Logging in -- when you can't!

[Dry Rot]

I have had to close my Paypal account and delete my Facebook page. I am unable to contact either because I can't log in and to report a fault, I have to log in. Apparently, there are no longer any humans out there and life is ruled by "bots". I am not computer savvy at the best of times but 'they' now seem to speak a different language and there is, as yet, no dictionary.

When Facebook and Paypal think there has been illegal activity, they demand personal information, such as a photo of your driving licence. The DVLA say your driving licence should never be photographed. Duh! Sorry, but I am not photographing a credit card -- or anything that can be used to steal my identity, so that limits things.Neither of these are particularly secure. Just do a search if you don't believe me.

As stated above, I have deleted my Facebook page and am starting to rebuild it and I have stop payments to Paypal. Just how does one go about contacting a human being on these organisations? And, no, the ways they say this can be done don't work. Snail mail?

 

[Av Gorritt]

Contacting an actual human is nigh on impossible . It isn't just FB or P.P. it's just about every group , organisation, company , club (and anything else ) that are affected . I've given up in disgust after being "looped " back to where I started so many times . And no, I don't know what the answer is . What really gets me though are the "Virtual assistants " . You click on that option , and you get a drop down menu of possible questions you might want to ask . None of them are of course , so you click on "did this answer your question " NO IT BLEDDY DID NOT !

 

[Lofty1984]

PayPal are easy to contact I spoke with somebody only last week

 

[Dry Rot]

PayPal are easy to contact I spoke with somebody only last week

Yes, but are sure it was human?

Then there's the code you are meant to key in when they phone it to you. In their time of course and allowing you just enough time to get to the phone but not to pick it up.

At least I seem to have got them to realise there are some who don't have a mobile and don't want one. Continually quoting the Equality Act 2006 at them finally got a result.

 

[Lofty1984]

I spoke to two real people makes a change

 

[Dry Rot]

I seem to have two links to Facebook. One always asks for ID and sends me notifications by email that someone has posted a new picture, but I can't access it without upoading that ID and when I try it won't acept it. The other is very bare and although I am adding friends and groups, groups won't load except individually.

I heard another announcement on R4 this morning about more breaches of security at FB. I thought 16 million lost personal details would be enough!

If they ever get Paypay, Facebook, and Google to work, they might be quite useful!

 

[Cowabunga]

I seem to have two links to Facebook. One always asks for ID and sends me notifications by email that someone has posted a new picture, but I can't access it without upoading that ID and when I try it won't acept it. The other is very bare and although I am adding friends and groups, groups won't load except individually.

I heard another announcement on R4 this morning about more breaches of security at FB. I thought 16 million lost personal details would be enough!

If they ever get Paypay, Facebook, and Google to work, they might be quite useful!

I think you'll find that they work perfectly well for most people. I'm afraid it's more your lack of relevant vocabulary that is the greater issue. Along with your insistence on not having a mobile phone, which most people from primary school age find indispensable for a variety of different reasons, including receiving text messages for two stage verification, paying bills and checking bank accounts, taking pictures, communicating and much much more. Including, not least, safety and the ability to call for help when isolated and in trouble.

Since I believe you have an Apple Mac, I encourage you to get an iPhone, which will work seamlessly with your computer as long as you initially log in with the same account/email address. Why would you do so? Well you will never know unless you get one. A new iPhone 7 or 8 will not cost the earth and will be bang up to date. A sim only contract will likely cost less than £12/month, which is unlikely to break the bank unless it was the last straw.

 

[Dry Rot]

I think you'll find that they work perfectly well for most people. I'm afraid it's more your lack of relevant vocabulary that is the greater issue. Along with your insistence on not having a mobile phone, which most people from primary school age find indispensable for a variety of different reasons, including receiving text messages for two stage verification, paying bills and checking bank accounts, taking pictures, communicating and much much more. Including, not least, safety and the ability to call for help when isolated and in trouble.

Since I believe you have an Apple Mac, I encourage you to get an iPhone, which will work seamlessly with your computer as long as you initially log in with the same account/email address. Why would you do so? Well you will never know unless you get one. A new iPhone 7 or 8 will not cost the earth and will be bang up to date. A sim only contract will likely cost less than £12/month, which is unlikely to break the bank unless it was the last straw.

If everyone followed your advice, nothing would ever get improved. As a matter of fact, I do have a mobile phone, just don't need the reassurance of my fellow humans every five minutes. I doubt that I've made a dozen calls in the last three months, and not many more on my landline. I am sure you delight the big conglomerates. They wish all their customers would do the same as you. So Facebook lose the personal details of 16 million of their subscribers? So what? There's always anther mug out there.

Need some money? Just introfduce a new model, some new software, and the current model is suddenly obsolete and fit only for the scrap pile. Why not build in obsolescence by gluing in the batteries so they can't be changed and the phones have to be thrown away? I believe there is pressure to make mobiles more repairable, due to complaints from people like me. And due to the constant complaining by people like me, they now have logging on by landline.

 

[Cowabunga]

If everyone followed your advice, nothing would ever get improved. As a matter of fact, I do have a mobile phone, just don't need the reassurance of my fellow humans every five minutes. I doubt that I've made a dozen calls in the last three months, and not many more on my landline. I am sure you delight the big conglomerates. They wish all their customers would do the same as you. So Facebook lose the personal details of 16 million of their subscribers? So what? There's always anther mug out there.

Need some money? Just introfduce a new model, some new software, and the current model is suddenly obsolete and fit only for the scrap pile. Why not build in obsolescence by gluing in the batteries so they can't be changed and the phones have to be thrown away? I believe there is pressure to make mobiles more repairable, due to complaints from people like me. And due to the constant complaining by people like me, they now have logging on by landline.

I don't do Facebook and from the contents of your posts I'm amazed that you not only do but that you also use[d] Paypal. Albeit problematically. Not sure what relevance your imagined frequency of changing [my] hardware has to do with anything, especially as I change as infrequently as possible, which means the desktop did nine years as a front line machine and still works as a second screen today. Phones generally last four years and the batteries can be changed by Apple on their phones if required. My three year old iPhone 8 still has 84% of its original battery capacity so will do another year or two yet before I decide whether to change the battery or the phone itself. If it does five years, the total cost of the phone including the sim contract will be £20/month tax deductible, which is plenty enough considering some kids are spending nearly thrice that figure.

 

[Dry Rot]

Someone just made it to my 'ignore' list.

 

[Cowabunga]

Someone just made it to my 'ignore' list.

You’re very welcome.

 

[Dry Rot]

An update on this one. Probably in response to my occasional rant on Facebook (copying complaint to all 'Help" sections and posting rude comments about the "service"! ) I am glad to be able to report that things have significantly improved! What I've found particularly effective is posting criticisms in the Comments of my own page ! The comment disappears quite quickly and an improvement follows. After all, FB is meant to be all about free speech! There is absolutely no reason why they should not promptly rectify faults either, considering the huge profits the likes of FB, Google, etc. have made over the pandemic.

So I shall continue to rant when things don't go right. People who like to appear clever often aren't. I seem to recall some time ago being criticised for suggesting that the human population could go the way of my rabbits which were all but wiped out after myxy followed a population spike here. Not very happy to say "I told you so" on this occasion but it's exactly what happens in Nature..