AIBU to think everyday life admin has become far too complicated?

[Samben2014]

I just can’t believe how difficult it is to just the most basic of things these days. I forgot my password for my savings account online and I have just been on the phone for over an hour being passed between so many different bots and AI generated response systems before I could even speak with a human. I find doing these things that used to be so straight forward have become overly complicated in the last 12 months. I have no idea how the older generation cope. The NHS trust I work for are pushing everything down the APP route and if you’re not tech savvy you’re going to get left sitting on the waiting list. We are just not prepared for this new way of doing things, I miss talking to humans! I’m only late 30’s and find this is becoming unbearable. Am I being unreasonable?

It's not about being or not being tech savvy though, its about not having the time or inclination to go through 10 time consuming steps when not that long ago 1 phonecall to another human was all it took.

The cynic in me wonders if this is why waiting lists are falling? People falling off the list as they don't get a notification or even a letter to reply in 2 weeks when the post takes ages.

Forget your passport and all Hell unleashes itself on you nowadays. I usually find throwing a chair through a window helps with the rage (but not with the password recovery).

Our town has 30 min free parking...but you still have to get a ticket or register on an app

Ah yes, you do still need a ticket, but I think that’s easy enough.

Oh god yes! I had to change my phone recently. My techie dh swears he will never buy me another thanks to the amount of swearing (and sweating too, ed!) I did trying to get things to work. God knows what would happen if I changed the number. These are phones, yes? Just a few years ago you just had little things that you called people on to say you’d be late and where you were. How did they come to control my life so much? I can’t get to work without one now, there’s no other way of knowing my shifts (but god forbid a manager sees you looking at it in work time)!

ed - and what’s with all this control-by-gesture crap now? What’s wrong with just, even just one simple home button??

I agree.

The moment that hostile hackers attack a number of our systems, we are going to be in very deep trouble. The problem isnt one system going down, it's the cumulative effect of 20 or 40 going down, even if only 25% of the attacks were successful.

Criminal Hacker and Russian hacker attacks have already significantly affected the NHS and care homes systems

Passports .... i think you meant password ....

... but it has taken me six months and 400 euros to get an English passport for my younger son thanks to the UK passport Office being so incompetent and illogical it'd put the Republic of Kafka to shame.

So we go to Schipol airport... with English passport.... and we get taken aside and lectured and nearly not allowed to leave the NL because he did have his Dutch passport with him (or ID card). Problem was we're leaving the Schengen area.

headdesk

And oh, the UPS delivery I rescheduled yesterday has failed and it won't let me log in again and the password reset isnt working

But there was a golden time in the early 2000s when the technology existed to make certain admin tasks much quicker and easier, with the back-up of staffed call centres or open branches to help with more complicated queries - and it was still possible to write a quick cheque and pop it in the post if you preferred. In the rush to automate absolutely everything and cut staff numbers to the bare minimum, customer service has since been completely thrown out of the window.

Gov.one or Government Gateway ID verification is labelled as a beta (i.e. system still being developed) and yet there is no alternative when it does not work (other than walk to the PO!). After being stuck in a life-sucking circle of doom for 1.5 hours last week, it randomly worked one time. Not many people would have persisted for 1.5 hours. Apparently you can access all your important governmental ID documents in there, but sadly they have only added the armed forces veteran card as the single option so far, so that's rather unhelpful for everyone else... Don't get me started on how other countries have had central governmental documentation for years and years, complete with one secure email box for every citizen to manage it all. Guess the UK government got convinced to reinvent the wheel here at mates rates and here we are years later with a beta system with one document in it.

Back in the mists of time I somehow ended up with a second Clubcard account, so I got two lots of everything. One account was Miss Singthing, the other was Miss S Thing.

I asked Tesco to combine the duplicate accounts. I now - of course - get mail addressed to "Miss Singthing & Miss S Thing"

I have to say I’d suggest to anyone getting married or other life changes these days to think VERY long and hard before changing their name. It was crappy enough to do it in 1995, it has exponentially more impact now.

