I have said this before, and I will say it again

[conuly]

Once, many years ago now, I filled in a form that called for my zip code first and then filled out the city and state based on that.

And ever since then I've actively resented having to find my state on a drop down menu, like, even more than I already did. Inevitably, if I try typing I go "NY" to find out that all states are done in full, or else I go "NE" to find out that they're all abbreviated.

Anyway, my point is obvious. If you have any pull at all, ever, encourage whoever makes these forms wherever they make them to populate the state and city from the zip code. It is vastly superior, and I hope that form maker got a bonus for that stroke of brilliance.

Comments

[lovelyangel]

While often better, prepopulating city from Zipcode isn’t infallible. My zipcode has two cities associated with it, and one form I filled out (many, many years ago) populated the city field from the zipcode and wouldn’t let me change the wrong city name in that field. It was a utility company, and for years I would get a monthly bill showing the wrong city in the address. The mail was delivered anyway as all other info was correct.

[conuly]

Okay, well, obviously that was maliciously bad design. If you can't fix errors then I do not want.

[redbird]

I live in an apartment building that was built in 1940. Someone in the distant past entered the wrong city/town name for our gas meter, and there seems to be no way for either the landlord, the utility company, or the tenant to fix this, or even to put in a redirect that says "the meter for this address in Boston is filed under Brookline."

Nor, apparently, is the management company willing/able to include a note on their records about the building, to give new tenants along with notes about things like air conditioners and laundry. Instead, when trying to set up gas service, you have to hope that either a friend of yours, or someone who works for the utility, will both know and remember that some systems list some addresses in this part of Boston as being in Brookline.