Day 35: I would be willing to bet that almost anyone in my readership knows the difference between flannel and fleece. However, Joann Fabrics' search engine apparently does not, because when I requested "fleece," flannel was mixed in with it. I will accept some responsibility here because I did not read carefully. After all, both words begin with "fl-" and my cursory glance did not catch the difference because I had asked specifically for "fleece" and expected that's what I'd see. Consequently, when my order arrived, I thought there had been a mistake, so I checked the receipt. Damn. Yep, I'd ordered the flannel. I sent Joann a note, hoping that they might allow me to return the fabric. I explained that the search engine was at least partly to blame, and suggested that they fine-tune it to actually give the results the customer requested. Joann's response? "What a wonderful idea! We'll pass that along to management." And that was it, no "Here's a return authorization" or even an apology.
Does it occur to anyone else that technology has failed miserably at making our lives easier and more convenient? Search engines bring up flower arranging when you've asked to see cat food. Customer service has been depersonalized with AI, giving the customer no chance to explain extenuating circumstances. Web pages show only a few products at a time, so we waste precious hours advancing to the next screen and having to backtrack to the products we might want to compare. Paging through a paper catalog was so much easier: just dog-ear the pages and flip back to them. Technology has added annoyances to our growing list of gripes instead of helping us get through our days with some semblance of ease. Now as to what I'm going to do with two yards of flANNEL I didn't want, I don't really know. However, my re-order of the flEECE will become another blanket, one I hope Merry will share with me.
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