Poor Quality Information and Presentation

How is it that a major shopping channel, that sells itself on being the oldest and the biggest in the UK (and possible Europe?), can be so bad at presenting information. I was interested in the TSV last night - I bought one in red - and was looking at the info on the website listing. I thought it was a great idea that you can download a PDF file of the instruction manual, which I did. However, whoever scanned the booklet must have just laid it flat down in the scanner and given no thought to page order. When you open the file, page 1 is next to page 17 and so on all the way through. I'm sure it wouldn't be beyond the wit of man or whoever was doing to work, to spend a few more minutes and scan each page in order. Also, I'm dismayed - still - by the number of items on the website that have no product information. Often lacking sizes or basic data and some items have no photographs or even product description. How do they expect us to make an informed decision on a purchase if there's no detail? And on screen, when they do provide sizes I can't tell you how much it annoys me to see columns of figures wandering all across the screen. Aligning lists of data has got to be one of the easiest things you can do in any data presentation program, it really isn't hard to do. Couple that with spelling errors that have been around for years and it's not looking good.

And don't get me started on their on-screen presentation. I'm sure being a director isn't an easy job but when someone in the studio asks for a camera to zoom in close or look at something specific, is it really that difficult? I can't understand how it either never happens, or takes so long to achieve. I notice a lot of guests seem to get irritated by that one. And I hate it when the still product picture appears the moment anything moderately interesting starts to happen. It really doesn't come over as professional anymore.

Ok, rant over.

For now.

The continuity (or rather lack of it) during the repeat hours between 2am and right up to the link to the morning show is truly dreadful. Amateurish would be complimenting it (apologies to any amateurs by the way!). I'm not technical at all but surely with modern technology and the skilled professionals who must be employed, they could manage better than the codged up job that currently appears.

Totally agree with both of you. It always irks me how they cut off a promo trailer to start the morning show. Very shoddy. Also when a guest is trying to point out how to adjust a piece of jewellery or fashion item, they cut off to the still image of the item so you miss what the guest was trying to demonstrate.
Also, on a slightly unrelated topic, I really can't stand the Zone shows. I haven't been watching on ITV but have seen the repeats in the morning. It makes me laugh how everyone is on their best behaviour and the presenters keep 'handing over' to each other every couple of sentences!!!

I've watched a couple of jewellery shows recently where they've had a long shot for something like a ring or earrings and either take an eternity to zoom in, or just don't bother with a close up at all. You can't see anything.

On the items they do 'zoom' for a close up, when the image is finally close enough to see some detail, they immediately cut to the same item on the rotating stand. And it's always the side or back view showing at that point, not the front of the item, so really infuriating.

You get the impression that no-one in the gallery is paying any attention either to what the presenters are saying, or what they're doing.

Moth, I had a look at this manual! I work in the printing/publsihing industry and I know what the person did, when they were scanning it!
They took the staples out of the centre of the booklet and put it on the scanner...It is not incompetence...it was the easiest way to scan it!. Next time you get a newspaper or newsletter take it apart and see what pages go side by side. When sending stuff to a printer, sometimes stuff is not send in order like page 1, 2, 3 etc but will be sent in the order that the pages sit beside each other.
Not doubt you will get the booklet all in the correct order when it is delivered!
Have to agree with the rant about the camera work and as for the night time stuff...I thought it was broadcast for people who may not have seen the original show, so it would be important to let the guests and presenters, at the very least, finish their sentences!!!!!

Moth said:

How is it that a major shopping channel, that sells itself on being the oldest and the biggest in the UK (and possible Europe?), can be so bad at presenting information. I was interested in the TSV last night - I bought one in red - and was looking at the info on the website listing. I thought it was a great idea that you can download a PDF file of the instruction manual, which I did. However, whoever scanned the booklet must have just laid it flat down in the scanner and given no thought to page order. When you open the file, page 1 is next to page 17 and so on all the way through. I'm sure it wouldn't be beyond the wit of man or whoever was doing to work, to spend a few more minutes and scan each page in order. Also, I'm dismayed - still - by the number of items on the website that have no product information. Often lacking sizes or basic data and some items have no photographs or even product description. How do they expect us to make an informed decision on a purchase if there's no detail? And on screen, when they do provide sizes I can't tell you how much it annoys me to see columns of figures wandering all across the screen. Aligning lists of data has got to be one of the easiest things you can do in any data presentation program, it really isn't hard to do. Couple that with spelling errors that have been around for years and it's not looking good.

And don't get me started on their on-screen presentation. I'm sure being a director isn't an easy job but when someone in the studio asks for a camera to zoom in close or look at something specific, is it really that difficult? I can't understand how it either never happens, or takes so long to achieve. I notice a lot of guests seem to get irritated by that one. And I hate it when the still product picture appears the moment anything moderately interesting starts to happen. It really doesn't come over as professional anymore.

Ok, rant over.

For now.

Click to expand...

That is a real bugbear of mine. Why put a product number on the site if you don't have a picture or description?

Some of the time it's because SCW, Sazza and other lovely number crunchers on here trace the new item numbers before they're intended to be visible on the website; this I can accept. What's really annoying is finding item details when an item has been to air, not just once but several times. Worse still, items in the clearance section which have been knocking around for a couple of years with no useful info or photo.

Jude xx

Sim1 said:

Moth, I had a look at this manual! I work in the printing/publsihing industry and I know what the person did, when they were scanning it!
They took the staples out of the centre of the booklet and put it on the scanner...It is not incompetence...it was the easiest way to scan it!. Next time you get a newspaper or newsletter take it apart and see what pages go side by side. When sending stuff to a printer, sometimes stuff is not send in order like page 1, 2, 3 etc but will be sent in the order that the pages sit beside each other.

Click to expand...

Fair enough and I bow to your knowledge, but the operator can still fold the booklet and just scan a single page at a time. I'm currently scanning some old aircraft handling manuals that are like this. I could easily sit them flat on the scanner and scan them as is, but it makes a better job of it to do each page individually and make sure they are in order in the finished document. The whole object is so that potential purchasers/users could read the manual and see how good it might be but it's not encouraging when you have to work out where all the pages went to!

Moth said:

Fair enough and I bow to your knowledge, but the operator can still fold the booklet and just scan a single page at a time. I'm currently scanning some old aircraft handling manuals that are like this. I could easily sit them flat on the scanner and scan them as is, but it makes a better job of it to do each page individually and make sure they are in order in the finished document. The whole object is so that potential purchasers/users could read the manual and see how good it might be but it's not encouraging when you have to work out where all the pages went to!

Click to expand...

I agree. I spend most of my life scanning documents and this is sheer laziness on the part of the person scanning. The correct, albeit more time-consuming way, is to scan documents in their proper order.:taphead:

I agree with all comments. As a customer of QVC since 1998 I have the slow decline of the quality of products, particularly the presenters and this Zone business on ITV is a complete let down. What is the point of several presenters for the TSV and I think the advert showing the presenters with ballooms, saying how they love talking, is very tacky. QVC needs to go back to how Quality Value Convience.