Got the following in my inbox this morning:

subject: Important information about your Google Video account
from: Google Video Team
reply-to: checkout-support@google.com
to: (removed)
date: 10 Aug 2007 21:43:37 -0000

Hello,

As a valued Google user, we’re contacting you with some important
information about the videos you’ve purchased or rented from Google Video.
In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the
ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the
DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective
August 15, 2007.

To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we
are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $5.00. Your bonus
expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores listed here:
http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html. The minimum purchase
amount must be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping
and tax.

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased
or rented videos.

If you have further questions or requests, please do not hesitate to
contact us. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Google Video Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Neat - not only does the video that I purchased no longer work, but instead of a refund, I get a Google Checkout credit. And to top it all off, the Google Checkout purchase must be equal to or greater than the credit before shipping and tax, so I actually lose money on the deal.

Slashdot has more coverage: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/11/1253237

Mark Hurst, author of the wildly entertaining Good Experience Blog, and founder of Creative Good, posted this entry about a recent experience with his bank. The conclusion that Mark draws is spot on.

The reality of business is the customer’s reality. But seeing things from the customer’s perspective, and then acting on it, requires something outside the realm of traditional usability, marketing, branding, and graphic design. It requires listening to, and empathy for, the customer. It requires reaching beyond one’s narrow discipline and learning, sometimes painfully, that things have to change.

This is a trap that even the most gung-ho “customer experience” advocates fall into from time to time. We think of things from our (the company’s) point of view, rather than considering how our customer sees things.

At a previous employer of mine, the company was structured in the Proctor and Gamble model (individual product lines leading a matrixed organization). Everything within the company fell into four different product lines. Which product line a given item lived in was determined by our own internal production process, rather than how the customer would be using it. As such, items that would seem to go together would be owned by completely separate divisions of the company. What’s more, these four divisions were all completely, utterly opposed to sharing resources with any of the other divisions. Four enormous silos, dedicated to making their respective manager look better than the others.

The result of this was all sorts of customer confusion. They would visit our website, and put an item in their cart. They would then want to purchase a complimentary product, but would be unable to find it. Why? Because our org chart said that the product they were looking for lived under someone else, who demanded their own website.

Could you imagine going to dell.com, adding a computer to your cart, and not being able to add a printer because it came out of a different Manager’s P&L? Well, that’s pretty much what we did.

I spent much of my time at that company trying to fight absurd, non-customer friendly decisions such as that one. Eventually, I grew weary of fighting and moved on. I just visited the site, for old times sake … nothing has changed. Depressing.