May
18
Written by:
Danny R. Faught
Monday, May 18, 2009 7:51 PM
I just opened a letter from CapitalOne with a very unexpected message. The letter says "You've earned a bonus of $2,500!", saying it's their thanks to me on my credit card anniversary, and suggesting that I use it for a night on the town.
I read it again after I picked up my jaw from the floor. That's a really big night on the town! The verbiage on the letter, little more than a post card, really, didn't seem quite excited enough for the amount. So I checked my account online, and my reward balance was far less than $2500. Then I called customer service, and the woman on the phone calmly explained that there was an error in the letter, and the amount was actually $25.00, and another letter explaining this was on the way.
While all of this happened, "Deal or No Deal" was on the TV. On this type of game show, the contestants have a tendency to take big risks, since they're gambling with found money. The contestant I saw turned down an offer of $22,000, and later went home with only $100. I feel like I've just lost some found money too, money I never really had.
From a testing point of view - I wonder what kind of scrutiny this letter got before it went out? Was software involved in inserting different amounts for different customers? Something worked quite well in inserting a comma in the amount, leaving no ambiguity about what amount was printed there. The amount was repeated flawlessly in three different places. At least something worked.
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1 comment(s) so far...
Re: Divide your bonus by 100
I know this is a blog largely about testing and quality. So it is only natural to ask what happened from the testing point of view. But I feel the better question is what happened to this project to make it fail like this? Was the developers and testers restricted by unreasonable times. Was there any professional testing?
By Darren Ryan on
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:12 PM
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