'Embarrassing Trainwrecks' Category
Flight booking boo boos
So, I’m booking my flights to the IDQ 2008 conference in San Antonio. I’m flying with Continental.
As with most airlines I have to provide a contact telephone number for them to contact me before, during or after travel.Their website allows me to select the country that my phone number is in. My phone number is […]Leap Year problem hits Irish bank
The Sunday Business Post newspaper (Ireland’s leading weekly paper dedicated to business news) carried a story this week about errors in calculating mortgage interest due to the 2008 Leap Year which have affected at least one Irish bank. This is an information quality problem we discussed previously on this blog.Of course, the bank’s are simply going to apply the interest missed […]
It’s the end of the world as we know it… or is it?
Yahoo is today carrying a story from AFP about a 13 year old German school boy who has corrected NASA’s calculations on the probability of ‘planet killer’ asteroid Apophis crashing into earth and causing a global catastrophe. The wunder-kind in question did his analysis as part of a regional science competition.
It seems that NASA forgot to factor […]What a nice model of furniture
Also from The Register is this story of a data quality boo boo on the Marks and Spencer website (the offending page has been removed from the site, but el Reg kindly kept a screenshot).
The text of an on-line catalogue entry described an item for sale, emphasising its “modern curves, soft-look styling and hardwood […]Irish bank sends debtor details to wrong addresses
The Irish Examiner reports today that a leading Irish bank accidentally sent details on defaulted loans to the wrong address. Two letters were sent to the one address - which was the wrong one. The contents of the letters contained the correct name and address information for the account holders (it appears from the media […]
Monkey See… Monkey Do
Courtesy of Nigel Thomas comes this story of an IQ Trainwreck that eminates originally from the hallowed halls of Harvard University, where monkeys swing freely through the Ivy (original story previously published at www.thedailywtf.com as “I’ve Got the Monkey Now”).
The Harvard Business School Publishing redeveloped and relaunched their website back in 1999. Part of the QA […]The focus of quality is the Customer
I got an email into my work inbox today enticing me to attend a Gartner CRM summit in London at which Don Peppers (he of Peppers & Rogers, 1-to-1 marketing fame etc.) would be keynoting.
I won’t be going.
The email was sent to my email address from a site that espouses CRM best practices.
The email salutation […]Home Removals - literally.
Fox News has this story from the AP Newswire today.
It seems a Russian woman returned from a visit to the country to find that her city home was gone, demolished by mistake by over-eager builders who were supposed to be tearing down a different building.
Ooops.
Of course, errors in demolition can only happen in Mother Russia. […]Customer data boo-boos in Carphone Warehouse & Talk Talk
For a change, we didn’t find this one on The Register (oh, hang on , here it is on el Reg as well…). However, it would seem that UK communications retail Carphone Warehouse and its telco subsidiary Talk Talk have been given a stern reprimand from the UK’s Information Commissioner for problems with the quality […]
Trainwreck or Bus disaster?
From the “This is london” website there is this story about the dangers of relying on satnav and the unexpected outcomes that arise from decisions taken on incomplete or inaccurate information.
Summary… 50 people take a shopping trip from Gloucester to Lille (France). Driver of coach relies on SatNav. He selects “Lille” from the menu. He […]
