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Digital provides only marginal advantages during flooding

We, the city of big shoulders, enjoyed more than 10 inches of rain this weekend. It was a gift from our deadbeat friend Ike (so like him to stop by uninvited…). In past posts I’ve talked about how we as a society still have not realized the full potential of our coupling with Digital and unfortunately this story adds further proof. 

The rains started falling sometime Friday night. By noon the next day, our basement carpet was soaked by water that was coming in through the outside walls. I, in my typical “I’m on a mission” manner, went out to Home Depot to purchase a Wet/Dry Vac and a sump pump. To my dismay, Home Depot was enjoying a run on all things flood related. People were fighting for bags of leveling sand. There were no vacs or pumps left in stock. 

So I think to myself, “Here’s where we test Digital!” To maximize my effectiveness, I logged onto consumer reports on my iPhone (the site works well except for Flash callouts) and found out who made the best Wet/Dry vac for the money. It turns out it was Sears / Craftsman. So off to Sears.com I went. (I’m doing this all in my idling minivan in the Home depot parking lot). I was able to determine that Sears did have the model I sought in stock at a location that was 6 miles away. Yay Digital, I’m now more informed than the hordes of shelf stormers rampaging through Lowe’s down the street. Unfortunately this is where Digital falls down. Sears.com crashed my iPhone before I could purchase the equipment online. I was attempting to purchase the items with in-store-pickup because Digital (Sears really) promised me a special entrance intended for the Digital elite and a dedicated attendant to help me load my minivan. No such luck, however. Digital failed me again when the online store lookup became unavailable. Imagine this drama unfolding at slow-mo EDGE network speeds…painful. I decided to ditch Sears.com and try 411. Perhaps AT&T’s Digital could help? The number the system gave me (even with operator assistance) was a fax line. Not willing to give up I had called my wife, had her look up the store phone number online and read it to me and then called them directly. About halfway through the call with my wife, I start driving to the Sears location hoping to get one of the last items before the hordes pillage the entire place. I dial the number she reads me and I get a computer (hello Digital) telling me that they are experiences call problems and to call back another time. I call three more times and get the same thing. 

When I finally get to the store, the hordes are just showing up. The store manager has got all of the pumps and vacs they have in stock and out on dollies ready for the mayhem. I grab my stuff and get in the line for checkout (starting to get long). When it’s my turn to pay I mention that the phone system is having problems and the register clerk tells me that it’s not the phone system it’s that there are only 4 people in this department and they are being overwhelmed by calls for vacs and pumps so they stopped answering the phone. 

It’s clear that natural disasters stress all systems, especially digital. It’s also clear that Digital is still too brittle to be relied upon and is only providing marginal benefit when it works. I won on Saturday, but not without an extreme amount of effort. We at Tanagram are continuing our quest to make this better, but we need your help. Please?

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Posted by Joseph Juhnke on September 14, 2008

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