Confusion surfaced last week on a video call with my parents. I was away from home, staying overnight at a hotel as a result of a business meeting the following day that started at 8:00am but they connected to me without a problem, just as Visulink guarantees.
 
My parents asked if we liked the towels they had ordered via the TV which had been sent to us directly as an anniversary present. With an OCAP-enabled remote control, they have found ordering to be very simple over the television. The confusion begins when using a cellphone or any of the many other OCAP-enabled portable devices in the house for non-TV purchases.
 
A small alarm bell went off in my head as I recalled a parcel arriving unexpectedly at the house. As I stumbled for an answer I recalled the parcel being opened and out popping 24 bars of (very) scented soap. We had been pretty sure that it was something scented even before the parcel was opened. The majority had voted for kitchen cleaner, but that begged the question as to why anyone would order a large box of it rather than go to the local discount warehouse.
 
“Er, wonderful Mom, thanks very much” I said, smiling.
 
“What was wrong?” she asked. Not much you can hide at HD.
 
“Nothing, just a somewhat unusual gift”
 
“We thought you needed some more for the bathroom” she said, calling up an image of the product that she had ordered. “Oh, what’s all this soap stuff?”
 
And so it went on, little clues adding up until the penny dropped and we both realized that what had been expected is not what had been ordered. Apparently, there were several items keyed onto the TV show that were available for order. The star of the show was in her bathroom when the green circle came on in the lower right-hand corner of the TV screen. Using the TV remote, my mother had clicked the “Buy” button and had then clicked three more times, just as she always does, before selecting our address for delivery which showed up on the remote’s LCD screen. She hadn’t realized that there was a decision to be made regarding which products she wanted, so with the soap being alphabetically first on the list it had been chosen for her.
 
Scrolling down one line would have hit the Towels, and one more time, the Water softener.
 
“I really don’t like this way of shopping” she said, “The Internet is so much easier”
 
“It’s all Internet, Mom, just different content suppliers but one big Verizon pipe to your house”
 
After we hung up I clicked on the courier service and arranged for them to pick up and return the gift, checking the box marked ‘refund unwanted goods’ which makes shopping so much safer than having to pack stuff up and take it down to the Post Office.
 
With the courier also dealing with the refund, the money should hit my mother’s TV account in the next couple of days as long as the RFID data matches. Shame I didn’t buy stock in FedEx and UPS. They’re way out of my price range now.