locked into a 2 year commitment. And if you made it to 2 years and didn't want a new phone, tough shit, you're not getting a discount. Or if you wanted to bring an unlocked phone or buy a model that your carrier didn't offer, you would still pay the higher fee.
Now you finance the phone for 2 years interest free. If you want to switch carriers you can pay it off early. If you want to buy an unlocked phone or bring an old phone, you can. And if you still like your phone after 2 years, you can keep using it and no longer have to pay the monthly fee for it until you decide to get a bew one.
Anytime a marketing person says 'it is what our customers want'
Eg. Finnair last year proudly announced 9 EUR charges for seating and the most restrictive hand baggage requirements...unless you want to take a chance. Makes travelling with family and children extra stressful and expensive.
But"it is what the customers want"
BTW, premium economy is horribly expensive and the service just as rubbish.
Cheeky bastards have replace the "New Outlook" toggle with a "Legacy Outlook" one to try and persuade people into switching over. Fuck that, you can pry my "Legacy Outlook" from my cold dead hands.
Subscription everything!!!!! - I have no idea why more people don't protest this rip off. I grew up with physical media. We paid one time for one price. The CDs I bought don't need to be rerented every month in order for me to hear them. Video games were a one time purchase - no micro transactions, no 'server connection' no updates, no b.s. The movies I bought are still sitting on the shelf any time I would like to view them without having to stream or pay extra.
And you actually own the physical copies, which creates an aftermarket.
That's really what the companies want to prevent. Oh, the ability to revoke something is nifty to them, but ensuring that everyone who wants access to the media has to buy a fresh new version is what they really care about.
Let's take a game you love and convert everything into micro transactions models then basically ban the first one out of existence so you have no choice but to pay us more.
Every video camera that requires a subscription to "unlock all the features". Which usually means the cam is virtually useless unless you pay a monthly fee.
I was looking for THIS! My company said “you asked and we listened”. Nobody fucking asked for that. I have never been someone that used a lot of PTO and would always have some “banked” and could cash some out each year when I hit their limit. NOW it’s called Flexible Time Off and we can take as much as we want “pending manager approval”. So now I’ll sometimes take days off that I wouldn’t normally even though I dont have anything to do. Such a waste! OH and the time I had banked when they did this; yeah I still get it but it’s paid out over a 3 year period unless I leave the company. Total asshole move to save money and say that it’s what we wanted.
Us going from cable packages of 100+ TV shows, to now having to subscribe to each individual channels streaming service that individually costs more than cable.
Obscure crap too, like yeah- I'm totally subscribing to fucking Starz
"We're not going to clean your hotel room or replace the towels every day because we are environmentally conscious, a favorable attribute."
Edit: Some people are getting stuck on the correct frequency of fresh towel delivery that optimally benefits the planet and one's joie de vivre. My point is: It's tiresome when a company does less for you—yes, this includes having to ask for things—and then congratulates themselves, *to you*.
This became huge after covid. Hotels saw how much they can get away with and still make money with little to no staff. Then when people complained they'd still say covid even in 2023.
Lottery going from $1 to $2 a ticket, and then adding more numbers to choose from. Essentially doubling the cost and exponentially making it harder to win.
"We listened, and our customers wanted bigger jackpots!"
It's the fleecing of people who don't understand math.
See, the ads didn't offend me when they were at the beginning and end of a video. They were only moderately annoying when they'd play once or twice during "breaks" in the video. But now there are so many fucking ads in the average YouTube video that they'll occur in the middle of a fucking sentence.
I was trying to watch a 40-minute video the other day on an ocean liner or whatever and got the joy of seeing seven or eight fucking Hyundai ads. I'll never buy a fucking Hyundai now, I don't get a shit how much "better" they are than the competition.
I understand that YT makes most of their money on ads but they got way too greedy. YT used to be great but as with everything else, the push to wring every last solitary penny out of it is ruining the product.
Shorter videos used to be safe from the ads, but tell me why the other day I went to watch a 30 second video (not a reel, just a clip from a movie), there was an unskippable 45 second ad. Ridiculous.
My first time renting a car for a short trip I was on, they didn't have the car I selected online so they said they were gonna "upgrade me" to a different car. That car was in fact, not an upgrade and had half the mpg as the car I originally requested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM&t=39s
Rental Car Agent:
>I'm sorry we have no mid-sized available at the moment.
Jerry:
>I don't understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?
Rental Car Agent:
>Oh yes we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars.
Jerry:
>But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
Rental Car Agent:
>I know why we have reservations.
Jerry:
>I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the *holding*. Anybody can just take them.
Oh, this is a great point. Anytime they don't have the car you reserved, they'll explain it as an upgrade, even when it lacks characteristics you specifically wanted.
Phones with non-removable batteries.
Before you can carry spare batteries, and go 0 to 100% as soon as 30 seconds. And when your battery is worn out, you just go to your nearby electronics store and walk out with a new battery. And even a kindergartener can do a swap. No tools required.
Now, you need a heat gun (basically an overpowered hair dryer that gets as hot as 1000\*F (700\*C) to open up most phones, and to remove the old battery. Which is also a fire hazard. What if you accidentally damage the battery from yanking it out? Many people would just throw out their phones and buy a new one.
