Friday, December 22, 2006
Sisyphian decisions
When you have an account with OurCompany, it's assumed that you and your household are going to be the only ones using it. That's not always the case, and we don't really worry about it too much, but we do ensure that your account can only be logged in from one computer at a time; ergo if you're trying to log in while your sister/friend/boss is already logged in as you, you're not going to be able to.
I just talked to a customer whose last few calls have all been about the fact that she can't log in, and each time the reason is that someone else is already logged in with her account information. In fact, looking at the logs, I'm surprised she hasn't called in the last two weeks, because there are numerous connections being made from two distinct phone numbers, split roughly 50-50. The numbers are in two different cities, too. Obviously, someone has her username and password. The most likely reason for this, based on my experience, is that she's given it to them.
If she wants to log in, the best option is to change the password on the account. That way, it's only her and whoever she gives the password to who can access her account. However, she said she didn't want to do that. "I'm going to try logging in again and see what happens."
O... K... but if you try logging in again, while that other person is still logged in, you're going to get exactly the same result as before.
"That's ok. I'm going to try again anyway."
I wonder what that actually indicates: did she give out the info and expect that the other person could log in whenever he/she wanted to? Or does she actually think that things might change if she tries logging in again, despite the fact that the situation is still exactly the same?
The feeling I get is similar to all those times where someone calls in with a problem relating to their username and password, and when I check the logs, I see that they've tried connecting multiple times (sometimes more than 40 attempts are made) and each time the password line is blank. I mean... the error tells you exactly what the problem is! If you know your password (and many times, when I explain the problem, they do), why not just try typing it into the box that says "Password"? The futility of it all boggles the mind. Well, my mind, anyway.
UPDATE: For whatever it's worth, the lady I'd started this post about eventually changed her login information.
I just talked to a customer whose last few calls have all been about the fact that she can't log in, and each time the reason is that someone else is already logged in with her account information. In fact, looking at the logs, I'm surprised she hasn't called in the last two weeks, because there are numerous connections being made from two distinct phone numbers, split roughly 50-50. The numbers are in two different cities, too. Obviously, someone has her username and password. The most likely reason for this, based on my experience, is that she's given it to them.
If she wants to log in, the best option is to change the password on the account. That way, it's only her and whoever she gives the password to who can access her account. However, she said she didn't want to do that. "I'm going to try logging in again and see what happens."
O... K... but if you try logging in again, while that other person is still logged in, you're going to get exactly the same result as before.
"That's ok. I'm going to try again anyway."
I wonder what that actually indicates: did she give out the info and expect that the other person could log in whenever he/she wanted to? Or does she actually think that things might change if she tries logging in again, despite the fact that the situation is still exactly the same?
The feeling I get is similar to all those times where someone calls in with a problem relating to their username and password, and when I check the logs, I see that they've tried connecting multiple times (sometimes more than 40 attempts are made) and each time the password line is blank. I mean... the error tells you exactly what the problem is! If you know your password (and many times, when I explain the problem, they do), why not just try typing it into the box that says "Password"? The futility of it all boggles the mind. Well, my mind, anyway.
UPDATE: For whatever it's worth, the lady I'd started this post about eventually changed her login information.
Labels: futility, login, sisyphus
# posted by Terry @ 11:42 AM 
