Thanks for Your "Help"

Well, give them points for a speedy reply...but obviously the Harris Poll Online Survey Help people have a definition of "help" that is somewhat different from that to which I've grown accustomed these past 5 decades. So too is their definition of "resolution." But I'm ahead of myself.Yesterday I shared the story of my odd experience with a Harris Poll Online survey, as illustrated in this screen capture:

As I wrote yesterday--

Look at it again: "Do you believe the new president's administration is doing enough to fight unemployment?"

Today is October 8. The presidential election is November 4--nearly a month away. What "new president’s administration"??!

Naturally I shot off a note to the pollster, Harris Interactive, along that same line:

Hello-- I have just taken your survey about insurance products (number on the invite was (7-107171us-L), if that means anything), and found that it contained a question that made no sense at all! The question was: "Do you believe the new president's administration is doing enough to fight unemployment?" WHAT "new president's administration? The election is nearly a month away--there is no "new president"?

Very strange...

And it is very strange, too. And rather strange as well is the reply--one can hardly call it "response," since it clearly does not response--received today from Harris Poll Online Survey Help:

Resolved On: 10/9/2008 1:31:45 PM
Resolution: Dear Panel Member,

We appreciate your feedback regarding the Harris Poll. Your input is important to us while we look for ways to improve our processes and surveys. Your comments are also shared with our survey design team. We share each and every comment from panelists with our survey designers so that improvements may be made.

Thank you for your participation and feedback.

Thank you,
SurveyHelp Desk

Um, well, yes. Good. I shall trust that "each and every comment" will indeed be shared with the survey designers. So that much is fine. But, as indicated, this is hardly a "resolution" to my question, and might as well have been the auto-reply that I received yesterday when I sent off my question/comment.

All of which means, of course, that the matter will not find "resolution," and the question of how whoever wrote the survey came to ask whether the "new president's administration" was doing enough about unemployment a month before the "new president" is elected will forever remain unanswered.

Big surprise.

Survey Says... Huhn??

So I'm taking another of those online surveys (I have yet to see a dime from the two outfits that enter me into a "prize pool," but I have earned MyPoints points for doing their surveys, so that's something...and anyhow, it's reasonably entertaining. Usually), and the second-to-last screen (following my affirmative answer to the question of whether I’m concerned about unemployment and other economic badness) is this:

Look at it again : "Do you believe the new president's administration is doing enough to fight unemployment?"

Today is October 8. The presidential election is November 4--nearly a month away. What "new president’s administration"??!

Naturally I shot off a note to the pollster, Harris Interactive, along that same line:

Hello-- I have just taken your survey about insurance products (number on the invite was (7-107171us-L), if that means anything), and found that it contained a question that made no sense at all! The question was: "Do you believe the new president's administration is doing enough to fight unemployment?" WHAT "new president's administration? The election is nearly a month away--there is no "new president"?

Very strange...

I will be most interested in seeing what sort of response they send me, if any. Did they release this survey months earlier than intended? Are the survey writers completely ignorant of current events? Or completely ignorant of the English language? I’m frankly at a loss to understand how that question could have ended up in any survey at this point on the calendar.