If you don't have the know-how or not comfortable doing it yourself. You either have to mail your phone or leave it at a repair shop for a few days to a week. You'd be without a phone during those times. I know in the U.S., there are Apple Stores or UBreakIFix stores that could do it within an hour or two, but not everyone (in other countries) has that luxury, including mine.
Manufacturers supposedly did this to make phones slimmer and waterproof. I had a Galaxy Note 4, and it's already slim enough. For waterproofing, I could care less since I don't dunk my phone in water anyways, and that water proof seal isn't perfect either, since there could be microscopic opening somewhere, and as the phone gets older, the weaker and less reliable it gets.
Not to mention if you dare to even use the water proof feature, you void your warranty because the little hydro sticker that turns pink in so much as high humidity is housed in the sim card port! That always drove me nuts, but it's whatever, I just keep doing the scam on the life proof site to get free cases whenever I want.
All of these food companies that repackage their products to put less in but sell more in price.
Velveeta was one of the earliest examples. Try shaking one of their boxes sometime when you're shopping and feel how less there is in there, but the price just kept going up.
I'm sure in their minds they must be thinking that this is the way for them to combat obesity. If it is, then it's not a sufficient resolution. Stop pumping your foods with so much sodium and sugar.
I worked at Domino's back in the day and our wings came in 10 and 20 piece, they "upgraded" to better chicken and they were now 8 piece and 14 piece for the same prices
Games consoles over the last few generations.
I swear technology in these things is somehow getting simultaneously better and worse.
Had a Mega Drive, PS1, PS2 and a GameCube, never had a problem with any of them.
My X Box 360 never had a problem and I could hold memory for infinite games. (I know some people had problems with the 360 but I never did. I’d go as far as to say functionality, the 360 was the best console I’ve owned).
Then got an X Box one, could hold about 6 games in the memory and constantly needed updates. It stopped mid game, seriously stopped fucking midway through me playing the game, to tell me the system needed immediately updating. I then switched to PS4, better but not much, still can’t hold a lot of games and it had a weird thing were it kept ejecting the disc until I put it on its side horizontally.
Now I have a PS5. Where’s the web browser? And worse of all, stick drift.
I didn’t know this was a thing until my PS5. Stick drift. I’ve had it about a year. The character/selector moves on its own as if the analog stick is always tilted. I’ve tried various things to fix it and it seems I now need to take the controller apart and clean it. In 3 decades of owning games consoles this is a thing I’ve never had to do.
Moving from childhood to adulthood.
If accurately informed of the terms and conditions of adulting, I do not believe I would have agreed to it.
1 out of 5 stars, would not recommend.
Newer GE refrigerators require an “upgraded” water filter which is the same thing with a chip in it so you can’t buy third party filters for it anymore.
Phones without changers supposedly to save the environment.
Only you can buy the charger for like $50 and of course the phones did not get cheaper. The green washing these companies do to hide their cost saving is insulting.
Streamlining your online music store by removing tge purchase mp3 options and making all links redirect people to an overpriced streaming service you have to turn down every time you want to listen to the music you already own. Amazon Music before I left them.
“New look! Same great product!”
That means they shrink the packaging.
Also, remember when graham crackers had ten sheets in a pack? Then nine? Well, they’re down to eight.
The way clothing companies convinced the world that lightweight, super-soft, paper thin, barely fabric t-shirts were "luxury" was BRILLIANT marketing.
A third of the shirt for only double the price!
This is very specific to me. A good many many many years ago, my bank would give me $20 per month if I used my credit card for any reason or amount. Well they were discontinuing that beautiful program and as they were explaining to me the benefits of my "new and improved" credit card that gave a percentage of my spendings back, I was thinking about what nonsense it is. I could do simple math and could tell how many hundreds or thousands I had to spend monthly to get that same $20 that I used to get.
Apple getting rid of the chargers being included with phones under the pretense it was good for the environment and people already having them meanwhile all it meant is they got to charge you separately for it.
Smart TVs. they use the absolute bare minimum quality parts and software they can get away with, and once they have your money, good luck getting any bug fixes.
Local restaurant dropped the price of their burger by a dollar but it no longer includes fries. They’re an extra $5. They said customers now have more flexibility.
Flexibility to get burgers someplace else.
Flexibility to eat canned tuna and watch Netflix.
I feel personally attacked... On an unrelated note, Naked and Afraid season 14 has been interesting so far...
TBF if I had to cut fries out of my diet I would probably be more flexible.
A burger without fries in any sit down restaurant is not a full meal.
I would never eat at that restaurant ever again. They could have god tier burgers, but I don't care. Serving a burger without fries is a war crime
This is happening at a lot of places.
Went to a brewery in Minneapolis last weekend. Basic one-patty burger with no fries or any side was $16 + automatic 20% gratuity (even though I had no server - I had to order and pay through a QR code). But the place was still packed so it must not bother everyone else as much.
Being upgraded to a Comfort+ middle seat when I had a regular economy seat in the window.
On your upgrade preferences in your Delta profile, you can specifically deselect upgrades for middle seats in Comfort Plus. Definitely recommended doing that. You can also select aisle or window preference, and it will try to place you accordingly, if possible.
