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| Author | A random rant about recent experiences with corporate IT solutions ... (Read 142355 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bolkonskij
Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023 
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on: April 07, 2022, 12:00
So, just getting off an angry phone conversation with our family's health insurance company I thought I'd start a thread for all of you to add your own experiences. I simply wanted to tell my insurer via his glossy picture website ("we're there for you!") about a small change in our family insurance. In fact, it means more money for them so you'd think they'd be welcoming. Well, at first, in order to submit a message to them they force me to sign up an account on their website. Alright, I guess I can't do without, so let's sign up. I get the registration code by snail mail two days later because they want to make sure that I'm the person I pretend to be. Uh. I'm logging into my shiny new website account and want to finally send them a message. Only that... I can't! First I should install their app on my smartphone they tell me. Because 2FA is now mandatory! Seriously? OH and of course you get the activation code ... by snail mail! Because (quote) "it's the safest way". I've been meaning to send them a 30 second message and now I've spent half an hour trying to find a way to communicate my issue with them. The "we are there for you" crowd pulls up digital wall after digital wall. Now I just fired up WriteNow 4 on System 7.1. Will write a quick letter and print it. Takes 5 mins at most. Going to the groceries store later to send it. All future communication will be back to printed paper with them until they manage to show some brains (which I, honestly, don't expect) Love the future. Anyone else making similiar experiences lately? EDIT: Years before, in the dark ages, I just used to send them an unencrypted e-mail, they'd call me back to identify me and then carry out what I asked them for. Of course, but that wasn't "sophisticated" enough ... |
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Last Edit: April 08, 2022, 05:51 by Bolkonskij
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ovalking
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128 MB  Posts: 199
Reply #1 on: April 07, 2022, 20:11
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User: Hey Bank, I've just changed address. Bank: You can tell us on-line. User: I don't have internet access/ your site doesn't work. Bank: We'll have to send you a form. User: My address is... Bank: We can only send to the address on file for security reasons.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #2 on: April 07, 2022, 21:09
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Everything that has tech involved is moving to automation and of course automation has no common sense and no sense of being clever or practical at all. Automated systems can only do exactly what they are programmed to do and only in the order that is specified. All the nonsense hoops companies are wanting us to jump through is just getting us prepared for when we are only interacting with robots. At that point I am sure that flesh and bone people will develop new subversive ways to work around this, something about working with 68K machines no doubt.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #3 on: April 08, 2022, 11:41
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Haha, @ovalking - good example! I used to work at a bank so I know the distress of some higher-up sales manager when customers didn't want to use the "blessed" official process :-D (except we still had retail branches with clerks that managed to save the day) Still, it feels like the same stubborness as in the old days when they'd bombard us with paper form after paper form. Now taken to the digital world! And we thought things would get better! And yes @wove, automated systems are inherently "dumb" and can only handle situations they were programmed for. But then I can also create processes flexible enough to allow my customers not to run into a wall. When I coded service or sales processes at the bank, I always made sure there's ways for the customer to exit to the side if his case doesn't fit the standard one. That usually involved contact through a specialist. Yes, that costs a business money, but in the end it pays off to "be there for the customer" in real life vs. only in advertising. In the case of my insurance company they didn't even want to talk to me unless I hop through three burning hoops. I'll spend the saturday morning looking for a better one ...
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snes1423
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256 MB Posts: 458 A Man born of Mechina
Reply #4 on: April 09, 2022, 07:25
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This is a true account of a scammer in the wild from just right before christmas 2017 made into a more joking sense to add some flavored humor to it From your not so friendly neigborhood scammer: My Mother: Hmm maybe i should click this amazon link... My Mother: oh no my pc is frozen and it says call this microsoft # Scemmer: hElLo wElcome to microsoft support scemmer: we need to remote acesses your pc My Mother:sure let me just login after 45 minutes... scemmer:we have detected a trojan virus My Mother: let me look at wikipedia about its definition and call my boys (including me) over Me: its a scemmer mom... My Mother: no he doesnt drive a truck and scam people door to door honey... after 3 hours... Scemmer: we need dat moneyz give us 50k My Mother: sure let me call my bank and my husband Bank: ok well do a wire transfer thanks for your service *click* after christmas... my dad uses explicit language towards the guy on the phone when he has the guts to call back asking why he didnt the money due to the bank refusing it and my dad gets his pc repaired and thats that
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #5 on: April 24, 2022, 17:09
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Its called "Data Privacy Protection" and its is the newest rave in the do-gooder's Universe (besides Identity Politics and expanding NATO at all cost). In essence it goes like this: Corporations are evil and we can't trust anyone with your date of birth or hometown info, because these are great government secrets. So we make it as difficult as possible for you to work with this infomation, as this is the only way to guarentee its kept well hidden. Except for us the government: We can even spy on your bank account and monitor all your financial transactions w/o a warrant and even w/o telling you, but that's for your own good. I don't like Google, FB & Co. sucking my data for their advertising business. But adds don't kill me (even so sometimes they make me wanna die). And they can't arrest me, forbid me to leave my appartment, confiscate my bank accounts or put me on a no-fly list w/o even telling me. Governments can do that and are doing it all the time (including the killing part). Case in point: My mom was send to the ER for some kind of emergency. So I call the hospital and tell them: "I am her only son and close relative and I have full authorization to manage all her medical needs. A copy of that docu should be with you from one of her previous stays. Please tell me how my mum is doing and if she needs to be there overnight or even longer". Hospital: "We can't tell you anything. But you should come here right away" Me: "What, is my mum dieing?" Hospital: "We can not discuss any medical details with you. We are not even allowed to confirm that she is here. You must come in person to prove your identity". Me: "But I live in a totally different part of the country and I don't have a car. Can't you at least tell me if she is in immediate danger or not?" Hospital: "We don't know if you're authorized to receive this kind of information" Me: "But you have a copy of those papers on file" Hospital: "Yes, but we don't know if you are who you say you are" Me: "Then go ask my mum and let her confirm that this number belongs to her son" Hospital: "We can't put her in a conference call with you and even if she does confirm the phone number you are calling from: How are we supposed to know who is picking up this phone?!" I ended up having to hire a lawyer just to be able to request updates about my mum's generel status by phone. Otherwise they wouldn't even tell me if she was 5 Minutes away from dieing. All in the name of "Data Privacy Protection". I feel much safer now. :-(
Last Edit: April 24, 2022, 17:12 by 68040
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #6 on: April 24, 2022, 18:33
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Sorry to hear about your Mom. We went through very similar with my Mother-in-law a couple months ago. We live close and went to visit and found her not doing very well at all. We asked the nurse about her condition and were informed that she was not authorized to tell us and was not sure we were authorized to receive the information. Lots of pure nonsense similar to your experience transpire. Eventually there were lots of people hovering over her and we were sort of just pushed out and decided to head home, my wife left knowing nothing about her Mother's condition or prognosis. An hour later the facility had informed the person properly authorized to know that she had passed away. And the person authorized to know decided the best way to inform everyone was via a Facebook post. This leaves my wife still feeling very poorly that we did not stay with her Mom for the final hour. So yeah I agree our privacy is being protected, while we are left just dealing with rampant stupidity.
