Technology Designed to Save Companies Time by Wasting Yours

This post comes with a warning.  It’s a consumer vent.   At the end of the post, you will be asked to post 5 if you strongly agree with me.  Any score less than a perfect 5 should be sent to me in a private message (which I’ll ignore). The goal is not information or improvement.  The goal is a perfect score.  There is an ego riding on this, so please don’t mess it up.

Now that the directions are out of the way, on to the venting.

Let’s start with the dentist’s office.  I’m the kind of person who makes my next 6-month cleaning appointment before leaving the last appointment.   It goes on my calendar.  I show up at the scheduled date and time.  While it sounds easy enough, the office has found a way to overcomplicate it.  I no longer get a reminder call or text. I get a voicemail saying, “Please call us back to confirm your appointment.”

But I don’t want to call you back.   I just want to show up; it’s in my calendar, and I’ve already scheduled out of office for it.  

Nope, they call back again to remind me that I must confirm the appointment.   I’m irritated because they already have a published fee for no-shows, so I don’t understand the urgency.  However, I call and press 3 to confirm my appointment.   The voice response tells me confirmations are only done by a human; please hold while they connect me.  Of course, it goes to voicemail.  I politely leave my name and number and say I am confirming that I will be there Monday morning.  Goodbye.

Why do I get an email Saturday morning telling me they reserve the right to cancel non-confirmed appointments?  I will be there in the morning, and my appointment had better still be on the books.  It’s no wonder I grind my teeth.  Perhaps the lesson here is that I need a new dentist before my next six-month cleaning.

This example is also known as why I hate surveys.   I ordered a pricey orthopedic pillow.  I had it sent to the office so it wouldn’t be left outside my house as I was going to be gone for the weekend.   They attempted delivery Friday night and noted, “This is a business; will redeliver on Monday.” Cool.

Nope, not cool.  They tried to redeliver on Saturday; business closed.   I contacted them via their rescheduling form to let them know our business hours.   On Sunday, they tried to deliver again to a closed business.   Again, I filled out the form.  On Monday, I’m trying to contact both companies.   My orthopedic pillow is now being held hostage by the no-name delivery service whose motto is, We know our SHIP!   I can’t make this up.

By Wednesday, I still hadn't spoken to a live person at either company. Finally, I got an email from the company I purchased from. This person was very helpful. After giving the delivery service one more opportunity to get it right and updating their system, she got my order to me the next day via FedEx. I was sincerely grateful that she made it right for me.

Then the survey came: How did we do delivering this package (listing the original tracking number which was never delivered)? How did you like our representative who helped you?

I can be an overthinker, but this survey doesn't address the problem. If I complain about the hostage situation under the original tracking number, I'm kicking the representative who actually solved my problem. If I give her the glowing review she deserves, I'm not addressing the delivery disaster or how difficult it was to get a human involved.

I refuse to participate in a stupid survey.

Technology was supposed to save time. I'm beginning to suspect it only matters whose time the programmer was trying to save.  Hmmm.

Thank you for reading this episode of Confessions from the Fringe. Please hold for the survey and remember to give me all 5s.