Survey.vovici

This company (Survey. Vovici) sent me an email today, with a request to complete a survey regarding my recent experience with a telecommunications company.

I did complete the survey, cursing frequently as I did so: it included far too many questions, and the level of detail bordered on the absurd. NONE of the questions could be skipped; my attempts to do so stopped my progress cold, with the display of a red-lettered warning to "answer EVERY question, you incompetent fool!" (OK, I added that last bit!--But that was the survey's style.)

Here's my favorite question from the survey, rendered as accurately as I can remember it: "Did the website information flow seamlessly from topic to topic?" Now, how is the average user supposed to evaluate the term "seamlessly?"--Even an IT specialist would have trouble with that one, let alone the ordinary user.

The only reason to complete a survey of this type (for free!) is in the faint hope that doing so will improve the service provided by the company for which the survey was distributed. Given the generic quality of the questions asked, I suspect that such hopes are likely to be unrealized. This whole thing struck me as a "pro forma" effort, paid for by the telecom company in order to say "Everything's fine, we did a survey!" at the next Board meeting.

So, bottom line: if you get an invitation from Survey. Vovici, don't click on the link unless you're totally bored and looking to waste a half hour or so of your precious life. Better yet, go re-arrange the contents of your sock drawer.