Aussies Angry Over Being Asked to Use QR Codes at Restaurants

Long-time Slashdot reader smooth wombat writes:: A recent social media post by an Aussie received a deluge of replies and comments. His comment? 'I'm so f***ing tired of 'tech' being used to solve an 'issue' but only making everything worse and more inconvenient for everybody,' they wrote.

His comment was in response to going to a restaurant and having only a QR code to order from — literally a menu at the table with only the QR code on it. The app required to order from it 'proceeded to charge a 6.5% venue surcharge, a 2% payment processing fee, and then had the audacity to ask for a tip (10%, 15%, 25%) as the cherry on top'.

From Australia's News.com.au:

Hundreds of others enthusiastically agreed and many added they also didn't like being asked to enter their personal details. 'You're waiting your own table and paying an extra fee for the privilege. It's f***ed,' one person responded. 'It's also a big stinking FU to anyone old or not tech savvy. All just to hoover up your data,' another added.

Some, however, shared they preferred using QR codes to order their food — they removed the need to move to order more and limited engagement with staff. 'I actually like the QR ordering because I don't like people, but the surcharges and tipping can f*** off,' one said. 'I love the QR codes — don't need to leave the table to order another beer,' someone else wrote...

Jonathan Holmes-Ross, owner of board game restaurant, The Lost Dice in Adelaide told news.com.au that the use of QR code ordering had let his eatery 'reduce costs by around 25%... We no longer have to take orders, work out bills and manually take payments,' he said. 'This gives our wait staff more time to look after our customers, and the kitchen has excellent order information as the accuracy of the orders is great. We now have very few mistakes saving us time and waste. We can also mark items that have run out instantly on the app by using stock levels, again avoiding the disappointment of (the) customer.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.