On the ongoing subject of tech nightmares. The first of which was trying to learn WordPress. Yesterday was a whole world of pain and anxiety.
First, I was trying to register on a ride website, like Uber, Cabify, which is the main ride app in Spain. I’m soon to be going. I requested tech support but was shunted to a third party “tech support” platform known as “Just Ask”. I was asked for my credit card number, “redeemable” for a charge of $1. A few minutes later, Chase Bank sent me a text asking if I had approved a $46 charge from the same source. I answered “no”. Unfortunately, my card had to be canceled just days before I was to leave for Spain.
I’ve got to hand it to Chase. They are vigilant in catching fraud unlike a former card that I had to cancel due to multiple fraudulent charges that were never settled. One was a duplicate charge, another, a recurring charge from Gym X. They refused to stop charging me even after I got a new card. They are out of business now.
Later that day, being a glutton for punishment, I got on Chat with what I thought was someone associated with Canon. If they were, it wasn’t directly. I got an error code which indicated that the Wi-Fi I was using was unstable. “Tech help” didn’t the meaning of the error code until I asked. He said that of course he could solve my problem if I only downloaded an app which allowed him to take control of my computer and gave him my payment information. I had already guessed that this guy wasn’t too bright, since he asked me to get on the browser that I had been contacting him through. I felt pretty stupid by that point, but I was learning and shut him off. Later, with better Wi-Fi I got on the legitimate Canon website.
My problems that day were not done. British Airways emailed my itinerary, which was quite different from the one first given to me through Expedia. I got on to Chat with Rahul, who seemed to have no record of my previous itinerary. I had emailed my itinerary to a couple of people already. The new itinerary puts me one day later at my destination. I sent multiple screenshots, and he sent me at least 7 copies by email of the new itinerary. He never acknowledged that the itinerary had changed. Rahul insisted that he was a human being, and not a robot, although he behaved like one.
Unfortunately, with the new itinerary, I am to leave JFK 10 14 minutes before I arrive. When I tried to change it I got a warning that my luggage would be going the way of the unchanged itinerary, so I was stuck. I decided to take the big risk that British Airways knew what they were doing.
What’s to be learned? There are multiple tech help scams out there, so be careful what you click on. Also, if the tech help appears less tech-savvy than you, then it’s a trap. My IT skills have atrophied mightily since 20 years ago, when I spent hours playing around with various computer programs just to figure out how they worked. As I indicated before, working in a hospital, since the advent of computer, will kill your love for computers.