Most of us in this world are users or customers of an assortment of products and services, whether it is face-to-face or online. As such, we have to interact with these venues in some capacity.

For me, there are few things more frustrating than dealing with websites that do not work, and establishments/service providers who don't care about customer service!

Whereas I can appreciate the relative importance of adding a constant stream of new features and flashy attention getting headlines, how about paying a little more attention to whether or not what you're already offering is actually workable?

The user experience does matter! And if it's not a positive one, how can you expect people to keep coming back and thinking that whatever you have to offer is "great?"

So, this morning, I was checking on the opening hours of our local optometrist because we needed to go and pick up Mrs. Denmarkguy's new glasses. Shouldn't be so hard to figure out, right?

Behold the Clusterfuck...

So I put the optometrist's name into Google and, indeed, they do have a website. So I click through to aforesaid website... which has a bunch of promotional blurbs and announcements front and center but absolutely no information about opening hours.

So I eventually find a link at the bottom of the page that says "Contact" and I figure that... well, maybe that page will have opening hours information, among other things. Unfortunately, clicking on the "Contact" link leads me to a Page not found" error... the page simply isn't there.

So then occurs to me that I should do what I do with restaurants: the business hours are likely listed on the optometrist's Yelp page. I was right! The Yelp page does list the business hours. Except, I know for sure they are wrong, because I had a recollection that the office closes for lunch at some point (which is not part of those hours) which is the whole reason I am even taking the trouble to research this.

So I sigh and pick up the phone to give them a call instead even though I'm pretty sure that I am now actually calling in the middle of aforesaid lunch hour.

After about 10 or 12 rings I do get a recorded message which not only mentions that they're closed for lunch between 12:15 and 1:30, but also the fact that they are not open on Wednesdays which is not what the hours on Yelp — or anywhere else as for that matter — states.

After having told Mrs. Denmarkguy that we will not be picking up her glasses today (and she was suitably disappointed), I decided I was going to be a "good citizen" and go back to Yelp and use their "suggest to change to a page" feature to point out that — in fact — the optometrist is not open on Wednesdays, and there is also a lunch hour closure.

So I take the time to fill out the various bits of corrected information on a submission form, click "submit" and... get an error message. Some character is "not allowed" in the input box. Of course that character wasn't actually in my message so it is actually a bug in the Yelp system that makes it impossible to submit changes.

Sometimes I wish I could just be "one of those people" who just doesn't give a shit whether anything functions or does what it is supposed to... but I am not.

Instead, I move on to "being a good citizen, part II."

I start clicking around Yelp to see if I can find a place where I can send a "bug report" or feedback to report a broken link/submission form. Which only succeeds in sending me around in a circle through their FAQs with pre-written answers... and it turns out there's no actual way to submit a live email to an office with human beings who do such things as maintain and keep the web site running.

The whole thing was basically an exercise in frustration — both concerning the optometrist and subsequently involving Yelp because neither's website was in actual working order.

What's a little bit sad about it is the fact that this is often The Way of the World. People are more concerned with what's new and what's the latest hot item we can grasp onto, than with actually making sure that the existing features are in working order.

Almost as if novelty and change matters more than stable functionality.

And, evidently, people are supposed to be okay with that! I can only surmise it's a reflection of a world in which nobody's interest or attention stays on the same thing for more than 30 seconds at a time.

I don't like it! On top of which, those were 45 minutes of my life I will never have back!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your day!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2024-02-28 15:42 PST
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