Vodafone is the spawn of Morgoth!

[wiseheart]

Since they took over from UPC we've had nothing but anger with them. Their newest coup was that they decided they'd exchange all old (=UPC) mediaboxes into new ones. I told them in no uncertain terms that we don't need a new mediabox, we're completely happy with the old one.

That worked for about two, three months. Then one day delivery service came and brought me the new mediabox. Complete with detailled instructions how I should install it on my own. Instructions couldn't have been less understandable for a techno-wheenie like myself if it had been written in Chinese. So I called customer service and told them again that a: I didn't want a new mediabox and b: if the old one had to be exchanged (which was apparently mandatory) then they should send someone to install it because I sure as hell can't do it.

They gave me a scheduled time and today a nice young man came and did the deed. The new mediabox is less than a quarter size of the old one and is supposed to have many new, cool functions - none of which we actually need. In exchange, it doesn't have a few old, very practical functions we'll sorely miss: like displaying the number of the channel we're watching, or a short summary of the current programme on an insert, or the date and the time. F*ck them!

Of course, it came with a new remote, which makes Mum totally mental. She has poor eyesight and had a hard enough time to learn how to use the old remote (which, BTW, had larger buttons and was easier to hold), and now she can learn everything from the beginning - additionally to not being able to check the time or the channel number while watching the telly.

So yeah, you've guessed right. I am royally pissed. Why do they have to force all these "wonderful" new things upon us when we don't need it and don't want it? As I said before: F*ck them!

Oh, and I almost forgot: techie guy didn't take the old mediabox with him. No, I'll have to go to the post office and send it back to Vodafone in a special box I'm supposedly getting there.

Comments

[manue7a.livejournal.com]

There are things like Universal Fernbedienung für Senioren, and they don't seem overly expensive. Maybe that's worth a thought?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, she'll manage, I'm fairly certain. She's just pissed off that she has to deal with a new gadget.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

New gadgets, oh my God! I hate it when this... happens!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is abysmal!

[meathiel]

At least they installed it for you!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after I called them and protested loudly against the idea of doing it myself.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

when I turned on my computer this morning I got a bluescreen telling me I had to hook up my cell phone and my other computers to some system. I don't own a cell phone or any other computers and the only reason I'm able to write you this now is because I clicked on a thing telling this bluescreen to go away for three days. I have no idea what to do in three days from now.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You'll probably get the same blue screen and the option to click it away for another 3 days. I've been playing games like that with my PC for over a year and a half by now.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I hope that's all there is to it

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

OMG!!! They do that crap all the time! They updated our work computers last week, and so far things are twice as slow.

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

Ugh, new devices are torture. At least you persuaded them to send a tech to install the device. Well done!

[medievalrosalie.livejournal.com]

FFS. I hate that.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Me, too. The older I get, the more such things irritate me.

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

Don't send back the old one. If they press (which I doubt they will because what are they going to do with it?) tell them that, as the new one was unsolicited, it's up to them to arrange collection of the old one.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

This is why I hang onto any electronic device as long as humanly (and sometimes inhumanly) possible... I hate replacing them {hugs}

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you are going through!

My husband will turn 65 soon and is able now to sign up for medicare insurance, the government health insurance for seniors. To sign up for it, he needed to access the government Social Security website. He supposedly already had an account with social security, so all we needed to do was enter his user name and password. But, the Social Security website said no such user name, no such password. You could click "forgot username" or "forgot password" to have a re-set link sent to his email address, so we tried that. In fact, we tried every email he had ever created in the past 10 years and all came back unknown. So, he had to create a new Social security account. However, the site would not accept any information entered and eventually said he was locked out for 24 hours.

Then we found out he could go to another website called login.gov which lets you use one email address and password for multiple government websites. The new site asked for an email address, a 12 digit (at least) password, a digital copy (front and back) of your driver's license, a phone number listed under an account in your name, and myriad other information. He entered his email address, then had to wait for the website to send an email to verify the email address was his. He entered his new 12 digit password and the site said it would send a call to his phone. He would then have to enter a code included in the text message sent to his cell phone on the website before it would accept log in. So, he entered his cell phone number. The website could not verify that number as his, so he had to enter our landline phone number (yes, we still have a wired house phone). That worked, and he got to go to the next step. Then the website needed a copy front and back of his drivers license. He had to type in his cell phone number ( it accepted it for this procedure), have the website call his cell phone, click on a link that the website sent to the cell phone, line the drivers license up in a box on the phone and click to snap a picture of the front, then repeat the process to snap a picture of the back. He did all this, then waited for the website to read the images. It did, then said we took too long, try again. It took three tries to get the website to recognize the drivers license, proving that he was who he said he was. Then the website asked for his name, address, etc. and finally, he was able to create his government log-in account. The website then asked which other government website he wished to connect to the government log-in site. He chose Social Security. It brought him to the original social security website that he had problems signing into at the very beginning of the process, the one in which he was locked out for 24 hours. It took another 15 minutes for us to figure out that at the very bottom of that site, out of view on the monitor, was a box that allowed using his Login.gov log in email address and password to sign on to the Social Security site. It was a true comedy of errors. One which, I hope we do not ever have to repeat. So yeah, changes can be truly frustrating!