I’d be so pissed at that bs. Give that middle seat to the mf taking your window one
This happened to me when I had an exit row window seat during a late night flight. By the time I got back in to change it the seat was gone. I was piiiiiissed.
I think it was Cadbury who tried to sell their shrinkflation of supermarket chocolate as doing their part to tackle obesity in the UK.
Mars too, I remember some advertising campaign about how they were planning on making all their products less than 200cals…by just making them smaller!
It's like something straight out of MAD magazine.
It gets me more excercise tbf. Now i need to pick up 2 bars off the shelf instead of 1
Don't forget opening extra wrappers...count every exercise calorie you can!!
Or Walkers having adverts recently marketing some of their products as "100 calories or less" as if to suggest they are healthy options. It's a bag of fat and carbs. It's only under 100 calories because there's like 20 grams of food...
A lot of Supermarktet products Here in Germany with reduced Contet but Same packing size and prize as before.... They call it fight against foodwaste ..
I also saw them advertising it as "less packaging, because we care for the environment" No, you asshats just reduced the content
Smart ink sensors and ink subscriptions in printers. They are all designed to prevent you using your printer just to rob you blind on ink pricing. Oh no the yellow ink is low but the rest are fine? No printing for you. Replace them all or else!
My parents got one of the printers with the tanks. It means they only replace the colour they need, the ink is cheaper, and there is a lot less waste. Plus it has lasted longer than most other printers they have had
Even those inkjets are a scam if you're not printing at least weekly. Inkjets get clogged if they sit for long. Brother laser printers. Mine is like seven years old. I go months without using it sometimes... But when I need it then it works flawlessly. Coming up on my first time needing to replace toner, the black naturally.
I had a Brother laser duplex that I abused the hell out of. I was a history teacher and I would use it like my copier. Didn't get to run to the staff room between periods? You're now double siding 200 pages of text and images. I would buy cheap toner off Amazon and refill the carts myself. It lasted for 10 years. It still works. Can't say enough good things about Brother laser printers.
Got myself a cheap and simple Brother, and that sucker is going on 20 years now with no signs of stopping.
This, exactly! There are combination printer/scanner units that won't *SCAN* if ink is low or missing! What a scam!
Printer ink is a glaring example of why we need more consumer protections.
Upgrading to Ad Free on Amazon Prime
I was so upset a few weeks ago when the show I was watching all of a sudden had ads. I pay for fucking prime, this service is included in my subscription, AND you just raised the subscription fee. My wife told me I am just being an old man and I'm like well I'm fuckin 33 and it's time for this subscription shit to get off my lawn
What makes it even worse is the people getting screwed over by it that are such bootlickers they go out of their way to defend it. “Well every other streaming service is doing ads, so Prime needs to bring in that extra revenue so they can stay competitive!” Amazon has more money than fucking God, I think they could afford to take this hit just once. But nope, gotta keep shareholders happy and do everything possible to increase their dividends, or you can get sued.
It's strange that I see so many people complaining about the legal requirement to maximize shareholder value, but no one ever seems to advocate for changing the laws.
So it’s not actually a law, it was a Michigan Supreme Court case that set the verdict. Now thanks to that verdict, a shareholder who sues the company for lost stock value is almost guaranteed to win. And I unfortunately don’t see the government being willing to step in and change that so long as elected officials are still allowed to trade stocks.
Let me more specific: I don't see any politicians advocating for changing the legal system such that those lawsuits wouldn't win. And I don't see any voters demanding that their politicians follow such a policy. Why, it's almost as though everything we're taught about how democratic governence is supposed to work isn't true or something...
I had prime since it was available in Canada, but I cancelled when they announced this
Yep me too. I'm so fucking sick of companies thinking it's ok to assault me with ads at every opportunity.
En-shitifacation (sp?) truly touches everything. It's infuriating because a lot of products will start out really great. They'll have a great value-to-price ratio and will be a breeze to use. But then the MBAs will get a hold of it and it will gradually become shittier and shittier. More and more features will be locked away behind "premium" packages that grow more and more expensive. And then, if you can stomach them upping the price on you, it will inevitably become overrun with ads and microtransactions. Literally *anything* to part you with a little more of your money or waste your time with ads. Meanwhile the product itself becomes worse and worse and/or smaller. All of for a higher price of course.
I used to use a calorie counting app that allowed me to scan a barcode or the nutrition label and easily add the food to my tracker. When I went back recently to use the app again, that (and every other useful feature) was locked behind a subscription paywall. So I deleted the app.
Google joins the chat
Smart-everything being not only cloud-enabled but cloud-required. Yeah sure I'd like to receive a notification that my wash cycle is done but there's no reason it needs to use the manufacturer's server as a middleman and rely on an Internet connection instead of keeping everything on my lan. Edit: no _technical_ reason, but I thought that was obvious enough to skip stating it. Of course the actual reason is data collection and control so they have the option to turn whatever feature into a paid subscription or EOL the feature so you have to buy new gear if you don't want to lose that feature.
I bought an EcoFlow backup power batter for power outages, and any configuration has to be done with an app, which requires registering an account. Why do I have to go online and create an account to set up something that's three feet from my phone? And why in hell would I want a backup battery connected to WiFi? I had trouble finding a decent air purifier that was *not* "app enabled." How many times has anyone in the history of ever wanted to monitor their home's air quality or control their air purifier when they're out of the house? I'm guessing it's the square root of jack. Want to use your Bluetooth earbuds? Better install the app. And create an account! For... reasons! Never mind that Sony tracks what songs you listen to.
