Annual Rant about Stupid Signage, etc.
If there’s one thing guaranteed to make me froth at the mouth, it’s instructions and signage that seem designed to confuse the reader.
Yesterday I was at the airport picking up my spouse. I had my coins ready for the parking meter.
Surprise! There are no parking meters. Every five or six parking spaces have a sign with arrows pointing in both directions, saying Pay for Parking. Of course, if cars are parked in front of the signs, you can’t see the notice.
I park and head for the terminal. Part way there, I find the instructions posted beside a ticket dispenser (my comments in brackets):
- Park car (this sign is only visible by pedestrians)
- Take ticket (there’s no indication of where the ticket is, so I punch the Big Green Button, assuming a ticket will pop out — nothing happens)
- Put Ticket on Dashboard (wait a minute, I don’t have a ticket!)
- Arrgh! (That’s me shouting, not the sign)
The problem with instructions like this is that they were written by someone who knows exactly how the ticket dispenser works. Who wouldn’t know that you have to guesstimate how long you’ll be parked, and pay in advance for that amount of time, then click the little Buy Time button, then click the Big Green Button, then “Take ticket.”
Okay, I take it back. If there’s one thing guaranteed to make me froth at the mouth more than stupid instructions and signage, it’s stupid processes that are purposely designed to not help the customer.
Why, when every other airport I’ve visited now has a system that gives you a ticket, then asks you to pay for the amount of parking time you actually used, does this airport insist on playing the coy game of making you guess how much time you’ll be parked. And if you guess wrong, there are prominent signs warning you of the dire consequences of parking without a ticket or with an expired ticket.
I no longer want to punch out the sap who wrote the signs. Now I want to punch out the airport manager and the sales rep who convinced them to install a system that forces people to either pay more than they need to, or play parking roulette, with a hefty fine as a prize.
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POSTED IN: Communication Skills, Customers, Humor, Writing
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