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> my laundry app (that I must use) takes minutes to load Do they have a place to mail your complaints? Who forces you to use the app? Annoy them. Annoy their b

> my laundry app (that I must use) takes minutes to load Do they have a place to mail your complaints? Who forces you to use the app? Annoy them. Annoy their boss. Write a flier pointing out how long it takes to use the app and leave those fliers in every laundry room you visit (Someone checks on those machines, right?). Heck, send an organization-wide email pointing out this problem. (CC your mayor, council-member, or congressional representative.) (You don't have to do all of these things, but a bit of gentle, non-violent, public name-and-shame can get results. Escalate gently accordingly as you fail to get results.) > my AC's app takes 45 s to load even if I just used it, because it needs to connect If I were in your shoes, assuming I had time, I might (a) do the above "email the company with a pointed comment about how their app sucks" or (b) start figuring out how to use Home Assistant as a shim / middleman to manage the AC, and thus make Home Assistant server and its phone app the preferred front-end for that system (c) write a review on your preferred review site indicating the app is a pile of garbage > Even worse, I'll make PRs on open projects (or open issues another way and submit solutions) that having been working for months and they just go stale while I see other users reporting the same problems and devs working on other things in the same project (I'll even see them deny the behavior or just respond "works for me" closes issue before opener can respond) Admittedly, the heavy-handed solution for this is to make a software fork, or a mod-pack, or "godelski's bag of fixes" or whatever, and maintain that (ideally automating the upkeep on that) until people keep coming to you for the best version, rather than the primary devs. --- No, I don't do this to everyone I meet or for every annoyance (it's work, and it turns people away if you complain about everything), but emails to the top of the food chain pointing out that basic stuff is broken sometimes gets results (or at least a meeting where you can talk someone's ear off for 30 minutes about stuff that is wrong), especially if that mail / email also goes to other influential people. I'm pretty chill and kind and helpful, but when something repeatedly breaks and annoys several people every day, you might hear about it in several meetings that I attend, possibly over the next year, until I convince someone to fix it (even if it's me who eventually is tasked with fixing it).

gruez 2y ago
>Do they have a place to mail your complaints? Who forces you to use the app? Presumably the building he lives in contracted out laundry service to some third party company, which is in charge of the machines and therefore shitty app. In this situation there really isn't any real choice to vote with your wallet. They can tell you to pound sand and there's nothing you can do. Your only real option is to move out. Maybe if OP is lucky, owns the property, and is part of the HOA he might be able to lobby for the vendor to be replaced.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  Most landlords are not complete assholes. They want to do what is reasonable to keep their tenants happy. It's much easier to re-sign a happy tenant than to have to turn over an apartment and spend time and money marketing it and possibly have it vacant for a while. If all the tenants hate the laundry app and let the landlord know (politely, with a list of machines that don't work, dates/times, etc), most likely it will have an effect.
  - davidashe 2y ago
    “Most landlords are not complete assholes.” Ummmm… In my anecdotal experience, many New York City landlords don’t see their tenants as human beings, just a revenue source. Tenants complain? Maybe a city inspector shows up, a day or days later, so the landlord can turn the heat/water back on, and the inspector reports “no issue found.” People get mad and move out? New tenants pay an even higher rent! Heard horror stories about both individual and management company landlords. Can’t be the only city like this. I’m pretty sure the long histories of social unrest under feudalism, the French Revolution, the mere existence of Marxism and Renter’s Rights Law, strongly beg to differ with your contention.
  - godelski 2y ago
    I think it depends. If your landlord is a person then yeah my experience hasn't been all that bad. But if you're landlord is a bureaucratic organization, they couldn't care less. There's just such high variance in how much of an asshole a landlord is. And I've never experienced a chill one that is in charge of an apartment complex. To put something in perspective a few months ago they changed mailing policy so that only the lease holder could pick up packages (citing safety. This is grad student housing, so already need to get your ID scanned to pick up a package or specifically authorize someone. Note that family and children can and do get university IDs -- not just for this). I wrote an email explaining that this was illegal (citing the relevant laws [0]) and explained how this decreases safety since not everyone is living with a responsible or even kind lease holder (luckily I'm the lease holder but I've been in that situation before. Student housing...). I got an annoyed letter back doubling down on the safety issue, so I escalated the issue twice (including reporting to the post office). I assume some lawyer finally saw it and freaked out. Now the policy is anyone in the house can pick up a package ( - _ - ; ). I've had no such success with the laundry app (they took away any other payment[1]) But my overall point is that 95% of these issues could be resolved my people taking a little more time to understand the consequences of their decisions. People will spend more time and energy defending bad decisions than resolving them. We all make mistakes, so that's not an issue. Especially since doing "good" it incredibly hard. But I'm pissed when we deny cracks in the system or that problems exist. I'm even okay with acknowledging it is low priority. But denial and gaslighting is what I more often experience and that's when I get angry. [0] why my local postman confirmed and even double checked for me [1] fun fact: they once double charged me. I sent them the logs from the app, a screenshot, and a screenshot from my bank showing the charges. They claimed to have no record. So I issued a clawback. They didn't seem to care and tbh, there's lots of businesses like this because they have such dominance over the market. I've seen clear illegal behavior from entire industries and reporting it does nothing. If you want an unambiguous example pull up archive and pick a 3d printer manufacturer and read https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-233/section-233.1 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B... (hell, I even tried getting this on the radar of YouTubers. No one cares). The false advertising they do is worse than the example the fucking FCC gives (when I emailed a few companies trying to let them know in case they weren't aware they said what they did was legal. My email to then was really just "hey, I noticed this. Figured you didn't know, so maybe this will help so someone doesn't try to sue you". Not asking for anything in return because all I want is to stop playing these stupid games that eat up so much of my time)
godelski 2y ago
Short of of writing to my mayor, I've done most of that. Big motivation to learn reverse engineering and some basic hacking. I can't hack everything. I can't fix everything. I need time for my own things I need time to be human. But no one is having it. My impression is that while everyone else is annoyed by things there's a large amount of apathy and acceptance for everything being crud. I know you're trying to help, but this is quite the burden on a person to try to fix everything. And things seem to be getting worse. So I'm appealing to the community of people who create the systems. I do not think these are things that can be fixed by laws. You can't regulate that people do their best or think things through. I appeal here because if I can convince other developers that slowing down will speed things up, then many more will benefit (including the developers and the companies they work for). Even convincing a few is impactful. Even more when the message spreads. Small investments compound and become mighy, but so do "shortcuts"

