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Which customer are you tee-ing off?

An interesting set of occurrences yesterday:

1. An email arrived from Microsoft, with this clickable link right at the top:
"Read this issue online if you can't see the images or are using Outlook 2007"

Huh? Microsoft are sending emails that can't be read by their own software?

2. Coming out of the Post Office, I found someone's credit card lying on the ground. I called the 800 number on the back to report the lost card. The operator asks for my name, address and telephone number. I tell her that that information is irrelevant, I'm merely reporting the lost card, and all she needs to know is the card number and the cardholder's name.

The operator proceeds to tell me that it is 'mandatory' for me to supply her with my contact details (remember, I'm not even a customer of these people - merely an innocent bystander trying to help), and that unless I do supply those details, she cannot report the card as lost. [I hung up and cut the card in pieces.]

Lesson? You know you're in The Big Rut when not only are you providing terrible customer service, you're in fact actively trying to tee your customers off.