Complexity
Jan 27, 2010 General Nonsense |
I keep getting unexplained bankcard services fees on my business checking account, somehow related to selling some of my original art a few years ago. I contacted my bank to clear it up. My bank could find no record that I ever had a merchant account with them. Nor could they find any record that I have a current checking account with them. They did acknowledge billing me for the services they say I don't have.
Allow me to say that again: My bank can't find any record that I have a checking account with them, searching either by my name or my account number. As I write this, it still isn't cleared up.
In the end, it will turn out to be something simple. I probably called the Bankcard Merchant Services department instead of the Merchant Services Bankcard department, and they can only see certain types of accounts, or some such thing. I don't think my money actually disappeared. The real problem is that the world has become so complex that simple tasks are nearly impossible.
I recently got a video switching device, professionally installed, that lets multiple televisions in the house display what is playing on, for example, a DVD player in another room. We just built our home, so we had the luxury of wiring it for that sort of function. It's a great idea, except that when I turn on the TV in one room it sometimes randomly turns on a TV in another. A team of very smart and experienced technicians have been trying to solve that bug for a week. In the end, I'll just live with it, or stop watching television, whichever is easier. Complexity transforms the simple into the impossible.
I went to upgrade a family member's cell phone the other day. I knew exactly what I wanted. The store even had it in stock. Still, the transaction took 90 minutes. It had something to do with using the upgrade of one family member for the phone of another, which ended up killing the wrong phone, hosing e-mail on my BlackBerry, and a host of other issue before we got it all working. Complexity made the simple nearly impossible.
Lately I've been trying to get all of my insurance issues sorted out. I need about seven different types of policies for various car risks, house risks, business risks, and personal risks. So I ask my insurance guy a question, and he passes the question to the carrier, and by the time I get the answer, I forgot what I asked. Worse yet, I have three more questions. Insurance documents keep piling up on my desk. Some want payment, some want inventories, some want data, some need review, and maybe signatures. I don't even know where to start. The complexity has overwhelmed me. So I just stare at the pile and hope a meteor doesn't strike the house.
I'd like to have an iPod. It would be great for working out. But I know that heading down that road would be disaster and heartache. Sure, it would be a simple task if it were just me. But the kids have iPods, and share an account, and there are gift cards, and limitations on porting to different devices, and a computer that only works half the time, and lord knows what other problems are lurking. The one thing I know for sure is that I'm not going to plug an iPod into the computer and happily download music with a few keystrokes. It would be more complicated than the Normandy Invasion. Instead, I just live without music. And exercise. So I suppose complexity is actually killing me now.
It was never a fair fight.
Allow me to say that again: My bank can't find any record that I have a checking account with them, searching either by my name or my account number. As I write this, it still isn't cleared up.
In the end, it will turn out to be something simple. I probably called the Bankcard Merchant Services department instead of the Merchant Services Bankcard department, and they can only see certain types of accounts, or some such thing. I don't think my money actually disappeared. The real problem is that the world has become so complex that simple tasks are nearly impossible.
I recently got a video switching device, professionally installed, that lets multiple televisions in the house display what is playing on, for example, a DVD player in another room. We just built our home, so we had the luxury of wiring it for that sort of function. It's a great idea, except that when I turn on the TV in one room it sometimes randomly turns on a TV in another. A team of very smart and experienced technicians have been trying to solve that bug for a week. In the end, I'll just live with it, or stop watching television, whichever is easier. Complexity transforms the simple into the impossible.
I went to upgrade a family member's cell phone the other day. I knew exactly what I wanted. The store even had it in stock. Still, the transaction took 90 minutes. It had something to do with using the upgrade of one family member for the phone of another, which ended up killing the wrong phone, hosing e-mail on my BlackBerry, and a host of other issue before we got it all working. Complexity made the simple nearly impossible.