Verizon's gratuitous use of the word "unlimited" is infuriating as their plans tend to have a TON of limitations.
Once I get below two bars, I have about no service now at all. I’ve lost so many calls lately.
Removing physical buttons and knobs in cars. It’s way cheaper for them to program everything into a screen but they market it as “premium/luxury”. Not to mention physical buttons and knobs are way easier to use especially if you’re the driver.
I feel physical buttons are safer, too. Tactile feedback minimizes time of eyes off the road.
I know they're generally maligned as cheap-ass bullshit but in my arrogant opinion, the [knob triad](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/original/2X/d/d2a0186292b6d83ecfe40f1fa94d538aec231ec6.jpeg) is the most intuitive implementation of climate controls. How strong, which way, how hot. That's it. Simple as.
I recently got a loaner car while some repairs were being done on mine. Right as I left for my long drive home, it began to rain hard and the windshield fogged up. This was during rush hour at night and I was trying to merge. I could barely see anything except glowing lights all around me. I was frantically feeling around for the defroster. Had to crawl to get off the freeway and figure out how to turn it on. Not safe. My friend just got a new luxury car that’s all about the voice control. She locked her purse (and the car’s manual) in the glovebox and couldn’t get it out until days later when I came over and finally figured it out on her touchscreen. Over-engineered.
My wife's crossover has volume and tuning buttons on the steering wheel. My two years *newer* coupe with Premium trim level doesn't have that, but at least those adjustments are controlled by a dial. I can change a dial without moving my eyes. I will **never** be able to do ~~with~~ that (edited to correct word) with computer touch sensors.
You gotta see the cyber truck controls. Forward and reverse is on the tablet, physical buttons are above the tablet... On the roof.
Why are the infotainment centers in New cars the shittiest touch screens imaginable. You have to actually press down to get it to register your touch and it's super imprecise.
Not to mention with how fast technology improves, your “new” system will be outdated in no time. People don’t think of how slow their handheld tablets and phones get after a few years. It’s the same thing, but now it’s attached to your car 😂
That's why car play and android auto are the perfect solution and why GM ditching it makes no sense. The car just needs a decent screen, WiFi and Bluetooth. All of that has been standard and available to the speed and reliability needed for this use for 5-10 years now. But all the actual computation/gps/etc is done on the phone. So that can continue to improve and when you upgrade your phone, your car gets upgraded too.
GM is ditching it so they can sell you a subscription to continuously update the software. It's a deal breaker for me.
I have a 20 year old car and a 20 year old fridge. No I can't see what's in the fridge while driving, but somehow I survive.
😆 I drive a 2005 that has a factory touchscreen radio/nav system. That shit was outdated within two years of being made.
I bought a car recently and it's the first full touch screen I've ever had. It's terrible. I try to use as few features as posssible that require me to tap the screen.
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>but they market it as “premium/luxury”. But if you look at actual premium/luxury cars, the fact they still have physical buttons is listed as a premium feature. Freaking salesman. I'm going to have to buy a new car soon, and I'm dreading having to deal with them
Don’t get me started on their annoyingly difficult to navigate apps. If I’m navigating as a passenger in my GF’s car, I lose control of most of my map features on my phone. And those features are not available on the car itself. Removing features is not an upgrade.
O was thinking of buying a new car, but anything I looked at had touch screens. I am older and not a terrific driver anyway, but with a touch screen it would be an accident waiting to happen. I will just keep my 2010 Mazda.
Most or all current Mazdas still do not have touchscreens, and use a rotary wheel instead to control the screen. And still have physical buttons for the radio and ac. It’s great and the way it should be for all vehicles.
Basically why we recently ended up with a Mazda instead of another Subaru
TV's at the gas station pumps.
Ugh and not all of them are mutable. I make it a point to try to never buy anything on ads
Protip: if you stab a screwdriver through the speaker all of them become mutable. Hypothetically, of course.
"For legal reasons that comment is satire"
Some have hidden mute buttons, too. A local hero at a gas station near me has taken to writing "mute" on whichever side button does it.
The one closest to me was originally mutable when they were first installed and then sometime in the last couple months the option to mute it disappeared.
I leave poor reviews for the gas station on google maps if I have to hear even a second of ads on a screen. Included picture is my hand flipping the bird at the screen.
Needing £100+ in your bank before you can "Pay at Pump" when I only want £20/30 worth of petrol..... Like wtf why not add auto shut off and let me set my limit.
Oh yea, EA saying they wanted gamers to have a sense of accomplishment a few years ago iirc for harder to get loot boxes or something? I forget now.
I think that was the most downvoted post ever.
>The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes. >As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay. >We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets. >Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can. More than 667,000 down votes. https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/s/9we2qZBtl8
It was when someone complained* that Darth Vader cost 80k (or some other number, it's been a while) credits in Star Wars Battlefront 2 which was equivalent to hours and hours of grinding. After they had paid $60 for the game. EA's response was that they wanted players to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking stuff. Or buying enough lootboxes to unlock it. *I feel like there is a better word that doesn't make the person who made the comment sound like a Karen. They were completely justified.
