Some years ago. I was consulting as user researcher for a parcel service, that provides parcel-automats for self-service pick-up. They wanted to improve on showing the status of occupancy of a certain automat, to indicate the likeliness of a parcel being delivered to the original automat or being rerouted.
Their data was very accurate and they could transparently communicate the occupancy status for the estimated day of delivery. Also, people could order the parcel to be deliverd elswhere at there own will. Nonetheless a lot of people regularly complained of occupied automats and being forced to claim their parcel in unsuiting pickup stations.
So it was assumed the way how the status was communicated would be faulty or misleading, as there data wasn't. There had to be a usability problem! So, I'm stepping in an setting up an interview series with some prototypes of improved UIs to see, if the status would be better recognized and people would make better informed decisions on how to receive their parcels.
After a couple of interviews one first insight was: The customers just didn't believe the data would be correct! They assumed, that it wouldn't be worth while to check the status. They all had those stories, where they received the parcels in their preferred automat, even when it was considered occupied or got it rerouted, even when the automat was indicated to be available.
They wouldn't acknowledge, that in 9 out of 10 cases or even more, the status was correct. The bad experience with the faulty delivery dominated their memory. Even when I told them, that the data was pretty accurate, only a few said they would consider it in the future. It seemed to cumbersome to care upfront about it - even when nearly everbody admitted to be annoyed, when their parcel would be redirected at the will of the delivery service.
In the end I concluded that the customers would very likely stick to ignore information, just hoping for the best, as the interviews indicated, that the habit of mistrust was the issue. We would need to convinse them, to trust the status, but it was clear, that this is not just done, by improving the UI.
Eventually we found some usability improvements nonetheless, where we would add more details to the status to educate customers in the long run, that in fact they could rely on it for their decision making. Yet, it seemed only a small detail on the journey, to change customer's habits from taking their chance, to actively managing their parcels. Thankfully, the team was happy about the research - as it helped them to understand the core issue, even if I couldn't help them to just solve it by changing a feature.