Except that I'm not talking about computer code output this time. Well, not precisely, anyway.
The backstory is that I had an oddball question for a company, and--it being after hours--the most convenient way of asking it was through their website's "Contact us" page. That included a drop-down list for me to designate the general nature of my question/concern, and (as is usually the case) it was a choice of "least off-the-mark" rather than "most appropriate."
When the reply arrived during business hours the next day, it was disappointing to find that the company in question had taken eighteen hours to send a canned response that never so much as acknowledged the original question, much less answered it. Its purpose was to induce me to waste more of my time on another page on their website.
First off, if there's no functional difference between a "Contact us" form and an FAQ (apart from an eighteen hour delay), why even waste bytes on the pretense? But more importantly (IMLTHO), if a "technology" company that makes its bling converting knowledge workers into cash can't grok that difference, who in their right mind would want to do business with it?
Maybe it's just me being weird again, but I actually would have shrugged off a non-answer more readily. Sadly, it's been so commonplace for the past decade or so that blogging about that would be the nadir of banality. But in this case, I think the lameness highlights the fact that, even in the human world, lack of response is actually better than one so organizationally self-involved.
