Fit for purpose
Mar. 6th, 2026 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseYou know how a lot of websites give you a link so you can easily opt out of Mother's Day and/or Father's Day e-mails?
Ryman don't.
Now, let me be clear right from the start, I like Ryman. Probably more than half my scribal kit comes from there - all the specialist drawing pens, all the brushes, the travel easel (which is a major back-saver), and I think the paints. They're also by far the best place to get a personalised hardbacked notebook at a reasonable price; I've done that for Christmas presents before. I even bought my air cooler from them, which is what enables me to survive our horrible East Anglian summers. Nonetheless, the simple attempt to opt out of Mother's Day (and Father's Day) e-mails opened a surprising can of worms.
Yesterday they sent me a Mother's Day e-mail, and obviously I thought, oh, no, don't want that, let's find the link to opt out. There wasn't one. So I went to their website to fill in their contact form.
It starts off with the usual drop-down list so you can give them a rough idea what you're contacting them about. Fine so far. I selected "general enquiry", as you would; and, of course, a general enquiry does not have to be about any specific order or product. But then it wanted an order number, and this was a required field. Oh. Right. Will it take "n/a"? Fortunately it would, so I was over that hurdle.
Then I got to an even more bizarre required field. I had to upload an image showing the fault with, or damage to, the product I had ordered. Huh? I actually went back to double-check that I had indeed selected "general enquiry". Yes. I had. Definitely not the "I want to complain about a faulty or damaged product" option. But I couldn't continue without uploading some kind of image. So... as it happens, for some reason which is lost to history, I have a very small image of a fuzzy purple sphere. It was probably part of some piece of art I was doing. I uploaded that.
Well, I hope they liked the fuzzy purple sphere; anyway, I'm happy to report that I got a really nice reply this morning. They're going to opt me out of e-mails I don't want, and they're also going to look into the problems with the web contact form. So all is good, in the end.
Nonetheless, I can't help feeling it could have been a little easier.
Ryman don't.
Now, let me be clear right from the start, I like Ryman. Probably more than half my scribal kit comes from there - all the specialist drawing pens, all the brushes, the travel easel (which is a major back-saver), and I think the paints. They're also by far the best place to get a personalised hardbacked notebook at a reasonable price; I've done that for Christmas presents before. I even bought my air cooler from them, which is what enables me to survive our horrible East Anglian summers. Nonetheless, the simple attempt to opt out of Mother's Day (and Father's Day) e-mails opened a surprising can of worms.
Yesterday they sent me a Mother's Day e-mail, and obviously I thought, oh, no, don't want that, let's find the link to opt out. There wasn't one. So I went to their website to fill in their contact form.
It starts off with the usual drop-down list so you can give them a rough idea what you're contacting them about. Fine so far. I selected "general enquiry", as you would; and, of course, a general enquiry does not have to be about any specific order or product. But then it wanted an order number, and this was a required field. Oh. Right. Will it take "n/a"? Fortunately it would, so I was over that hurdle.
Then I got to an even more bizarre required field. I had to upload an image showing the fault with, or damage to, the product I had ordered. Huh? I actually went back to double-check that I had indeed selected "general enquiry". Yes. I had. Definitely not the "I want to complain about a faulty or damaged product" option. But I couldn't continue without uploading some kind of image. So... as it happens, for some reason which is lost to history, I have a very small image of a fuzzy purple sphere. It was probably part of some piece of art I was doing. I uploaded that.
Well, I hope they liked the fuzzy purple sphere; anyway, I'm happy to report that I got a really nice reply this morning. They're going to opt me out of e-mails I don't want, and they're also going to look into the problems with the web contact form. So all is good, in the end.
Nonetheless, I can't help feeling it could have been a little easier.
