Author: admin

On October 16, 2018, I took a King County Metro bus from North Seattle to downtown Seattle so I could get on an Amtrak train to Portland. The last stop on the route is the stop I needed.

When the driver opened the  bus doors (there are three on the bus), I hesitated a moment before stepping out. Immediately in front of me, nearly one step away from the bus itself, was a tent. This tent was one of many. There were enough tents at this bus stop that all doors of the bus would open to a tent.

The closest tent in the picture — on the other side of the pole — was immediately outside my door. The curb behind the pole, giving an idea how close the bus doors were to the tents.

While I appreciate the difficulty that some people have with lodging, I also appreciate an ability to disembark from a bus with no obstacles immediately in front of me. The City of Seattle and King County (which runs the bus service and has some jurisdiction over bus stops in Seattle) are apparently looking the other way.  King County Metro offices are just three blocks away, so that gives you some idea  of the disinterest to providing a safe place for riders to disembark.

As I type I’m on the train from Seattle to Portland. Getting my computer connected to the Amtrak WiFi was a piece of cake for my laptop. However, before that I tried getting my smart phones connected. I was able to do so only after tracking down the conductor and asking him how to sign in using the splash page. Both phones displayed the jumbled mess you see in the screen capture below.

Being that mobile devices now exceed laptops and other computers for Internet connections, it is a no-brainer to be thinking mobile first. Kind of funny isn’t it, that a train system that provides MOBILITY cannot get with the mobile friendly standard?

Ever wonder why some technology companies take off and some don’t? Here’s an example.

The Lincoln Journal Star began as a newspaper. We are in the digital age now. This means the newspaper is now a technology company that delivers information via digital modes (email, website) and the original method of delivery of a printed product. But even the printed product is now a product of digital technology.

Along with the digital age comes digital methods to manage your account. And this is where the Journal Star is in the stone age.

On the JournalStar.com website there is an option for Customer Service, which in turn provides an option to manage your subscription. I have first-hand experience with this feature even though I live in Seattle. I pay for a subscription delivered in print form to the house of an elderly person.

When I log into my account to manage my subscription, I cannot find the correct delivery address of the print subscription. I say “correct” because I can find an incorrect address in two places. No where is to be found a section that clearly identifies the delivery address — unlike any other online retail organization that delivers.

Why has Amazon taken off? Convenience in online shopping. You can find and add products easily AND you can easily manage delivery addresses.

Here’s a view of the Journal Start interface.

The only two places to find an address — which is wrong — is in Update your Credit Card Information and in Contact Us. (And to be clear, the address is NOT the billing address, which is in Seattle).

The Customer Service link at the beginning screen makes sense:

The next screen has reasonable options, including Manage Your Subscription :

The Contact Us page shows an INCORRECT address — not the billing address nor the delivery address:

The screen after clicking Manage Your Subscription from the second image above:

One of the options from the screen above is Update Your Credit Card Information. The card update page is on paypal, and the same incorrect address (not billing or delivery) is sent to Paypal:

Adding more frustration into the mix is this: When I called the toll-free customer service number, the representative pulled up yet a different, incorrect address that has no relation to the billing address or the delivery address.

Organizations that cannot or will not get their technology act together will, simply, wither and die.