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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Broken: Open sign
Ian writes: "The sign says Open/Come in, while the doors are locked pretty tight."
[I like this photograph because it's such a good metaphor for poorly designed products, services, and websites. The advertising and marketing efforts try to get people to come in, but the broken design keeps the doors locked tight. -mh ]
Broken: Travelocity.com search results
I searched Travelocity for...
San Juan, Puerto Rico
...and Travelocity couldn't find it. Even stranger, it suggested the same city as one of the "close matches":
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO has the following close matches. Please select one.
San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU)
San Juan, Argentina (UAQ)
Saint John, Canada (YSJ)
Huh?
Broken: (Fixed!) No receipt at Staples.com
Update Nov. 19, 2004: Staples has fixed this problem. Customers now receive e-mail receipts after ordering from Staples.com.
Original post below. -mh
- - -
Dave Goldschmidt writes:
Looks like Staples.com missed a basic (but important) e-commerce step. No receipts. Yes, you read that right. Order anything from Staples.com and you will get an email confirmation and, in your shipment, a packing slip (which says in big letters "This is not an invoice").
Manufacturers are getting more and more picky these days with rebates, so if you give them any reason to reject your rebate (like sending a packing slip instead of a receipt), they will.
No receipts - unbelievable.
Broken: Air traffic control run by Windows
From Boing Boing today:
Southern California air-traffic systems were migrated from stable, Unix-based systems to Microsoft Windows-based PCs in the past three years. These systems required regular reboots - and when a tech failed to perform the reboot correctly, the systems died and wouldn't come back up, stranding 800 planes in the skies over Lalaland.A TechWorld article has the full story.
Broken: Salon.com search results
Lewis Pennock writes:
It is very difficult to find old articles with the Salon.com search function.
I am a premium subscriber, and pay for Salon's excellent content, but when I try and find an article that is just a few days old, I always run into problems. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the search results page shows the same date for every result.
See attached - a recent search query. All the articles have the date August 12, 2004, even though the articles were published in January 2001, February 2001, August 2002, and April 2003.
Broken: Soda machine design
Dick Miller writes:
The distributor of one of the beverage vending machines at my work location has acknowledged its broken status by conspicuously posting a red warning sign. Dispensing a beverage causes it to fall from its display location to an access port at the bottom of the machine, a drop of as much as five feet. The warning reads:
FIZZ ALERT!! You should wait 30 seconds (20 if you have fast lips!) before you open any carbonated beverages purchased from this machine. The fall causes the potential for an eruption if you don't wait the recommended 30 seconds. Thank you.
At least their sense of humor takes the edge off the negative experience.
Broken: George Foreman Grill logo
Eric Tilbrook writes:
Here's what's broken: George Foreman's Lean Mean Fat Grilling Machine.
I actually thought that's what this device was for when I walked by it in the store. (I guess I don't watch a lot of TV.) It wasn't till I went back and looked closely at the the logo that I saw it was a "Lean Mean Fat-REDUCING Grilling Machine" -- but the key word "reducing" had been rotated, colour-inverted, and stretched into a little hourglass shape that was only slightly more legible in real life than it is in my enlargement here.
I suspect another case of computer-enhanced incompetence; the poor guy whose job it was to come up with a logo probably never had any training in design or typography, but he sure was a whiz with WordArt!
Broken: Tussin cough syrup container
Ellen Johnson writes from Buffalo, NY:
About a month ago I had this awful cough. I went to my local drug store to buy some expectorant. I came home and took what I thought to be a normal dose, by filling the whole cap.
On further inspection, however, I found that the units on the cap (tablespoons) were different from the units on the label (teaspoons). Thankfully there was no particularly dangerous ingredients, since I took nearly a double dose.
Broken: Brill.com search results
Ed Falcone writes:
I work in a public library, and our staff went to Brill.com to help a patron do some personal finance research. On their home page, put the term "bond funds" in the Explore box, and press the button. Notice the nasty language that comes back in the first few results. Please excuse me if I don't send you a screen shot.
Broken: Realtor.com search
Jesus Encinar writes from Madrid:
I tried doing a search at Realtor.com. I typed in "new york city", and this is what I got:
Unable to Find Location
We are unable to find new york city in New York.
Please check the spelling or enter a different city.
Realtor.com is the "official site of the National Association of Realtors." They should fix this.
Broken: Customer service in...
From a recent Guardian article:
"Most customers' complaints revolved around the absence of a hospitable welcome, the unacceptable wait for an order to be taken (or for the drink to arrive), the near-impossibility of attracting a waiter's attention, staff's ignorance of the products they were selling, and poor hygiene."
...Other than that, the customer experience was great!
What is the article talking about? Cafes in France.
