I was visiting a friend at an elderly housing complex and sat in on a "town hall" meeting with residents about their laundry rooms. The residents are 70+ and the laundry rooms are being upgraded from coin-op machines to rechargeable cards that they'll swipe instead of inserting coins. I thought they were going to riot.
First complaint came before the representative had even started the meeting. A defiant woman in a house coat raised her hand at 1:01.
"Yes?"
"This meeting is supposed to start at 1. I'm missing my shows to be here. START!" She gritted her gums angrily.
Under great pressure from the angry mob wanting to get back to Perry Mason reruns, it was gently and carefully explained to the room that their old washers and dryers that accepted quarters would be replaced by machines that accepted a card. The cards would be recharged via a machine located in the dining hall.
"Can I write a check to the machine?"
No, cash only
"What if the person working the machine is sick?"
It's like a vending machine, you work it yourself
"Does my nurse know how to use this?"
"My aide does my laundry on Mondays, will that change?"
"Will the dryer be hot enough to dry my clothes?"
"What if it breaks?"
"How does it work?"
"What was wrong with the old machines?"
"What?"
"WHAT?"
"Did you hear what he said? What did he say?"
It was chaotic and everybody was angry to be adjusting to a change. It was a 5-minute presentation about using a rechargeable laundry card that went for over an hour. It's a good thing nobody had a decent throwing arm. Of course, the only thing to throw was wadded up tissues found in someone's sleeve and some hard candies.
I later helped an elderly woman who has trouble getting around make some returns to the grocery store. She wanted refunds on two items: mayonnaise because the jar was too large and sweet gherkins because she ate two and they weren't very sweet.
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