They get it right in some ways, very wrong in others

Today I needed to send off an ebay item to the winning bidder, and due to it’s bulk, using Parcel Force.

First the good news: not only do you save a whole £1 off your shipment cost by using the the online shipment booking form (big points for having one) it also has this checkbox

Nice idea, and not too much of an investment to impede the impulse of soothing the growing carbon footprint guilt complex (“carbon guilt-print”) these days.

Then there’s the bad news: Argh! I cannot use the form…

One might be excused for thinking it must be 2003 once again. I thought this kind of detailed specification insistance was a thing of the past, but no, obsessions with perceived security issues – come on, I’m booking a parcel pickup and giving you my debit card number – prevail in the odd backwater of the interweb. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a requirement of having the Adobe Acrobat browser plugin installed.
Not only that but there are no immediate alternative options. The only telephone number was to be found up the Contact Us > Customer Service tributary and no hint that this was the number to call for ‘manually’ placing a shipment order. Not only that, but my carbon guilt-print is still fully intact as that was not an option offered through telephone ordering.

Grumble, mumble, moan…

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