I’m an occasional user of MyUPS (although their failure to offer a daily email or RSS update to track a package is ludicrous) and when visiting the site this week I had to agree to their news Terms of Service and update my contact information. This sort of web form typically covers basic logistical information that someone who does business with you will need: address, billing information, etc.

But this time I was required to answer a question that was obviously tied to some market segmentation work they’ve done: which of these statements best describes you? with the following choices:

• I don’t ship daily, but when I do, I want it to be quick and informative.
• I use ups.com daily and know several shortcuts to save time.
• I use ups.com to troubleshoot and to report on shipping activity.
• I focus on the big picture and monitor shipping operations performance.
• I prefer to use the web only when necessary. My job is easier without it.

First of all, it’s utterly inappropriate to require me to answer this question when I’m dealing with straightforward contact information that is necessary for UPS to have in order to provide the services I pay them for. Making them optional would be nice, but really this doesn’t go here at all. It’s hamfisted.

Second of all, it’s ludicrous to ask someone to find themselves in a badly written list such as this. What if I use ups.com daily but don’t know any shortcuts? Compound conditions are very hard for people to answer cleanly.

One has to wonder about the meeting where they decided this would be a good idea.

Another random email comes my way

Hi Steve:

I am hoping to get a picture of a UPS truck/driver delivering packages to horses in a corral. One of the horses needs to have a big pencil in his mouth – like he’s signing for his packages.
This is for a PowerPoint presentation to be used one time. UPS wanted tons of red tape to make this happen. I need it by 6/27/05
Any thoughts?

I did recently blog a photo of a UPS truck, but still, why would someone ask me this? I sought some explanation

sorry. I am searching for UPS pictures and I ran across yours. You seemed like a very creative type. thought you might have some interesting ideas.
Nothing ventured…nothing gained.

Interesting how people use the Internet. As Tom sez It would be perfect to show a monkey clinging for dear life to the antenna of a fast-moving 1972 Nova. Can we get that? Somebody write to that Portigal guy

This seemed like a nifty innovation, small, yet simple. This UPS truck was parked in Manhattan, presumably the driver might be away from the truck for several minutes, meanwhile, it serves as a convenient drop-box for passerby. I mean, the truck is there, you might as well make use of it, right?

I don’t know, perhaps others do, if they are leaving these trucks in fixed locations for predictable times, serving as reliable-if-temporary drop boxes?