Lately I've been trying to get all of my insurance issues sorted out. I need about seven different types of policies for various car risks, house risks, business risks, and personal risks. So I ask my insurance guy a question, and he passes the question to the carrier, and by the time I get the answer, I forgot what I asked. Worse yet, I have three more questions. Insurance documents keep piling up on my desk. Some want payment, some want inventories, some want data, some need review, and maybe signatures. I don't even know where to start. The complexity has overwhelmed me. So I just stare at the pile and hope a meteor doesn't strike the house.
I'd like to have an iPod. It would be great for working out. But I know that heading down that road would be disaster and heartache. Sure, it would be a simple task if it were just me. But the kids have iPods, and share an account, and there are gift cards, and limitations on porting to different devices, and a computer that only works half the time, and lord knows what other problems are lurking. The one thing I know for sure is that I'm not going to plug an iPod into the computer and happily download music with a few keystrokes. It would be more complicated than the Normandy Invasion. Instead, I just live without music. And exercise. So I suppose complexity is actually killing me now.
It was never a fair fight.
Votes: +94
Comments
-1
Feb 22, 2010
Around a week ago I noticed an interesting news item on our slienced TV. I rarely watch TV but on this occasion I thought I'd turn it up and listen. Sadly, getting sound back turned out to be like cracking a safe. Six remotes to choose from, each with submenus. Do you think I could work out how to get sound back? Maybe someone could but not a graduate electronics engineer of thirty years experience. It turned out to be the terrestrial digital box that was muting the sound and had quietly crashed rendering it uncontrollable. I had one of those 'its all gone too far' moments. That and the realisation that nothing really works properly anymore.
+2
Feb 4, 2010
where i work, my team's job is to support our customers on technical issues. To keep a record, a web based tool was introduced. now they wanted to record lots of other related data (like how many problems, per customer, time spent, etc etc), they kept on making the tool more and more complex by adding functions to it. At this point in time, it is complex that opening and closing a problem with proper process in that tool takes 60 minutes. it takes a few weeks for the new joinees to learn it (in addition to learn the product we make). The actual time we are allowed to solve a problem is 8 hours.Someday I hope our company would just have a dept to record info in that tool. maybe we can outsource it.
0
Feb 1, 2010
Years ago I lost months of saved pay to my bank. I had all the paperwork. Much later I found a guy with the same last name and the same first letter in our first names also had a SS number one digit off mine. Was he using my bank, I never found out. The bank just said they never got my money so there was nothing to give to me. And I never got it back
+1
Jan 29, 2010
BTW I forgot to second what at least one person on here has said, dilbert.com is horrifyingly complex for no apparent reason. I avoid it at all costs except to comment (thank goodness there are other ways to read the blog and comic).
0
0
Jan 29, 2010
Hey scott, have you considered that your wife is in league with these "experienced and talented technicians" to make sure that you're too paranoid to watch !$%* on any TV in the house in case it suddenly shows up on all of them?
+1
Jan 29, 2010
NCresident--you've just described perfectly why I don't buy anything based on a rebate--if the price isn't right the first time, the deal isn't worth it to me. Rebates are mostly a scam.Jan 29, 2010
I wanted to post a comment, but the registration procedure was so complicated and time-consuming that I've forgotten what I was going to say. Guess it wasn't too important.
+1
Jan 28, 2010
Excellent post, Scott.We're still basically the same creatures we were a thousand generations ago but we're now forced to deal with a thousandfold increase in complexity if we want to merge in today's society. And the level of complexity is increasing at a rising rate.
The next big tecnological breaktrough will be simplicity. It stands to reason, early automobiles and motorcyles were incredibly complex to drive, with little thought given to ergonomics or human interface. But as the technology matured, the interface got better because it became less of a challenge for the designers just to make the thing work. Our digital consumer electronics technology is still basically in it's infancy (20 years or so). When it's been around for 60-70 years, almost everyone will be able to use it easily. I avoid complex transactions and devices like the plague because they're still not very good. And if the frustration in use reduces my quality of life, the upside of the new device or service is eliminated.
Jan 28, 2010
Are you allowed to lead a simple life and read Dilbert?Are they meant to be mutually exclusive?
