more techie woes

A common gripe amongst us elderly Rusters is to be forced into the smart phone/iPad world only to find it’s not working and there is no one to call.

I have spent most of this month under the incorrect assumption that I must pay the balance of an invoice by the end of it.

I happened to speak to the supplier that has a team of three on hand, well used to my despairing calls, to find out that the invoice was due in October 2023.  

Yesterday morning my iPad failed to charge.

Help was at hand as Grania – best friend of my p/a Polly – happened to be calling by, ostensibly to decipher the medical terms of my annual review.

She diagnosed the iPad problem as a loose connection from the charger lead and advised me to buy a replacement.

This I did, but it was not charging either.

It is my view that these iPad devices are constructed with built-in obsolescence forcing you to buy a new one with all the trimmings a few years later.

Even on Amazon these came with a surplus – I might say surfeit – of extras which my late grandfather would call ‘the mug’s eyeful’.  I will probably call in today at my friend the Bangladeshi in his mobile store who, for around £35, can repair the fault.

Earlier in the week I wanted to buy a ticket for an event and was of course diverted to the website.

After passing the ‘I am not a robot’ test (I do not know many robots who would wish to attend the Petworth Literary Festival), I reached the final stage of payment only to have both my credit cards refused.

I assumed I had typed in the wrong numbers so replicated the process carefully only to be refused again.

I left an angry message and was called back.

Of course, it was not their fault, but the payment function had crashed.

I retorted it might be helpful to have put up a notice on the website to that effect. The lady dealt with the transaction, pointing out that the seat I had booked was in the back, not front, row as intended.

Personal service trumps the Internet any day!