In the context of the service design and service experience work I do, I’ve been much more focused on the way the services I interact with communicate with me. In this case, I wanted to communicate with US Airways and was presented with the following form, which asks for my Dividend Miles number, name (“Must match government ID”), address, and email just to send them a message for help. This is particularly ridiculous because:

• I was signed in! Which means they already know who I am and all the above information.
• I’m a Dividend Miles Gold Member! You love me, right?!
• I only wanted to ask a question! So why all the security name-matching-gender questions? Read the second sentence: “We’re asking for your gender and date of birth as well, since that information is required by the TSA.” Is TSA screening my messages to US Air? Even if this makes sense in some weird business logic security way, this doesn’t make sense to REAL people (like me, I’m real). So find some way to tell me this that make sense. Or better, don’t say it and don’t require it because it doesn’t make sense.

I’ve never seen such an egregious contact form. I found it hard to believe this was real. But it is, right here.

Despite the hurdles, I filled out all the information so I could ask a question. Call me a sucker.