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E-ZPass PA: How NOT To Re-Vamp a Website

WTF, E-ZPass PA? Your site is down for a WEEK while you upgrade your systems, and now that it's back it's... worse. Great! When I added our new vehicle to our account, you added it twice. When I tried to delete our old vehicle, I got a message that said the vehicle couldn't be found in the list. (Ditto when I deleted the duplicate of the new car.)

One would think that "where do I purchase/how do I acquire new mounting strips for my transponder when I change vehicles" would be a frequently asked question, but apparently not. How to mount the damn thing apparently IS—to the extent that it must be answered separately for both Personal and Commercial accounts.

And now, to add further insult, when I try to ask this question via your web form, when I click SEND I get an admonishment: "Please, do not send us your credit card information." Where do you see any number at all, much less a string of numbers, in my message? THAT'S RIGHT, YOU DON'T. This is the only feedback I'm getting when I click SEND. So you either got two identical messages from me, or none at all.

I spent the morning mulling over version targeting (I'm with Zeldman: the default seems counterintuitive, especially if you're a CSS-focused designer, but it absolutely makes sense when you realize the JavaScript changes coming down the pike could *really* break the web), and my experience with the E-ZPass website just cemented my belief that there are TONS of web designers and developers out there who don't even design for more than one workflow, much less more than one browser. That there are actual web professionals who've never heard of the word "usability". That there are developers who seemingly don't even test their code. (Dudes, I have a tip for you: TO-DO LIST. Make sure you make one, and make sure everything on it is checked off.)

E-ZPass PA isn't the only website that maddens me this way, and provides more evidence that many "business" sites don't bother developing—or even testing—on more than one browser, and have never heard of usability testing. The Aetna and Caremark customer service folks have had to listen to me rant about endless loops and non-obvious links that appear below login boxes ("but you don't have to log in!" they say. "You can just scroll down and click on the links!"), too.

I don't have much else to say except there's got to be a better way. Please, let me serve myself. I'm an introvert; I don't talk on the phone unless it's absolutely necessary, and by the time it's absolutely necessary, I'm angry. You won't like me when I'm angry. Please, take the time to make your site easy to navigate. Don't leave users at dead ends or let them get stuck in endless loops. Provide accurate feedback, not useless error messages. And also? Please don't assume I'll be browsing with IE6. I won't be.