OT Technology rant

Don Y · 2015-09-10T20:01:21+00:00

New insurance policy. As a matter of course, company runs a "mini" credit report on you. Fine. Nothing to hide. Having done so, I guess they are obliged to allow you free access to that information (because they used it to make a business decision pertaining to you?). Call or write. Of course, call is easier. End up talking to a machine. Well, that's understandable. After all, this is a "routine" request, not requiring any *judgement* on the part of the machine! "Please say and spell your last name" I do so. "Please say and spell your last name" I do so, again. Ennunciating even more clearly for the stupid machine. "Please say and spell your last name" A bit annoyed, I repeat the exercise -- wondering how many MORE times the stewpit machine will quiz me on this. "OK, I've saved your response" Hmmm... that sounds ominous. OTOH, maybe it would be too hard for it to try to pronounce the variety of names it likely encounters (mine isn't "Smith" -- nor "Jones"!) "Please say and spell your first name" Donald. D O N A L D "Great! That's Donald" "Please enter your birthdate as MM DD YYYY" I do so. "Great! That's yada yada yada" "Please say and spell your last name" Crap! Not this again! "Please say and spell your last name" I do so, again. "Please say and spell your last name" Jump through the hoop yet one more time... "OK, I've saved your response" Ah, so that's code for "I don't know what the hell you said!" "Please say and spell your first name" Wait! Didn't we already *do* this?? Do you think my name has changed in the minute or two since I *last* spelled it for you? Donald. D O N A L D "Great! That's Donald" "Please enter your 5 digit ZIP code" xxxxx "Great!" "Please enter your house number" yyyyy "Great!' "Which insurance company refered you to us?" aaaaaaaa "Great!" "When the insurance company contacted us, we assigned a 14 digit (!!!) identifier to their request for information concerning you. Do you have that number?" Yes "Please provide that...