August 29, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Seminar invitation

Luis Sotomayor writes from Buenos Aires:

The screen shoot I'm sending you is a e-mail confirmation from Adobe. They invited me to a seminar by e-mail, and I registered by e-mail. That much worked fine.

But if you know a little Spanish you will see the funny side of this: The seminar title is "Network Publishing - Mas Alla Del Papel," which means "Network Publishing - Beyond Paper." Now notice what they write in the e-mail invitation: "Recuerde concurrir al evento con este mail impreso en papel," which means something like "Remember to arrive at the event with this e-mail printed on paper."

After several e-mails back and forth about a seminar about "beyond paper," they need a printed paper for registration. Crazy, isn't it?

August 28, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Sending a link via Microsoft software

Mike Boyink writes:

I just discovered this when a client tried to send me a URL via Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook.

- In Internet Explorer she chose the "File" menu, then "Send", then "Link By Email".

- Outlook showed the e-mail with the message, "Your files are attached and ready to send with this message." She then clicked Send.

- When I received it (in my own Outlook), I clicked the link and got a "page not found" error. I also missed the error message that accompanied the link.

• Washington Post column on Microsoft Windows (August 23, 2003)


• New York Times column on Microsoft Office (August 28, 2003)
  

August 27, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: NASA's culture

Phil Terry writes:

The 13-member board set up to investigate the shuttle disaster issued its report yesterday, which pointed to NASA's broken culture as a primary cause.

As a customer experience consultant, I often see that the reason for a broken product or service is the organizational culture and politics of the business producing it. Internal politics, insulated cultures, and siloed organizations all prevent the business from seeing the customer's perspective.

The shuttle tragedy is a sad reminder that we often need to focus on and fix the culture behind the broken product, service or experience.

"NASA's organizational culture had as much to do with this accident as foam did," the 13-member board said of the Feb. 1 disaster.

August 26, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Tablet packaging

Erik Saastad writes from Oslo, Norway:

In Norway we have flouride tablets for kids. They come in two flavours: banana and peppermint. You'd expect banana-flavoured tablets to be yellow. And peppermint-flavoured gum is often blue or white.

The manufacturer, however, mixes them up... by design! Blue has banana taste, and yellow has peppermint taste.

I asked the manufacturer why, and they said that the strength decides the colour. 0.25 is blue, and 0.50 is yellow.

If the kids are to get these themselves, and cannot read - do you think they would choose the right one?

August 25, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Toaster oven

Jeff Garbers writes:

We purchased a Toastmaster TTOB4RL toaster oven a few weeks ago. Aside from the fact that it doesn't toast consistently, and that there are several reports on Amazon of this particular device exploding and blowing broken glass across the room, it has a pretty blatant design failure as well: it doesn't make any noise when the toast is done.

According to the instructions:

"NOTE: Watch toast until desired color is achieved and shut off unit manually by opening the oven door. This will shut the unit off without damaging the oven."

So while we're preparing breakfast for a spouse and three preschoolers, we're supposed to stand in front of this device (right in the blast path, if the Amazon reviews are to be believed) and MONITOR it?

This note also carries an implied warning that there is some way to shut the unit off that WILL damage the oven... wonder what it is?

August 22, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: BA.com Contact Us page

Marc Mcneill points out a surprisingly bad experience on British Airways' website, BA.com: clicking on "Contact Us" at the top of any page takes the user to a search results page. The first result is "Travel With Confidence - Travel Advice." Other prominent links, called out in color:

Travellers advice relating to SARS
New - British Airways Early Bird Autumn Sale
Suspended services to Saudi Arabia

August 21, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: London airport sign

 Glen Raphael writes from London:

Imagine a London Gatwick airport passenger in a hurry. He sees the sign pictured below and skims enough to recognize it as saying "This is South Terminal. All airlines operate from this terminal blah blah blah" followed by a list of airlines. Looking down the alphabetical list of airlines, he finds British Air, the airline he's looking for. "Great! I'm in the right place!" he thinks. After wandering about South Terminal for a while and not finding British Air, our passenger goes back to the sign and reads it more carefully.

As it turns out, the sign is an exclusion list; it features a long and imposing list of all the airlines that aren't in this general area. The full text at the top of the sign says "This is South Terminal. All airlines operate from this Terminal EXCEPT those listed below which operate from North Terminal" (emphasis added).

August 20, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: AT&T cell reception

Why does my AT&T cell phone drop calls for no reason? Today I was in the not-so-foreign location of Park Avenue and 65th Street in Manhattan. My call dropped off abruptly, after which the phone mocked me by showing a full four bars on the antenna display.
A cell phone might take pictures, send messages, check e-mail, feed the dog, and mow the lawn; but if it can't carry a phone call in midtown Manhattan, it's broken. Fix your coverage, AT&T.

