Enshittification of everything

 We are greedy people. We prefer digital platform if it saves 50 paisa. But in some cases we have to resort to digital platforms out of necessity.

And these platforms are not very trustworthy. That is not to say that non-digital forms are very reliable. We will talk about that later. 

I had to send some sweets to my son who is in another country. And I selected the site FNP as it was known devil. The website said same day delivery and there were some OK-ish options. We selected a sweet one quarter kg and sent it. 

Don't laugh at me on hearing the prices. The total price was six and a half thousand rupees, half of which  was their shipping charges. For that price, my son could have bought 10 such boxes - I presume. Anyhow, we sent it and got a nice message from them saying that it was delivered. I was happy. 

But then came the shock - it was not delivered. And the circus started. I called their helpline. The kind lady said that since she is from domestic section, she will send the information to international department. And they will call me back within an hour. 

Of course, they did not call me back. And I, the jobless old lady called them again twice. Third time, their duration increased, the customer service person said by 2-3 hours they will call me back. He tried explain to me that the time zones are different here and in USA. I should have asked him, is the time duration also different. How many hours of Indian time is one hour of US time? Is it brahma samaya?

So far there is no resolution from them. Of course, they are full of apologies. Appa, namage duddadru vapas kodu. 

No, this is not the single incidence, nor the single company. If due to your bad luck your neighbor's garden work cuts your wifi cable, you will have to keep calling the ISP company in a loop again and again. 

And then there are some more tragic cases. More than 10 years ago, I lost two of my google accounts. Not a big issue. But one was my blogger account and the other was my developer account used for android app publishing. 

I was naive and thought two factor authentication will make the accounts safer. And used these two accounts for one another. 

I might have gone on a vacation - not to Europe, but to native - home and in-laws place. When I returned home, I had forgotten both passwords. I tried all possible ways to recover the accounts. And till today, I could not recover those two passwords and accounts.  

So two factor authentication is yet another word which scares me to death.  

Let us come to service people on the physical world. The technicians. As we are Indians and we expect gadgets to last a lifetime, technicians are our favorite people. And as we think that the technicians from authorized partners of the original manufacturer is more reliable. 

Here comes the problem. These 'partners' may not make much moolah. So they have to rely on other techniques. They pester you to buy AMCs - annual maintenance contracts. All of them. They will do the math and tell us how much we can save by paying 5-8k for AMC. As they have gauged us to be math oriented (read money minded). 

But don't you ever do the mistake of buying their AMC. Once AMC is bought and paid for, the next repair will not be free of cost for you. Because they explain to you that why this particular part is not covered by AMC. Did we get AMC details after buying? Of course not. So we have to believe the technicians. 

The incidence yesterday was of water purifier. Suddenly it started blinking two indicators - filter life  and service. So we booked a technician. And he promptly came, opened the box and was about to advice us to buy new filters. But we had bought all the 4 filters two months back paying 6k for them. He was grumbling that the company does not have a record of the purchase. 

Next he decided the problem is with PCB. I have some background in these electronic circuit boards. How often do they go bad? And how? They don't have moving parts. They are not exposed to outside. Or do they mean that one two wires which connect to these boards got disconnected? 

Anyway he did not know how much PCB will cost. But he said - please buy AMC and it will cover it. Best part was he was expecting us to pay upfront for this AMC, while he will place the order for this "PCB" which may arrive in a week's time. 

We called customer service people. And I can be very blunt - on the phone - to unknown people. I asked the person on the other end 'are we being fooled?'. It could be a simple case of blockage of external filter. 

You see - though we receive muncipal water from river Kaveri, it tends to accumulate all kinds of dust and dirt on the way. Added to these are the tiny ants which are product of our own home. So the filter receive enough of them and gets clogged. 

So a simple reason for a problem. The message was passed on the the technician. He grudgingly cleaned the filter. But no change in blinking. Then he suggested we reschedule the appointment to next day. And his boss give us a solution. 

All the dirt might have settled in the night and this morning our water filter is working fine again. It did not need a PCB, nor new filter, nor an "AMC". 

 Of course, whether it is the technicians or the customer service executives, they are not independent actors. The fault is not theirs. They do what they are told. To bring in more cash to the company. 

We know it and they know that we know it. But the tragic thing is as a result of this situation, we just can't trust anyone. That makes us feel helpless and very very very angry. 

Such is life.