Opentable stops supporting their web application

I've been an enthusiastic customer of Opentable ever since they were founded. But for the past few weeks when I've tried to use the web interface I get this:

I tried everything: different restaurants, different browsers, cleared browser cache (this latter a suggestion from their tech support after I waited several days for a response). I just get this same error over and over.

I wound up calling the restaurant (The Metropolitan Grill in Seattle) for a reservation ... and then I thought, hm, they do have a mobile application and I wonder ...

And it worked! I got the reservation to go through on the mobile application.

But ... why?

• Opentable is apparently using a different back end for the mobile app than for the website
• They also apparently are completely neglecting the web site back end, not responding at all to whatever's wrong with it ... for weeks?

I googled around and found this:

Priceline paid $2.6 billion for Opentable ... and now decides it's worth a lot less ... because nobody is managing it after the founders cashed out?

I don't know ... nice that the mobile app is working, but I find the web app's continuing issues enough of a downer that I'd really rather use some other service if the restaurants I am patronizing would switch to it.

Sheesh ....

Daylight savings time ... for the last time?

It's that time of the year again, when we lose an hour on Sunday night:

And the effects continue the next day, when the accident rate is significantly higher than normal:

And why? Supposedly to save energy, but the research is at best mixed on this issue. But the golf and barbecue industries make more money!

But there's a movement afoot to stop changing the time back and forth. For Colorado it's to stick with DST year-round and for others like Oregon they're looking to stick with PST year around!

For one more year, though: be careful out there ... and/or just turn off your alarm clock and sleep in!

Cricket update: not really their fault

I resolved my problem with Cricket the day after my last post. I still would like to have 24 hour support from them, but I can live without that.

It turns out the problem was really 2 interacting user interface issues:

The credit card statement (online) didn't say DECLINED but instead:

This doesn't say the same thing to me and I thought the payment was going through.

Then on the cricket site it didn't have anything attention-getting about 'overdue payment' in flashing red or anything.

The cricket rep took a substitute credit card number and waived the $5 late fee, which was all I could ask for (other than an obvious note on their site) ...

Cricket Wireless: the downside

I have elsewhere in this blog expressed enthusiasm for Cricket Wireless:

But they have some sort of a back-end glitch that's been annoying today. The credit card I have hooked to pay the account was late in getting the payment credited (not my fault this time!) so the payment to Cricket failed temporarily.

This is now resolved, but the phone network didn't hear the news as the phones I have on the Cricket plan aren't working.

I tried their support chat line, but they were just closing (apparently midnight EST) and said they can't do any changes to my account until they open at 6:30 (EST).

*splut* ... OK this time, but I'm not happy about this 6.5-hour window.

I'll try in the morning and post an update then.