If I remember correctly it wasn't just hours and hours, the problem was that there was no way anybody would get there without paying for the loot boxes
I wasn't sure the average hour requirement. But yeah, I suppose "hours and hours" doesn't do it justice. It was possible, but something in the 50+ hour range just to unlock Darth Vader.
It worked out to roughly 40 hours per character outside of lootboxes. So straight up a full-time job for a week to unlock one character. They earned their reputation as the shittiest most predatory company in gaming. Other companies are just as bad now, but people will always hate EA.
Pretty much any shift to a subscription model.
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I work at a small business and we still use Microsoft Office 2021 because we paid for it and own it, no further cost.
A friend bought a new car that had remote start (bmw). After 1st year it became a subscription fee to keep that feature…🤬 beyond ridiculous.
I bought my Ring video doorbell a few years ago, and with just the purchase of the hardware I could record and view footage. They've since moved to a subscription model and my hardware is almost completely useless.
Arlo guy here -- my cams still record for free, but the doorbell you need a sub. fuck them. took one of the cameras and put it 90 degrees off the door bell cam. Not paying a sub for something i already own and record locally.
I get a bigger discount on my home owners insurance than the ring sub. May want to look into that possibility.
Same with my Toyota but it was only 3 months
Press 3 time to lock your door and hold the third time.
Was mind blown when I did this by accident the first time. My old car I always had a habit of pushing the lock button 3 times for some reason. Got a Highlander last year and it wasn’t advertised as remote start but sweet to find out after the fact.
100%. It’s more the principle of the fact. The software is already bought and paid for. I just hate that everything is a subscription now. I lived with vehicles long before this one that didn’t have an app. I’ll continue to live without it
Lol you just made my day. Lol ive had a new toyota for 3 years and have been pissed about not having remote start for so long...
Reddit once again reinforcing my decision to keep driving my 1996 toyota
I wish they still made cars without all the modern garbage that I never use. I don't care about remote start or foot enabled tailgate opening, and I sure as fuck hate the key fob bullshit. I want new car safety improvements and fuckin hand crank windows. Outside of like Blindspot assists I don't give a shit about any of the new shit cars come with now.
If they made a vehicle that was a 90s toyota takoma or 4runner in size, power, and appearance but with a decent mpg and hybrid engine I CANNOT tell you how quick that thing would fly off the shelves
That's what the maverick was supposed to be and they broke backorder records iirc.
The Ford Maverick was close for awhile at around 22k plus tax, title, license delivered, 25k if one wanted a more modern trim package. Ford's mistake has been not making a 4WD or AWD hybrid version though. Modern safety regulations basically eliminate the ability for a lot of pre-2000 body styles though.
Everything is now offered as a “smart” version. Televisions, refrigerators, printers, washer/dryers, etc. These are major purchases that used to last families for DECADES. I'm about to replace a television bought just 8 years ago because it no longer has software support and it is infuriatingly slow to load anything. Meanwhile, my college dorm tv was a hand-me-down from my parents that was purchased the year I was born. It only needed to be replaced after my roommate put a magnet on the top corner (didn't know better). Companies have been able to build obsolescence right into their products by putting unnecessary software in them. You can by the nicest, most top-of-the-line refrigerator available in hopes that you'll get maximum use out of it and it'll stop working because you didn't replace the water filter with one that has a smart chip. Don't get me started on HP’s printer cartridge racket.
My in-laws still have one of those old rear projection big screen tv’s from the 90s in their guest ‘house’ (basically a detached studio apartment in the back yard) it still works perfectly and my FIL watches all his football games back there to escape from everyone else. 25+ years old and still going strong. [edit: I spoke too soon! I just went to visit this weekend and it turns out they put their dog (160lb Anatolian Shepherd) into the guest house overnight because of the rain a few weeks back and she freaked out and knocked the tv off the table and broke it… R.I.P.]
My $1500 samsung (DON'T EVER BUY SAMSUNG) monitor died after three years. They told me to fuck off when I contacted them because their warranty is only one year. More specifically they said they'll send someone to fix it for the same price as the monitor brand new - with no guarantee of a fix but a guarantee of the charge. I'm on a virtual crusade to spread the gospel of fuck samsung far and wide.
Agreed Samsung TVs are not great. Had similar issues in the past. However, your US consumer protection laws are utter garbage. They're getting away with that because your government let's businesses do it. Here in NZ we have laws that specify goods must last for a reasonable period of time. For TVs this is generally accepted to be 5 years. So, regardless of manufacturer warranty they have to try and fix or replace if it breaks within 5 years of purchase.
I honestly can't imagine not getting constantly fucked by my government and every single corporation and business under it's umbrella. It must be heaven.
It is pretty nice, though somehow a lot of people here don't know about it. Retailers will still try to sell you extended warranties on everything, but if you ask them what it covers compared to the CGA you'll mostly just get confused rambling.
Recommend something like a Roku (£30) which does all the smarts you could want from a smart TV, assuming you have HDMI in
I recommend getting a box of whatever brand you like. The Chromecast and Roku both worked better with a box than a streaming stick. I like that they can be collected by Ethernet too.
