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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: Avery binder insert
Just in time for back-to-school season, a reader writes:
I bought a blue Avery binder for my school portfolio. The binder is blue all over, but the information sheet inside clearly advertises "Black inside for the professional look."
Broken: Backward elevator buttons
Dan Hennes writes:
This is the elevator keypad from a luxury Manhattan apartment. Can you see what's wrong? The numbers are listed right to left, instead of left to right.
Broken: (Just for fun) Cableway sign
One more from Terry Jones... he found this sign at the aerial cableway to Table Mountain in Capetown, South Africa.
Terry writes: "I've always wanted to hear a hooter."
Broken: Newspaper ad for cars
Jim Sutton writes:
Here's how not to buy advertising! This advertisement appeared in the Friday edition of our local newspaper. The problem: Nowhere is the company's name, phone number or address mentioned.
Which is too bad, because the 99 BMW looked interesting. I wonder what a full page ad costs these days?
Broken: Airport monitor burn-in
Steven Winner writes:
The Richmond, VA airport updated all its monitor screens with new plasma monitors to give passengers arrival and departure data. There are also plasma monitors beside each gate. These screens display basically the same information, in the same pattern, 24 hours a day.
The problem is the "burn in" on the screens. The old tube monitors did not get it like these monitors do. Burned-in information can be seen on the plasma screen when it is blank, or even if the screen changes to another display. The burn in frequently makes it hard to read the new information that is being displayed.
SOLUTION: There is a device called an "orbiter" that moves the screen position around slightly every few minutes, minimizing burn-in in just one place. Better yet, the airport should have waited for the LCD technology, which is now good enough to produce flat-screen monitors the same size as plasma flat-screens. LCD displays do not burn in.
Broken: Milkbones package
John Moorman, Jr. writes:
This box of Milkbones is clearly marked "Easy Open Tear Stip!" However, when one tears it open, the panels underneath the flap are completly glued shut, thereby negating any claim of its being easy to open. As far as I can tell, this isn't a defect of just one box - it has happened ever since they switched to the new kind of Milkbones box. (Also, I have noticed much the same problem on boxes of oatmeal cream pies - they also flap open to another layer of box.)
Broken: Matchbox label
Matthew writes:
This box of matches, like most, has the same design printed on top as on the bottom. The only way to find out which way it up is to open it slowly and hope matches don't go everywhere.
Some boxes of matches have a special flap that mostly prevent the matches from falling out, but still no way of identifying which way is up. This obvious problem is easily alleviated by drawing an arrow on the side of the box.
Broken: (Just for fun) Sign near Victoria Falls
Terry Jones writes:
In honor of the recent movie I, Robot, a sign from a bridge near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe:
Robot Ahead
Broken: Prices that end in .99
David Pogue writes a delicious screed today in his newsletter about prices that end in .99.
I find the practice of "99-centing" to be such
an insult to the intelligence that in my columns, I refuse to
acknowledge it. If some electronics product is priced at $99,
I write that it costs $100... When I see "$299.99," I don't think
"Hey, not even $300!"; instead, I think: "Profit padding."
Broken: Mall entrance sign
Mark Makower writes:
Here's one I found this morning in Orange, CT at the entrance to a shopping center. One sign reads "Right Lane Must Turn Right" while the sign at the turn reads "Do Not Enter."
Broken: Burger King bag
Carl Floyd writes:
I noted the wording on a Burger King bag while eating lunch the other day:
This bag may contain an average of 30% post consumer material.
I hope they are referring to the material used in the construction of the bag and not the actual contents. Bad things come to mind with the latter interpretation.
Broken: Microsoft Word spellcheck
Molly Stevens writes:
I was spell checking a Microsoft Word document when a very amusing thing happened. I had misspelled the word "categories" as "catorgies". Microsoft Word's spellcheck decided that the phrase "cat orgies" was the most likely replacement! How often is that phrase typed in a regular sentence?
Separately, I typed "catorgies" into Google and it correctly asked if I meant "categories". Google's response to my mistake just make more sense.
