I purchased a new tool

[Jim C Bradley]

Today I purchased a very nice 12.0v Ridgid drill. It came with a wonderful warranty with batteries and repair parts for life.
The downside= To register to receive the batteries, etc. on the web put me into a very confusing set of forms. There were blanks at the top to input the serial number, etc. These were lightly grayed out and would not receive data.
I scrolled up and found another set of blanks for name, serial numbers, etc. I fill in the forms and click submit. The screen comes back with my data deleted and says something like, "You failed to enter your email address twice." Therefore I had to re-enter all of the data I had typed. I touched the enter key and was put into FAQ. I get out of FAQ and there is my darned form again with most of it blank.
Somewhere along the line my drill model was entered, not by me, with a "B" appended. When I checked it showed that I had both of the models (the original and the "B").
ETC. etc, etc. It took a lot of my time to do something that should have been very simple. It irritated me needlessly. How does a large company like Ridgid come up with such a messed up web presence?
Well, I guess I got that off my chest.
Oh yes, the tool seems great.

Jim Bradley

[Pete Brown]

How does a large company like Ridgid come up with such a messed up web presence?


That really sounds like a pain!

I'm in the custom application/site development business. I've brought teams in to clean up messes at companies both large and small. Many companies send the work to the lowest bidder, and usually get what they pay for. Many times (but not always) that is overseas. Sometimes it is just in-house staff who are overtasked and out of time.

In 2004 my team and I built a full eCommerce web site for a company that sells books. They were in a bind and really needed it up in 6 weeks. We did the whole thing in that time, and got it working, stable, and decent. I spent lots of 14 hour days in DC and several 24 hour days out on my deck doing my part of it. They sent the next version overseas and have had it rebuilt several times now. :p I overhead one of their salespeople once say (and I quote) "As long as we bring in new customers faster than we lose old ones, we're good" and he was serious. That company had no ethics at any level, and we had to sue to get paid after all that work.

Of course, the Ridgid form could be crap simply because some marketing person told their IT department "Umm, we need a form up tomorrow! And no, you can't have additional people to test...and no, I don't have any written requirements." :) That happens more often than you'd like to think.

Re-reading our two posts, this should probably be moved to the OT forum.

Pete

[richard poitras]

My option would be to take the drill back to the store you bought it from and have them do the warranty, if that did not work or they denied to do this for you I would return the drill do to the fact you bought it with the life time warranty and if you can not get the warranty card to work for you on the registration from there sight, than it would be a deal breaker for me …. Just my opinion of course… good luck …

[Jim C Bradley]

Pete,
Unfortunately I hear you. However, it would seem that someone at the top would have the sense to do something about the problem. I'll bet none of the people at the top have even tried to use the thing.
Thanks and Enjoy,
Jim

[Jim C Bradley]

Hi Richard,
I hate to sound this naive, but I didn't even think of going back to the store. I did fill in a reply to Ridgid. They said someone would reply. So far no one has replied.
I will go to the store and confirm my registration.
Thanks and Enjoy,
Jim

[Per Swenson]

Jim,

I am a firm believer in the awesome power of the internet.

Frankly, I wouldn't be where I am today with out it.

E-mail and call direct, http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Contact-Us/index.htm

But, most importantly, let all of us know how it works out.

No longer are we meek consumers.

Ok, off the soap box.

Congrats on the drill.

Per

[Ron Kellison]

There is also the possibility that by creating a clumsy, confusing form they will discourage a number of potential registrants for warranties, lowering their overall lifecycle costs for the product and thereby increasing their margin. I'll give you good odds that there's a lawyer involved somewhere. Just a thought from a paranoid who spends entirely too much time dealing with commercial and in-house lawyers!


Ron