Last week, I had a bad experience with technology. Allow me to paint a picture for you.
I was one of the sizable number of people who attended Mumford and Sons' first performance in Cape Town on Friday evening. Some 40 000 tickets to see the popular British rockers at their various shows across SA sold out in a matter of minutes. There was so much interest that the people responsible for bringing the band to the southern tip of Africa doubled the number of shows on the line-up just to accommodate everyone.
In the run-up to the musical festivities I'd read that the event would be cashless; meaning attendees had to purchase a contactless card with a preloaded amount of money on it. So anything you wanted to eat or drink would be purchased using said preloaded card. Outside the show, we were greeted by a charming young chap who sold us this very same card for R200. The card cost R10, so the amount of money preloaded on the card was R190. Stay with me here because this whole thing is about to get confusing.
Armed with our new form of currency, we headed straight for the beer tent. And by this I mean we joined what we deemed the shortest of the many lengthy queues that snaked their way out of the various bar entrances. An hour-and-a-half later we were at the front of the line (this event planning faux pas is a rant for a different day) and approached another charming young chap to place our order.
Now more than sufficiently parched, we were poised for some hoppy goodness. But alas, there was yet another step in our journey. You see, I would describe this gentleman's job as "drink strategist" for his duty was to help us figure out exactly how many drinks we could procure for the amount of money we had preloaded on our cards. Remember the R190 I told you about at the beginning? Oh and did I mention that plastic cups cost R5 each?
Our drinks purchase successfully navigated - this required a series of intricate maths calculations - the barkeep used a point of sale device to debit our contactless card and print a slip that we then had to present at a separate bar to finally secure an ice-cold brewski. By this point I should mention that we'd missed all of the supporting acts.
But why?
I don't know if I am being incredibly daft but what is the point of all this? We have a perfectly viable and accepted means of payment - be it cash or cards - and yet we opt to make things more complicated by forcing everyone to transact using a system that involves jumping through a number of frustrating hoops just to purchase something to eat or drink. Especially when you consider that there were credit card terminals at the event anyway.
I fail to understand how people utilised technology to make the process more convoluted when the aim of these platforms and devices is to streamline processes.
I know it's only a tenner and I probably shouldn't be letting this get to me so much but isn't this type of scenario supposed to make things simpler?
Apart from the fact that post-event people were left with cards they could no longer use; most of which still have a nominal amount of money on them. And the process of redeeming this money is equally tortuous. You see, you have to SMS your card number to a specified number. You will then receive a PIN that you can use at a Standard Bank ATM to reclaim your monies. But this little transaction is subject to bank and admin fees, and the process won't be swift as it takes two weeks to get your money back. So, given the fact that there was just R10 left on my card, and one has to pay a fee to recoup your card balance, I have to wonder how they're expecting us to recover our rands and cents from an ATM. And I think this is exactly what they rely on. The majority of people won't be bothered to go through the hassle of retrieving their R10. And if everyone who attends the various performances (let's use 40 000 because that was the original number of tickets sold) leaves that exact figure on their card, that means the fine fellows who organised the event are pocketing a cool R400 000. Apart from the interest they are earning during the two weeks they're so kindly holding on to our residual cash.
I know it's only a tenner and I probably shouldn't be letting this get to me so much but isn't this type of scenario supposed to make things simpler? What happened to creating and utilising tech to make the experience better for everyone involved? What happened to implementing systems with the user experience in mind?
Technology could have made it quicker to transact and simpler for concertgoers to get a beer and enjoy some great music. But in this case, admin and bureaucracy meant it managed to do the complete opposite.
* A former ITWeb journalist, Joanne Carew now resides in the Mother City, where she is admiring the mountain and completing her Masters studies at UCT.
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