hatman: HatMan, my alter ego and face on the 'net (Default)
([personal profile] hatman Aug. 3rd, 2013 07:24 pm)
Someone explain this to me?

On the inside of the front door of my post office, set so it's the last thing you see as you leave, is a giant QR code. The text around it explains that it will take you to a post office locator page.

Think about that for a moment.

You stand there, a couple of feet back (probably right up against the inner vestibule door), blocking the doorway so you can scan this giant QR code. The whole point of a QR code is to give you instant, on-the-spot information. You scan it with your phone, it opens the URL, you get a little mobile-optimized page, you look it over, you close it, and move on. In this case, it opens a post office locator. Which will, if it works properly, tell you that the nearest post office (in case you somehow need one at that point in time, when you're in the process of exiting the post office) is, in fact, directly behind you. (Or, more accurately, the building you're currently standing in.)

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what possible use this might be. Unless you were suffering from, say, a severe case of Alzheimer's. But Alzheimer's patients are not generally known for their mastery of smartphone technology.

If you were out and about and wanted to find a post office, the aforementioned locator service is prominently displayed on the USPS homepage. The mobile version of the site only has five links, and that's the second one. Or you could ask Google or Siri or whatever to find a post office near you. There is absolutely no reason to have the locator page specifically bookmarked.

So what is the point of that QR code? Whose idea was it to put it there? And who approved the funding for it? Is it on the door of every post office in the country? What the heck is going on?

Anyone?
nicki: (Default)

From: [personal profile] nicki


Hmm. In a lot of post offices, the first vestibule is open 24/7 for PO box users, so maybe it is for people who come to the post office, enter the first vestibule, find the actual post office closed and then need to find the nearest open post office? IDK. Maybe they have the poster in grocery stores and the like as well and someone accidentally put it up in your post office?

It isn't in my local, so it isn't everywhere in the country. :P
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