I like the autofill feature that most Internet browsers offer, but the problem is that no two forms are created alike. Some want a Mr./Mrs./Ms. Some want a middle name or initial. Almost all of them want your address, but sometimes there's more than one field with the street address, always separated by the zip/postal code. Phone numbers are all over the map - you can fill in anywhere from one to four boxes per number, depending on whether there's a field for extensions. Some also have multiple lines, looking for some combination of home, work and cell numbers.
Then there's the inevitable birthdate field, which is extremely bothersome because everybody seems to be using different standards. Some want day/month/year and others want month/day/year or year/month/day. Some spell out the months, others use numbers.
There's no rhyme or reason to any of it, it's as random and arbitrary as the people who came up with the form.
And it's annoying. We have two national standards councils, the Canadian Standards Association and Standards Council of Canada, which presumably is in touch with other standards councils around the world. That's why we can have a universal thickness to motorcycle helmets and propane tanks and why "Stop" signs are pretty much the same wherever you go. Why don't they spend a little bit of time to standardize forms, or at least some sub-formats like dates? How hard would it be to say, "from now on everyone in the world must present dates numerically as day/month/year."
There are a few other things I'd like to see standardized on the web, but the main thing is prices.
Comparison shopping recently for plane tickets was an agonizing affair and we only really looked at two airlines. Each airline posted a sale price, which should make it easy to pick the lower rate, but everything changed when the fees were added in - and those fees don't appear until you've already done everything but input your credit card information.
Ditto for concert tickets. Ticketmaster, widely (and somewhat accurately) reviled as an evil monopoly choking all the fun out of life, is the only company in the world that can transform a $20 concert ticket into $50.
Whether it's airlines or phones, all of these added fees are, for all intents and purposes, hidden until you've all but committed to make a purchase, which is exactly how the companies want it. They want to make it hard for customers to comparison shop, and to get people excited about travel/concerts while luring you in with a lower price.
It's not like these fees are standard or anything; they're arbitrary. My wife discovered that one airline we looked at offered a lower sale price but was actually more expensive once the fees were included.
It's dishonest, but by now companies know there's a lot of complex psychology at play when people make purchasing decisions, especially for big ticket items, and online retailers do everything they can to use that to their advantage. The result is that you can't walk away from any transaction without wondering if you've been ripped off or what you signed up for.
Governments need to get involved. This is no different than the practice of banks and mortgage companies luring homebuyers with artificially low mortgage rates that led to the current recession.
It's an easy issue to resolve. Just call an initiative "Real Pricing" and force companies to display the actual price for items once all of the fees are included, except for taxes and shipping. They can break down the price at the same time if they feel it helps their case, but most customers only care about the total cost.
The Internet also knows where you live, so it really wouldn't be that big a stretch to include taxes and shipping costs with that price. Amazon.ca actually does this for many items, quoting you a price that includes basic shipping costs if you're above a certain price.
Cell phones are another example of the lack of standards. Everything that's extremely important to know is usually buried in the small print, especially when it comes to roaming charges and long distance, and yet the onus is on the buyer to know every line and condition of their hopelessly complex plans. Most advertised monthly rates don't include some mandatory fees, like 911 service or connection fees. As well, many companies will advertise "free incoming calls," but neglect to mention that it doesn't apply when you're outside of your area code or outside of the country. As a result customers are regularly surprised when they open their bills at the end of the month.
Data is especially confusing, especially when you try to access your e-mails or the web in a foreign country. People come to bills of thousands of dollars for reading and sending a handful of e-mails.
If any industry ever called out for standards, it's the cell phone industry. The advertised monthly rate should include all the hidden fees and costs, and all of the other costs - long distance, roaming charges, incoming calls, incoming emails, extra fees while abroad, etc. should be spelled out in a consistent way so you can compare each phone's specifications line by line.
If you agree that it's time for standards then e-mail the Standards Council of Canada (www.scc.ca) and the Canadian Standards Association (www.csa.ca). It never hurts to ask...