I’m 50/50 on the subject.
Yes, it’s more convenient that we have 24/7 access to do life admin rather than 9-5 Monday to Friday as it used to be.
No, I don’t enjoy needing 40million apps on my phone, which we’re all forced into as you need the app to carry out whatever transaction you are doing.
Overall my biggest gripe (as a PP has pointed out) is the fact that when you do need to speak to a human, organisations make it incredibly difficult to do so. Clicking on ‘Contact us’ on websites always takes you through to an online form or AI chatbot. I find that one almost needs to be a qualified hacker to explore the depths of a website in order to find any kind of phone number for them!

I changed back to my maiden name post divorce. Honestly, it felt like I was the first person to have done it at time...and this was when there were still bank branches on the High st.
The worst were Barclays, the best were First Direct.

I have a live example! I asked "Pension Company A" about my accounts with them due to my then-employer merging and changing lots of things way back when.

I got a reply two days ago (with ref number) saying "We need some more details from you". I had not yet replied to this.

This morning I got an email (with a different ref number) saying "here's all the information you needed", fully answering my query, job done, case closed. Super!

Then this afternoon I got this belter:

Dear MISS Singthing,

Pension Company A is committed to providing an efficient and secure service to members. We have therefore uploaded information regarding your pension benefits to OurPortalName, for you to view. This may be in response to a request you have raised or an automated process such as if you are approaching your Normal Retirement Date.

If you have not registered yet, not to worry – registration is easy and can be done following these 5 steps.

STEP 1 - GO THE WEBSITE
Go to www.OurPortalName.com and select the option to ‘Register Now’.

STEP 2 - ENTER YOUR REGISTRATION DETAILS
To register you need your member reference number, which is XXXXXXXXX. You then need to enter some personal information as a security check. If this matches our records, then your account will be activated.

STEP 3 - CHECK YOUR EMAIL
After you register we will send you an activation email with a temporary password. You need to follow the instructions in this email to finish setting up your account. You only need to complete this step when you register.

STEP 4 - SETUP YOUR SECURITY INFORMATION
When you use this to log in for the first time, you will be asked to change your temporary password. Make sure you pick a complicated password to keep your account secure.

STEP 5 – VIEW YOUR DOCUMENTS
Once registered you will need to navigate to YOUR ACCOUNT, your documents will be viewable under YOUR CASES.

Should you have any queries relating to this request please get in touch using the secure Contact us option on OurPortalName, or alternatively, call us on YYYYY and quote Case Number ZZZZZZZ

Yours sincerely,
Pension Company A

I agree, I am a fairly tech savvy, nearly 70 year old and my mother died at 95 two months ago. Winding up her small and uncomplicated estate has been absolutely exhausting. My sister finds it all impossible so I have done it solo.

Mum gave up on her finances years ago and I dealt with that for her. My head hurts.

One cyber attack and it's all gone . Money , records, the lot . What I dislike most of all is that it is replacing jobs for people . People need jobs to earn money in order to apply online for these goods and services . Then there is the huge impact that these necessary AI storage facilities are going to make to countries everywhere .

I prefer it than having to go to the bank, or the post office for the MOT etc..

No unreasonable at all I have to psych myself up to call the doctors and I know I'll be waiting for an hour or more. They have an online booking system but there are never any appointments so you have to call. They have a screen you book in on for appointments in the surgery too its fine for me but I always see older people struggle with it and it seems miserable that they can't just book in with the receptionist and see a friendly face. I normally offer to help but if they ask at the desk they just directed back to the screen.

Agree....but i dont think that is what people are generally complaining about

Eg to renew your car tax you simply need to have the 14 digit reference number and your registration number. Enter it, put bank details in, job done.

No need for passwords, mfa, (that cant be sent if youve changed phone...) memorable questions, the 3rd 4th and 10th digit of your memorable word, etc etc

@singthing I hope you had a nice lay down in a darkened room with a cuppa after receiving that missile of a missive! ☕

How do people have so much admin it’s so time consuming?

I have M.S which has affected my short term memory. Each time I received a text with appointment information I’d forget it within a few minutes, hence missing appointments. I’ve told the hospital I require good old fashioned letters that I can diary and pin to the fridge, it’s the only way for me that works. Then bugger me, I missed an appointment with my neurologist, the letter never arrived 🤦‍♀️, I give in 😵‍💫. Life certainly isn’t any easier with technology, although Chat GPT has given me a beautiful design for my garden 🤩

You can manage your parents appointments and health through your app. They have to give their consent. You ask the surgery

That's not on. If enough people complain it will be changed. We have a check in desk at ours. I think we have both