Seriously, though, as long as the world has thrust notoriety on me, due partly to my day-job work in data and web interfaces, I’ll mouth off about my comment on Dr. John’s blog http://is.gd/yjmv:

You know, it’s funny that this is called “dispute resolution” (in all industries), because it’s not always a dispute.

Example: When I don’t recognize an American Express charge, they don’t have a button for “Inquire,” or even a *process* for inquiries when I call in. All I wanna know is “What is this?” But they say I have to dispute it.

To me this is a semantic error that can heighten tensions in relationships. After all, the existence of five “disputes” on an account sounds quite different from five open inquiries.

I think it implies an unwitting arrogance on the part of the system people: “Of course we presume our system is right; we put a lot of thought into it. You disagree? Dispute us.”

And, interestingly, here we are again, faced with another example of what something SAYS it is, versus what is ACTUALLY is. Among us relative geeks we can understand those distinctions, but as we increasingly bring ordinary mortals into the discussion, the discipline of Customer Experience (another part of my day job) teaches “I don’t know what I said until I know what you heard.”

So, John, although I recognize that the discipline is currently called dispute resolution, perhaps you can help lead folks out of the dark ages by encouraging a more friendly – and accurate – term. Inquire, question, whatever – just something not restricted to suggesting being argumentative.

btw, for export, I like what HealthVault did: all imported info comes into a holding pen, where I can pick through it and choose what goes into my record. Love it. Wish I could do that in my day job!