My Verizon Isn't Mine.

My phone died.
It started getting hot, then hotter, until it wouldn't come on. Until it left a char mark on the cardboard I use for a mousepad.
So I bought another phone thinking to change the number over to the new phone.


This is where the nightmare begins.
First, I'm to get on a computer and sign onto my myverizon account.
I never set up a myverizon account; never needed to. Did everything through the phone; in reply to messages and such.


Next, I tried calling. Talk to someone; they do this all the time. Easy-peasy, right?
I pity the ignorance. Especially my own.


They -- the automated system -- no real people with brains and fingers and such -- want the PIN for my old phone.
Yeah, no PIN. I used a diagram/design thing for unlocking the phone and such. No numbers.


Okay, we'll go through Google. Whats your email, and then again, a PIN.
I don't have a PIN. I have a password. A password will not work. It needs to be numerical.


Also, it never got to this point, but the phone was set up using a different google account. Tam couldn't remember my address so sje made up a new one. A few password changes and attempts to link accounts, and I finally DID succeed in linking the two google accounts and getting my phone to get email and notices from my 'real' google account.
In my mind, the next roadblock will be/would be needing password to the made-up-for-the-occasion account. I have no clue. Haven't needed it for about a year for anything.


And, oh yes, any time you try to get to talk to a person, the automated system says that that is a wrong choice (I forget the exact words) and disconnects the call.


There's a Verizon store here in Mt Orab. It's mainly for selling contracts, but I may go and see if they can help me. Probably not; they already have a reputation for being NOT helpful unless you are contracting through them.


There's a Verizon owned Verizon store somewhere -- I think where Beechmont Mall used to be, or maybe at Eastgate. No, it would be too easy and simple for me if it were to be at Eastgate. Anyway, I'm not sure where it is. And I'm not sure if I'd even want to drive there on a weekend.

I am at the mercy of the robots

Password

There's been a new spate of articles about unsafe or insecure passwords and how people use things they can remember as passwords. Probably to go along with the big shopping season the world indulges in every year.

There's validity to it of course. If you are giving out banking or credit card information, as is necessary when shopping, you want -- or should want -- your password to be as secure as humanly possible. (Please note the word humanly.)

The articles are baffling, though. You aren't supposed to make a password that you can easily remember, but you are also not supposed to write it down and keep  it anywhere remotely around your computer or on your person.
I guess that leaves the sock drawer out.

The articles go on and on and on about how people do this or do that silliness for their passwords PASSWORD is an easy frequently-used example. Or abc123. The writer talks about how obvious this can be and how it can let people into your accounts.

What the article doesn't say is what accounts. If you are on the Internet much, you need passwords for just about everything. Newspapers. Videos. Inspirational email clubs. Prayer chains. Comic strips.

I don't know about you, but if someone wants to know what I'm reading in the newspaper (with no paper involved) that badly, I don't mind making it easy for them. Since I'll probably share the articles on Facebook or other social media, they don't even really have to hack.

Same with videos.
There is a pointless need for password after password after password. It's hardly the fault of the user to make them easy when they are unimportant. Maybe not to the page owners, but to the user, who only wants to read Dear Abby or The Far Side, the secret code to do so is unimportant.

In fact, it is a major pain in the brain.
I mean, who cares?

I would be more impressed with password safety articles that addressed specific sites and/or behaviors. My banking password is more secure than my newspaper password. And, yes, I have the same password for a few different newspapers. Although it's simpler to read the free pages that can be searched for and found.

If an article wants my attention, be specific. My Amazon account has a different password. My bills each have their own password, which is not, when possible, the account number. Address those points and passwords, content writer. Explain to the uninitiated why abc123 isn't good to access your Swiss bank account. If they don't already know that, I'm not sure how effective your writing will be. They already seem to be lacking a bit of computer savvy.

But writing for the computer experienced with no new information and with a hodge podge of heaped together statistics isn't winning you any fans, either.

Tell me something new.