It is a well-known fact that computers are a better invention than even sliced bread. At least that is what I understand from the computer manufacturers and those who sell them. They make life easier and simpler mostly because you can cuss at a computer rather than a person thus helping to keep peace in the world.
There is no doubt that it has kept the use of paper down. Well, perhaps some doubt when one looks at all the hard copies that are made. Hard copies are not supposed to be needed, but what happens if the computer crashes or decides to put your file where you can’t find it? Computers do that you know, but it is not their fault. It is the dumb operators who goof things up.
Computers are great for paying bills. You just sign up once, sit back in your chair and never worry unless you have signed up for more than you have in your accounts. Not to worry though, the computer will let you know even if they have to assign a human to give you a phone call. Naturally such a phone call will come through using a number you don’t recognize so you don’t bother answering. The reason being is that it is most likely just another robot call. Of course, even if you recognize the phone number, you are not certain as the robot people can change any number to your area code. If fact, a friend looked once and saw that it was his number calling him. He did not answer!
Signing up for the handy dandy bill paying is easy, but un-signing is not so easy.
In fact, it is difficult to an extreme degree. It helps if you know ancient Greek or Swedish because the instructions to unsubscribe from automatic bill paying may well be written in one of them or some other common language like Icelandic. Thus, I was most proud of myself the other day when I succeeded in such an endeavor. It seems that somehow The Blonde in the house found herself with three magazines that she did not want to receive that had become involved in an automatic bill paying scheme. I told her that I would handle it (I hoped!).
Before the automatic stuff, if we did to want to receive something like a magazine, we would just not send a check. The magazine people and others somehow recognized this fact. That is why they give you a one-year special rate – if you sign up online and agree to have automatic payment (at the regular rate) each year – apparently into infinity. There is very little comment about stopping the process. In any case, after promising The Blonde, I looked into the matter. Amazingly, It only took me thirty minutes to cut out the automatic payment on three magazines. It would have been a little shorter but I had to do it for each magazine separately even though it was on the same site. Even with that, we received a communication from one of the magazines stating that by signing off on the auto payments, we had agreed to send a check for the next subscription. We didn’t!
Of course, the computer does permit you go to all sorts of sites that you never heard off before the invention of this marvelous device. The only downside is that they want you to sign up with a password. The experts advise that no one should use the same password for different sites. I like to be on top of these things so I have gadzoodles of passwords none of which I can recall at the appropriate time. Thus, we have a handheld “safe” in which we put all the various passwords. Since it is not part of the computer, it can not be hacked. We are careful not to lose the safe or we could be in deep problems.
I have taken care of that though, as we have them written down most of them in a small recipe file box – it can’t be hacked either. Yep, life is certainly simpler with computers.
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com.