RANT WARNING: freakin' stupid login to buy crap

[FifteensAway]

I just had to - once again - "login in to account" to make a single item $7 US purchase.  That is so freaking stupid!!!  Way too many sites require this.  Why?  I make a purchase now and not again for three years or ten years even - who the hell bothers to remember passwords for something like that.  Someone needs to fix this.  And, yeah, I know, some "shopping carts" are at fault but it still PISSES ME OFF every time.  STOP this madness, please.  Fix it.  Permanently.

Rant over.

[HerbertTarkel]

My phone and Pepperidge Farms remembers. All my passwords get stored. Comes in handy for those rightly named annoying must login sites.

I use guest checkout whenever I can.

[Mikai]

All the pages at which I buy have the guest checkout option.

[Will Bailie]

Ruddy data mining.  If I must create an account to purchase I stop to see if I can get the product elsewhere.  Hopefully if enough vendors see us voting with our feet they’ll get the message.

[Rick]

I normally use guest checkout where I can but more sites are discontinuing the guest checkout option in favour of an account login for every single purchase, no matter how small. I agree with the OP that it's annoying and frustrating, it also means I won't go back to a site that does that, unless they have a product I can't get anywhere else.

[zemjw]

I bought a game at a recent show, so logged on to the website afterwards to see what else was available. They had quick ref sheets as PDFs, with a price tag of £0.00, so I dumped them in my basket.

At the checkout it said "no payment due", so I clicked "complete", only for every field to light up red, demanding my name, address, phone number, inside leg measurement etc.

I'm pretty certain rude words were said, and I did not complete the "purchase". I did wonder about putting in fake details, but that always feels like the sort of thing that will come back and bite you at some point...

The shop metaphor for everything is really annoying, and those sheets should have been on a simple download page, but, then, as Will noted, no personal information to sell on if they don't track everyone and everything.

I bought some figures today from a site where, according to my password safe, I do have a login. However, trying to login failed and trying to reset the password claimed my email was unknown Fortunately they do still allow guest purchasing.

There are sites that do get it right, and I look for stuff on them first. The sites that are a pain get fewer visits, and only as a last resort.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

I gave up on Wargames Illustrated digital recently as they’ve changed the magazine system so you have to view on their proprietary app system (which is rubbish) - so now I don’t have access to the back catalogue I’ve been paying for for years except those I’ve downloaded. They claimed, when asked, it was due to lost revenue due to people illegally obtaining the pdf - experience suggests those people will never pay for your product WI, but you will lose more in disgruntled subscribers (and sooner or later you’ll annoy some tech savvy hobbyist that will now make a point of liberating your whole catalogue and providing it for free). Sad but the subscriptions value was in the vault not the current magazine - information I can get anywhere.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Mikai]

Do you by chance know if the WS&S-magazine has the same issue with their digital subscription?

[HerbertTarkel]

I gave up on Wargames Illustrated digital recently as they’ve changed the magazine system so you have to view on their proprietary app system (which is rubbish) - so now I don’t have access to the back catalogue I’ve been paying for for years except those I’ve downloaded. They claimed, when asked, it was due to lost revenue due to people illegally obtaining the pdf - experience suggests those people will never pay for your product WI, but you will lose more in disgruntled subscribers (and sooner or later you’ll annoy some tech savvy hobbyist that will now make a point of liberating your whole catalogue and providing it for free). Sad but the subscriptions value was in the vault not the current magazine - information I can get anywhere.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

Wow. Yeah, agreed - a pdf that gets passed around vs app bs makes no sense. You WILL lose more to a crappy app vs a common format pdf. WI, making it easy to say no to digital.

[Tactalvanic]

I had similar issues in UK when particular train company changed name, website upgraded etc.

So of course it flips you around resetting passwords as your account was successfully migrated... you must login ok done. ticket payment/purchase loop of failure until I check my filters...

Turned out that clicking the purchase button started the process of their app/website scripting to contact all the interested parties.. FIRST.

As in before going to the actual payment verification/bank bit. Not after, first. selling my byte of data being more important than taking my actual money.

So that google,msn, fedex, GCHQ, etc etc all had to told my  anonymised info that I bought a train ticket to.. before I could actually purchase it.

Needless to say my default settings - block all that crap thankyou. 20 minutes later after I turn off the blocking for a few seconds.. purchase successful.

I  normally just get them on the day now, at the station - physically queuing is slightly quicker and more anonymous, and less intrusive.

Same with sites with cookie consent and 387 or more "interested parties" that then try to force you to say no to all of them - individually - rather than just one "no button" I just go elsewhere for the same info where there are fewer interested parties.  Some even go past 1200 interested parties. 

Boggles me, because truth, no other parties are that interested.

[HerbertTarkel]

You’ve gotta watch for Big Train! They have a conspiracy of epic proportions to railroad your data collection 

[fred]

Do you by chance know if the WS&S-magazine has the same issue with their digital subscription?

No, these are simple PDFs. And the download requires no login - the link contains all the info needed, so just a single click.

[Tactalvanic]

You’ve gotta watch for Big Train! They have a conspiracy of epic proportions to railroad your data collection 

 

yeah. still its a rant over, and shows how difficult it can be to get a decent balance between access, security, and customer retention/happiness.

[Mikai]

No, these are simple PDFs. And the download requires no login - the link contains all the info needed, so just a single click.

Thanks for the info. I only have an old laptop, so the app-stuff would have thrown me out here. I have the printed abo but was thinking about getting the digital one too to skip through the older issues.

[FifteensAway]

Re: guest checkout> that is my normal go to - especially to avoid PayPal which I loathe - but to also avoid the log-in crap.  Unfortunately, site used did not have that option.  Had to go through the 'forgot password, email, new password, new login routine' which means a lot of extra effort FOR ONE ITEM!  BS.  My 'new' password uses some really bad language.  . And will likely never be used again.