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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#291

Post by atatatat »

dheera wrote: post #83
dragonwriter wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First of all it takes a shitton of steps to scan a QR code if you don't have WeChat Not really, on most real devices. > On a default Android device you have to click 7 or 8 times to get into the QR scanner thingy inside Google Lens. Perhaps, on stock Android with no manufacturer special apps. But the Samsung, Google, and LG Camera apps, at least, have “point at a QR code and the camera reads it”, so it takes as man…

Hm, I have a Pixel 5 and it most certainly doesn't do that. Nothing happens. https://i.imgur.com/kjFEwiR.jpg Then again, starting about 5 weeks ago it also stopped responding to "OK Google" and 3 weeks ago it stopped announcing turn-by-turn directions during GPS navigation so I guess this is the state of tech in 2021 :-/ (Definitely don't want an Apple device though, massive privacy issue for me to use a closed sourc…

I stopped trusting Google to put out bugfree products right around the time the Chromecast 2 came out.

It's been a downhill expectation on experience since.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#292

Post by shoulderfake »

sksksk wrote: post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

Buddy how did you not just leave the place as soon as you saw there's no network connection ?

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#293

Post by sofixa »

tarsinge wrote: post #157
sofixa wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First: I am from germany, so, my perspective may differ from other parts of the world... and due to the pandemic, my last meal eaten in an restaurant was in the early beginnig of 2020 > So... this is something i am really glad that it has not washed at our shores... at least not yet How can you know if you haven't eaten in a restaurant since early 2020? Here in France, i had absolutely never seen it before the pand…

I'm from France and I have never seen that, but well there are "restaurants" and restaurants I guess.

Where do you live? In the Paris area it's hard to find a restaurant without a QR code on their tables.

Trips in the last year to various cities left me with the impression that QR codes are pretty ubiquitous in most restaurants fancier than your corner kebab shop but below La Tour d'Argent and co.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#294

Post by madjam002 »

One restaurant that I went to requires a QR code, you scan it and get a menu, have to choose everything you want to order, have to enter your personal details (name, phone, email, address) and card details.

Unfortunately the food is pretty good there.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#295

Post by ta988 »

sksksk wrote: post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

This is just yet another way to monetize people data. I saw that once and left the restaurant. There was no technical problem to solve here. Give paper with checkboxes it is much more convenient.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#296

Post by atatatat »

aclelland wrote: post #280
lowercased wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 20 years of web, I still see commercially printed URLs on signs/buildings/cars/etc that do not understand redirects. I saw http://www.ourcompany.com/sub/registration.aspx on printed on a glass door the other day - looked like etching at first, but may have something else? This was at a local theater/event space, IIRC. "ourcompany.com/register" is infinitely more understandable, and unsure why no one in the chai…

There are a bunch of trucks outside my house at the moment laying fiber cabling. The email address for the company is basically 'buildingcompany.co.uk@gmail.com' and this isn't a tiny firm. It left me wondering whether the bosses if the company just don't care or if they were told by the web design company they hired for their site that it'd add thousands to the website cost and decided against it.

It makes no difference to the box-checkers hiring them, so therefore,

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#297

Post by atatatat »

moelf wrote: post #246
NavinF wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't accept cash or credit cards? Goodbye. Where did you encounter such a restaurant? I'd estimate that 99.9% of restaurants accept credit in the US based on the anecdote that I've only had to pay 1 restaurant in cash over the last decade. How would a restaurant refuse both credit and cash? Do they make you pay before eating?

these are everywhere in China now. They use WeChat pay or Alipay :) I haven't been there in almost 3 years so it must have gotten a lot worse now, I doubt I can survive next time I visit.

Plenty of guides on registering burners for this app, no?

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#298

Post by deergomoo »

vmception wrote: post #133

> Before the pandemic, I’d shudder at the sight of a restaurant table full of people all staring at their phones. I was always happy not to be them or be sitting with them. I always kept the lively conversation flowing at my table. I always thought this perspective was funny because it always assumed what the people on their phones were doing. The assumption is that they are disengaged with each other when it's just…

It always irritated me because it's incredibly condescending (the author's view, not yours).

Since we both work from home, my fiancée and I spend the vast majority of our day together. Sometimes everything we have to talk about has already been talked about during the day, and we just want to relax over some nice food. There's nothing wrong with us reading stuff on our phones while we wait for the meal to arrive.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#299

Post by rndgermandude »

sksksk wrote: post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

I would use a QR menu to browse, if it works well enough, and otherwise ask for a real menu or else just leave.

What I will not do is make accounts, or fill in an online order form. And I will not give out any personal information, including my email, without very good reason.

Last year here in Germany the government started to require restaurants to take down the name, address, phone number of every customer, so they could contact trace if there was an outbreak. Fine by me, in these special circumstances. But one restaurant we visited actually had a waiter show up with a tablet showing some online form I was supposed to fill out. I told her "No thanks, please get me a piece of paper and I will write it down". The owner then came with pen and paper, and we had a nice and friendly chat. He explained that he wanted to make it easy and "cool" with tech. It also turned out that his "tech-wiz" nephew had coded up that online form for him last minute (very cliché :p). I explained to him that while understandable, it's actually harder for a lot of people to type on these things (including me to a degree) than use a pen and paper - the owner thought for a few moments and admitted that he too finds it easier to use a real pen "at his age" - and that storing this kind of information in digital form is just one mishap away from really angry (former) customers and GDPR penalties, and how managing this kind of data is actually harder to get right in digital form than collecting some pieces of paper and running them through the shredder some 4 weeks later. We visited the same place about a month later, and they had switched to pen and paper entirely. I like to think our talk helped them with that decision.

I cannot really fault that owner. He was trying to do the best in a suddenly changed and shitty situation, and in his line of business he didn't really have to deal with privacy issues and the associated dangers and regulations before, other than cashless payments where the payment processor does most of the heavy lifting and compliance anyway.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#300

Post by deergomoo »

CubsFan1060 wrote: post #277

I'm slightly surprised that App Clips, Instant Apps, and NFC haven't taken off more in this space.

I would guess because they're significantly more work. There's a good chance the restaurant already had an online menu pre-pandemic; printing off a few QR codes that point to that URL is five minutes work vs. hiring a developer for who knows how long.
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