Broken: Exit sign
Alan Voorhees writes:
Perhaps it's not broken, but here's an exit sign from I-880 in Hayward, CA:
A Street Downtown
Maybe "A" Street/Downtown would have been better.
Broken: Windows security
Speaking of computer viruses, a New York Times article today talks about a survey of viruses and other threats to Windows users:
The survey also documented more than 4,496 new Windows viruses and worms during the most recent period [the first six months of 2004], which is four and a half times the number from the corresponding period of 2003.
Broken: Antivirus renewal message
Stephen Murphy writes:
I hate the annoying message I get all the time from the antivirus software that came preinstalled on my laptop. The only choices given are "Renew Now" or "Renew Later", and the dropdown won't let you choose anything but to be "reminded" in 1 or 15 days. What I want is a LEAVE ME ALONE FOREVER button.
Broken: Site personalization
Linda Burlison writes:
I went to 1to1.com, a website run by Rogers&Peppers group, who consider themselves gurus in the area of providing a personalized, one-to-one experiences online.
They've written many books and white papers on the topic and also have a white paper posted on their site discussing how to build a great 1-to-1 website (using their own as an example).
Well, I decided to download this paper. After I registered, I got the following message from the site:
$FIRST_NAME, thank you for registering at 1to1.com.
Click here to download our white paper, "Building a One-to-One Web Site."
Broken: Fedex's opt-out page
Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing, writes:
So, fedex started sending me opt out spam. I trust the brand enough to unsubscribe (even though I never subscribed).
And then I saw this page, which is the most broken opt out page ever.
When I got there, the two bottom boxes of the first section were checked. I unchecked them. This should mean I'm done.
Instead, I get this error alert. Not only do I have to unclick the first two boxes, I then have to click the bottom box.
In other words, I don't get out unless I OPT OUT on the top and OPT IN to opting out on the bottom.
Yikes!
Broken: Survey information design
Gregg Sporar writes:
Here's a screen shot from an online survey that ran at envisioncentraltexas.org. All of the questions have poorly done graphics - values out of proportion, etc. It's almost as if the designers of the graphics said: "Let's read everything Tufte has written about this and then do the exact opposite."
Broken: Isadora scarf
Brian Kelly writes:
From the catalog of women's clothier J.Jill: The Isadora scarf. Don't these people know what happened to Isadora Duncan? See this for the details, if necessary.
Broken: Amazon.com price sort
Andrea AnD writes in to point out that Amazon.com's sorting is a bit broken. When you search for a product and get a long list of results, sorting the products "Price: Low to High" does not do so. I found that hard to believe, so I conducted my own test. So it is: Amazon's sort-by-price is broken.
I searched Amazon.com for a random search query guaranteed to get lots of results: "fish". Then I sorted the results by price, low to high.
After Amazon (attempted to) sort by price, here are the prices of the first three items:
$9.60
$10.40
$6.99
That's not a sort by price in either direction. All I can think is that it got confused because the used-book price is $0.01 for all of them. But that's no excuse.
See the screenshot at left to see it in detail. Heck, try it yourself - here's the Amazon home page.
Coincidentally, a New York Times article today brags about Amazon's new A9 search engine. Too bad it didn't mention the brokenness of search result sorting.
Broken: Verizon's support of v710 phone
Ilya Goldin and Paul Schreiber point out the brokenness of Verizon's new phone, the Motorola v710: Seems that the v710 had a great feature list - Bluetooth, IM, and others - but then Verizon disabled several of the key features. Ilya writes:
What's going on here? This new phone supports free, built-in features that allows customers to send pictures and music to their computers and to friends' phones, to sync up phone and addressbook information, to use the phone as a modem, etc. These features bypass the Verizon network and consequently "deprive" Verizon of revenue, so Verizon locked their own customers out of the free features. This thinking is known as preferring a network-centric model over a client-centric model.Why is this broken? Because instead of building brand loyalty by offering cool, new, inexpensive services via these new phones, Verizon is alienating their customers. Mainstream media is catching on, too... and there are now two hacker reward programs: if you figure out how to enable the missing technology, you get some cash. See www.nuclearelephant.com/papers/v710hackers.html.
Broken: Nail salon sign
OK, just one more apostrophe error, I promise. (For now, anyway.)
This one has to win the award for the highest number of misused apostrophes in a single storefront. I count fourteen fifteen apostrophe errors. The store, based here in Manhattan, is called...
Nail's by Deca
Unless the proprietor only works on a single fingernail, this is broken.
Broken: Book on tech blunders
Paul Schreiber points us to a recent Wired News article about a new book containing over 100 tech blunders:
Take, for instance, the case of the Ukrainian businessman who put 50 new pagers -- a gift for his employees -- in the back seat of his car and then promptly crashed into a lamppost when they all began beeping at the same time. The culprit? A welcome message sent by the pager company to each of the pagers.
