Today I encountered once again a small asinine interface design decision:
Calling the phone hotline of the parcel service (DHL Express) to make them reroute a parce that could not be deposited in the automatic parcel station, I got the following menu:
“If you have a question about …, please press 1. If you have another question, please press 2.
…
Unfortunately we could not detect your choice. If you have a question about …, please press 1. If you have another question, please press 2.
…
Unfortunately we could not detect your choice. If you have a question about …, please press 1. If you have another question, please press 2.
…
Unfortunately we could not detect your choice. We will now connect you to a customer service representative.” (Finally. He processed my request without demur).
Where I have also encountered this is in the menus to send messages to technical support of my web hosters (when I wanted them to restart a server, and to restore a data backup, respectively), and for customer support of online vendors regarding returns. Apparently these people cannot conceive of customers not having a question but a request for action on their part.
(Oh, if only all mankind’s problems were that trivial. But it does upset my sense of logic.)