I’ve just finished writing a cheque and addressing an envelope to pay for my daughters’ music lessons in the upcoming term. Why go to all this trouble? Because the music school charges a 2% surcharge for electronic payments. So it’s cheaper for me to send them an old fashioned cheque.
This all-to-common scenario illustrates one of the ironies of technology and its role in simplification.
While technology has made our lives simpler in many administrative areas (when it works) it has also made it easier for banks and others to attach a cost to it – whilst ignoring the hidden costs of the old fashioned approaches. As a result, we are often encouraged into using the older, more complex approaches.
The music school is probably passing on the cost of electronic transactions imposed on them by the bank. What they are ignoring is the hidden cost of opening my envelope, walking down to the bank, filling out a form and depositing the cheque. (I’m also ignoring the hidden costs at my end – but I’m going to the post office anyway.)
In a world ruled by numbers, it could be well worth your while looking past them from time to time. Just because something has an intangible cost doesn’t mean it has no cost.
Do you have any examples of your own? There are plenty of them.
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