Thursday, February 4, 2010

changing the hardware not the software


my credit card expired and i went to the bank to get the new one
it was a piece of cake, it only took me seconds to get my new one
HONESTLY
but i woke up from this dream when i start to using it, it doesn't work
i went back to the nice young smiling lady to tell her: it doesn't work, is there something that should be done to activate it or something?
she: yes of course, you should call the number wrote on the enveloppe, oh my god, didn't i tell you that??
me: no you didn't
she: well i'm sorry, you should call this number first to activate the card
me: why can't you activate it now using your computer to get to the system
she: i'm sorry i can't, well you know when you call you'll have to answer some private questions, so i can't do it for you
OMG: private!!!! how a bank ask private information more then what's already there, the bank is the only establishment in the world that know exactly where do you live, how much money you have, your the security number, your date of birth, place of birth, telephone numberssss, sometimes your relatives......?
what more private can it be?
i said to myself may be the questions will be the kind of: your first boyfriend's name, have you ever been kissed, what flavor of ice cream you prefer?
any way, i tried to call this 5 digital number and as expected it's has this unsuportable lady of:
جميع عملاؤنا مشغولون الآن بخدمة عملاء أخرين
so i waited .. waited .. redialed .. waited .. waited
and finally someone answered and asked me 3 questions:
1- number of the card
2- account
3- birth date
and then he said: the card is activate now, you can use in 2 hours
WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that is it???
what was the private questions, i missed it: the card number or my birth date???
this information are already there on every bank form, the man didn't even ask for my name
can someone please explains to me the necessity of this call
the bank had hired people to ask the clients for their birth dates?? total waste of money and time
i guess some genius said that banks in Europe use a 5 digital phone number to offer more services to the clients and we should do that, obviously they did it without thinking about the usability of the process
AS a writer i like very much (Soliman Gouda) wrote once in almasry alyoum that the government always change the hardware only and not the software
meaning they rebuild the offices, install computers and high tech devices but the procedures are the exact same thing
an obvious example is (elbosta), they still use the paper cards that are there since the beginning of the millennium and then they check the account on the computer, and 70% of the time the network is down
Waste of time and money or as gouda said: changing the hardware not the software

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Rania
This is the routine.
Thanks
Shery