Update: Apple apparently realized that losing 30% of revenue on sales of the Pulse News Reader wasn’t worth playing along with the Times’ weirdness, and put the app back up for sale before the end of the day–with the newspaper’s feed still included as a default. [More]
times
Companies Don't Hate You… They Just Love Phone Trees More
By 5.25.08
Companies are slowly learning that those infuriating automated phone trees aren’t the answer to their customer service problems. Some experts even claim that automated systems anger customers. The New York Times decided to trace the history of the hated trees, while wondering if things will ever change.
New York Times To Congress: Fix Our Broken !@$% Banking System!
By 8.1.07
The New York Times published an editorial damning Congress’ unwillingness to protect consumers from a rising tide of unreasonable fees and penalties that have boosted the financial sector’s bottom line, while impoverishing millions of Americans.
US Postal Service Solves Long Waits By Removing Clocks From Post Offices
By 3.2.07
This sounds like a joke, but it’s being reported by the Houston Chronicle: The USPS is removing clocks from post offices in order to allow customers to better “focus on the postal service.”
“We want people to focus on postal service and not the clock,” said Stephen Seewoester, Dallas spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
The USPS has removed clocks from 37,000 post offices as part of a “retail standardization program.” Um, correct us if we’re wrong here but:
Fly the Friendly Skies in a Coffin
By 4.25.06
Call it “Standing Tomb Only” airplane seating, a new cost-cutting measure proposes shuttling passengers across the sky strapped into coffin-sized spaces.
