Not sure why people would hate gas stations, I hate the gas companies setting the insane prices, but the stations themselves are often just local businesses.
ISPs on the other hand are like abusive partners, they do an awful job until you say you're going to leave. Then they start begging you to stay and promising to get better. Then they're good for about a week before starting to completely screw you again.
Don't forget the random charges for a few bucks that they stick on all the time banking on people not bothering to call and bitch about it because an hour on the phone isn't worth it for ~$5.
National ISPs like Spectrum/Time Warner Cable, AT&T, and Comcast/Xfinity have an oligopoly. They have divided up America into their own markets and purposely avoid entering each other's markets to avoid competing with each other. With no competition, they are free to charge as much as possible, avoid providing good support, and can provide suboptimal service (ie, low and asymmetric download/upload speeds, terrible latency). [1] The problem worsens if you live in suburban or rural areas. Of course there are exceptions where coverage overlaps due to sharing infra, but that is rare and possibly priced in.
Above gas stations? About the only thing that annoys me about them is half the stuff not having a price listed. I guess I'd hate them more if they kept jacking up prices the longer I was a customer. 🤨
Yes, I’m surprised out haven’t seen it. The screen that takes card information will start playing some insufferable advertisement while the gas pumps.
For those who don’t know: one of the physical unlabeled buttons on the side of the screen always mutes it, so just push all of them if some kind stranger hasn’t marked it for you.
I've never heard any one really complain about gas stations. is the questioned and response worded poorly? I think people hate paying high prices for gas but I've never heard any one say they hate gas stations before.
ISP's tho, every one can agree that they can go gargle an entire warehouses of unwashed dicks
You won’t see Americans united in that hate, because our system is actually great for the top 30% of people. It’s the bottom 30% who are really fucked by it. And the people in the middle are merely fingerfucked by it.
I think it’s more like top 5%. Between my husband and I we’re top 30% and it’s still terrible for us. But, point taken, like everything else in the US it’s serving the powerful few so it’s unlikely to change.
Literally the only broadband provider in my area is Comcast. If an avatar of Comcast appeared before me, I would shit on its head. Data cap bullshit assholes
Two things bug me about US gas stations. One is the 9/10 of cent thing they persist in. So the gas isn't $3.29, it's $3.29 9/10. And of course you know who benefits from the rounding, the retailer. The other thing that bugs me is gas pumps that play ads loudly. Luckily those seem to be getting more rare.
I'm pretty indifferent when it comes to gas stations other than when they price gouge. On the other hand, most ISPs can fuck off. Currently we have Google Fiber which I actually like. I know exactly how much our monthly bill will be and their customer service is pretty spot on compared to others such Cox, Spectrum, and AT&T.
I don't hate gas stations, but I do hate people who don't know how to pull up to a fucking gas pump without completely cocking it up for everyone else!
Watching some woman lose her mind at Costco because the attendant refused to let her drive the wrong way through the pumps and made her go get in line properly while I was pumping my gas was so wonderful.
Having moved to jersey from a state where I could pump my own gas, the worst part about it is when it's 2am, there's an emergency and you're rushing to the hospital, only to notice you need gas, only to realize that the only station within 20 miles doesn't have anyone working that late, and while the pumps are there and functional, they're turned off so you're stuck there.
Well, good news on that front, the house and senate passed a bill to let us pump our own. As long as Kotek signs it, it would go into effect immediately.
Personally I've never had any problems with my isp. Here in Norway, I pay about $50 pr month for 10Gbps up and down. Isp doesn't care if I selfhost websites or other things with my connection. Just hassle free
My family pays $160/month for a 4Mbps up/ 1 Mbps down internet and landline phone combo that usually tops out at half that speed in practice. It's amazing much of anything loads out here.
My isp is fine. But it's a small local company. But yeah I hated Comcast and all their hidden fees. It's so nice to know that the bill I agreed to is what's coming. Sure price increases can, and likely will happen, but there's a difference between "your new bill is gonna be $xxx.xx." and the creeping inflatatory price Comcast charges.
The reason their customer service sucks is that they see it as a cost they want to minimize, not a value add. Why do they want to eliminate cost? Because they are in a constant price war with competitors. Because we’ll switch if we can get $5 / month less. No one ever thinks twice about switching to get $5 / month less, and they they complain about bad customer service…
ISPs in the US are not in a price war with competition, that's ridiculous. The price per gig has been going down as infrastructure build out happens in the middle mile. In the last mile, prices are still abusively high with predatory bundling contracts. The reason their customer service sucks is because their customers don't have 30 options. They have at most 2 and in many places they have 1 option.