Many companies with an online presence these days are trying to encourage people to use their web sites to do things that would normally require a phone call or a personal visit, tying up customer service personnel and keeping operating costs high. They tell us that doing stuff online will save them costs, which will translate into lower costs for us, as well as ease of use and prompt service.

I tell you that it isn't working out so well.

In the past few weeks, I have tried to buy stamps online, make an appointment at my local DMV office, buy renters insurance, and change my fucking address for my cell phone bill. Each and every one of these services was pushed hard on their websites and I tried them all.

Every single one of those operations was time-consuming and ultimately unsucessful due to internal errors or that service being "unavailabe at this time" (a message that would be much more helpful at the beginning of the process).

I'm a little annoyed.