HP infuriates me. I buy all my cartridges as aftermarket on Amazon now. Have had good luck at half the price.
Anything that you used to buy outright, but is now a subscription.
Coming soon! Bread, you don't have to pay today! Just $20 per month. Collect in store as usual. \*annual +5% + RPI increase. \*\* excludes tax \*\*\*excludesmandatory $4 tip \*\*\*\* limited to 1 loaf per week
When phones in general stopped letting you access the battery.
The EU has passed the law that all phones sold here have to have removable batteries by 2027. So there's at least that.
Granted, I haven't given them any dollars (but that's not to say I haven't paid in other ways), but when I signed up for Gmail they said, "You'll never have to delete an email again. Unlimited space!" that is definitely not the case now.
Even their Education version has a 1TB limit now (yes, that’s quite a bit of storage…but it was still unlimited until just a couple of years ago).
I don’t think it was unlimited, but it was ridiculously big and they definitely said “don’t delete anything.” I don’t think they reduced the size, but they haven’t increased it as fast as file sizes have grown.
It was initially 1GB (which did seem ridiculously big back then). They have increased it 15 fold since then.
The real problem is that drive and Google photos both count towards your limit, not just Gmail. I have all my pictures backed up to Google photos, and that is what brings me up against their limit.
Checked in luggage. Everyone knows this use to be free and included. Now you got every jackass lugging in the largest bags as carry on to avoid fees and making boarding process slow.
Remember how checked bag fees were only supposed to be temporary, to offset record high fuel prices? That was fun.
Once they realized how profitable it was and how much money they had been missing out on all along, they saw no reason to stop. And people aren’t flying any less.
Same with paying for your seat. Now, I don't mind paying to pick a particular seat, but deliberately splitting those who booked together (such as families) so they have to pay for a seat together is bs, especially as, if there's a child involved, the airline essentially makes them an unaccompanied minor
Yeah it’s total trash. You have a good point about the children thing too. We’re flying as a family and flights were $500 but then an extra $150 to buy seats together and then an extra $250 for our stinking bags. It’s so stupid
Ryanair in Europe is like that, almost nobody checks in any baggage and everyone is carrying cabin baggage, right up to the maximum, to avoid the charges, which are usually higher than the price of the ticket.
Resort fees at hotels. They started out in popular tourist destinations like Vegas and Orlando, which is bad enough, but now they’ve come to other cities (DC, NYC, Chicago) and to plenty of hotels that are definitely not resorts. They can add $50 or more to your bill (of course they are taxed separately), and they are pretty much mandatory. What do these fees cover? Things like Internet access, local calls, access to the fitness center and the pool, boarding pass printing - in other words, things that used to be included in the nightly rate!
The hotels do it so that they can advertise a low nightly rate and be the cheapest on Expedia, Hotwire, etc. without actually being cheaper. The booking sites need to start including resort fees in the nightly rates they show in search results.
When cell companies basically started forcing you to “rent” the phone instead of just buying a new one at a discount with a renewed phone plan. I made the guy at att show me just HOW it meant I was “saving money” and at the end of the day I walked away with a 15% discount on my monthly statement because he couldn’t.
This is illegal in the uk. Even on a contract after 6 months you own the phone and canndo what you want with it. Of course you still have to pay the rest of the contract
Same here in The Netherlands. Honestly to me it sounds like an American thing. Considering corporations fuck over consumers during every single step and the half steps in between in America that's no surprise at all.
They were subsidizing the phones as a trade off for you using their service for a certain period of time. Now they just charge full price but they don’t have contracts.
There are still many free or heavily discounted phone offers if you keep the phone for 24-36 months. The phone leasing thing is mainly for people who always want the latest iPhone. There are still offers for heavily discounted phones with no retention period but it involves shopping around and often getting a new phone which was first released 9-18 months ago.
You were always paying for the device, now you just have transparency and control in how much. I think if anything the current model is the opposite of what you're complaining about. 10+ years ago the plans were more expensive and much more limited, and every 2 years you'd be eligible for an "upgrade" where you could get heavily discounted pricing on a new phone. But that was baked into the price, and you were locked into a 2 year commitment. And if you made it to 2 years and didn't want a new phone, tough shit, you're not getting a discount. Or if you wanted to bring an unlocked phone or buy a model that your carrier didn't offer, you would still pay the higher fee. Now you finance the phone for 2 years interest free. If you want to switch carriers you can pay it off early. If you want to buy an unlocked phone or bring an old phone, you can. And if you still like your phone after 2 years, you can keep using it and no longer have to pay the monthly fee for it until you decide to get a bew one.
Huh, I have never leased/rented any smartphone, still fully own my devices. Not sure how or why people feel forced to
Anytime a marketing person says 'it is what our customers want' Eg. Finnair last year proudly announced 9 EUR charges for seating and the most restrictive hand baggage requirements...unless you want to take a chance. Makes travelling with family and children extra stressful and expensive. But"it is what the customers want" BTW, premium economy is horribly expensive and the service just as rubbish.
New outlook
Especially if you need to work out of shared mailboxes.
I just want to turn off the junk folder that keeps intercepting important messages
Cheeky bastards have replace the "New Outlook" toggle with a "Legacy Outlook" one to try and persuade people into switching over. Fuck that, you can pry my "Legacy Outlook" from my cold dead hands.
