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The Ultimate Usability Nightmare
22 Apr 2003 by DS
What’s the worst Usability Nightmare?
I have what I think is the hands-down winner: Just try to get your Credit Report corrected after one or more mistakes — by that I mean, mistakes by lenders.
I got a copy of mine last night. An account that I paid off and closed in 1993 is still showing up as unpaid! This after I sent the Credit Reporting Agency the proof — in 1995!
My Spyder loan has been paid; it shows up as still open — at $109,000!
Another car loan — paid in full in 2001 — shows up as open with a $981 balance.
And that’s not all of the mistakes. The hassle of getting this fix will be rewarded, I’m sure, by more mistakes. I’m glad we’ve adopted a “pay cash” attitude.
11 comments so far (Post a Comment)
22 Apr 2003 | max cohen said...
I'm the "II" (second) so I'm privileged to have my father's car loan on my report.
22 Apr 2003 | max cohen said...
And my dad has my student loans on his. Fair trade. ;0
22 Apr 2003 | pb said...
That's probably second to stolen identity.
22 Apr 2003 | indi said...
It's not just the errors, the darn credit report itself leaves much to be desired. I think it was designed to be confusing...
22 Apr 2003 | alisha said...
doors. mostly those big massive swinging ones in museums which have a really cool design that no one can figure out how to operate: does it swing in? does it rotate? does it swing out? does it swing from the left? from the right? both ways? and the things are so damn heavy you have to push and push to find a solution. its a lot of fun watching people try them - especially when there are high traffic days.
22 Apr 2003 | Tim said...
Probably not a usability peeve...but here's mine:
Everywhere I go, I am asked for my "PIN NUMBER." Blech. Gas stations, ATMs, grocery store checkouts...even customer service reps on phone calls that require a pin.
PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER NUMBER
Or has "pin" become so omnipresent that it no longer is an acronym? I'm sure this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, but hey...
It's like sending my taxes to the IRS Service, or buying a car for the ABS System, or going through some HTML Language, or...
22 Apr 2003 | Steve said...
Automated call systems that ask you to enter your account number and other identifying information, and then when you've finally figured out how to talk to someone (not always an easy task), they ask you for all that information again. WTF was I entering it all for if you're not going to retain it and show it to your customer service people? Sheesh.
23 Apr 2003 | Drew said...
Push-only doors that have pull-handles.
Push doors that have:
a: no push plate to indicate which way it swings
b: no indication to where the hinges are in case it doesn't have a push plate
c: an indication that the door is locked and bathroom is occupied once I finally decide to just press on the door equally on both edges
All of these are in one pizza place in Seattle.
frikkin drove me CRAZY
24 Apr 2003 | saddo said...
Women.
24 Apr 2003 | Don Schenck said...
saddo, handling women is EASY. Dress nice, stay in shape, be nice and toss money their way and you're all set.
No ... wait ... that's what *I* have been doing for my wife all these 24 years. It doesn't work :-)
