[thelist] OT: Adobe doesn't want your feedback

Steve Lewis slewis at macrovista.net
Wed Jul 31 18:50:01 CDT 2002


Chris Blessing wrote:
> Madhu, you also misunderstood me.  It's not that the company is invincible,
> it's just that non-customer-centric emails like that are generally grouped
> into the "general" pile of messages, and messages which are not
> well-received are, well, not well-received.  I'm not saying that means it
What do you mean non-customer-centric?  Adobe is not paying Madhu to
test their website.  They are not his customer and thus I see no special
obligation on his part to treat Adobe with delicacy.

> automatically gets put in the shitter, but I am saying that you will have
> more of a chance of getting your point across and getting something done
> about it if you are less rude about spelling it out.
No, Madhu is being kind enough to tell that unpopular child in the class
that he has toilet paper stuck to his shoe and that everyone is laughing
behind his back.  The unpopular kid ought to address that dangling
toilet paper in a way that preserves as much dignity as possible, but
that purpose is clearly not going to get addressed by taking offence at
the messenger.

Remember that it is not Madhu's job to cross T's and dot I's for Adobe's
website, or mine.  When a user reports a bug in your live website, they
are doing you a *favor*.  If they are not condescending than they are
doing you an additional kindness.  Otherwise, take the freebie and move
on.  If I post Madhu's note on the water cooler, who cares.  If I don't
actualy fix the website than he will be more than happy to help guide me
to the local unemployment office with his meager power as a consumer.

When I call the local phone compnay (who has an effective monopoly on
service) I do try to be considerate to the human on the other end, until
that individual person proves to me some glaring ignorance or
incompetance.  The failure to properly resolve http://adobe.com to the
adobe website is a glaring incompetance IMO.

> piss me off, and it certainly doesn't mean that I will respond to every
> piece of trash email that comes across my inbox either... much is the same
Whatever.  I won't disagree that some trash doesn't deserve the time of
day, but I would very strongly disagree that a) Madhu's tone warranted
such a reaction on the part of any Adobe employee or that b) his point
is not significant.

In summary, you have a point about treating people nice, but it doesn't
apply here quite so well, if for no other reason than Adobe has
definately been caught with toilet paper stuck to it's collective shoe
and given it's recent petty squabling over cookies in the web technology
cookie jar, it could use a few licks in the press IMO.  Anyone here get
freelance gigs in dead-tree publishing?  Madhu's experience here could
use some ink. <evil grin />

--Steve




More information about the thelist mailing list