April 12, 2006
Yes, it CAN be done, you just don't want to do it
There's nothing that pisses me off more than hearing the words "it can't be done", especially when it's patently obvious that it can be done.
My example this morning: it's surprisingly difficult to change one's email address on file with newsletter subscriptions. I tried with three companies this morning, with three very different results.
In the first case, there was no obvious way to change my address. However, the signup form was very simple, consisting of email, name, company and title. It was easy enough to just set up a new account and cancel the old one, so I did so. Not ideal, but not too painful either.
With the second company, things were a little more complicated because the registration included tying a company payment card to the account so setting up a new account would have required entering the card information along with my home address, and a bunch of other things. I decided to find out if there was a not-so obvious way of changing the email address. Their contact feedback form had "updating or removing my email address" as a category, which when selected gave the following warning:
The e-mail address for [website name deleted] accounts cannot be changed or updated. If you need to change your e-mail address, please feel free to create a new [website name deleted] account. If you have further questions, please submit your inquiry below.
The programming work that went into displaying that warning when I selected the message category could have been put to use creating a simple change of address form.
Like the one offered by Apple. Their emails include a link leading to a simple form that let me accomplish the task in about 5 seconds.
Posted by kenking at April 12, 2006 9:24 AM
