Old meets new....the pair don't get on
I work for big big company sending many important insurance type things back and forth every day. We stick to posting doccuments to customers because we fear teh evil fraudsters getting hold of our precious PDFs. Other than that everything is electronic now. I can't even write a fax anymore without a long discussion justifying my actions. I could just as easily request the fax online and our 'team' will send it out in an 'estimated' 2 hours.
The problem is you can't win. One evening our entire lovely online network crashed. A major insuror could do absolutely nothing. Every one of our computers in the country became expensive paper weights. Fortunately this crash happened at 8pm and we shut at 9 so we just had to apologise and ask them to call in the morning. I get passed a call from a 'problem' customer. Fully expecting to be called every name under the Sun I'm suprised to hear a rather charming 85 year old gent on the other end. He was confused why we couldn't amend his policy.

'I'm very sorry sir. Our network has crashed. The cover is still active but we can't make any changes until the morning'

Old gent delivers the classic of 'So?'

'Ermm....and that it a big problem. We can't access your policy because it is in the computer, and the computers are not working.'

Lovely gent thinks for a moment and says 'Well that is a bit of a step backwards, isn't it?'

I'll admit I was lost for an answer. My first instinct was to wonder wasn't cholera still an issue in the 'good old days'. I had spent hours with other customers trying to reason why we can't get a doccument to them ten minutes after they set a policy up (yes I know some companies will but if you know you need tax a little more notice would help). It's seems whether you upgrade or stick with tried and tested....someone will always shout at you. My compromise is I'm sending this response from an iPhone, with an outdated os version!!!!!! (take that Jobs!!!!! I like my fast running 3G)
(Gherkinlasagna is probably doing something stupid on, Fri 5 Nov 2010, 15:58, 3 replies)

*click* for "that's a bit of a step backwards"!
(Wibblist Last said "Wibble" on, Fri 5 Nov 2010, 16:52, closed)

Alrite Craig
Which dangerous fantasies are you currently acting out? Also do you think that you’ll go all the way one day and start murdering prostitutes for body parts, in order to create your ‘ultimate wife’
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Sat 6 Nov 2010, 16:44, closed)

I've got a savings account with a bank
The only ways I can put money in it are:
-Post them a cheque
-Apply online to open a new account, put my customer number in there somewhere, say I want to credit the new account with some money and enter my card details. This then gets printed out in their office (presumably on a dot matrix printer) and someone types my card details into their card machine then go on their computer system (I get the impression it's an Excel spreadsheet) and update my account.
( thistle, Fri 5 Nov 2010, 19:12, closed)