August 19, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Product feature list

Richard Dressner pointed this one out. Growinglifestyle.com carries a Toro 12-Volt Cordless Trimmer with a strange item on the feature list. Richard writes:

It's a battery-powered trimmer, so how come "Exclusive extension cord-lock prevents disconnects"?

August 18, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Eastern U.S. power grid

This is what it looked like in my apartment building as I trudged up the stairs on Friday afternoon. Note to self: improve my emergency preparedness (carry a flashlight at all times) for the next time something this big is broken.

(P.S. From what I saw, the emergency response from New York police, firefighters, power company, and citizens was exemplary. Not broken.)

August 14, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Mineral water label

Connie Cheng writes in:

This is the bottle of Perrier I was drinking when reading thisisbroken.com. It is an oxymoron - "low mineral content" mineral water? I better get what I paid for!

August 13, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Beeping microwave

Laurie Kalmanson writes that her new microwave oven has "affirmation needs":

The machine wants to communicate with me. When it finishes heating something up, it beeps... continually... until someone makes it stop.

This is an anoyance. This is a machine that is seeking affirmation for, what, doing a good job? My old microwave politely beeped once when it finished, and then left me the heck alone, so I could decide if I wanted my tea hot, cold or not at all, depending on my other needs, and/or the baby, the phone, the two dogs, and, oh yes, my significant other. The last thing I need is a machine that wants to interact with me.

As a counter to that annoying beep, the GE Spacemaker has a truly amazing feature. Like many devices in my home, the Spacemaker thinks it needs to know what time it is, and blinks madly after a power outage to get its clock reset. *However*, if you just ignore it for awhile, it will decide you don't really care that your microwave doesn't know what time it is, and the display will go black. I love that. Truly, not broken.

August 12, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Sprint DSL installation

Royce Shin notes that in Sprint's DSL installation kit, "both the CD and the modem demand to be installed first." Also broken: There's a large sticker reminding you to install the modem first... it's stuck on the modem. This does nothing for people who throw the CD in first. As Royce notes:

I assume that the scarier lettering on the modem takes precedence, but the sticker probably would've been more helpful on the CD case. Presumably those who read the modem sticker would already have made the choice to start with the modem or would be too late to do anything about it.

August 8, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: T-Mobile support phone message

Kenn Stearns from eRealty in Houston sent in this audio file he got from recording a T-Mobile support phone message. He writes:

I recently changed wireless service to T-Mobile and received this message when calling my salesman at the local Houston number. Despite the large number of callers ahead of me, I didn't hang up and was rewarded with the opportunity to leave a message.

August 7, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Neon sign

Micah Boswell sent in this photo of the Danals grocery store in Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately, the neon sign wasn't cooperating that evening.

August 6, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Toaster design

Tom Smith writes from London:

This is my mum's toaster. The black plastic handle on the left is to put the bread down. The other handle is fixed in place and is, er, to make it symmetrical and piss off every right-hander who uses it.

August 5, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Parking meter installation

Tym Lawrence writes from Vancouver:

I took this photo on Saturday 12th July 2003 in Vancouver. There is a newly installed street sign and parking meter placed smack in the middle of a driveway to a parking lot. No one is going to be using that entrance again.

August 4, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: E-mail-to-Web handoff

Phil Terry forwards the monthly update of the American Museum of Natural History, which includes a promo for "reefer madness" in Australia:

>____________________________________________________________

>************** D I S C O V E R Y   T O U R *****************

>____________________________________________________________

>

>Reefer madness in Aussieland!  Get up close and personal with the

>Great Barrier Reef on this amazing snorkeling adventure.

>

>http://www.amnh.org/go/?url=programs/discotours/?src=july03

August 1, 2003 06:00 AM

Broken: Cable company phone message

Jess Durrant writes:

If you call the Minneapolis/St. Paul area Time Warner Cable phone number, you're forced to go through the menu system. After going through three or four menu selections, you get a message that "Time Warner Cable's offices are currently closed. Please call back during the next business day."

There are so many problems with this, I can't even fathom who thought this was a good idea.

- If you wait through the message twice you actually do get through to an operator, but they don't tell you that.
- During non-business hours they don't tell you upfront that they are closed, so you're always forced to try to get through, only to find out you can't.
- They never clarify what their business hours are.
- You get to this message at all times of day, 7 days a week. So every single time I've had to deal with TWC, I've had to just wait on the line until I get an operator because you nearly always get the "closed" message.