no long names please

Here's another bad practice I thought had died out in the last century.

 

I was setting up a standing order from a TSB bank account - including, as you would expect, the name of the recipient. Which was fine if you have a short name. The recipient in my case is a business and has 28 characters [including spaces] in its name. But the form only allowed only 16 characters - I couldn't even fit my name in. Ho hum.

Forest failing

To celebrate my team winning its two matches over the Christmas period - I did what a lot of supporters do ... and went to buy something from the [online] club shop.

 

Having selected my purchase [see below - I was there on that day :) ]

 

I went to the checkout - but when I went to register on the site [why?] I found that as I had bought something before my details were on record ...

 

 

 

 

... but I could not remember my 'client reference number', so I followed the instructions and arrived on a page where I was asked for my email address so that it could be sent to me. But when I did so, I was told that there was no customer record for that email address.

So - not for the first time when trying to make a purchase on a site I've been to before - part of its system told me I did exist, but another part of that system told me I did not. Ho hum.

 

digital amnesia

... and still it goes on. TV advertising campaign: direct marketing email campaign: all to get me - and others - to spend money in the Homebase sale.

 

So it works ... I decide that leaf blower I have put off buying for years could be what I use to clear this year's leaves from my garden. And there is a Homebase about a mile away. And I'm up early on Boxing Day - so check their website to see what time the store opens, and get this ...

 

Yep, no mention of any Bank Holiday openings. Ho hum.

adidas marketers touch down between the e-marketing posts

I came across this excellent Tweet which celebrated the All Blacks rugby team winning all 14 of its matches in a calendar year.

 

Clicking on the link took you to ...

 

 

If there are any of my ex- students who cannot tell you why so many 'w's can be used then they weren't concentrating in week/chapter 2.

 

PS, you could always check out why in my domain names book. 

doh ! doh ! doh !

It's not that unusual for a direct marketing email to fail to render [show] in the receiver's inbox. Well this one's a doozy. Below is just a fiftieth [yes, 1/50th] of the code which appeared when I opened this email:

 

But it gets worse. This was from a digital marketing company promoting their new website. As I said; triple doh!

There was a follow-up email half an hour later, but it said:

"Note: A previous version of this email contained an image that did not render correctly in some email clients. We are re-sending to those affected and we apologize for any confusion."

In my opinion, a less formal approach would have been better. Why not admit to the error rather than - seemingly - blaming the technology of the receiver.  

Oh, by the way, I'll refrain from naming the company - they should be squirming enough as it is.

is this why International Business Machines became IBM?

... so they could get their email address on contact forms?

 

I was filling in a form to get a free IBM report - but sadly there was a limit in the amount of characters I could enter for my email address ...

 

Yep, two characters short. Schoolchild error.

 

 

long-lost relation[ship]

I got this email, ironically it's about relationship marketing. Shame I haven't owned a Ford for over 35 years.

guess the price ...

I don't really need to say anything about this web page do I?

every organizations should have one ...

... so congratulations to Bath University. Reasonable wage too - and it doesn't ask for any 'techie' qualification, this is for a writer not a website developer.

no place for no space

I was buying something on the IKEA website for the first time - but was confused when it wouldn't recognise my postcode

 

After a few attempts I used my experience from about 15 years ago when form developers expected the customer to know what those developers were thinking when they designed forms - and I put a space between the first and second parts of the postcode.

 

 

Now, I now postcodes should be split - but how many people know that ... or are even bothered?  

 

My point is that the postcode field in the form can be easily set up to accept postcodes as one 'word' or split. Just plain bad practice from whoever designed the form.

Footnote: when I got confimation of the order the delivery was for 9 days later. I'm not in a hurry for the product - but that's just not good enough.