I worked at a SaaS startup, which meant odd jobs wandered across my desk. One day it was company shirts. The code needed to open our website. I did not need scan analytics or a campaign dashboard. I needed a file I could send to the printer.
I found a polished QR service and assumed I would paste in the URL, download the squares, and get on with the rest of my day. Instead, I got a code that relied on the provider's redirect and a cheap-looking purchase that became a much larger recurring charge.
When the refund I believed was offered did not happen, I disputed the charge through PayPal. PayPal refunded me.
Was I salty? Yes. Still am a little.
Mostly, I could not believe how much nonsense had been stuffed into such a small task. A QR code can contain the destination directly. For a shirt pointing at the company homepage, there was no reason to rent a redirect or start a new software relationship.
That irritation became this site.