I couldnt agree with you more my friend... and this gig reminds me of many things I have seen over the years in here.
Sadly, however, this Carterian blunder and the United MoM Carterian blunder are the ones finally making me throw in the towel with all things mall.
the simple sad fact is this:
They will probably NOT hire smart people with judgement because they want to save money. They make money by crimping on everything around them in order to create the belief that this is saving it.
And like so many things, they simply do not see that one of the ways to have saved money would have been to have hired smart people with judgement in the first place. A little up front cost would have saved them a boatload in the end!
Again, I cite the wondrous example from a poster yesterday who basically did nothing but sit back and buy ONE iTune for $1.29 and ended up with 5k AA miles. Cartera's stupidity caused them to take a bath.
Sadly, the people who may ultimately pay for it will be the you and me of the future:
~lessened mall offers (ie, a store that would have offered 5 miles per dollar now offers 2 or 3)
~longer wait times for miles to post (they get paid on commissions. If they hold the funds longer they can work with those monies more and more before paying out, just like many of us have done in the past when buying coins with our CCs and using the money for things until we need to pay the CCs back on a certain due date. So in order to lengthen the amount of time these Careterians can float that commission money and pay out money, they simply slow down the post time and further delay the processes that pay out our miles!)
~possible further devaluation of miles. Right now, it is said that Cartera views a mile as being worth $0.03. Imagine if this changes for the worse!
~less people to solve issues (as if the ones in place now do anything--if you can even reach the right ones!)
~the hiring of less experienced personnel that cost less to employ... and this results in badly designed and presented pages, like, oh, the new United mall that, when it rolled out, looked like something we might see in a beta test!
~Further farming out of jobs and tasks, so that malls and other features may be created or managed by people who arent even part of the parent company (similar to when a company hires a CS department overseas only worse, because at least those companies actually do train those people to some level)
~And more.
then again, I'm one of the drama queens in here so what do I know?
Here are the FT lyrics for a popular 70s Abba tune you all may know and will now hum no matter what
You can scan, you can buy
Having the mileage time of your life
Ooh see that promo, watch that FT scene
Dig in the forum drama queen
Friday night and the lights are low
Not looking out for a place to go
Sit where you play the right music, at home alone by your PC
You come in to look for an award king
Anybody could be that guy
Night is young and the music's high
With a bit of CC savvy, everything is fine
You're in the mood for an online mall dance
And when you get the mistake fare chance
You are the forum drama queen
Not so nice or sweet, only seventeen [posts]
Drama queen, feel the click-and buy scene
From the mouse and keyboard and screen, oh yeah