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captainsblogBeen surfing around other sites today in the private sector, that aren't any less annoying than the one the Republicans have been trying to drown in a bathtub for the past three years. Before wearing yourself out bitching about the Kenyan Marxist Socialist, do check what the American Capitalists have been doing to rot my brain:
So Eleanor checked out the one remaining provider of brick-and-mortar bookery earlier in the week, hoping to find an exercise DVD. It was out of stock, but she could order it! And we have both a membership with this particular bookseller and just received an extra 20% off card in the snailmail.
She brought me her tablet to complete the transaction, since such is My Thing. An hour later, I felt it was more like My Great White Whale. Because Beans & Noodles doesn't remember you online by your Member Number but by your email address. Of which we have several. Her tablet refused to remember any of her prior logins, so I switched over to mine. That offered a choice between a now-dead Freenet email of mine (which got me nowhere), and a populated screen with no login but a masked password for who-knows-what. That no worky either.
Stymied, I started over, using my post-Freenet junk address as the new login, selecting a password, picking a challenge question, re-placing the DVD in my new cart, and finally entering our member number to get the initial 10 percent off.
This member number is associated with an existing account. Please try again.
Of course it is- it's associated with the account I can't remember the login for! I tried another possible email for Eleanor, and got nowhere. Finally, I called the 1-800 number and got a lovely Southern belle who tried to hep. She got the member number reassigned to Eleanor's current standard email addy, but when I reordered the cart for the THIRD time to access it, BN told me it had no record of the account.
Oh, she'all said. Member numbers and email addresses are separate; you have to create a new account WITH that email address before it will associate.
Which, toward the end of this hour from hell, I managed to do; it then accepted my just-mailed code for another 20 percent off (using a coupon code which, I swear, contained the letters S-U-C-K in sequential order) and, finally, let me pay for it with money remaining on the gift card I got her back in September (after having to scratch off, and possibly sniff, the PIN hiding on the back of same).
All this to save 12 bucks that otherwise would have gone to the bookseller's Save the Nook campaign. Making it even stranger? If the DVD had been in stock at our local brick-and-mortar store? We'd have gotten All The Discounts simply by reciting our phone number. No passwords, no challenge questions, no links to forgotten email addresses (turns out Eleanor had last ordered online when AOL was her email provider). So if you know our phone number, feel free to use it to get discounts on us. That hour in the eighth circle of hell more than entitles you.
----
That was this morning. Just now, I spent an enjoyable 20 minutes trying to pay a freakin' phone bill, which our carrier (which rhymes with "Lost Horizon") made immensely difficult by, once again, jiggling their website and refusing to recognize the login information I'd previously stored in Password Manager. I know, this is for my security; but what security breach could occur on a "pay my bill" website other than, possibly, Edward Snowden paying my phone bill for me?
----
At least it's all done. It's almost 8:30, and we think the last of our four rounds of trick-or-treaters have come and gone for the night (this is one of the warm-but-rainy years where we actually bought enough of the stuff). Maybe tomorrow I'll consume some of the chorklit and take another crack at nyhealth.gov. Couldn't be any worse, yo.
So Eleanor checked out the one remaining provider of brick-and-mortar bookery earlier in the week, hoping to find an exercise DVD. It was out of stock, but she could order it! And we have both a membership with this particular bookseller and just received an extra 20% off card in the snailmail.
She brought me her tablet to complete the transaction, since such is My Thing. An hour later, I felt it was more like My Great White Whale. Because Beans & Noodles doesn't remember you online by your Member Number but by your email address. Of which we have several. Her tablet refused to remember any of her prior logins, so I switched over to mine. That offered a choice between a now-dead Freenet email of mine (which got me nowhere), and a populated screen with no login but a masked password for who-knows-what. That no worky either.
Stymied, I started over, using my post-Freenet junk address as the new login, selecting a password, picking a challenge question, re-placing the DVD in my new cart, and finally entering our member number to get the initial 10 percent off.
This member number is associated with an existing account. Please try again.
Of course it is- it's associated with the account I can't remember the login for! I tried another possible email for Eleanor, and got nowhere. Finally, I called the 1-800 number and got a lovely Southern belle who tried to hep. She got the member number reassigned to Eleanor's current standard email addy, but when I reordered the cart for the THIRD time to access it, BN told me it had no record of the account.
Oh, she'all said. Member numbers and email addresses are separate; you have to create a new account WITH that email address before it will associate.
Which, toward the end of this hour from hell, I managed to do; it then accepted my just-mailed code for another 20 percent off (using a coupon code which, I swear, contained the letters S-U-C-K in sequential order) and, finally, let me pay for it with money remaining on the gift card I got her back in September (after having to scratch off, and possibly sniff, the PIN hiding on the back of same).
All this to save 12 bucks that otherwise would have gone to the bookseller's Save the Nook campaign. Making it even stranger? If the DVD had been in stock at our local brick-and-mortar store? We'd have gotten All The Discounts simply by reciting our phone number. No passwords, no challenge questions, no links to forgotten email addresses (turns out Eleanor had last ordered online when AOL was her email provider). So if you know our phone number, feel free to use it to get discounts on us. That hour in the eighth circle of hell more than entitles you.
----
That was this morning. Just now, I spent an enjoyable 20 minutes trying to pay a freakin' phone bill, which our carrier (which rhymes with "Lost Horizon") made immensely difficult by, once again, jiggling their website and refusing to recognize the login information I'd previously stored in Password Manager. I know, this is for my security; but what security breach could occur on a "pay my bill" website other than, possibly, Edward Snowden paying my phone bill for me?
----
At least it's all done. It's almost 8:30, and we think the last of our four rounds of trick-or-treaters have come and gone for the night (this is one of the warm-but-rainy years where we actually bought enough of the stuff). Maybe tomorrow I'll consume some of the chorklit and take another crack at nyhealth.gov. Couldn't be any worse, yo.
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no subject
Date: 2013-11-01 02:21 am (UTC)