Broken: Scientific-Atlanta DVR
Mark Frauenfelder posts about his experience getting a DVR from his cable company, Time-Warner. Instead of the TiVO Mark wanted, they delivered a Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8000:
The first thing I noticed was the crappy user interface. Unlike TiVo, there's no audible signal when you press a button. And because it takes a couple of seconds after pressing a button for anything to happen on the screen, I often press the button twice, thinking the first press didn't go through. What happens when you press a button twice is that you see the result on the screen for a split second before it disappears, because the second press cancels the first press.(read more)
Broken: Dumb Nextel cell phone ad
Here's an ad I saw here in Manhattan. I think it's trying to get people to buy a Nextel cell phone, but it only succeeded in confusing me.
"It has a special get-to-the-point button."
Huh? First of all, there's no such button on the phone (see second photo). Second of all, what in the world are they talking about?!
Broken: Zimbabwe railroad sign
Terry Jones writes:
Although the picture didn't come out well (clipped from a video), you will get the idea. I looked up as we were crossing the tracks in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to note that stuck across the traditional "Railroad Crossing" cross was another sign in the same yellow as the original. It said, in very small type:
These signals are not working
It could have said, "By the time you read this, you may be in great danger!"
Broken: Claritin e-mail confirm box
Charles Brenna writes:
I found this on the Claritin site. After entering my email address to register for a free air purifier, I got this e-mail confirmation alert box:
Is your email address correct?
OK=Yes - Cancel=No
Wouldn't it have been simpler just to use "yes" and "no" - or "confirm" and "re-enter" - for the buttons?
Broken: London double decker bus seating sign
Jonathan Bruck writes:
This is from a red double decker bus in London, explaining how many people it can hold. I found myself trying to figure out the seating/standing capacity on this bus. Does anyone have a clue on this one?
Broken: Gardena watering timer
Dave Collins writes:
This is a watering timer. You plug your garden hose into it and it will turn on and off at regular intervals, watering your lawn. Ah, but *what* intervals?
This timer has 14 settings that combine both interval and duration. There is no correlation whatsoever between the 14 settings and the interval/duration of the waterings (the first 3 might be 5 minute waterings with 3 different intervals, the next 4 might be 10 minute waterings at 4 different intervals, etc.).
How do you set them? Check the manual.
You cannot operate this device without the manual in-hand. I have lost the manual. There is no way for me to set the timer to the setting I want. There is also no way to even know - once I've picked a setting - what it is doing (I could spend ten minutes watching it go on then off, so I'd know the duration, but I would have to wait as much as 8 hours to know the interval.)
This is mindboggingly stupid. Plus, I've seen a brilliant solution - one dial for frequency, one dial for duration. No manual, no guessing - and an additional bonus: no fixed settings, so I get to pick interval *independent* of duration.
Broken: Ikea e-mail
Steve Gershik writes:
Here's a great example of a process that's broken. I find a piece of furniture I'd like to buy from IKEA online (which, by the way, their store says is discontinued). I *think* I've successfully purchased it from their web site. That is until I receive this e-mail. Have I really ordered this dresser or not? I have no idea.
Broken: Bathroom sign
Jonas Luster points out the following sign at a Borders book store: "Due to circumstances beyond our control Backpacks [sic] are not allowed in the rest rooms." What circumstances, I wonder?
Broken: Overextended bucket truck
Naval Safety Center's Safety Photo of the Week featured this on June 25:
Apparently the person in the bucket was a little over-weight, and the bucket was a little over-extended. That, combined with the fact that the truck was already partially tipped due to the incline, provided him with a crash course in Sir Isaac Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation.
Broken: Grams software's tip of the day
Alex Nieuwland writes:
Grams is a program commonly used by scientists for data analysis and instrument control. It is well known - at least in my experience - for being buggy. This tip of the day reads: "You can get sick if you don't cook poultry long enough." Clicking the OK button produces the message box: "Who has time to cook? Let's go out for Chinese food instead." Looks to me like they should spend more time fixing the bugs in their program and less time putting in funny messages.
Broken: ATM running Windows
John Haller writes in from right here in New York:
Attached is one of the many reasons that Windows and ATM machines make a bad combination...
Broken: McDonald's "maximum height" pole
Gene Cowan writes from Arlington, Virginia:
This McDonald's near my house has a "maximum height" pole designed to keep trucks from damaging the drive-thru overhang. Unfortunately, they installed it 90 degrees in the wrong direction, so that the pole extends over the sidewalk and landscaping, not the drive-thru lane.