What the hell does the BETA stand for?  “Better Eat Tums After” because this service will give you nothing but heartburn?  “Better Try Again?”  How many times did we have to try to get on to the site before it actually worked? 

 

Were they seriously that unprepared for us?  Why present the service to the most faithful fans when the bugs have not been worked out yet?  If I did that at my job, I’d be fired.  No, not fired…. Taken out to the parking lot and publicly flogged and banished in shame.  Yes, technology is running at a pace that we can’t catch up to.  But ALL possible scenarios have to be taken into account before public presentation.

 

Imagine that we were the prospective client of a large software undertaking that this manufacturer was trying to sell.  (And we were, and they are at $149 a pop!)  These well dressed, polished sales men come into the conference room to present their newest product, fire up the laptops attached to the 9 ft HD big screen on the wall and…. And… and… NOTHING…   Can’t load, can’t connect, and can’t SELL!!

 

“Just one moment.  Let me call our IT dept.”  And we wait, grumbling, wondering why they were so ill prepared for the presentation.

 

“Ok.  We have solved the problem on the server.”  The presentation continues.  They show us the registration screen.  This seems simple enough.  Then the program loads and we see, can you guess?  A commercial.  We live with that as we are told how the revenue generated is assisting in keeping the cost of the service down.  And when the commercial is done, we choose the Center Ice tab and are left with four boxes, game choices, and… NO INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE USER.

 

I certainly understand that in this world of high technology and every 9 year old being a computer programmer, has the thought that products should come with the slightest directions gone the way of the pull tab can?

 

Once the video in the box is streaming, we all “oooohhh” & “ahhhh” at the quality of the picture.  A few minutes later, the connection is lost, refresh is not working, and the boxes are black.  The game choice now says Blacked Out, and there’s nothing the can do to get it back.

 

Thinking the best way to start over is to… START over, another 15 tries to connect to the service brings the screen back to the registration screen which somehow has not retained the original information from the first registration.

 

In the real world, at this point, the salesman in the conference room should quietly pack his things and sheepishly ask if there are questions from the room.  The attendees of the meeting, the prospective buyers of the product should then ask “When will it be done?  Why don’t you come back when it is.”

 

I was always taught in the software business when you want to Beta test a new technology; you use a small focus group with constant supervision.  I’d like to know if Islander Country was the test group.  Because I need the NHL to pay for my tranquilizer prescription.  That’s the least they can do for putting me through two nights of aggravation.  The damage to my keyboard was my own damn fault.  I’ll pay for that.