Just don’t try to use the Hertz web site. It sucks. This summer I’m attending a wedding halfway across the country and I’m trying to figure out how to get there. Driving is an option and I wanted to look into rental prices, especially after hearing that some rental companies have hybrids available.

So I went to Hertz’s site to check prices, only to find that their site requires a funky right-frame feature that didn’t work in Firefox or Safari, making it impossible to check rates or make a reservation online. To find out most other information, you need to launch a pop-up window which was automatically blocked by both Firefox and Safari, forcing me to disable it to do much else.

I decided to send them a comment about using their web site, hoping that just maybe they could improve the user experience and possibly answer my question through e-mail. But no:

We’re Sorry

The function that you have requested is temporarily not available. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Wow. That’s suckage on a massive level.

Want to make money online? Try T-shirts. So says the Wall Street Journal. (link via Kottke.org)

I’ve tried it, but apparently Monkey Outta Nowhere just hasn’t caught on.

It pays to check your work. And double check your work. Sometimes even triple checking your work isn’t a bad thing.

Earlier this week a friend e-mailed me about a press release that had gone out to some industry folks. But if you scrolled down past the normal release hype, you could see behind the veil and into the innerworkings of the industry. The press release had been sent with the entire e-mail exchange about how to wordsmith the release, along with the original release at the bottom. Oops.

Big time oops. I was tempted to blog all the juicy details (actually dared by the aforementioned friend), but I thought better of it. Instead I e-mailed the offending party, and he or she asked me not to blog about it. So for the sake of that peron’s job, I’m leaving out the incriminating details.

But in the long wrong they’re not that incriminating. It was a mistake, something that could have been disasterous. But the e-mail exchange was actually rather harmless, and if anything shows the company’s commitment to honesty and straight forward communication.

But how do you appropriately deal with a mistake like that?

Continue reading Stupid Press Release →

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A week or so ago Jason Kottke wrote about the various businesses that inspire him, especially as he’s gone full-time with the blogging. I can’t help but agree with him on a lot of counts. I think there’s a growing trend of people moving away from the selfish, money-grubbing, profits-focused business approach of someone like, say, Donald Trump.

Having launched my own business, I’m more interested in being self-supportive and providing for my family’s needs. I’m not trying to be rich (though I wouldn’t complain if it happened). I’m not trying to have exponential growth. I’m not looking to expand into a mega-corporation. I like being just me in my house, and while growth is good and necessary, and while I’m not against expanding, I don’t feel the same greed drive that seems to power so many businesses (especially in the ‘how-to’ realm).

The New York Times covers annoyances at the hands of marketers and how people respond. It covers stuff like Starbucks’ sizing lingo (tall/grande/venti instead of small/medium/large) or those annoying subscriber cards that always fall out of magazines. The article mentions one guy who stacks up the subscriber cards and mails them back blank so the magazine will have to pay the postage but not gain a subscriber. The story also talks about people returning weighed down junk mail so the companies have to pony up for the extra postage.

It’s kind of bizarre and the article doesn’t really go anywhere with it, but it’s still fun. The Ad Freak blog disagrees–but oh yeah, they’re run by Ad Week, who has their own subscriber cards. What’s the most annoying thing you put up with?

(link via Kottke)

The Kansas Brand Image Task Force came up with a new state slogan, “Kansas: As big as you think,” which is being criticized across the state. Alternative slogans have been suggested, including “Moving at the speed of Kansas.”

I’d like to recommend a few:

Kansas: Flatter than a pancake.
Kansas: Somewhere in the middle.
Kansas: You’ve gotta stop somewhere.
Kansas: What’s urban sprawl?
Kansas: Buy your Wizard of Oz t-shirt and get out.
There’s no place like Kansas. (or just embrace the Oz)

The New York Times covers the board game company Cranium (makers of the famous game of the same name) and their efforts to make games for children and adults that make everyone feel like a winner. It sounds a bit overly sensitive at first, but if you remember the brutal gloating fests after a bitter game of Monopoly it makes sense.