Does no company understand how to create a usable user interface?

I just tried to order new checks. Since this is the first reorder I’ve ever done with this company, I decided to do it by phone, instead of by fax or mail (the other two options). I called up, thinking that someone would talk me through the process… wrong. It was a completely automated system. I should have expected that, I suppose.

The limited help text built into it got me over the confusing spots, after two tries (because it hung up on me the first time when I didn’t respond quickly enough for it), but when I finally got to the end of it, all it said was the date of my initial check order — no confirmation that I’d placed a new order at all. When I pressed the menu option to go back to the original menu, so I could check on it, it hung up on me again. I called back to see if I could confirm that I’d actually placed an order, and re-entered all of my information yet again, it again only gave me the date of my initial order.

I can only hope that I successfully placed the new order. I guess I’ll find out if the new ones arrive. “When” is another question, which I also have no idea of. Some simple text at the end of the order would have been greatly appreciated, saying that I had successfully placed a new order and roughly how long it would take to get here. It wouldn’t have cost them anything extra.