QUESTION:

Loyalty Pad: Sometimes when using the pad, it seems to get stuck and the wheel keeps spinning. I usually have to refresh but sometimes that starts the process over. What's causing this and can something be done about it?

ANSWER:

Yes, that spinning wheel is sometimes very annoying. It was put there to let you know that "something" was happening by providing visual feedback. The problem is that sometimes, the request gets delayed or simply dropped by the browser (ie: it stopped listening for an answer, but hasn't told that to the script that is running and making the wheel spin.) The issue, when it happens, is browser-based, and some browsers do it more often than others -- I think a lot of it has to do with the speed of the internet connection, and the traffic that exists on that connection.

In any case, there's a really easy "fix": Click or touch the spinning wheel. It is "hot" and clickable, and doing so will re-establish the connection and move on to the next screen. This seems to work 99.99% of the time. (Once this "clickability" was programmed in, the "spinning wheel of death" became "nothing more than a trifle annoyance", as i've heard it said.  :)