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Comment by somnium_sn | Hacker News Reader

I've moved from Germany to the US and then to the UK. gov.uk is by far the most impressive government website i've encountered. Accessible, consistent and just works. Really a good show of what a government website can offer if done right.

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The German idea of an online platform is a website developed by Telekom (outsourced by them to the lowest bidder) which makes available the fax number of the Behörde, and the timings that the fax machine will receive incoming faxes.

That's as German as you get. I'm sure there is a German idiom for "that's how it's always been done and the change is someone else's fault" because that's the attitude. Had that a couple of times in shops. Business is bad because we're closed at peak times and that's the customer's problem. Business is bad because we don't accept cards and that's the customer's problem. Business is bad because our customers don't have fax machines these days and that's the customer's problem.

Recently I was with a German friend and she nearly fell on her ass when I showed her that you can actually pay at a car parking machine in the middle of nowhere with Apple Pay here in the UK.

I still remember last time I visited. One Sunday morning, I went to the Bäckerei and tried to pay for my Brötchen and Stückchen with my card and they just looked at me in disbelief. I quickly realized my mistake but it was too late. I had no cash so I left without any baked goods.

Thankfully that changed since 2020. Now many bakeries accept cards.

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