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Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

theguardian.com

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Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#131

Post by vatsachak »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #95
vatsachak wrote: post #29

The Amazon app is unusable. I don't know what they are doing to it but today it wouldn't let me add more than 4 items. Also the design choices suck; I have always accidentally ordered to the wrong address because Amazon uses a "default address". A good rule of design; assume that the user doesn't think about things that they don't explicitly select. They also just advertise cheap crap and the app is so maximalist it…

I don't know what you are speaking about You have millions of competitors. From small business to big shopping centers, online resellers,...

I find that Amazon is still the best for new, niche items like stationery. Maybe I need a Bayesian update

Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#132

Post by pineapplepizza6 »

hermannj314 wrote: post #44

I think it is a wonderful time to start a business. Owner-run businesses tend to have great customer service. As consumers, we have some choice to give our attention to businesses where the people doing the work are the ones that own the company, if they aren't, then give your money to someone else. Stop supporting businesses that pay their taxes to Ireland. This isn't a perfect solution and I know there are counter-…

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Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#133

Post by techjamie »

nunez wrote: post #104
cco wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it becomes very hard to have a common culture Counter point: culture has been compressed, not widened, in the last 60 years. Accents have gone away, we listen to the same music, food has homogenized. By almost any measure, culture across the US has become a monoculture compared to any time in its history. I don't think your point is necessarily wrong, but how do you square the above?

Accents have gone away?

The University of Georgia did a study and came to the conclusion that the Southern accent is fading. Less formally, a word game website did a survey that found the standard New York accent is fadingas well.

The Georgia study largely attributed it to migration and people moving more than they used to, with a focus on growing metro areas in the south. Though apparently some younger generations are trying to shed their accents to sound more professional, and the internet is creating a sort of average American accent.

Though nobody is worried they'll disappear entirely at the moment that I can find.

Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#134

Post by pineapplepizza6 »

nunez wrote: post #104
cco wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it becomes very hard to have a common culture Counter point: culture has been compressed, not widened, in the last 60 years. Accents have gone away, we listen to the same music, food has homogenized. By almost any measure, culture across the US has become a monoculture compared to any time in its history. I don't think your point is necessarily wrong, but how do you square the above?

Accents have gone away?

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Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#135

Post by pineapplepizza6 »

vatsachak wrote: post #29

The Amazon app is unusable. I don't know what they are doing to it but today it wouldn't let me add more than 4 items. Also the design choices suck; I have always accidentally ordered to the wrong address because Amazon uses a "default address". A good rule of design; assume that the user doesn't think about things that they don't explicitly select. They also just advertise cheap crap and the app is so maximalist it…

[dead]

Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#136

Post by pineapplepizza6 »

dd8601fn wrote: post #16
stuart78 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please read the fine print before use. The steak knives are not to be used with animal products and poster will not be responsible in case of cracked blade.

You can curse at their dogshit customer service chatbot if you’re really upset about it, though.

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Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#137

Post by rsanek »

> There’s a stew of factors at work behind the rise in consumer rage [including] the rise of AI customer service.

I'm not really sure the problem is AI here. I've had plenty of bad experiences with human customer service agents that were poorly-trained and hard to understand. An AI can be implemented in a shitty way, where it's at best a regurgitation of the help docs. Or, it can be implemented well, where it can autonomously take action without any human involved.

I have had a couple of experiences with the latter. Once you do, you realize that you actually don't need to talk to a person per se -- you just want your problem solved efficiently. That can be done with a human or an AI; it isn't really the most significant bit to be filtering on IMO.

Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#138

Post by xboxnolifes »

imartin2k wrote: post #110

I am only commenting from afar (haven’t been in the US since around 10 yrs ago, but consuming a lot of US centric information), but could it be that the US economy has simply become too extractional? In my eyes, healthy capitalism needs a balance between profit-seeking and customer-satisfying. And at least from what I read and hear, the balance is now gone, with consumers being nickled and dimed while the quality of…

I think so. There doesn't really feel like there are any "big names you can trust" anymore for mid-range things. It feels like there's only junk and expensive high-end. Its so tiring to shop for anything, having to look for every way a corner might have been cut.

Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#139

Post by invalidptr »

hermannj314 wrote: post #44

I think it is a wonderful time to start a business. Owner-run businesses tend to have great customer service. As consumers, we have some choice to give our attention to businesses where the people doing the work are the ones that own the company, if they aren't, then give your money to someone else. Stop supporting businesses that pay their taxes to Ireland. This isn't a perfect solution and I know there are counter-…

This doesn't apply to small residential contractors. I've had nothing but bad experiences hiring contractors. They rarely do the work themselves and instead hire subcontractors who don't understand the requirements and care very little about the outcome. I've had better experiences with companies who are large enough to care about their reputation, or contractors i know personally.

Re: Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

#140

Post by bluefirebrand »

pessimizer wrote: post #57
bluefirebrand wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you ever worked for a large corporation? Have you seen how bureaucratic everything is? It's the nature of the beast. It's not calculated, and not personal Yes I have, yes I have, yes it is, it absolutely is calculated, but you're right it's not personal. It's "just good business" But it absolutely is calculated. I've been in those rooms when those calculations were made. I've resigned in disgust when my pleas…

> But it absolutely is calculated. I've been in those rooms when those calculations were made. It's insane. I've watched so many people ridicule basic descriptions of utterly mundane predatory business strategies as "conspiracy theories" who I know for a fact have sat in meetings planning (or being told to implement) them. I think that middle class professionals are so deeply in denial that they don't believe that th…

Yeah I tend to agree with you

I don't blame people too much though. I'm pretty lucky to be in a place in my life where I can afford to comfortably resign in protest if I don't like what my bosses are doing. Not everyone is that fortunate, so I get it and I don't blame those people

My beef is with people who are never satisfied and maybe never can be satisfied. People who have enough money to retire literally today and still enjoy the rest of their lives... But instead they keep doing everything they can to make more and more money for basically no reason other than "I have a bigger number than you do"

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