ziXXo: niXXo

As soon as I read about ziXXo on TechCrunch, I hopped over there and signed up for an account. Local coupons in RSS? Sweet! I sat back and waited for something to happen. I just received a notification a few minutes ago which claimed I had “New Coupons from ZiXXo.” The link said nothing more than “10% off all items purchased online.” Yeah, that's it – no vendor name, no store type, no nothing other than a generic 10% savings. Not realizing I had a checkmark placed to be notified by email, I logged into my account to see what was happening. Indeed, there's a checkmark for “Please send me Deal Alerts emails about new coupons in my area.” So, this 10% savings must be happening in my area? I tried the link.
I was wisked away to a ziXXo intermediary page with a banner in the middle of it. Of course, I tried clicking on the banner. Nothing happened. Then I read the text above it: “Clicking the 'Go To Web Store' button will open up a new window, which pop-up blockers may block.” Uh-huh. The ad was for a place called Moonlight Toys. Cool! Maybe they had some Darth Vader merchandise. I clicked on the appropriate button, expecting to be taken to a local vendor's Web site… and instead, was sent to a place where they sell Vibrators and Dildos and Condums & Lube (oh my).
I could've used a bit of warning there, folks. Bad form!
Moonlight Toys is actually located in San Francisco, when my profile clearly states that I live in Seattle. They both begin with an “S” but that's where the similarities end (other than both cities having above average coffee and cooler weather patterns). ziXXo gets a big fat niXXo from me for five GIGANTIC mistakes:

1. Generic links are usless, especially in alerts. Tell your users what they're about to get, from where, etc.
2. What's up with that damn intermediary page? I'm willing to put up with it if I know what it is I'm trying to learn more about, but your generic alerts are forcing me to go through this hoop. If you're going to have a banner on the page, make it clickable for chrissake! I wanted to click a banner for the first time in my life and couldn't!!!
3. The adult filter should be a blatant toggle in the account preferences (and turned off by default). This would've have jarred me less had you told me what the hell Midnight Toys was at some point before I saw a big fat rubber dong flapping in my face. [Note: that didn't happen, I just have a flair for the dramatic.]
4. I don't live in San Francisco, and the email toggle specifically states that I want to be updated for offers in my area. I hope you got enough funding to afford a map (although Windows Live Local is free to use).
5. I got a 404 when I tried to click the “unsubscribe” hyperlink in the HTML email alert. Although, in doing so, I've learned that you're using Microsoft's IIS to run your operation.

I know they'll excuse themselves with the “beta” tag, but these are issues that should be fixed sooner rather than later. I'm just glad Ponzi wasn't watching my screen at the time.