Banks, security, and ease of use

When we cut the cord and went wireless, we had a large number of problems including runaway data and bank access.

We solved the runaway data problem by cutting out automatic downloads and monitoring our usage.

Bank access is another problem.  Some banks put up a huge security wall, others just require an ID and a password from a known computer.  If you change computers, then they will send a text message to a known phone.  The huge security wall can be a real problem if you don’t have the “right” phone and the “right” browser.

You would think as more and more people go wireless, the banks would make it as easy as possible for depositors to access their systems.  Many people really don’t want to do the research to find out why they can’t access their bank.  And it is in the bank’s interest to have people bank online so that they need fewer tellers.

i bank at Republic Bank of Duluth.  I get all kinds of weird results including something like “If this error persists, contact the system administrator."  The long, long error code seems never to be the same and no phone number, email address, or feedback page is provided to contact the system administrator.

I have talked to a branch manager about this and she in turn called somebody in tech support.  The only thing they could tell me was that my provider, Consumer Cellular, was changing the IP address.  Consumer Cellular support says that CC is not changing the IP address.

I did figure out that I had the wrong cellular phone number in my account.  I changed that and things seemed to work for awhile.  Then the phone number went blank on my account!  I reset it again, and I have again sporadic success, more often not.

I have no such problems using Wi-Fi at coffee shops.  Can the banks ensure the security of every coffee shop’s Wi-Fi?

My wife banks at Pioneer Bank of Duluth.  She has no problem accessing her account through cellular data.  That is via Firefox on her Mac and Safari on her iPad. When I accessed her account on my MacBook via Firefox, the web page asked me to select a phone number for a text message.  When the text message came to my wife’s phone, I entered the number on my Mac and gained access to her account.

I might switch my funds to Pioneer if Republic doesn’t have a solution soon.  But as I don’t care for the format of Pioneer’s statements, I am also considering Members Co-operative Credit Union of Duluth (MCCU).  Also, I’m partial to co-operatives over corporations.

I had a long conversation with an MCCU representative and found out that their online banking doesn’t work with certain phones and browsers.  She had no information about access via Consumer Cellular.

I have decades of computer experience and sometimes relish unraveling problems.  Sometimes it seems I know less and less about more and more.  Think about all the people who are afraid their devices might crash if they push the wrong button.

If organizations really want people to access them online, you would think they would bend over backward to make it as simple as possible.  But no, they operate in their own little silo and expect all users to accept their way of doing things.

How many people do you know who would have problems figuring out half of what I have written above?  If I am confused by all that I have learned, how confused would many others be?

How much corporate nonsense can I take in a day?

I received an email about a sale of Adobe Photoshop Elements 12.  Since my old Elements expired long ago, I decided to give it a go.  I clicked on the button in the message and a webpage opened with an ad for Elements 12.  It required me to sign in before continuing.

When I did so, it said that I needed to use a new password.  They would email me a temp password.  That came in a short time.  I used the temp password and created a new password.  That verification came in a short time.

Finally, I could order Elements 12 and I did.  I went to my cart and was ready to whip out my credit card.  Fortunately, I read the details of the order before I checked out.  It was for a Windows version!!!  No matter what I looked under, I could never get a Mac version.

I was going to give up, but somehow I clicked on Chat Now!  I explained my problem to 'Selena' and after a few minutes, she gave me a link to the Mac version of Elements 12.  Then I looked at the download times and decided to pass.  Besides, the time for this simple chat was almost ten minutes!  Total time trying to order must have been over 30 minutes!

I have been slowing moving my email from one provider to another.  Sometimes we can tell an organization our new email and it is changed in minutes.  Some organizations say it will be updated in 10 days.  Sometimes we tell an organization and our email is only updated for one department; email from other departments goes to the old email address.

And sometimes we get a doozy of a notice:

"Your primary e-mail address has been updated.  Please note that if you deleted your e-mail address, you are no longer eligible to suppress your account statements…"

"Suppress" our account statements?  What country was this task outsourced to?  Didn't they mean "access".  And why so wordy? 

I have a Monster iCarPlay FM transmitter that I use to play podcasts in the car.  Somehow the tuning goes out of whack and I have difficulty finding a unused frequency.  I know I have the instructions buried somewhere, but I could not find them in the car.

I went to the monster.com to look for the instructions, but all I found was a flyer (called instructions or directions).  It described what one could do but not how to do it.

With a few more searches, I found the PDF of exactly just the piece of paper I can't find.  But it was not at monster.com!  I put those directions on my iPhone and will use them next time I want to drive and listen to a podcast.

I think I dealt with  a couple of other websites or programs that did not operate as one would expect, but it has been such a hectic day, I can't remember what they were.  Oh, yeah!  Blogger "crashed" on me while I was posting a blog entry.  At least, it didn't lose any of my text.