[SoftTalker]

> Nearly 80% of Americans had a service or product problem in 2025, and about two-thirds of those felt “rage” about it

"Rage" is has been encouraged and reinforced as an appropriate reaction to what is most likely a simple mistake or process breakdown. Another way that social media and algorithmic feeds have pandered to our base emotions. We are becoming a world of tantrum-throwing toddlers.

[mirashii]

> what is most likely a simple mistake or process breakdown

I think this needs justification. My status quo is to believe that most times I have a problem when dealing with these large corporations that they've made any process for getting support or remediating what _should_ be a simple process breakdown is a labyrinth of steps to make it as difficult as possible to reach any sort of remedy to discourage you from even trying. People are raging because calmly asking for assistance doesn't work, the only way to pierce through is to make a scene big enough that it risks reputational damage to simply get the attention that every individual deserves.

[SoftTalker]

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. It's a process scaled to deal with thousands or millions of people. That's why when I have a problem with my internet service, I never call, or use the website, or use the app. I go to the Xfinity retail store and talk to someone. I almost always leave satisfied.

[sgentle]

> It's not calculated, and not personal.

It doesn't have to be either of these things to be intentional. Pretty much every large system is too complex to be calculated or personal in the way we would apply those terms to a human. However, you can still describe a system as having values and goals, still analyse it in terms of its incentives and the mechanisms it evolves to achieve them in its environment.

The incentives are continued YoY growth, the environment is a saturated market, and so the mechanisms are monopolistic and anti-consumer practices. "Go to the Xfinity retail store" doesn't prove anything except that you passed an effort gate, segmenting you away from someone working two jobs with young children at home. 1% of customers costing the company $10 is the same as 100% of customers costing them 10c, with the added benefit that your segment is more likely to hurt retention than the one with no time or energy for comparison-shopping.

Did a single person design and orchestrate this state of affairs? Unlikely, but the company as a whole is more than capable of blobbing its bureaucratic way towards more efficient digestion of your funds. Never underestimate dumb optimisation processes at scale. Given enough time, such processes have turned monkeys into Shakespeare.

[asimpletune]

One can feel rage if something is intentional and annoying, unintentional but annoying, intentional and not annoying, unintentional and not annoying.

The first is justified. The second is understandable but a case of confusing it with the first. The last two also happen, and are not justified nor understandable.

Unfortunately there is currently an excess of the first case. I think people are arguing this is a problem. It probably causes the other 3 to happen more too.

[bluefirebrand]

> 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 for them to show some humanity were ignored so they could continue turning the screws on their customers

You're absolutely wrong. It's calculated as hell

[pessimizer]

> 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 they themselves exist. The avoidance of the moral consequences of their own work blinds them to anything that reminds them of what they do.

[bluefirebrand]

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"

[BrenBarn]

Maybe that means we shouldn't have so many large corporations.

[pessimizer]

> It's the nature of the beast. It's not calculated, and not personal.

These are simply weird declarations that you're making, and 20 years ago the world was not like this.

> It's a process scaled to deal with thousands or millions of people.

You're saying this as if there weren't thousands or millions of people 20 years ago.

> I go to the Xfinity retail store and talk to someone. I almost always leave satisfied.

I've never seen an Xfinity retail store in my life. I guess we have to wait until they close them all for you to stop patronizing people. Everybody here understands how businesses work, and we also understand why they cut services and quality. People are not confused or ignorant, they're angry that they don't have functioning governments, so these companies don't have to compete anymore.

[joquarky]

BTW, there's a lot of unsubstantiated projection in your comment.

[giardini]

You say "these companies don't have to compete anymore". How can you justify that statement? Do you have a reference/statistic/URL?

[qwerty_clicks]

Processes are hollow and some AI isn’t making my life any better. Goods are junk and there are few examples of common physical craftsmanship in the marketplace. MAGA just want a well made jacket but they are on a life line of Walmart wages and goods. I get it. Rage is appropriate yet misguided.

[SoftTalker]

Rage is not approprate in most cases. It gets your blood pressure and adrenaline spiking, but doesn't do anything to fix the problem. It probably makes it worse because it clouds rational thought.

Cheap goods have always been junk. Buy less, better stuff. Buy once, cry once.

[doctorwho42]

Truly the response of a person of means who has never lived a life of do-withouts.

[m4x]

What do you do when the expensive options are also junk? Relatively few manufacturers actually focus on quality today.

[giardini]

Regardless of price why buy junk?

[m4x]

I'm genuinely curious how you think we should avoid it? If I had to buy a household appliance tomorrow, or a new car, I cannot think of a single company I'd feel safe purchasing from.

[defrost]

Gruen transfer confusion.

[giardini]

That is something specific to shopping in a fabricated environment (e.g., a mall) I fail to see how that applies to buying a house/home.

[monksy]

At this point I seriously don't agree with you.

Considering cheap "junk" from China has gotten a heck of a lot better and competitive.

However the average good in the US has been overly inflated.

[vatsachak]

You clearly have not seen the King of the Hill episode where Hank tries to tackle his anger

[seb1204]

Self reflection would be more appropriate than rage. Buy less shit people don't need. Be more kind and compassionate.

[mnkyokyfrnd]

In the words of Martin Luther King, "rage against poor services is the language of unheard customer".

[donw]

With me on the older side of things, believe it when I tell you that things actually used to, for the most part, Just Work.

"Simple mistakes" and "process breakdowns" were uncommon, notable, and dealt with quickly. Even the cheap stuff tended to last for quite some time, and was often repairable when it failed.

Enshittification is not only real, it is accelerating.

[dirkt]

Yes, I lately feel like the internet is lately mostly acting like a mob, and finger pointing "look, how stupid they are!" is the main content.