Does Old School Still Work and Do We Want It to Continue?
We have apps and online platforms for everything. I love them. They are helpful and make many things easier. Is that always the case? Absolutely not. Time and time again, these extraordinary technical advances slow me down.
A few weeks ago, I tried to order deli sandwiches for delivery to my grandmother’s house for our traditional Chanukah celebration. The app wouldn’t let me pre-order more than a day in advance. It wouldn’t let me pick a delivery window. Funny thing is a week before it let me do exactly what I wanted. I had to cancel when she got sick. A year ago, I sat in her place and tried to do pretty much the same order. The wi-fi wasn’t working well.
Did I give up? No, I went old school. Both times I called the deli; I got a delivery or pickup window within 5 minutes. Years ago, she was able to travel to my place. The family came to me. I used to walk down the block to the deli and sit with the manager for 2 minutes. He scribbled what I needed on an order slip, took my credit card, thanked me, and gave me a hot dog. The deli’s manager called to confirm a day before the delivery. Unfortunately, that store closed. I carried on. I emailed a store a little further away. They called me to confirm and double-check everything. Like the other place, the day before, they called and confirmed. In all instances, the proper order arrived as planned.
A month ago, I ordered my favorite Dead Sea skin care products from the site that I have been using for over a decade. I am still waiting for it to arrive. The stuff usually arrived two or three days after I ordered. They’ve had my address since day one. I followed up. They told me the shipper returned it because the address was insufficient. They asked me to resend it. At one point, they had a simpler online ordering system. These days, it seems to go through who knows what? I am hopeful my products arrive soon.
A few weeks ago, my network-attached storage (NAS) drive died. I worked with the maker’s customer care department. They were helpful. They said I needed a new one. I suspected this and was only moderately upset. I knew the device was over eleven years old. It had a good run. I ordered the upgraded device. I asked how to transfer my data to the new one.
Customer care said to turn on the old one and do a data transfer. They had noted in the notes that the old device did not turn on. It flatlined. It was as dead as could be. They sent several more emails insisting that I need to connect the defunct NAS drive to the new one. Per their notes, the old NAS was done. I repeatedly sent back their notes. I called a data recovery service. They said drop off the old drives, and we should be able to recover everything and send it back on an external storage drive. I did that and, as advised, bought new drives.
I got the new drives and connected them to my MacBook. I had a few issues. I reached out to customer care. They told how to set it up on a Windows-based PC. The process is different for Apple. They had in their notes, that I was using a Mac.
The data recovery service emailed to let me know they recovered everything and that they are shipping the external drive so I can connect it to my computer and transfer the data. They shipped it with a PC-based cable. I emailed and they said we told shipping it needed to send a Mac cable. They said they’d mail the right one immediately. A week later, I emailed to see where it was. They forgot to send it. It arrived, and of course, the device would not power up. I tried connecting it to multiple electrical outlets. Nothing. I told them exactly what I did. Their advice was to try to connect to various electrical outlets. I finally got it through their heads that it did not work. They asked me to send it back and ship a new device. They claimed they tested the original. The power on it wasn’t working. The new one came, and all was well.
I could go on for hundreds of pages about situations like this, whether in finance, retail, or other tech products. Don’t get me started on when your internet or TV service goes down.
I miss the old days when it was simpler, you spoke to a human and got clearly written emails. I have been working to fix a few issues with bots. I’d give them a C grade. As we try to make things easier, we must remember that keeping it simple creates loyalty and repeat business.
Mitchell's thoughts, photos, etc. 