Return of the silly little things that annoy you thread

Alistair Scott

Alistair Scott

Location
London
So I forgot (or my computer forgot) the password for a Dine at Home restaurant site. I'm told I can't just order like a new customer as I am a returning customer, so have to log in. So need to reset my password. Which has to be 12 characters long with various caps, symbols, emojis bla bla bla. Twelve characters. For a restaurant. If I have long passwords, they are for financial sites. Not going to use the same password for a restaurant whose system may have been set up by someone's spotty nephew on day release. Could I be arsed to work up a new long password for a restaurant? Nope. Sale lost, despite loving their food.
 
Mark Carrington

Mark Carrington

Location
Dorset, England
Alistair Scott said:
So I forgot (or my computer forgot) the password for a Dine at Home restaurant site. I'm told I can't just order like a new customer as I am a returning customer, so have to log in. So need to reset my password. Which has to be 12 characters long with various caps, symbols, emojis bla bla bla. Twelve characters. For a restaurant. If I have long passwords, they are for financial sites. Not going to use the same password for a restaurant whose system may have been set up by someone's spotty nephew on day release. Could I be arsed to work up a new long password for a restaurant? Nope. Sale lost, despite loving their food.
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I use Last Pass, Alistair. Costs a few US $/annum, no aggro when setting up/remembering/changing passwords.
 
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George Marshall

George Marshall

Location
Herts
Until some idiot decides that pasting a password is a security risk and blocks it on their site/app. Typing in a 40 char random password is no fun. Twice if you are lucky. Then again to log in due to absurd user flow.

(agree randomly generated passwords are the only way to go. And anyone who thinks they still need to expire can get in the sea)
 
George Marshall

George Marshall

Location
Herts
Is very much against modern guidance, common sense means it makes systems less secure:

www.ncsc.gov.uk

Password policy: updating your approach

Advice for system owners responsible for determining password policies and identity management within their organisations.
www.ncsc.gov.uk www.ncsc.gov.uk

Don't enforce regular password expiry​

Regular password changing harms rather than improves security. Many systems will force users to change their password at regular intervals, typically every 30, 60 or 90 days. This imposes burdens on the user and there are costs associated with recovering accounts.

Forcing password expiry carries no real benefits because:

  • the user is likely to choose new passwords that are only minor variations of the old
  • stolen passwords are generally exploited immediately
  • resetting the password gives you no information about whether a compromise has occurred
  • an attacker with access to the account will probably also receive the request to reset the password
  • if compromised via insecure storage, the attacker will be able to find the new password in the same place
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G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
My ("natural") gas supply company sent some advice on mental health to all account holders. Why? How much work did it take to draft it up, get approvals, add pretty pictures, etc.? My expectations as a customer of a gas supply company are to provide gas to me safely, efficiently and reliably, hopefully at a reasonable price. I don't expect them to be providing mental health.
 
G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
On the subject of being a customer, in the long distant days when we used to be allowed to travel, I used to get very annoyed by airlines referring to their customers as "guests". Nope, I am a customer: it means I have paid for a contractual service and have expectations of what is included in that service, and the airline has contractual obligations towards providing me the services I paid for. Referring to me as a guest implies (to me at least) that I am waiving all rights away and am there at their invitation and must accept whatever restrictions are imposed at their whim without complaint.

(I wonder if we should rename this thread the "curmudgeons' thread".)
 
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D

Dan Baillie

Location
England
I tried to book for a dentist and hygienist check up with the dentist I’ve being seeing for over 20 years. I was sent a link to a BUPA website to complete a health declaration form that I would now be required to complete biannually. I must have completed this form a dozen times for BUPA for various reasons over the last few years, including for a very comprehensive annual physical. 30 mins in, I was still filling in ridiculous qns about family history of heart disease etc etc and finally I said enough. This is for a f*****g dental check up for f***s sake!

Instead of wasting any more time on the silly and pointless form, I called and cancelled the appointments and politely told them they had lost a loyal customer of over 20 years.
 
Paul J a i n e s

Paul J a i n e s

Location
London, Europe
G. W o l f f said:
My expectations as a customer of a gas supply company are to provide gas to me safely,
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I get this.... whenever you buy a product from a company and they seem to pitch this as a life-long partnership. "You have purchased a plug from us...... here is our monthly company letter and 5 spam emails a day about whether you'd like to leave a review/read our brochue/recommend us/learn about our history"

No - fuck off. I purchased a plug from you for £3. Thats it. We are not friends.

