The number you have reached does not require a “1″

In many broad metropolitan areas, when dialing a number, a “1″ is required for some areas, and not for another when making a call. Today, I went to call a client in Paris, KY, and heard that amazingly annoying message “The number you have reached doesn’t require a 1, please check the number and try again.” - which required me to redial the ENTIRE number.

Okay, wait a second - didn’t this call just happen over a high-tech parallel processing fiber optic network? So… WHY NOT JUST REMOVE IT FOR ME and complete the call? You could, if needed, say “The 1 was removed from your number as it was not needed… completing your call” … but that would be way too easy, wouldn’t it.

The same thing happens on web forms. WHY must I enter my credit card expiration date just the way you want it? Why not do a little bit of logic behind the scenes and replace that slash with a dash in the date if that’s what you want?

If I forget to type something, why not put the cursor there and ask me nicely, perhaps telling me why you need it? How about changing the color of what I forgot so I can find it on your ridiculously long web forms?

It’s just another symptom of websites being created from wizards and templates without any regard for the customer. I’m a believer in computers, and use them whenever it’s possible to save humans work. If you can write 10 lines of Javascript code to simplify the process for every single customer, isn’t it worth it? Better said, aren’t THEY work it?

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