I love my old Motorola C115, single colour display, no camera, no contract, not a computer, it's just a phone, nothing else, I know how to use it and it works.
+2
Jan 28, 2010
"They did acknowledge billing me for the services they say I don't have."we had a similar experience the 1st time we tried getting our phone service though cable co - naturally they screwed it up (did I mention it was the cable co? obligatory Dilbert Future reference) but managed to do it in such a way that we could dial out but anyone calling us got a disconnected message. when I called them to report it they said the line had never been installed - I told them it had & that I was calling them on it. they simply ignored me & reiterated that the line had never been installed ("um, NO, l'm calling you from it"). amazingly, the only way I was able to get a new ticket created (/reopen old one/whatever) was to concede that she was right, I was wrong & the line on which we were speaking had in fact never been installed - you can't make that up! once I confessed (effectively under torture) that the line on which we were speaking had not been installed it only took another day for someone (presumably smarter than a turnip) to figure out that the screw-up was with porting our # - incoming calls were still being routed to the local RBOC.
two days later a technician showed up to install the line which had been fully functional for 48 hrs...
& then the cable co employees voted...
+3
Jan 28, 2010
Reminds me of deliberate confusion pertaining to rebates.Once I mailed in my rebate information and got it returned to sender. When I called to follow up, I found that someone had "accidentally" closed that PO Box. They gave me a new address and I eventually got my rebate. This is brilliant on their part. Half would not follow up after the rebate request initially got returned (this was in the days before Internet, so finding someone to call was harder). For those that do, they just give the correct address. The result is no one can really mount a legal case against them because no one who "tries" to get their rebate fails.
More recently, I sent my rebate information in with a cell phone. I was required to submit a packing slip which was a little taller than a normal envelope. Because it was oversized, I CLEARLY remember putting it in the envelope ( I kept a photocopy also). I later got an email that my rebate was denied because I had not included the packing slip. I called them up and they reinstated my rebate. Who knows how many people would not have followed up. But I could not raise a real stink because all it took was a simple call to get my rebate approved. Brilliant!!!
One more time... I bought a software package that had clearly stamped on the outside that there was a $30 dollar rebate. I took it home, opened it, read the fine print and found the rebate period had passed. This deadline was nowhere on the outside of the box. I called them up, they approved the rebate. I presume most would not have bothered to call.
0
Jan 28, 2010
juvegirl: The tech you spoke with who said your phone was damaged on account of the frigid 80F Canadian summer weather might have been an exceptionally bad tech at that company. I recommend calling back to get a second opinion.
-3
Jan 28, 2010
I have a Zune. I've had zero problems with it. It plays mp3s, which makes putting music on it as easy as putting it on a thumb drive. Always make sure your tech keeps to the simplest and most widely accepted standards. Apple is *not* an example of this. Compatability has never been one of their strong suits as they don't play well with others.
Jan 28, 2010
Apple largely did away with digital rights management.Get an iPod nano, and ask one of the kids to put music on it.
+2
Jan 28, 2010
Speaking of complexities, tax season is coming. Shoot me now.
0
Jan 28, 2010
When I was a child I used to marvel at the abundance of keys on my father's key ring. He would only shake his head and reply, "Confucious say, 'Man with many keys have many worries'".
-2
Jan 28, 2010
Ah the joys or the famous wealthy Mr. Adamas having to deal with the same bs as everyone else. :D
-1
Jan 28, 2010
Until you dump all the ridiculous overly complex junk on this web site, quit whining. You obviously take every opportunity to intentionally make your life more complex than it needs to be.Just make the index page www.dilbert.com/fast/ and we'll all be much happier.
Jan 28, 2010
There's an opaque light gray bar covering the leftmost 1/3 of your blog on every page, and it's been there for about a week; it's the exact width of your calendar widget and starts directly on top of it (the widget is at the bottom of the screen). I'm on a non-Intel Mac, that hasn't been upgraded to Leopard, and using Safari.
