Look around you and ask yourself: is this the type of futuristic life that you thought you’d have? For some of us, that answer is a definite ‘no’ because it strays too far from the idealized things we’ve seen in our favorite sci-fi movies and shows. In real life, there’s too much friction, bad design, and annoyance compared to technological awesomeness. In short, some tech corporations are less than friendly toward their valued customers in their pursuit of profit and never-ending growth.

User u/cutypatotie sparked an interesting discussion on r/AskReddit after asking everyone to share their opinions about the biggest tech scams that have been widely accepted. We’ve collected the most interesting insights to share with you, from how God-awful subscriptions can be to the scourge that is planned obsolescence. 

We wanted to learn more about user-(un)friendly companies and product longevity, so we reached out to marketing psychology speaker Matt Johnson, Ph.D., for comment. Johnson is the host of the branding and human nature blogs. You’ll find the expert insights he shared with Bored Panda as you read on.

#1

“We have changed our terms of service.  Click here to accept and continue using our services.”

IamShellingFord:

Forced arbitration and changing the terms of service after the product has been bought

when i bought my device, i had an understanding of what i was buying. it makes my skin crawl knowing that companies can change that after i paid for something and i can’t hold them accountable for that.

it’s like i bought a pizza with some toppings.
after i buy it with the terms being i can eat the toppings as well, they take away the toppings from the rest of the pizza as soon as I’ve had a couple of slices.
feels absolutely disgusting to me.

Image credits: sunnyspiders

#2

Non-replaceable batteries. 

Image credits: whittlingcanbefatal

#3

Planned obsolescence. Companies need that profit margin, and they will use very underhanded methods to make sure your appliances/electronics will get replaced by their new models when they come out.

Image credits: Zorothegallade

#4

Intentionally downgrading older models of just about anything so you’re forced to upgrade.

Image credits: mango_coke

#5

Hippity hoppity your data is now my property… or something along those lines.

Image credits: Both-Equipment1473

#6

Unsubscribe button not being honored. Tactics include:

1. It takes 15 days to unsubscribe but 1 min to subscribe.
2. Sometimes link does not exists at all.
3. Sometimes it takes you to a non existent page.
4. Sometimes it asks you to login but you never had an account.
5. Sometimes they will randomly send emails even after unsubscribing , especially around holiday season. Like out of the blue they will email, I think they got a new incompetent marketing guy.
6. Them not realizing that they product they sell is not something I buy or need on a regular basis. Eg: indochino , how frequently do you think I buy a new suit.
7. The whole marketing email is an image and not an html. Clicking on it just opens the image or takes you to home page (mostly sites from India )
8. Somehow referencing the canspam act and sending it to their privacy email stops all the emails suddenly. But the. Point 5 happens.

Image credits: kindrudekid

#7

A new iPhone being released every year and Apple convincing people it has a ton of improvements.

Image credits: sam020586

#8

Ads after subscription.

Image credits: Tantan159

#9

Accepting cookies.

Just to continue on a site they’ll say accept or reject cookies. It’s easier for everyone to just accept. However, we’re selling our data to a host of companies who package it sell it to advertisers

Image credits: feric89

#10

You don’t actually own anything, you just own a license to view/listen/play it… and it can be revoked/edited at any time without consequence.

Image credits: SqueezyCheez85

#11

Cable TV packages that include hundreds of channels most people never watch but have to pay for. It forces consumers to overspend on content they don’t want just to get access to a few channels they do.

Image credits: Commercial-Low-1381

#12

Here’s a new product! (Uber! DoorDash! Amazon!) It’s so cheap and easy!

One year later: Sorry! We had to raise prices! Sorry, you have to pay for a membership now! Sorry, we had to make the app really confusing so you’re not really sure what you’re buying! Sorry, you have to wade through 1 million ads to find what you’re looking for!

Sorry, not sorry!

Image credits: r33c3d

#13

AI = Certainly artificial but lacking a great deal of intelligence.

munificent:

Training generative AI on copyrighted material laboriously produced by artists and then using the result to put those same artists out of work.

Image credits: Hefty-Station1704

#14

“I accept your 1000 page privacy policy and terms of service”

Image credits: imnobey

#15

Subscription Traps: Makes signing up easy but canceling difficult, often hiding the cancellation process.

Image credits: mostcutegirll

#16

I can’t believe I don’t see this in here, but the fact that most tech companies use their end users as testers is wild. Tons of the time you get something released that like, half works, and the end users or customers are used to find and fix bugs. It’s everywhere man.

Image credits: ssv-serenity

#17

McAfee – who in the hell actually needs it?

Image credits: Vivid-Luck1163

#18

Trapping customers with subscriptions.

Image credits: YJeezy

#19

Printer cartridges.

Image credits: mica280amg

#20

Crypto. Magic internet money with a community of people all just trying to get other people stuck holding the bag.

Image credits: Currywurst_Is_Life

#21

Data caps, literally not a technical reason for it. Throttling may make sense if they get overloaded but caps are literally just money grabs.

Image credits: t00sl0w

#22

Extended warranties for electronics, which are rarely worth the cost given the low chance of a malfunction that would fall under the warranty terms, and often overlap with the manufacturer’s warranty.

Image credits: Aggressive_Gas3275

#23

Paying for storage on iPhones.

Image credits: MelissaGulbin

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