Broken: Misspelled flying hog
Here's a misused apostrophe that I saw in an airport gift shop awhile back:
This Porker Really Fly's
Can't they get a proofreader before getting the toy packaging officially printed?!
And is "Harry" in quotes because his real name is Harold?
Broken: Voice-activated (IVR) phone service
When I call a toll-free 800 number to get customer service, I want to use the phone's touch-tone buttons to make selections. Instead, increasingly I have inane conversations with phone-bots: "Please speak the option you want." "Operator." "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that..."
How hard would it be to just say, "Press 0 for operator" and let the caller dial their response?
A New York Times article from Sept 9 talks about the state of the technology today. In one example, saying "That's it" was mistaken as "Athens, Greece." Broken.
Broken: Old Navy sign
Albert Yee writes:
This is my favorite Old Navy sign ever:
Graphic tees for the whole family
How graphic could they be?
Broken: Dell ordering
Steve Hoffman writes:
Ordering from Dell is broken. Here's a recent conversation:
Me (on the phone with Dell Computer): I want to order a Dimension 2400 system I see on your website, but I can't figure out how much it will cost without a monitor.
Dell Phone Woman (DPW): One second, sir, let me look that up for you...Oh, first I need to set up a customer account.
Me: Just to get a price?
DPW: Yes sir. Can I have your name? (I answer) Address? (I answer). Thank you. Let me look up that info for you...
Me: (sigh)
DPW: Oh, here it is. That would come to $840.
Me: The Dimension 2400?
DPW: Yes.
Me: Without the monitor?
DPW: Yes.
Me: But here on your website, it costs $449, WITH the monitor.
DPW: That's right, sir.
Me: So, you are going to charge me twice as much to not send me the monitor?
DPW: Yes, sir.
Me: Doesn't that sound just a little goofy to you?
DPW: Yes, sir, but that's the way it is.
Me: (as I hang up the phone, hysterically laughing...) Thanks.
So, not only did I waste my time in some Fellini like zone where less stuff costs more, I'll probably wind up getting Dell catalogs for the rest of my living years since they got my name and address. Off to the Apple Store.....
[P.S. Speaking of which, the New York Times review of the new Apple iMac. -mh 9/16/04]
Broken: Subway's digital billboard
Chris Perednia writes from right here in New York:
What do you get when you cross the NYC MTA (subway system), Microsoft, and the latest in advertising technology?
Broken: Washington Mutual bank sign
Alex Benenson writes:
This is a typical bank sign that includes a time & temperature display, only this one also includes the helpful (?) disclaimer, "This is approximate time and temp."
This disclaimer would only make sense if people expected these types of signs to be very accurate, but nobody does, so the disclaimer isn't telling you anything you don't already know.
Why did they put the disclaimer there in the first place? Is it there to avoid lawsuits by people who dress too warmly and get heatstroke, or show up late for work and get fired? (And what do they consider to be "approximate" anyway?)
Broken: BC, Canada government site
Ric Mazereeuw writes from British Columbia, Canada:
The British Columbia government requires companies file their annual reports online.
One benefit claimed is that "It improves service to our customers, since they can submit their report electronically."
Now check out the system hours on their home page...
We are open from 6am to 8pm
Monday to Saturday, including statutory holidays.
That's right... an automated web site that takes evenings and Sundays off...
Broken: Misused apostrophes
Walter Erskine writes:
Found in a parking lot in Anchorage, Alaska, this sign is a fine demonstration of the rampant mis-use of apostrophes in our state, if not yours also. You'd think signmakers would attempt to understand the basic rules (or should it be "rule's") of our language. Why can't signs be proofread by literate people?
(Also see Eats Shoots & Leaves, the recent book by Lynne Truss. -mh)
Update: On the comment board, codeman38 points us to this classic: Bob's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots.
Broken: Timex Nature Sounds alarm clock
Jeremy Frank writes:
This problem doesn't effect me, as I am a morning person, but my alarm clock is really broken. I have a Timex Nature Sounds alarm clock. Note that on the right is a large silver snooze button. On the left, however, is an almost equally large, same colored ALARM RESET button. If your alarm goes off at 7 am, and you hit it, you don't get another 5 minutes, you get 24 hours.
Broken: Buy.com Game Boy cable price
This was pointed out by a reader in the This Is Broken discussion boards: Buy.com is selling a Game Boy Advance Link Cable for a premium price. It must be made out of super-refined platinum wires!
Our Price: $1,149,998.99
See the live page here, before it's corrected.
Broken: (Just for fun) Tonga sign
Barry Weiss writes:
It ain't broke, but I thought you'd appreciate this sign. It is in the Kingdom of Tonga, in the South Pacific, near Fiji and Samoa.
