What irks me are items you can't get in shops at all--only online. I don't have a credit card (never had one, and now I'm retired I don't intend to get one) so a vast range of stuff is now unavailable to me. Most software these days is sold online and downloaded; so I'm stuck with freeware or nothing. I was lucky to get a current Photoshop Elements in a box at a store; mostly not available in computer stores now, only occasionally in camera stores.
I thought, right, get a pre-pay "credit card", actually a debit card really. What a shambles. Drive to store to get one. Sure, I can get it, but must provide my mobile phone number. Eh? Okay, home again, get mob phone, find number (printed on a label stuck inside the battery lid, because I can't remember it), pay in some cash, take card home. Now, onto computer to fill in a fantastically obscure form which isn't explicit about what I wants. eg, enter number on card. Well, number is, eg 1234 5678 9123 4567 so that's what I enter. Rejected. Only numbers please. Eh? After much thought, try again without the spaces, and it works. Why doesn't it state this above slot? Then it wanted various secret words, passwords, and so on, which I have to make up on the spot. And write down. Then it wants a user name. Insert my name. Rejected. Letters only please. Now I'm right across this... I renter without caps or spaces. Okay. good. Tnen it wants something like a CVV Number. Nowehere on any of the documentation that came with the card, or on the website or entry form, is any clue as to what this is. I study card, find an inkjet number small enough to fit the slot, try this. Nothing much happens.
Ring helpline using wall-phone. Local helpline shifts me to a different helpline in Glasgow, judging by accents. As far as I can make out (it's a very dense Glasgow accent) I guessed the right number. Back at my PC, it has been accepted. Gosh. Now I'm ready?
Nope. Now I get my mobile phone and have to TEXT a cryptic code to someone. This is the FOURTH piece of apparatus so far (car, PC, landline, now mobile) I've had to employ. Catch is, I've never done a text in my life. Steep learning curve for a newbie. Good thing I kept the manual for my nine-year-old Nokia. After an endless amount of wearing and errors, i finally get the message away.
Two weeks later, no text reply with my PIN number as promised.
Clearly, I botched the text. No surprises there. So I've got to gird the loins and tackle Glasgow again.
All this to buy a $19.95 software utility! (Which I still haven't got.)
I know, I know; six year old kids can do all this stuff standing on their heads. But I'm not six.