[Sigia-l] Forcing use of Web pages instead of email

[David (Heller) Malouf]

I consider this a casualty of the spam wars as much as any other
overriding reasons. But some companies are just impersonal and that is
part of their user experience. :(

== dave

On 8/30/06, Leonard Will <L.Will at willpowerinfo.co.uk> wrote:
> Is anyone else irritated by the increasing trend of organisations to not
> publish any proper email addresses but instead force users to
> communicate with them by filling in boxes on a Web page?
>
> This may be convenient for the recipients, as they can connect the mail
> up to customer details (if the customer has logged in) or ensure that
> certain items of information are provided by including them as mandatory
> boxes.
>
> As a user, though, I dislike such tactics, because
>
> 1. I cannot easily keep a copy of what I have said in my normal database
> of email messages, and it is therefore difficult to follow up with a
> thread of messages if an initial response is not received or does not
> completely resolve the issue. Sometimes companies make my outgoing
> messages available for me to read on their Web site, but not always, and
> they never tell me in advance whether they are going to do this.
>
> 2. The boxes provided for messages are always too small, usually being
> only 4 to 6 lines deep and about a quarter of a screen width. This makes
> it impossible to format a message tidily in paragraphs, or to quote
> previous messages properly. Even if they allow scrolling you cannot see
> or print the complete message you are sending. The worst ones allow you
> to write a whole coherent message and then when you try to send it come
> back with an error saying "Message too long; please limit your message
> to 255 characters". I then have to try various kinds of abbreviation
> until the length is small enough to be acceptable.
>
> 3. If the company sends responses to its own "secure mailbox" on its Web
> page, they seldom do me the courtesy of sending a proper email to me to
> let me know that a message is waiting. I have to keep logging in to see
> whether they have responded.
>
> 4. Organisations do not seem to have heard of secure email with
> electronic signatures using PGP or similar systems. They think that
> "secure Web pages" are the only way to send confidential information.
>
> 5. Companies send out advertising mail and service messages by ordinary
> email, but then say "Do not reply to this message as replies cannot be
> read; please use our Web page if you want to communicate with us". This
> strikes me as particularly rude; surely they can provide a valid "Reply
> to:" address in their emails, even if they are sent out by a mailing
> list robot.
>
> I hope that other IAs here are aware of these problems, and I plead with
> them to consider the users when designing feedback mechanisms.
>
> Leonard Will
> --
> Willpower Information       (Partners: Dr Leonard D Will, Sheena E Will)
> Information Management Consultants              Tel: +44 (0)20 8372 0092
> 27 Calshot Way, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 7BQ, UK. Fax: +44 (0)870 051 7276
> L.Will at Willpowerinfo.co.uk               Sheena.Will at Willpowerinfo.co.uk
> ---------------- <URL:http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/> -----------------
>
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-- 
David (Heller) Malouf
dave.ixd at gmail.com
http://synapticburn.com/