TackleAction!

Ha! i just had to fill that out for dsl service. What's worse is, after all this registration, after your done putting all your contact info in for billing etc, there is a "contact info:" page. it is completely blank and you have to re-enter your name, phone, and email. ridiculous.

i thought you got internets free from your building?

what speed DSL did you go with?

I do! But kelly needed some. We went with the 5mpbs, cause we measured what i had at my home and it was 4.5mbps, and it would suck if it were 1/3 of that (especially for itunes d/ls).

what sucked the most is that after everything they said there is an estimated $10 tax. which is bullshit cause qwest is only $10 less than cable.

Don't they ask for all that info to make sure that your specific home has the right phone line? My apartment in Boone (ha, boone...) did not have the right phone line for DSL-- cuz it was a hundred years old -- so I got Mediacom Cable. A zip code wouldn't have told them that.

eric: i see your point... but that doesn't really excuse the 10.... TEN... form fields where two or three would do. if their developers weren't lazy or they paid someone who knew what they were doing a single line with "enter your address" or perhaps a three field address/city/state form would work just as effectively.

I mean... "Street Type"... are you fucking kidding me?

there is no reason to enter your city and state. there needs to be a zip-code only revolution.

Honestly though, i did sorta enjoy filling out their form. 123 [tab], N [tab], Clifton [tab], A [tab]. there was a lot of immediate gratification. and i kinda like that it forces you to include all the relavent info, in a specific order. Cause some people would say clifton ave south. or just clifton south.

Iowa City is like hell for two roads with the same name. Like 20 ave, and 20th Ave ct. or keokuk ave, and keokuk st (which are like 2 blocks away from eachother).

"ome people would say clifton ave south. or just clifton south."

irrelevant. unless there happens to be two separate streets with those specific names. which there is not. or, rather, if there is... then some city planner needs to lose their job.

and its keokuk st and keokuk ct. but the ct isnt a ct anymore. so, yeah. and they're connected.

well, but that isn't the phone companies concern (to fire city planners). They just want to make sure they can give you a good answer as to whether or not you can get service.

And if i have to choose between a couple extra form fields or having to either pick up my phone, or have them call me to say the info wasn't valid, i'll take the extra fields.

Cause in then end, i was impressed by how a historically archaic utility was able to do this all online.

Still no excuse for the city and state though.

no. no. no. no. no.

yes, they want to give you a good answer. obviously.

but a good answer does not require 10 fields. the post office site doesnt require 10 fields. UPS doesn't require 10 fields. the county recorders office site doesnt require 10 fields. google maps doesnt require 10 fields. hell even MAPQUEST doesnt require 10 fields.

so please please please dont try and argue that the phone company needs 10 fields to figure out where your house is. cause they don't... the just have lazy developers who would rather you specify all the database records for them rather than writing some smart code to do it for you.

but what about the immediate gratification. UPS doesn't make me feel like a l33t d00d for hitting a [tab] and having "Avenue" pop up.

I applaud the Qwest coders for trying to make an emotional connection with me! Keep in up guys!

haha. speaking of lazy developers. why do i have to scroll all the way back up the page to write a new comment after i read the last one PAUL?

Or maybe they weren't lazy... they just couldn't afford to go through and match user input to possible options and compare/contrast. It doesn't sound super easy.

Traditional phone companies aren't exactly rolling in dough these days.

Haha! that's got nothing to do with lazy. That's poor planning (which i guess could be lazyiness, or stupidity), and the lack of optimism to think we'd have more than 3 comments for anything.

Wait, maybe it's a genious way to stop conversations from going on and on. and spur people to turn their arguments into a new post. Like maybe one about "finding an exact address based on user input".

hmmm... methinks it sad that the most comments on TackleAction.com are regarding the customer service "coding" for a corporate website. It should be called TickleBoredom.com from now on.