Why bother having a contact form if you can't answer?

[imc]

I used the "contact us" form on the web site of a well-known financial institution. I said something of the form:Subject: Web site technical fault
I cannot find the correct page to log in to my account. When I click on Login it takes me to a page that says "Sorry, we are reorganising our web site and you may have an out-of-date link stored in your

Comments

[stacyinthecity]

someone (or someTHING, as it might be an algorithm) saw the word "login" in your email and sent a boilerplate response about helping you with your account.

It's a big pet peeve of mine.

[lnr]

Boilerplate answers have been driving me batty lately too - I was amazed this week when I mailed Lovefilm and they not only didn't send me the same boilerplate as last time but also actually recognised the problem, did something appropriate to solve it, and gave me a free week of subscription to apologise for the inconvenience. Admittedly I specifically *asked* them not to include the boilerplate this time - dunno if that helped :)

[sidheag]

They need better AI.

[hairyears]

I am reminded of the common workplace rebuke:

"Would you kindly stop being useless: we have a perfectly good Web Designer for that".

[anonymous]

At least they replied. I've contacted a number of suppliers to ask if they have a product to fit a particular application. Most of them haven't replied at all. It's almost as if they don't actually wany my business.

APC