Stupid website
I've just used the most stupid website ever.
Unsuprisingly, it's from Virgin Media, who have rather lost the plot a lot in recent months.
I was trying to purchase a SIM card for Jessica's mobile, as they have a £10/month for 300 minutes and 300 texts deal - which is good. But only if you can actually manage to navigate the forms.
For starters, this is an existing customers only offer. So the first step is to enter your account number. I try to do this, but it won't accept that many digits, stopping me from entering the last one. In the end I used my account number for their email server, with the first two characters removed. This seemed to do the trick and lets me proceed.
I'm entering all my details (name, address etc), and it asks for a security question and password. I usually choose "Mother's maiden name" for these, and did so here. I filled out the rest, clicked the "Continue" button and was told there was a problem. You see, security question answers have to more than 6 characters long, and at 5 characters my mother's maiden name is simply not good enough. I contemplated changing it all to Ele's details, but her mother's maiden name is also 5 characters. How bloody stupid. I don't like most of the questions, as they are changeable answers such as "favourite book". So I scanned the list of questions:
Favourite Band - Liable to change so a bad question. Today it's AC/DC. HALT! LESS THAN 6 CHARACTERS!
First Pet's name - Cindy. HALT! LESS THAN 6 CHARACTERS!
Mother's Maiden Name - Beech. HALT! LESS THAN 6 CHARACTERS!
Town were you were born - Ah ha! That might do it. Thornton Heath. HALT! THIS HAS A SPACE IN IT AND IS THEREFORE NOT ALLOWED FOR SOME REASON WHICH WE WILL NOT TELL YOU. THE REAL REASON IS THAT WE HAVE WRITTEN A RUBBISH VALIDATION ENGINE THAT IS DONE SERVER-SIDE WITH NO INITIAL CLIENT-SIDE CHECKING AND IT WON'T ACCEPT ANYTHING THAT ISN'T A CHARACTER OR A LETTER BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE REGULAR EXPRESSIONS, DO STRING MATCHING OR EVEN REALISE THAT TOWNS MIGHT HAVE A SPACE IN THEM.
In the end I plumped for "First School", which I only attended for a couple of years. Good thing, too, as the next one had two words in it's name.
I finally get through this form, and place my order. And it's now just popped up and said "Oops, we're having a few technical problems at the moment." Well obviously they're technical. If it came up and said "Oops, we're having a few personal problems at the moment. You see Sharon was seeing Matt, but secretly he was in love with Mandy and she got so mad at him that she stormed into the data-center and threw a glass of water over him, but most of it went into the UPS and tripped it out causing our database server to go down." then that'd be different.
So I've no idea if the SIM will ever arrive.
I would call and ask, but my house phone isn't working. And in typical Virgin Media fashion, they would not forward my calls to my mobile (because I am not a doctor on call). Tommorow I am expecting a sofa to be delivered. The driver is to call in the morning. On my house phone. I've told Land of Leather my mobile number now, but I've no confidence it'll get changed in time. So will I waste another entire day waiting for a delivery that won't arrive? Or will me delivery jinx be banished?
Unsuprisingly, it's from Virgin Media, who have rather lost the plot a lot in recent months.
I was trying to purchase a SIM card for Jessica's mobile, as they have a £10/month for 300 minutes and 300 texts deal - which is good. But only if you can actually manage to navigate the forms.
For starters, this is an existing customers only offer. So the first step is to enter your account number. I try to do this, but it won't accept that many digits, stopping me from entering the last one. In the end I used my account number for their email server, with the first two characters removed. This seemed to do the trick and lets me proceed.
I'm entering all my details (name, address etc), and it asks for a security question and password. I usually choose "Mother's maiden name" for these, and did so here. I filled out the rest, clicked the "Continue" button and was told there was a problem. You see, security question answers have to more than 6 characters long, and at 5 characters my mother's maiden name is simply not good enough. I contemplated changing it all to Ele's details, but her mother's maiden name is also 5 characters. How bloody stupid. I don't like most of the questions, as they are changeable answers such as "favourite book". So I scanned the list of questions:
Favourite Band - Liable to change so a bad question. Today it's AC/DC. HALT! LESS THAN 6 CHARACTERS!
First Pet's name - Cindy. HALT! LESS THAN 6 CHARACTERS!
Mother's Maiden Name - Beech. HALT! LESS THAN 6 CHARACTERS!
Town were you were born - Ah ha! That might do it. Thornton Heath. HALT! THIS HAS A SPACE IN IT AND IS THEREFORE NOT ALLOWED FOR SOME REASON WHICH WE WILL NOT TELL YOU. THE REAL REASON IS THAT WE HAVE WRITTEN A RUBBISH VALIDATION ENGINE THAT IS DONE SERVER-SIDE WITH NO INITIAL CLIENT-SIDE CHECKING AND IT WON'T ACCEPT ANYTHING THAT ISN'T A CHARACTER OR A LETTER BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE REGULAR EXPRESSIONS, DO STRING MATCHING OR EVEN REALISE THAT TOWNS MIGHT HAVE A SPACE IN THEM.
In the end I plumped for "First School", which I only attended for a couple of years. Good thing, too, as the next one had two words in it's name.
I finally get through this form, and place my order. And it's now just popped up and said "Oops, we're having a few technical problems at the moment." Well obviously they're technical. If it came up and said "Oops, we're having a few personal problems at the moment. You see Sharon was seeing Matt, but secretly he was in love with Mandy and she got so mad at him that she stormed into the data-center and threw a glass of water over him, but most of it went into the UPS and tripped it out causing our database server to go down." then that'd be different.
So I've no idea if the SIM will ever arrive.
I would call and ask, but my house phone isn't working. And in typical Virgin Media fashion, they would not forward my calls to my mobile (because I am not a doctor on call). Tommorow I am expecting a sofa to be delivered. The driver is to call in the morning. On my house phone. I've told Land of Leather my mobile number now, but I've no confidence it'll get changed in time. So will I waste another entire day waiting for a delivery that won't arrive? Or will me delivery jinx be banished?
posted by Nej at
2:31 pm
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