All posts in “rants”

I had a job once where I had to build social media strategies around QR Codes. Not with QR Codes but around them. Now let’s get something out in the open right now. I have nothing against QR Codes. As a matter of fact I’m more than happy in using them in advertising, marketing and social media strategies when they fit in. But walking around and spitting them out to clients like they’re some OMGWTFBBQ buzz word is just plain wrong. It was almost as if when we incorporated them into a strategy it’d move the client into some upper atmosphere cool kids club where everything they touched would turn to gold. No, no and lastly, no. It’s been my experience that they really haven’t quite caught on. Sure, you see them in places but I’m not going out of my way to scan this stuff. The more creative guerrilla ones I might be inclined to scan. You know what I’m talking about. Gramma is walking down the street and she has one on her forehead. Wait, what? Scan that shit! I’m walking down the street and I find a QR code on a manhole cover or somewhere obscure that there really shouldn’t be one. Those peak my interest. Seeing them on your cardboard cutout of you isn’t peaking my interest. And to be quite honest scanning a cardboard cutout of you is a just a little beyond creepy for me.

All joking aside. QR codes aren’t going to be the next buzzword. They haven’t become it yet and I can’t see them becoming one anytime soon. They have a purpose and when used properly can have an impact. I just wish the people out their with the death grip on them being the end all be all of your social media campaign would crawl back into the darkness from which they came. I’m thinking about making my own line of QR code wallpaper. I’m sure those folks would love to buy it. Like moths to an electric lamp they can’t resist all the QR code goodness. All the while I sit on my porch listening to some Bluegrass music, sipping some whiskey and hearing the wonderful ZAPs of dead QR freaks.

Here I was enjoying my day yesterday and got a call from an unknown number. I ignored it as I usually do and figured if it was important enough they’ll leave a voicemail. After not getting a voicemail I figured it was a telemarketer or a wrong number. Oh how wrong I was. 20 minutes later the same number called. This time I picked up and after saying hello 4 or 5 times the person on the other end piped up and let me know their name was Ryan and they were from…GoDaddy. I could probably end the post right here and you could fill in the blanks but I’ll continue on.

The Backstory: I once had 20 or domains registered with this company. Ever since the elephant shooting (watch this) incident I’ve started moving my domains off their service and onto another as they expire. On another note I’ve always despised their customer service. It’s pretty awful and takes way too long to get anything done. That being said I should’ve learned my lesson years ago and removed myself from their service.

The Story: So after introducing himself Ryan then went on to say he had something super important to tell me but couldn’t unless I proved who I am. My account has my old zip code and I couldn’t remember it and so I then started rambling off all of the domains I had and even offered to give my social security number and the last 4 digits of the credit card used to buy domains. None of this was good enough as he wanted the old zip code. Finally after getting irritated I asked if it was a life or death “omg my arm got cut off and I’m bleeding situation”. Ryan came back with a maybe. I’m pretty sure if my arm was cut off and I was bleeding it’d be a clear cut yes or no type answer. Not a maybe. Finally I told Ryan to just email me the information he wanted to chat about, and I hung up. 24 hours later I’m still waiting on that email.

Who does GoDaddy think they are? Let’s just call people randomly, tell them we have something super important to tell them and not give them any other way to prove that they are who they say they are besides a zip code. Seriously? I only need you to do one thing. Let me register my domain names. That’s it. We don’t need to date, we don’t need to talk to each other on the phone. If my card went through and my domain name is renewed or bought then that’s good enough for me. No real reason for anything else in our relationship. Even after I buy a domain or renew one I get a call to talk about some other services I could buy into. Hey, GoDaddy have you been through your own buying process? I’ve got to click No, Thanks on 5 different pages just to get to the point where I select the length of my purchase.

All in all this was the final straw for me. I’ve decided to bite the bullet and fork over the cash to transfer my domains early and just get it over with. Dear GoDaddy, I won’t ever be a customer again and won’t ever recommend someone to your crap service either.

Update: Since posting this I’ve received two phone calls from GoDaddy. One I missed and naturally they didn’t leave any message and the other answered my “hello’s” after the 4th one, his name was George.