I had prepurchased my race photos from MarathonFoto before running the race. I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out given the forecast but they offer “a 100% satisfaction guarantee” so I figured if they were all terrible or if they failed to snap my pic along the way (as happened in London a few years back), they’d refund the money anyway.
It usually takes a bit of time to process all the photos they shoot; after all, the algorithm or whatever facial/numerical recognition software they use to get the bib number and people assigned to each participant isn’t instantaneous. I hadn’t even planned on checking for another few days on interim photos but then they sent me the below email:
Although that’s obviously not me in the photo banner, they said “ALL of [my] photos” were online and “ready to view.” So I thought, well, heck — I guess I’ll download them and post some stormy photos to the internet that AREN’T Trump related.
Here’s what happened when I clicked through to order:
Nothing spectacular but at least they got some shots of me. I look fat and terrible in a lot of them but, hey, is there not truth in those still frames? Okay, I thought, let’s do this…
But wait! What’s that notation at the top? “The data needed to produce this product is not available yet.” What does that mean? And why can’t I lick on the “Full-Sized” links for the photos?
I figure I should “live chat” with someone at the company and see what’s what. I fill out the chat form and click through and after a few minutes (minutes, mind you) I get this notice:
I sigh audibly and try their “contact us” website form for emailing and furiously type the following. Furious both in speed and in anger:
Wow. I’m really unhappy with the way this is going. I guess I must have just missed you as I’m on the East Coast and just as I was connecting it must have turned to 6 PM your time and I was immediately disconnected. I’m frustrated because I prepurchased my premium download package, was sent an email telling me my photos were online, clicked through the link on my order and was confronted with… a lot of frustrations. I can see images and access MEDIUM RESOLUTION only. The zip file is apparently not available. And there’s no way to even download individual photos I wanted to share with friends at a decent resolution. I wasn’t even going to deal with this today but you sent me an email saying the wait was over and ALL of my photos were online. I went through the partial bib numbers then and added one or two that hadn’t gotten into my queue. I deleted the ones that did get in that were clearly not me… and after all that I’m told by your website that nothing is ready. And when I try and contact, while connecting I suddenly get disconnected. I guess it is 6:04 there now but man, that’s harsh customer dis-service. I’m really, really, REALLY unhappy at the moment and mainly because of the way you’ve treated me more than things not working right. I’m willing to get things remedied and to be patient but when YOU yourselves cause me problems and then vanish into the night, well, that just upsets me and makes me feel unvalued as a customer.
The automated message says someone will get back to me in 2-4 working days.
I sigh doubly audibly. Maybe I should just ask for my money back whenever I do get to speak to an actual person.
Ya know, I’ve been trying to be a better person overall. I’ve been trying to spend the extra 20 seconds it takes to be polite, courteous, and civil to folks. If we all spent that time throughout the day… cumulatively per person it’s probably an extra three or four minutes out of 24 hours… I think the world might be a bit better overall. And it’s just common courtesy I’m talking about — when interacting with someone you just try and treat them as a human being, not just a cog in the machine. Even when people are “just doing their jobs” that doesn’t mean we have to treat people like robots — if we all treated each other with dignity, respect, and humanity, we could all just get through the day a littler easier even with the opportunity cost of 4-5 minutes of interactions. I’m guilty of having a bad day and taking it out on others and it’s awful. I’m also on the receiving end now and again of someone on a power trip or looking to invoke the misery loves company idiom. And I worry that I’m on the side of being a jerk in the above interaction with marathonfoto. But again I’m doing it because they told me one thing and then when I followed the instructions it didn’t work. When I tried to ask a question I was relegated to a bureaucratic dustbin of “not-my-problem”-ness that drives me nuts.
Decency. Always decency, people. Because if you’re not decent to me, I’m sadly inclined to be a jerk back to you.
Triple sigh.
Oh, well. Here’s a crappy medium sized resolution pic I was able to grab. I call it: “Captain Metallic Super Hero Finisher Pose # 118.”