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #7 on: April 24, 2022, 22:02
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@wove, sorry for your loss. I on the other hand have lost any and all trust in a system that cares everything about its rules and regulations and next to nothing about human suffering. If its *my* data then how come the government tells me whom to tell about it and whom not?
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #8 on: April 25, 2022, 07:26
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Sorry to hear that, wove. It's terrible! We lost an aunt last week due to an undetected Leukemia. She got infected with COVID during her last week and was hospitalized (they only found out about Leukemia then) and they wouldn't let anyone in to visit her. Because of COVID regulation! The poor women died alone in isolation in the hospital, not even her own kids were allowed to see her. Appalling system! Societies turning incredibly totalitarian at the moment. And with all the new gadgetry and stuff, we're going to wake up in a "Brave New World" one day ...
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #9 on: April 25, 2022, 09:58
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Sorry for your loss, too. My own mum got infected with the Corona Virus *while at the hospital*. They simply postponed her treatment and stuck her in total isolation for over ten days. After that she was so broken down she literally asked me to let her die. That virus did do nothing to her, but the isolation broke her spirit. Whoever makes up these rules sees the world only through a microscope - but you can't see a whole human being that way.
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #10 on: April 25, 2022, 10:49
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On 2nd thought: Since you can't change these things anyway it might be best to grow some mighty calleouses against them and learn to embrace the virtues of ignorance.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #11 on: April 25, 2022, 10:52
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It's bureaucrats! People sitting in their comfy chairs, patting themselves on the shoulder how smart they are while looking into the mirror and being so narcissistic to not even comprehend how other people might feel. And they're everywhere in leadership positions these days. Dying is terrible. Dying alone in isolation even more so. I hope your mom is doing better now? My aunt got infected with COVID from her best friend (unknowingly). If you're not one of the above mentioned people, that's a tough thing to deal with. Even though this aggressive Leukemia would have killed her in a few months anyway, it's something you'll have to chew on.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #12 on: April 25, 2022, 14:47
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A former neighbor was a very petty bureaucrat. The "head" loan officer at the local bank. He saw himself as special an important, and we were truly favored to have him as a neighbor. One day chatting over the fence he mentioned he had was getting a new job and would be moving, to which I replied, "Oh the bank replaced you with the Quicken Loan app." He was so flummoxed that he just turned red, looked near exploding and went inside. The upside is that we got nice new neighbors with young kids and the neighborhood is much more friendly and lively place.
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #13 on: September 19, 2022, 16:04
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Here's another one for that list. I'm sure some of you are familiar with gog.com (aka "Good old Games", but they left that terrain long ago actually). I bought some games a long time ago, like 10 years ago or so. They were Snow Leopard compatible. which I was running at the time on a Mac Pro. So I went back and wanted to download those games. Imagine - of course they are gone. They have been secretly and without my doing exchanged for versions that now require 10.13 High Sierra 64-bit. There's no offering of legacy versions. There's only one version. Essentially, the product I bought and paid for is gone. Well, there ought to be a solution, right? I hit the "contact us" button ready to write a friendly message in the feedback form. Except - there IS NO feedback form. Instead I'm greeted by a stupid bot that tries-way-too-hard to be cute and asks me tons of stupid questions. Anyone remember the "dial 1 if you want to ..." telephone hotlines? Yes, THAT style! It was bad bad customer support back in the day. It didn't get any better in recent years, just the opposite. After being 5 minutes in this process and getting continously asked stupid questions, I quit when it asked me to take a screenshot from my Mac's system profiler and uploading it. At that point, I hadn't even stated what my problem was. Hateful, appalling support! I quit. No more games from gog.com. If this is the future, I want the past back. Seriously. This is another reason to stick to old Macs and old games for entertainment. No secret updates and "you got what you got"
Last Edit: September 19, 2022, 16:09 by Bolkonskij
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68040
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512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !
Reply #14 on: September 19, 2022, 19:14
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I could write about my abysmal experiences with data exchange and German medical institutions right before and after my mother's recent departure from these dreaded shores. Sufficient to point out that while transmitting even basic yet urgent info via e-mail or SMS text is regarded "unsafe", sending (criminal) case files back and forth between different parts of the legal system via taxi cab (no kidding) is standard practise in Germany. Who cares, its just tax payer money. 
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