Over the past couple of weeks I have gotten stuck behind older people who just don't seem to understand how kiosks work - Redbox and Paying for Parking to be exact. In my experience - they don't read and/or understand the instructions - they are very impatient - get real snarky when offered help!
Example 1 - The dreaded Redbox Kiosk. This is a simple machine - you walk up - pick a movie - check out - slide your card - pick up your movie. Not rocket science. I went to return some movies last weekend and was behind a woman who was having major issues. First - she couldn't quite get the hang of how to page through the movie title even though there are big arrows at the bottom that say NEXT and BACK. She finally picked a movie - was able figure out the check out button. Then she needed to pay - which seemed to surprise her for some reason, not sure if she thought she'd get a bill or was looking to pay cash. Any ways - it was time to slide the credit card. There is a picture right next to that spot which shows how to slide the card and the message on the screen tells you which way the magnetic stripe should be pointed. Next came the part where you can enter your email address if you want to get a receipt via email - she got all snippy about having to give that info - her daughter clicked the skip button for her. Then the movie finally came and I was able to return my movies.
Example 2 - The Kiosk where you pay for parking and get your ticket validated so you can leave the parking garage. There were a lot of the same issues as with the redbox - not reading the instructions and putting the credit card in wrong - but this time there was also impatience. This machine is not fast but not real slow either. This lady must have been in a hurry because she kept trying to shove her credit card in the slot before it was ready and then couldn't understand why it wouldn't take it - when it finally did take it she put it in backwards so it spit it out and said unable to process try again - yup she shoved it in there again and ended up jamming up the machine so we had to call for an attendant to come help out. When he opened up the machine her ticket was all crumpled and stuck in the machine because she had shoved her credit card in the slot before it had fully processed the ticket.
Not big issues - but very frustrating. This impatience thing happens with computers too - you know - the clicking on the enter key over and over to try and hurry it up - which then usually ends up freezing the whole computer!!
Should we institute an age limit on how old you can be to use these machines - maybe they should have to go through a licensing test - carry a card saying you know how to follow computer instructions and have the patience to let the machine do it's job without clicking around and pushing buttons over and over again!
De
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