Dear WaMu -- can I call you WaMu?
If I seem snippy, it's because I'm that perturbed with your web site's user interface to download my transactions. I'm writing you because I need to vent. I don't expect anything more than a form letter back from Firstname LastInitial concatenating various blurbs+ to express unspecific sympathies and hands-thrown-in-the-air gestures. If you must know, reading your "Frequently Asked Question" list -- yes, that's the singular form -- put me over the edge.
First, the system insists I enter preceding zeros for months and days, and the full four-digit year. Entering 9/16/2005 results in a forbidding message. I didn't even try 9/16/05 for fear it would trigger a Y2K-style brownout. Might I suggest you add a little more javascript to the page to map these to your system's rigid format? Heck, I'd even be happy to write it for you the next time I'm in my local grocery store's WaMu kiosk, just entertain my kids for a few minutes.
Second, your back-end system limits transaction downloads to 90 days. This... is a problem for me. You see, um, I've been a very bad boy. Summer was, well, really fun. So fun, that it's been, uh, four months (to the day) since I've last downloaded transactions. Life is too short to want to retype my May statement in just to coax Microsoft Money into balance itself, and putting a giant -$3,141.59 seems like such a hack. Pretty please with whipped cream and chalupas on top, increase this to six months?
Third, that reminds me, the user interface expects me to calculate 90 days from today. Go ahead, try it. If you said 6/17/05, excuse me, 06/17/2005, you made the error I did: July and August have 31 days, and the system counts today against my 90-day transaction limit, hence the correct answer is 6/21/2005. (Bob, what's the consolation prize - a year's supply of Turtle Wax, the San Francisco Treat!*) You know, it would help if, instead of throwing the red, forbidding box o' error message you actually told me what day to use.
Fourth, when I attempted to download transactions for my checking, savings and mortgage files, I received an incomprehensively obtuse error message like "PRODUCT CODE INVALID." (I tried to see it again, and now your site is giving me an error:
Fifth, while we're at it, could you possibly remember which financial program I specified last time? I mean sheesh, you already share my information among your subsidiaries, what's another data point, especially one that'll be useful?
I'm sure there's more, but I'll save that for another visit. In the event an actual human reads this and takes the initiative to whittle down my sarcasm into specific and actionable suggestions for your web squad, then you get a gold star and I'll be sanguine that my sarcasm was well-received.
Sincerely, Jim
If I seem snippy, it's because I'm that perturbed with your web site's user interface to download my transactions. I'm writing you because I need to vent. I don't expect anything more than a form letter back from Firstname LastInitial concatenating various blurbs+ to express unspecific sympathies and hands-thrown-in-the-air gestures. If you must know, reading your "Frequently Asked Question" list -- yes, that's the singular form -- put me over the edge.
First, the system insists I enter preceding zeros for months and days, and the full four-digit year. Entering 9/16/2005 results in a forbidding message. I didn't even try 9/16/05 for fear it would trigger a Y2K-style brownout. Might I suggest you add a little more javascript to the page to map these to your system's rigid format? Heck, I'd even be happy to write it for you the next time I'm in my local grocery store's WaMu kiosk, just entertain my kids for a few minutes.
Second, your back-end system limits transaction downloads to 90 days. This... is a problem for me. You see, um, I've been a very bad boy. Summer was, well, really fun. So fun, that it's been, uh, four months (to the day) since I've last downloaded transactions. Life is too short to want to retype my May statement in just to coax Microsoft Money into balance itself, and putting a giant -$3,141.59 seems like such a hack. Pretty please with whipped cream and chalupas on top, increase this to six months?
Third, that reminds me, the user interface expects me to calculate 90 days from today. Go ahead, try it. If you said 6/17/05, excuse me, 06/17/2005, you made the error I did: July and August have 31 days, and the system counts today against my 90-day transaction limit, hence the correct answer is 6/21/2005. (Bob, what's the consolation prize - a year's supply of Turtle Wax, the San Francisco Treat!*) You know, it would help if, instead of throwing the red, forbidding box o' error message you actually told me what day to use.
Fourth, when I attempted to download transactions for my checking, savings and mortgage files, I received an incomprehensively obtuse error message like "PRODUCT CODE INVALID." (I tried to see it again, and now your site is giving me an error:
.mainfontred, th.mainfontred {color: #Fb561c; font-weight:bold;font-size:10px; font-family:verdana, sans-serif;} p.error, div.error { padding: 5px 2px 2px 15px; background: #FFFDEB url(../images/icon_alert.gif) no-repeat; background-position: 5px 5px; font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana, sans-serif; font-size:10px; border: 1px solid red; margin: 0 0 1px 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle; color: #fb561c; }Here are my reactions. First:We're sorry, we are unable to process your request at this time. Please try again later.
Please call customer service at 1.800.788.7000. Thank you.
Customer Care Number: 3000 Date/Time: 09/17/2005 01:01:01 PM Pacific Time
thenWhat the hell does this mean
But I digress. The real cause is I asked for the export in whatever proprietary format Microsoft Money uses. The mortgage computer only exports CSV format. (Your site would benefit from some good QA.)Please enter a valid phone number in the format (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Now dance for me.
Fifth, while we're at it, could you possibly remember which financial program I specified last time? I mean sheesh, you already share my information among your subsidiaries, what's another data point, especially one that'll be useful?
I'm sure there's more, but I'll save that for another visit. In the event an actual human reads this and takes the initiative to whittle down my sarcasm into specific and actionable suggestions for your web squad, then you get a gold star and I'll be sanguine that my sarcasm was well-received.
Sincerely, Jim
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+ Blurbs are standardized responses approved for customer support use. * Yes, I know a year's supply of Turtle Wax is one container and Rice-a-Roni is the "San Francisco Treat," even though I've never actually eaten any while visiting San Francisco. (Is it a tourist food like poi or Japanese pickles?) |
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