I’ve not been having the best of times with technology recently:

• My internet connection at home keeps failing, and the service centre cannot help me out
• The modem router I’m obliged to use for my internet connection is supposed to give excellent costs at a rock bottom price, but as a result it cannot be configured properly
• T-Mobile’s systems crashed when I tried to signup for a 3G wireless contract, and this meant my credit check was refused – no way back, no information, no appeal, and hence Orange instead
• Headaches with my website hosting provider and their tech team about FTP security issues, but as I pay only £8.50 / month for masses of bandwidth and disk space they cannot afford to keep on helping me
• Mobile phone price plans in the UK and Belgium that don’t really do the job properly, as I call and send lots of SMSes internationally, but my total call volumes are low – so no-one offers a service close to what I need and I’m continually fleeced

Having said that I’m generally at ease when dealing with technology, I use all kinds of gadgets on an everyday basis, and I’ve lived with liberal markets and consumer choice for all of these kinds of things.

But I have little time, I know what I want, I often know more than the people that have to provide me a service, but they are still gatekeepers to what I need to do anyway – so I end up hitting a series of never ending frustrations. Essentially it’s what could be termed the Generation Y Service Effect*.

* – there’s some debate whether I am Generation Y at all, it depends on the definition. I’m probably Cold Y – I do remember the fall of the Berlin Wall, but I’ve grown up completely in the information society.