Everything is broken

You’d think that in a struggling economy, all businesses would be on their best behavior, doing everything they can to gain and retain customers, and not taking any revenue for granted. I’ve found that this isn’t the case. Here’s what’s bugged me recently:

Mint.com is broken. I’ve heard great things about Mint. I really wish I could use the service. But I can’t. In March, I tried signing up, but it was unable to get my credit card data imported so I deleted my account. I’ve recently changed my primary credit card, so I tried again tonight. I was unable to get the new card (or the old one) imported, so again, I deleted my account. As I was writing this, Mike suggested that I wait a few days. There was nothing in the Mint UI telling me to do this. It is broken.

Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) is broken. I went to their Sunnyvale store to buy a screwdriver today, and the tools section was almost completely cut off from the rest of the store, with only one entrance/exit. Take a look at this diagram I drew on a napkin:

The shelves surrounding the tools section had it completely enclosed except for the opening marked with the arrow. I had to backtrack after noticing the tools section a couple of aisles into the store. Annoying.

Mozy is broken. Like Mint, I’ve heard great things about the service. And I probably wasn’t a typical customer. But their technical support is what makes it broken. More on this in an upcoming post.

Anything I buy for my bike is broken. Not physically, but the instructions are always enough to break my brain.

Jamm Companies is broken. I ordered something from them a couple of weeks ago and have had no update on my order status or a shipping notice, yet they have charged my credit card (via PayPal). Sent an email over 24 hours ago and have not received a reply.

Hulu is broken. Why should content expire after a period of time or certain number of episodes? I don’t care whose fault this is (Hulu or the content owner’s), but it’s broken.