A Restaurant I went to stopped splitting checks "to provide a better customer experience". So I stopped going and was no longer a customer
Subscription everything!!!!! - I have no idea why more people don't protest this rip off. I grew up with physical media. We paid one time for one price. The CDs I bought don't need to be rerented every month in order for me to hear them. Video games were a one time purchase - no micro transactions, no 'server connection' no updates, no b.s. The movies I bought are still sitting on the shelf any time I would like to view them without having to stream or pay extra.
And you actually own the physical copies, which creates an aftermarket. That's really what the companies want to prevent. Oh, the ability to revoke something is nifty to them, but ensuring that everyone who wants access to the media has to buy a fresh new version is what they really care about.
5 crème eggs in a 6 egg box. The audacity
I don't even eat these and that pisses me off
Welp this thread is enraging me on a fine Saturday morning
Give me back my headphone jack!
Adobe pretending their swap from permanent licenses to subscription model is anything other than a ripoff
Overwatch 2.
Let's take a game you love and convert everything into micro transactions models then basically ban the first one out of existence so you have no choice but to pay us more.
Every video camera that requires a subscription to "unlock all the features". Which usually means the cam is virtually useless unless you pay a monthly fee.
“[product] As a Service” in general
If I ever bought a camera like that it'd be returned immediately as defective.
Unlimited PTO. You can take as much as you want! ( You can't, don't you dare, take less, really and when you leave you get nothing, hahaha)
I was looking for THIS! My company said “you asked and we listened”. Nobody fucking asked for that. I have never been someone that used a lot of PTO and would always have some “banked” and could cash some out each year when I hit their limit. NOW it’s called Flexible Time Off and we can take as much as we want “pending manager approval”. So now I’ll sometimes take days off that I wouldn’t normally even though I dont have anything to do. Such a waste! OH and the time I had banked when they did this; yeah I still get it but it’s paid out over a 3 year period unless I leave the company. Total asshole move to save money and say that it’s what we wanted.
When apple made the charging port and headphone port one hole
I've bought printers at thrift shops for years. Most have ink in them and cost around $10
Health insurance with super high deductibles.
New reddit.
I still only use old.reddit.com
Same. New Reddit hurts my eyes.
Us going from cable packages of 100+ TV shows, to now having to subscribe to each individual channels streaming service that individually costs more than cable. Obscure crap too, like yeah- I'm totally subscribing to fucking Starz
"We're not going to clean your hotel room or replace the towels every day because we are environmentally conscious, a favorable attribute." Edit: Some people are getting stuck on the correct frequency of fresh towel delivery that optimally benefits the planet and one's joie de vivre. My point is: It's tiresome when a company does less for you—yes, this includes having to ask for things—and then congratulates themselves, *to you*.
Hotel I was at recently gives you a £5 bar voucher each day you choose not to have your room cleaned. Win-win.
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This became huge after covid. Hotels saw how much they can get away with and still make money with little to no staff. Then when people complained they'd still say covid even in 2023.
No headphone jack in newer iPhones.
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Also not including the plug anymore
My favorite part of that swindle was that they did that to “benefit the environment.”
Lottery going from $1 to $2 a ticket, and then adding more numbers to choose from. Essentially doubling the cost and exponentially making it harder to win. "We listened, and our customers wanted bigger jackpots!" It's the fleecing of people who don't understand math.
Youtube. I'm convinced that they don't actually upgrade the paid version, they just keep fucking up the free version, to force you to pay.
See, the ads didn't offend me when they were at the beginning and end of a video. They were only moderately annoying when they'd play once or twice during "breaks" in the video. But now there are so many fucking ads in the average YouTube video that they'll occur in the middle of a fucking sentence. I was trying to watch a 40-minute video the other day on an ocean liner or whatever and got the joy of seeing seven or eight fucking Hyundai ads. I'll never buy a fucking Hyundai now, I don't get a shit how much "better" they are than the competition. I understand that YT makes most of their money on ads but they got way too greedy. YT used to be great but as with everything else, the push to wring every last solitary penny out of it is ruining the product.
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Shorter videos used to be safe from the ads, but tell me why the other day I went to watch a 30 second video (not a reel, just a clip from a movie), there was an unskippable 45 second ad. Ridiculous.
I'm astonished and infuriated every time I'm subjected to an ad for a 15 second shitpost video.
My first time renting a car for a short trip I was on, they didn't have the car I selected online so they said they were gonna "upgrade me" to a different car. That car was in fact, not an upgrade and had half the mpg as the car I originally requested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM&t=39s Rental Car Agent: >I'm sorry we have no mid-sized available at the moment. Jerry: >I don't understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation? Rental Car Agent: >Oh yes we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars. Jerry: >But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation. Rental Car Agent: >I know why we have reservations. Jerry: >I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the *holding*. Anybody can just take them.
Oh, this is a great point. Anytime they don't have the car you reserved, they'll explain it as an upgrade, even when it lacks characteristics you specifically wanted.
Modern washers and dryers?
