Stuff that makes you sputter.

[AG31]

I'm just starting this thread so I have some place to sputter. Nothing here from me about writing this time.

So hubby spent the better part of his afternoon trying to log on to a pharmacy web site. Forgot his username. Forgot his password. Got past that and was entering more info, but it just would not take what he'd entered. I finally figured out that it was because he was putting in his medicare number the way it was written on the card, with two dashes.

Did the interface print an error message, telling him to remove the dashes? No...

Did the interface remove his dashes for him??? No...

This is the kind of thing I learned in the first few months of programming class, over fifty years ago.

INEXCUSABLE!!!!

Thank you for your attention.

 

[AlexBailey]

I had a client send me network and application usernames and passwords for in text messages from their iPhone. The trouble was that the iPhone was automatically capitalizing the first letter of each line.

 

[SomaSlave]

Maybe that was their idea of encrypting the password in transit (aka "Security by Stupidity").

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I had a client send me network and application usernames and passwords for in text messages from their iPhone. The trouble was that the iPhone was automatically capitalizing the first letter of each line.

It's a feature...

 

[OnlyHappyEndings]

I heard a story about tech support where a client was verbally given a code to enter and the code didn't work. Turns out the last letter of the code was 'A' and the customer, being Canadian, thought the tech was simply saying 'eh?' at the end.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

I heard a story about tech support where a client was verbally given a code to enter and the code didn't work. Turns out the last letter of the code was 'A' and the customer, being Canadian, thought the tech was simply saying 'eh?' at the end.

Something similar for me a looooong time ago when I was dealing with updating of a password for a work application. They were based in Britain and I was talking with a wonderful woman. Unfortunately, this was long before I started watching a ton of British TV as i do currently, so I wasn't fully aware of the uniqueness and the differences between English and American English. The temporary password she gave me had a "Z" in it. She pronounced it "zed'.

Let's just say I got the temp password wrong the first few times... Eventually we both understood and got it cleared up, but it was awkward.

 

[SomaSlave]

When I'm feeling in a playful mood and dealing with customer service, I'll improvise the phonetic spelling, for example ABC would be "armadillo" "baking soda" "chrysanthemum". I can't understand why customer service hates me,

 

[AlexBailey]

Something similar for me a looooong time ago when I was dealing with updating of a password for a work application. They were based in Britain and I was talking with a wonderful woman. Unfortunately, this was long before I started watching a ton of British TV as i do currently, so I wasn't fully aware of the uniqueness and the differences between English and American English. The temporary password she gave me had a "Z" in it. She pronounced it "zed'.

Let's just say I got the temp password wrong the first few times... Eventually we both understood and got it cleared up, but it was awkward.

I’ve had some mixup over “zed” before while sharing passwords over the phone.

….t, u, v, w, x, y, zed?

My email address has easily mistaken letters in it so I ended up learning the phonetic alphabet just so I could be clear.

- Alfa, Lima, Echo, X-ray

 

[AlexBailey]

When I'm feeling in a playful mood and dealing with customer service, I'll improvise the phonetic spelling, for example ABC would be "armadillo" "baking soda" "chrysanthemum". I can't understand why customer service hates me,

Oh it’s fucking hilarious hearing what people come up with when they try to come up with a phonetic spelling on the fly.

I sent a copy of the PA to a mumbling workmate and he responded:
Francis, Uruguay, Cat, Killer Oval, Frank, Francis.

 

[OnlyHappyEndings]

There's a song by Bloodhound Gang called 'Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo'. It's nasty and hilarious.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

They were based in Britain and I was talking with a wonderful woman. Unfortunately, this was long before I started watching a ton of British TV as i do currently, so I wasn't fully aware of the uniqueness and the differences between English and American English.

One summer I spent with American family about 25 years ago, I was familiar with US English, but not as good at knowing what British English they didn't understand. I got left minding the telephone, and asked to tell anyone who called that my aunt or uncle could be contacted on a certain number.

I knew not to say zed. But I was unaware that locals didn't say O when reading out zeroes in a phone number. Or that they wouldn't recognise 'triple 5' or 'eight hundred' as parts of a phone number. Add that most of them tell me I'm the first non-Mexican foreigner they've ever met, and couldn't comprehend my accent until I do my best impression of a newsreader, and it sure didn't go well.

Worse than when my bank decided to put their call centre in Glasgow, where J is pronounced jee (slightly more like jye) and G is jee...

I have a H in my name. I was raised to say aitch, because haitch is working class/Irish/Catholic/all three, depending on where you are. But after getting letters putting AC where there should be a H, like Acelen, and the odd hanging up on me, I will say haitch for clarity - combined with my poshest accent, just to mess with people.

 

[yowser]

I have a H in my name. I was raised to say aitch, because haitch is working class/Irish/Catholic/all three, depending on where you are. But after getting letters putting AC where there should be a H, like Acelen, and the odd hanging up on me, I will say haitch for clarity - combined with my poshest accent, just to mess with people.

So do you, like most score-anxious Lit authors, have an 'Itch for the 'Aitch?'

 

[Kumquatqueen]

So do you, like most score-anxious Lit authors, have an 'Itch for the 'Aitch?'

I'm not sure what accent I'd need for aitch to sound like itch. Kiwi? Not one I can render remotely successfully.

(my red Hs exist fairly reliably by 10 or 11 votes, then vanish by 20, sometimes return by 25, then often flicker in and out by 30 or more, usually settling one way or the other. Bit like resident children, really.)