gruez 2y ago

>Do they have a place to mail your complaints? Who forces you to use the app? Presumably the building he lives in contracted out laundry service to some third party company, which is in charge of the machines and therefore shitty app. In this situation there really isn't any real choice to vote with your wallet. They can tell you to pound sand and there's nothing you can do. Your only real option is to move out. Maybe if OP is lucky, owns the property, and is part of the HOA he might be able to lobby for the vendor to be replaced.

SoftTalker 2y ago
Most landlords are not complete assholes. They want to do what is reasonable to keep their tenants happy. It's much easier to re-sign a happy tenant than to have to turn over an apartment and spend time and money marketing it and possibly have it vacant for a while. If all the tenants hate the laundry app and let the landlord know (politely, with a list of machines that don't work, dates/times, etc), most likely it will have an effect.
- davidashe 2y ago
  “Most landlords are not complete assholes.” Ummmm… In my anecdotal experience, many New York City landlords don’t see their tenants as human beings, just a revenue source. Tenants complain? Maybe a city inspector shows up, a day or days later, so the landlord can turn the heat/water back on, and the inspector reports “no issue found.” People get mad and move out? New tenants pay an even higher rent! Heard horror stories about both individual and management company landlords. Can’t be the only city like this. I’m pretty sure the long histories of social unrest under feudalism, the French Revolution, the mere existence of Marxism and Renter’s Rights Law, strongly beg to differ with your contention.
- godelski 2y ago
  I think it depends. If your landlord is a person then yeah my experience hasn't been all that bad. But if you're landlord is a bureaucratic organization, they couldn't care less. There's just such high variance in how much of an asshole a landlord is. And I've never experienced a chill one that is in charge of an apartment complex. To put something in perspective a few months ago they changed mailing policy so that only the lease holder could pick up packages (citing safety. This is grad student housing, so already need to get your ID scanned to pick up a package or specifically authorize someone. Note that family and children can and do get university IDs -- not just for this). I wrote an email explaining that this was illegal (citing the relevant laws [0]) and explained how this decreases safety since not everyone is living with a responsible or even kind lease holder (luckily I'm the lease holder but I've been in that situation before. Student housing...). I got an annoyed letter back doubling down on the safety issue, so I escalated the issue twice (including reporting to the post office). I assume some lawyer finally saw it and freaked out. Now the policy is anyone in the house can pick up a package ( - _ - ; ). I've had no such success with the laundry app (they took away any other payment[1]) But my overall point is that 95% of these issues could be resolved my people taking a little more time to understand the consequences of their decisions. People will spend more time and energy defending bad decisions than resolving them. We all make mistakes, so that's not an issue. Especially since doing "good" it incredibly hard. But I'm pissed when we deny cracks in the system or that problems exist. I'm even okay with acknowledging it is low priority. But denial and gaslighting is what I more often experience and that's when I get angry. [0] why my local postman confirmed and even double checked for me [1] fun fact: they once double charged me. I sent them the logs from the app, a screenshot, and a screenshot from my bank showing the charges. They claimed to have no record. So I issued a clawback. They didn't seem to care and tbh, there's lots of businesses like this because they have such dominance over the market. I've seen clear illegal behavior from entire industries and reporting it does nothing. If you want an unambiguous example pull up archive and pick a 3d printer manufacturer and read https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-233/section-233.1 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B... (hell, I even tried getting this on the radar of YouTubers. No one cares). The false advertising they do is worse than the example the fucking FCC gives (when I emailed a few companies trying to let them know in case they weren't aware they said what they did was legal. My email to then was really just "hey, I noticed this. Figured you didn't know, so maybe this will help so someone doesn't try to sue you". Not asking for anything in return because all I want is to stop playing these stupid games that eat up so much of my time)

godelski 2y ago

Short of of writing to my mayor, I've done most of that. Big motivation to learn reverse engineering and some basic hacking. I can't hack everything. I can't fix everything. I need time for my own things I need time to be human. But no one is having it. My impression is that while everyone else is annoyed by things there's a large amount of apathy and acceptance for everything being crud. I know you're trying to help, but this is quite the burden on a person to try to fix everything. And things seem to be getting worse. So I'm appealing to the community of people who create the systems. I do not think these are things that can be fixed by laws. You can't regulate that people do their best or think things through. I appeal here because if I can convince other developers that slowing down will speed things up, then many more will benefit (including the developers and the companies they work for). Even convincing a few is impactful. Even more when the message spreads. Small investments compound and become mighy, but so do "shortcuts"