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A day of first world problems
Today was one of those days.
It started normally, I went to order a book for work. I went to the Amazon site, put it in my cart, and went to pay. As normal, it asked me to confirm the login, which I did. Not so normal was the next screen, asking me to confirm (by entering) my Social Security number and date of birth. I almost fell for it, but then I realized the SSN blanks were 3-3-3 instead of 3-2-4 the way they normally are. I also noticed that my firewall was turned off and I couldn't turn it back on again (error message), so I figured I'd fallen to some sort of virus attack. I suspect either a bad file or a bad website.
In any case, I called McAfee (now Intel, I guess) and paid $60 for a one-time fix. The agent opened a session so he could work on my machine, and he asked me to show him the problem. I did, and he said it was a legitimate site. I disagreed, and explained about the blanks, and how Amazon never asks for your SSN. He used a bunch of tools, and apparently generated a list of suspicious programs. Before I could stop him, he deleted Nook for PC and a little utility I use for running trivia games online. After he'd been at it a couple of hours, he and I simultaneously suggested it was time to elevate things to the next level.
He disappeared, then came back and asked if a callback the next day was okay. I said NO (yes, in caps) because I was going out of town tomorrow and needed things handled before then. He went away again, then said I would have a callback in three hours or less. Three hours later (3:30), he called and said it'd be another hour and half or so. At 5 pm, the new guy, allegedly a senior tech, called back. He asked me to show the problem, and again tried to persuade me that it was a real website. He pasted the URL into a website that identifies malware, and because the website identified it as safe, he insisted it was real. At that point, there were more capital letters at my end. He kept doing a couple of things, then going away for long intervals. And he tried to delete my Nook for PC app again (I stopped him) and I did let him delete something that turned out to be a real program that I'll have to reinstall. But finally, at around 7:15, he told me to try the Amazon site again. Amazingly, no request for SSN/DOB anymore. I'd pretty much lost faith, but he did manage to do the job.
And just because today was such a very special day, the story of my car was another saga. I've been planning to drive from Minneapolis to Michigan for a family thing, leaving early Wednesday. I'd had to do a semi-major repair ($900) a couple of weeks ago. The car was making a screeching noise when it started up, though it stopped after a couple of minutes. I called Bobby & Steve's on Nicollet because it was the place I'd taken it to the previous time. It's not my usual garage, but last time was an emergency, and it was close. I took it there this time because it was a similar noise that started the problems last time, and I thought it might be the same repair needing redoing.
The service guy called around 3 pm with an estimate of another $800 and said it was unrelated -- something with the air conditioner -- and I would only be safe driving it to Michigan if I did so without the AC. And he couldn't get it fixed until next week, so it was driving with no AC or another solution. I started looking at other travel options, and probably would have bought a train ticket and rented a car for the rest of the way if I hadn't been so distracted by the computer thing.
And then, in the middle of the computer tech's flailing around, I got a call from the car repair shop. It wasn't a $900 repair after all -- it was a bracket that had probably been damaged by the previous repair. So they fixed it for free, and I have the car back, and I'll be able to drive to Michigan after all. I very much hope there's no drama along the way.
It started normally, I went to order a book for work. I went to the Amazon site, put it in my cart, and went to pay. As normal, it asked me to confirm the login, which I did. Not so normal was the next screen, asking me to confirm (by entering) my Social Security number and date of birth. I almost fell for it, but then I realized the SSN blanks were 3-3-3 instead of 3-2-4 the way they normally are. I also noticed that my firewall was turned off and I couldn't turn it back on again (error message), so I figured I'd fallen to some sort of virus attack. I suspect either a bad file or a bad website.
In any case, I called McAfee (now Intel, I guess) and paid $60 for a one-time fix. The agent opened a session so he could work on my machine, and he asked me to show him the problem. I did, and he said it was a legitimate site. I disagreed, and explained about the blanks, and how Amazon never asks for your SSN. He used a bunch of tools, and apparently generated a list of suspicious programs. Before I could stop him, he deleted Nook for PC and a little utility I use for running trivia games online. After he'd been at it a couple of hours, he and I simultaneously suggested it was time to elevate things to the next level.
He disappeared, then came back and asked if a callback the next day was okay. I said NO (yes, in caps) because I was going out of town tomorrow and needed things handled before then. He went away again, then said I would have a callback in three hours or less. Three hours later (3:30), he called and said it'd be another hour and half or so. At 5 pm, the new guy, allegedly a senior tech, called back. He asked me to show the problem, and again tried to persuade me that it was a real website. He pasted the URL into a website that identifies malware, and because the website identified it as safe, he insisted it was real. At that point, there were more capital letters at my end. He kept doing a couple of things, then going away for long intervals. And he tried to delete my Nook for PC app again (I stopped him) and I did let him delete something that turned out to be a real program that I'll have to reinstall. But finally, at around 7:15, he told me to try the Amazon site again. Amazingly, no request for SSN/DOB anymore. I'd pretty much lost faith, but he did manage to do the job.
And just because today was such a very special day, the story of my car was another saga. I've been planning to drive from Minneapolis to Michigan for a family thing, leaving early Wednesday. I'd had to do a semi-major repair ($900) a couple of weeks ago. The car was making a screeching noise when it started up, though it stopped after a couple of minutes. I called Bobby & Steve's on Nicollet because it was the place I'd taken it to the previous time. It's not my usual garage, but last time was an emergency, and it was close. I took it there this time because it was a similar noise that started the problems last time, and I thought it might be the same repair needing redoing.
The service guy called around 3 pm with an estimate of another $800 and said it was unrelated -- something with the air conditioner -- and I would only be safe driving it to Michigan if I did so without the AC. And he couldn't get it fixed until next week, so it was driving with no AC or another solution. I started looking at other travel options, and probably would have bought a train ticket and rented a car for the rest of the way if I hadn't been so distracted by the computer thing.
And then, in the middle of the computer tech's flailing around, I got a call from the car repair shop. It wasn't a $900 repair after all -- it was a bracket that had probably been damaged by the previous repair. So they fixed it for free, and I have the car back, and I'll be able to drive to Michigan after all. I very much hope there's no drama along the way.