Last Monday I threw a technology temper tantrum. I consider myself fairly proficient in technology, but it’s changing so rapidly that sometimes I can’t keep up. Mind you, I have sufficient technological know-how to build and maintain websites, alter digital photographs, set up printers, computers, routers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and produce QR codes.

NOT ENOUGH TECHNOLOGY

Monday’s quarterly doctor’s appointment in Houston for a medicine check ticked me off. My doctor could do this with telemedicine, but he refuses to adopt the technology even though I have begged. Thus, we made a five-hour round trip for a 15-minute appointment. I’ve tried to change but have had trouble finding a psychiatrist who will take Medicare.

Ah, well, my husband and I decided to skip eating at the local hibachi restaurant to save money and settle for Popeyes Fried Chicken.

CONFUSING TECHNOLOGY

My frustration morphed when I encountered an ordering kiosk at a new Popeyes. The sign said that, unless I was paying with cash, I had to order at the kiosk. (Note: I had encountered a fast-food kiosk at the airport about a week earlier, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.)

Teeth gritted, I thought, OK. Let’s do it! I faithfully followed the steps I thought would let me purchase combo meals with drinks. I could not figure out how to order the drink—it kept trying to force me into lemonade. The bottom line: I ended up paying for drinks on top of the ones that came with the meal, resulting in a $9.00 overcharge. Apparently I am not alone. My friend, AI, had this to say:

Yes, people are complaining about this exact type of kiosk nightmare constantly, across both Popeyes and the fast-food industry as a whole. You ran face-first into two of the most hated trends in modern fast-food technology: broken combo logic and predatory upselling screens.

People online (especially on Reddit’s Popeyes community) voice the exact same frustrations: [1]

• The Combo Glitch Trap: Customers frequently complain that if you try to customize a combo meal in a way the machine doesn’t perfectly understand—or if you try to step backward to change an option—the kiosk gets confused. It will strip the “included” items out of the combo price, tricking the system into thinking you didn’t pick a drink or a side.
• Sneaky Double-Charging: The end-of-order screen doesn’t double-check why your combo is missing a drink; its only job is to aggressively push you to spend more money. People hate this because if a customer answers “yes” to a prompt like “Want to add a drink?”, the software almost always treats it as a standalone, full-price addition rather than applying it to the incomplete combo. [1]
• The “Invisible Cashier” Treatment: A major complaint online is that kiosks allow understaffed locations to ignore the front counter entirely. When the machine makes a billing error, customers report having to awkwardly wait around or fight for an employee’s attention just to get a manager to fix what the computer broke.

[1, 2]

Essentially, these machines are programmed to protect the restaurant’s profit margins by upselling you at every turn, but they have zero built-in logic to protect your wallet from their own software errors. It turns what should be a 30-second interaction into a frustrating chore that completely ruins the experience.

Once I realized what happened, both my husband and I were upset. He kept aggressively pushing me to confront the cashier. Huh? What cashier? All the employees were in the back cooking. I hovered around until my order was called and pounced. I got my money back, but we were both so angry that our lunch was ruined.

Now, I assume you are asking why my husband didn’t confront the powers that be. He is on a walker and can’t stand for long. That’s his excuse, and he’s sticking by it.

IDIOT TECHNOLOGY

While dealing with the chicken dustup, an automated call came in from my Medicare drug provider. I refused to answer but they kept calling. I finally calmed down enough to answer. They wanted to talk to Marie. Are you Marie? The machine asked. I said, “Yes, I’m Marie,” but apparently, after I said that four times, the call couldn’t continue, and the machine told ME to call back later.

Really? If you want to talk to me, you can call me back. In an act of restraint I declined to flip the computer the bird and chose to let out a scream.

LAST THOUGHTS ON TECHNOLOGY

Really, I just want common-sense technology. Not too much, not too little, but just right. I’m a Goldilocks kind of girl.

I’d love it if you’d join me!

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