Rate your experience? No. You have my money - thats where this relationship ends
 
T

Thom Blach

Location
London
Dan Baillie said:
I tried to book for a dentist and hygienist check up with the dentist I’ve being seeing for over 20 years. I was sent a link to a BUPA website to complete a health declaration form that I would now be required to complete biannually. I must have completed this form a dozen times for BUPA for various reasons over the last few years, including for a very comprehensive annual physical. 30 mins in, I was still filling in ridiculous qns about family history of heart disease etc etc and finally I said enough. This is for a f*****g dental check up for f***s sake!

Instead of wasting any more time on the silly and pointless form, I called and cancelled the appointments and politely told them they had lost a loyal customer of over 20 years.
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Every time I go to the dentist they ask me to do this, it seems to be the price of admission. It is exceptionally irritating.
 
Simon Wheeler

Simon Wheeler

Location
London
Thom Blach said:
Every time I go to the dentist they ask me to do this, it seems to be the price of admission. It is exceptionally irritating.
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I got sent 2 forms for my dental visit today, to be fair both took a couple of minutes, and one basically said
do you have COVID ?
do you think you may have COVID ?
have you been anywhere that you may have caught COVID ?
really ?
really really ?
 
C

Colin Bradley

Location
Holmfirth
Paul J a i n e s said:
I get this.... whenever you buy a product from a company and they seem to pitch this as a life-long partnership. "You have purchased a plug from us...... here is our monthly company letter and 5 spam emails a day about whether you'd like to leave a review/read our brochue/recommend us/learn about our history"

No - fuck off. I purchased a plug from you for £3. Thats it. We are not friends.

Rate your experience? No. You have my money - thats where this relationship ends
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This whole customer review nonsense is seriously irritating. I recall that Mr Slatcher in particular has posted about it.

I recently bought a new battery for my car's remote key. It came from Halfords and cost £3. They sent me an email asking me to complete a review - for a £3 battery! Apart from which, how can I review a battery until it's actually worn out and I can evaluate the service it's given - up to that point it either works or it doesn't and all that matters is how long it'll continue to work for, which I can't know.
 
Phil David

Phil David

Location
London
G. W o l f f said:
On the subject of being a customer, in the long distant days when we used to be allowed to travel, I used to get very annoyed by airlines referring to their customers as "guests". Nope, I am a customer: it means I have paid for a contractual service and have expectations of what is included in that service, and the airline has contractual obligations towards providing me the services I paid for. Referring to me as a guest implies (to me at least) that I am waiving all rights away and am there at their invitation and must accept whatever restrictions are imposed at their whim.

(I wonder if we should rename this thread the "curmudgeons' thread".)
Click to expand...

When they said guests what they really meant is the enemy. That's what we are to many companies now.
 
G. W o l f f

G. W o l f f

Location
Canada (formerly of Hertfordshire)
Phil David said:
When they said guests what they really meant is the enemy. That's what we are to many companies now.
Click to expand...
The worst treatment as a customer I have ever experienced was with a Canadian telecommunications company. I won't name them, beyond saying that they should change their name to "Hell Canada". After a year or two of random price increases for internet services (10% increases twice per year, if I recall correctly), I decided to move to a different company. Once I could finally get through to customer "service", it was extremely difficult to get them to agree that I could cancel my account. After overcoming this formidable obstacle, when I then informed that I wished to take my landline telephone number with me (as is a legal right in Canada), they tried to deny me this. At this point, I had become rather annoyed(!) and so took my case to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). As it was obvious that I would "win", I thought that the Hell Canada arseholes would simply acknowledge this and agree to port my number. But no, they fought every step of the way. I was of course allowed by the CRTC to port my number after a long series of submissions, rebuttals, etc., but I just don't understand why the company would fight so hard and seemingly intentionally upset me so much, completely alienating me in the process. As a result, I will not knowingly become a customer of theirs ever again in the future. And, equally, I am quite vocal with my views of the company with friends and relatives, so the company is getting bad word-of-mouth reviews.

However, the new company I am with (Teksavvy) is really pleasant to deal with as a customer. Reliable service, good pricing and clear policies/approaches on pricing, real human customer service agents who can be contacted within minutes. So they are not all bad!
 
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