Quote:
Originally Posted by kja966
I just interacted with the Villages Sun for a renewal of my subscription. I had to give a credit card number over the phone. I asked why no online presence and the ability to pay, suspend, and restart subscriptions online like 98% of publications. I was told they are a small town newspaper and that would destroy that image if they provided that service. It was all I could do not to laugh into the phone. The Sun is many things, an advertiser, housing brochure, lite news, but small town newspaper?
It got me thinking about the “computer” status here in TV.
Newspaper forces interaction on phone, limited hours and snail mail interactions.
The golf tee time system is badly in need of upgrade. Clunky interface, inability to see any open time on same day, generally looks like a 1990’s interface. The phone system is arcane and byzantine. A relative used to pride himself on setting up a tee time for a group of 12. With errors and redos it usually took him over an hour.
VCDD system somewhat better but government systems usually have limited functionality.
It is obvious that this is not a priority for the powers that be. I would think the convenience and 24 hour availability would more than pay for itself. Smoothing out tee time interfaces would make their job easier. Shopping cart technology is mature and affordable. Tee time apps, both Apple and Android are obvious needs. Even athena health care appointments on line non functional.
Just some rambling thoughts.
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When I got here, 5 years ago, I was amazed that they had their own system for requesting tee times, and it worked for so many courses. Yes, it took me a bit to figure it out, but I joined a group where someone else did the work. But it never took them an hour. Since then I have set up the tee times myself, and it is not very hard.
And here is the real point, it works, and all the bugs have been fixed. Any new system would require lots of money and lots of time to make it work as error free. (The company I worked for had negative experiences moving away from existing HR and payroll systems to newer programs by third parties. Lots of money thrown down the toilet).
So a new system would be nice, but I worry about the cost and shakedown / debugging experience that we would all have to work through.