In England it's almost the norm to have a service from a machine of some sort. It's incredibly easy to buy something, and incredibly easy to return something both in person and online. Sometimes you may run into the odd person in your ways as you are either in search of something or request help that perhaps the online service or machine cannot offer. It's a rarity, however. People talk a lot of shit over how these machines are ruining society or taking jobs, making service harder somehow. But I am of the opinion that these things are a blessing. They remove the human interaction almost entirely. No more waiting for some uneducated, slow mouth-breather to count the change they owe you, or to slowly pack your bags that you could just pack yourself. No more dialogue that wastes your time as you have to be asked whether you have a club card or not, or if you want one at all; just slap that button that fucks off the pop-up and you're on your way! Marvellous, right? Well one thing I have hated in Armenia is that this isn't a thing still. In some ways, Armenia is decades behind, even going as far as having to request a ticket in phone stores, sit down, and wait your turn at the stupid desks in which you're merely trying to buy a phone cable, or a new charger.
To make things worse, whenever you enter a store here, one of these annoying individuals will follow you like a starving dog that smells the groceries you've tucked away in your bag. Keeping the strongest eye on you at all times, within a metre's distance to either snag the sale or ensure you aren't stealing on of their cheaply made Chinese items of sheer shit. Again, in England this isn't really a thing, and I miss it dearly. It's hard to tell them to simply leave you alone, instead they ensure they follow you at all times under the argument that maybe you are crook. Maybe you do have the intent on stealing some cheap plastic trash. Want to buy anything? Be sure to make friends with the workers, you'll be spending lots of time together, after all.
This brings me to the next point of my seething: today I wanted to purchased a WiFi modem that'd take a SIM card of any sort and provide (hopefully) stable Internet wherever, instead of relying on the slow networks of cafes, the endless logging in after seeing an advertisement popup every thirty minutes to relogin (so it can't be blocked). As well as just ensuring we have near home Internet speeds from any provider wherever we go. For some additional context, tomorrow I travel to Georgia for a week. Being somewhere potentially remote where home WiFi might not be reliable, and phone networks might. We roamed around the local shops in search of something, our options were limited due to the stores here just having the most literal-who Chinese shit brands imaginable, and I have zero faith in those to either have longevity or not just blow up in my face.
One of the brands we checked out in a Mobile Center store was one of these, the clerk opened it up with a knife for us to check out, to some coincidence the screen, out of the box, had a scratch on it. Well, why would I buy that? A big no and we left to the next place, which had some slightly older Huawei branded modem available for less of a price. A brand that I don't want to support, but is considered a last resort given the lack of available options in this part of the world. Naturally, we asked the clerk a few questions; one of which was of the utmost importance: would this device accept any SIM card from any carrier? The answer we received: yes.
No! In actuality, they completely lied. We arrived home and immediately went to setup the device, to which I placed my current SIM from Team into it, and was a met with a "Device Locked" screen, which insisted I put in a code that would open it up; I assumed that the implication was that my current SIM needed the PUK code put in, to which the eight digits didn't remove the grey "Next" button. I looked around in the box and online for more information regarding what this code might be, perhaps Team never gave me the full codes I needed. As I already mentioned though: this was not the problem. The store that claimed this device was unlocked and would accept any SIM card from any carrier, in fact only accepted SIM cards from their carrier. The downside? Tomorrow I'm leaving the country for a week and that store isn't even open on Sundays. I'll be leaving into the abyss with no guarantee that I'll have Internet access for the week; and incapable of going back to the store to seethe at them and get my money back.
Annoyingly, it appears the actual device itself isn't that bad. It supports decent speeds, and when unlocked, well, it's unlocked! Not to forget that the device actually offers the ability to swap out the battery; so when it inevitably dies, your device doesn't die and become a useless pile of plastic with it. I was surprised at this given all modern devices come with batteries built into the device, eternally placed in with the enchantments of multiple warlocks. Basically, what I am saying is, will the machine takeover really be that bad? From what I have seen so far, the removal of workers actually makes experiences much better. Machines don't lie for a sale, machines don't breathe over your neck with bad breath. They don't take hours to count some loose change and will happily take cards.
I, personally, can't wait.