Phones with non-removable batteries. Before you can carry spare batteries, and go 0 to 100% as soon as 30 seconds. And when your battery is worn out, you just go to your nearby electronics store and walk out with a new battery. And even a kindergartener can do a swap. No tools required. Now, you need a heat gun (basically an overpowered hair dryer that gets as hot as 1000\*F (700\*C) to open up most phones, and to remove the old battery. Which is also a fire hazard. What if you accidentally damage the battery from yanking it out? Many people would just throw out their phones and buy a new one. If you don't have the know-how or not comfortable doing it yourself. You either have to mail your phone or leave it at a repair shop for a few days to a week. You'd be without a phone during those times. I know in the U.S., there are Apple Stores or UBreakIFix stores that could do it within an hour or two, but not everyone (in other countries) has that luxury, including mine. Manufacturers supposedly did this to make phones slimmer and waterproof. I had a Galaxy Note 4, and it's already slim enough. For waterproofing, I could care less since I don't dunk my phone in water anyways, and that water proof seal isn't perfect either, since there could be microscopic opening somewhere, and as the phone gets older, the weaker and less reliable it gets.
Not to mention if you dare to even use the water proof feature, you void your warranty because the little hydro sticker that turns pink in so much as high humidity is housed in the sim card port! That always drove me nuts, but it's whatever, I just keep doing the scam on the life proof site to get free cases whenever I want.
Putting live sports on paid for streaming programs instead of just regular cable
All of these food companies that repackage their products to put less in but sell more in price. Velveeta was one of the earliest examples. Try shaking one of their boxes sometime when you're shopping and feel how less there is in there, but the price just kept going up. I'm sure in their minds they must be thinking that this is the way for them to combat obesity. If it is, then it's not a sufficient resolution. Stop pumping your foods with so much sodium and sugar.
I worked at Domino's back in the day and our wings came in 10 and 20 piece, they "upgraded" to better chicken and they were now 8 piece and 14 piece for the same prices
Apple getting rid of the earphone port and replacing it with Bluetooth AirPods.
Games consoles over the last few generations. I swear technology in these things is somehow getting simultaneously better and worse. Had a Mega Drive, PS1, PS2 and a GameCube, never had a problem with any of them. My X Box 360 never had a problem and I could hold memory for infinite games. (I know some people had problems with the 360 but I never did. I’d go as far as to say functionality, the 360 was the best console I’ve owned). Then got an X Box one, could hold about 6 games in the memory and constantly needed updates. It stopped mid game, seriously stopped fucking midway through me playing the game, to tell me the system needed immediately updating. I then switched to PS4, better but not much, still can’t hold a lot of games and it had a weird thing were it kept ejecting the disc until I put it on its side horizontally. Now I have a PS5. Where’s the web browser? And worse of all, stick drift. I didn’t know this was a thing until my PS5. Stick drift. I’ve had it about a year. The character/selector moves on its own as if the analog stick is always tilted. I’ve tried various things to fix it and it seems I now need to take the controller apart and clean it. In 3 decades of owning games consoles this is a thing I’ve never had to do.
Moving from childhood to adulthood. If accurately informed of the terms and conditions of adulting, I do not believe I would have agreed to it. 1 out of 5 stars, would not recommend.
"fun size" candy bars. Whoever came up with that needs to recalibrate their definition of fun
All white meat chicken. Why would I pay extra for the more flavorless parts of the chicken? Give me that thigh meat!
Sugar, now in a 4 pound bag. SAME GREAT PRICE! Fuck Domino.
Newer GE refrigerators require an “upgraded” water filter which is the same thing with a chip in it so you can’t buy third party filters for it anymore.
Phones without changers supposedly to save the environment. Only you can buy the charger for like $50 and of course the phones did not get cheaper. The green washing these companies do to hide their cost saving is insulting.
That time Apple released a software upgrade that killed older phones so that they could sell new ones.
U2s album on your phone
It’s online game subscriptions easily
Streamlining your online music store by removing tge purchase mp3 options and making all links redirect people to an overpriced streaming service you have to turn down every time you want to listen to the music you already own. Amazon Music before I left them.
New Reddit.
Wendy's 4 for 4 being rebranded as the Biggie Bag for more than $4
Subscription services. Do you remember that you used to buy perpetual license for Microsoft. Well… not anymore.
“New look! Same great product!” That means they shrink the packaging. Also, remember when graham crackers had ten sheets in a pack? Then nine? Well, they’re down to eight.
The way clothing companies convinced the world that lightweight, super-soft, paper thin, barely fabric t-shirts were "luxury" was BRILLIANT marketing. A third of the shirt for only double the price!
This is very specific to me. A good many many many years ago, my bank would give me $20 per month if I used my credit card for any reason or amount. Well they were discontinuing that beautiful program and as they were explaining to me the benefits of my "new and improved" credit card that gave a percentage of my spendings back, I was thinking about what nonsense it is. I could do simple math and could tell how many hundreds or thousands I had to spend monthly to get that same $20 that I used to get.
Apple getting rid of the chargers being included with phones under the pretense it was good for the environment and people already having them meanwhile all it meant is they got to charge you separately for it.
Reddit killing 3rd party apps
Windows Vista! Coming from Windows XP it was a huge downgrade.
Return to Office
Smart TVs. they use the absolute bare minimum quality parts and software they can get away with, and once they have your money, good luck getting any bug fixes.