I don’t want to be one of those bloggers who kvetches about bad experiences out on the ‘net.  Goodness knows there’s enough of them, but probably not optimal to dwell on them.

But this experience with Zazzle has broader implications, so let me rant a bit.

I’ve wanted to try out business cards with QR codes on them for a few months.  Finally got around to it, using scientific methods (i.e. Google search) to find vendors who could give me a small pack of cards for not too much.

Zazzle had an appealing SEO-friendly name and looked good, so I ordered a pack of cards from them.

You order by typing the card info (name, addr, etc.) into a web form, which also shows a graphic of the QR code that will appear on the card.

I assumed — yes, I know what “assumed” means — that the QR code default would be the text info on the card.

When my first set of cards came, the QR code produced a web page at Zazzle which at first glance looked like an ad for their QR codes.  I sent off a complaint to Zazzle customer service, and they told me:

1. The cards I had were the ones I had ordered
2. If I wanted to change the QR code they would, out of the goodness of their hearts, allow me credit for the deck and re-ship.

I nosed around the Zazzle site trying to find a place to customize the QR code, and slowly realized that the web page that was the QR default was a page for typing in text information that would then build a new QR code.

So I retyped my info into the QR code generator form, and ended up with a QR code which was the digest of my text info from the business card.  Got a new deck.  Happy ending.

I suppose.  Wouldn’t it have been easier to have the default QR code be the info on the card?  Wouldn’t it have better to show what the QR code on the card would yield?  (You could see what it read to, but you had to click to another form to do so.)

Dumb defaults.

Zazzle is presumably a decent company.  They let me re-do the cards.  They answered my customer service inquiry promptly.

But because their product has weak defaults I probably won’t be back.  And I wrote this.

Your thoughts?