Telephone booths.
They are almost gone.
I live in Amsterdam, relatively big city, lots of tourists.
But almost no telephone booths.
A while ago my telephone broke, so I had to contact the telephone company to send someone to fix it.
I tried being modern and send them an email, but alas, they insisted I'd call them.
But how am I supposed to call them with a phone about a broken phone...
So I walked around the city looking for telephone booths.... the few I found were broken and vandalised but in stead of being repaired they were being removed.
It took me a few days of exploring the city to find one that actually still worked, while I was walking around I actually saw a booth one day that was gone the next!
And when I called them from a booth.... one of the first things they asked me was my mobile phone number for when they send someone around...
I told them I didn't have one, their computer software wouldn't even let them put that into the form!
That option did not exist...
Eventually I insisted on speaking to a superior who then laughed, agreed with me on everything bad with this modern situation and then made up a fake mobile phone number for me.
So fraud was the only way to even get to the next page of the computer form...
But anyway, it was quite an ordeal.
If you live in Amsterdam and you don't have a mobile phone or neighbours who's phone you want to borrow, or when you're a tourist who's mobile phone doesn't work somehow, you're in trouble.
They are almost gone.
I live in Amsterdam, relatively big city, lots of tourists.
But almost no telephone booths.
A while ago my telephone broke, so I had to contact the telephone company to send someone to fix it.
I tried being modern and send them an email, but alas, they insisted I'd call them.
But how am I supposed to call them with a phone about a broken phone...
So I walked around the city looking for telephone booths.... the few I found were broken and vandalised but in stead of being repaired they were being removed.
It took me a few days of exploring the city to find one that actually still worked, while I was walking around I actually saw a booth one day that was gone the next!
And when I called them from a booth.... one of the first things they asked me was my mobile phone number for when they send someone around...
I told them I didn't have one, their computer software wouldn't even let them put that into the form!
That option did not exist...
Eventually I insisted on speaking to a superior who then laughed, agreed with me on everything bad with this modern situation and then made up a fake mobile phone number for me.
So fraud was the only way to even get to the next page of the computer form...
But anyway, it was quite an ordeal.
If you live in Amsterdam and you don't have a mobile phone or neighbours who's phone you want to borrow, or when you're a tourist who's mobile phone doesn't work somehow, you're in trouble.