Dark Thoughts

I found the world's worst phone menu system this morning. I rang a music equipment distributed (or should that be attempted to ring) to buy a piece of gear. I got on to their phone system to be greeted by a phone menu. Well - fair enough, I pressed the selection that was closest to what I wanted (sales) to be greeted by another menu with a more cryptic menu. I selected the area of equipment that I wanted to buy, to be greeted by yet another menu about my affiliation to the company (well I was new to the company so I selected the "I'm not an official reseller" option, to be taken to another menu that directed me to a range of support options for various software. Selecting the next one I got an automated voice telling me that they don't do phone support for the gear I'm trying to buy, and instead I need to email them via their website.

Well, I'd resorted to calling, because my two emails telling them that I have cash and want to buy their equipment have gone unanswered.

So my call to talk to the salesman (who's name I have) resulted in me getting routed through their electronic phone system and redirected to a website, and email that is apparently ignored.

If someone wanted something guaranteed to screen calls, then they could do a lot worse than this system to keep people out.

How can a company expect to conduct business when it's soooooo damn hard for someone to buy stuff from them. I thought the whole idea of sales was to make it easier for the customer to give you money.

Anyway, I'll wait to see if these guys ever get back to me...

Podcasting is this new fad sweeping the net that makes on demand radio essentially. What you do is upload an mp3 and an RSS compliant XML file that is handled by a podcast aggregator that checks for updates periodically and automatically downloads them. It's a bit like blogging, except with audio. My favourite podcast is Industrial Radio with some great music and some great humour. I like the presenter and the way that he's down to earth about the things that break down and glitch up. It's a really human experience. I can empathise with him, but he keeps moving forward and making podcasts.

I'll likely set one up for LD120 and LOST as soon as my webspace is live.

Anyway, I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me, and need to get into some serious powerpointing, so until next time....