Text messages may be a wonderful donation method for those in the US, but it leaves donors outside the US out of the loop.
I tried to make a donation to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief fund via the web site on Thursday morning. The form repeatedly threw an error saying my card was declined. When I called my bank, Chase, they told me they were INUNDATED with calls from cardholders who were getting the same error from that form. They told me it was the form. Later in the day I came back to try my donation again. The form had been updated since the morning. The new version had the ability to send an ecard to someone at the time you make a donation. But the form still FAILED. This makes me question the priorities of whomever was deciding what needed fixing with that form. Finally I called the Red Cross. I tried to use the automated phone system for making a donation, figuring that I could help more by not using a volunteer's time. The process was clunky and slow. The very last piece of data I needed to give the automated system was my ZIP code. But I reversed two numbers when I input it. In order to fix that I was directed to start the whole phone donation process over. No thank you. So I called back and I talked to a person. And I made my donation. It took me far, far too much time and effort to make that donation. The American Red Cross doesn't just need their form(s) brought to current standards. They need their entire donation process overhauled and made robust enough to work smoothly when there's a huge sudden influx of donations. [And lets not even talk about the Mexican Red Cross site, which wouldn't even load on Thursday.] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48363 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
