Mail Woes

For the first time, I actually thought of writing typing something worth musing about since after I had absent mindedly misplaced the better side of my surreptitious life. Obviously the holidays aren’t going to make me produce any more interesting literature than I had already done before.

I have.

So I finally picked up the phone today to call the university, hoping that their technical specialists could enlighten the situation that I have tangled upon for mighty weeks, a unique password change. For a start I don’t even know who to call, since they have expediently omitted the technical support number on their webpage that I have been redirected to to change my password. Then, a pleasant sounding lady transferred me to the appropriate line, which is well guess what, WebCT.

Right I should have known.

So the automated voice kept me on hold, repeating that same first phase of Kenny G song before interrupting to remind me that “they” appreciate me holding on to the line. God I hate these automated human voice, and to think that the person who invented this tool thought he was related to Einstein. So after an agonizing fifteen minutes which also equates to 900 seconds or one quarter of an hour, someone finally picked up the call, and she actually sounded alive.

Voice,	“Hello WebCT.”
Elf Lady,	“At last!”
Voice,	“Can I help you?”
Elf Lady,	“Yes. I have this huge problem trying to log into the student services ever since my password expired like, god knows when, and the system wouldn’t let me change my password because it isn’t unique enough apparently, which is peculiar because for the first, I did not reuse any of my previous passwords and secondly I had gone to such mad stage whereby I’ve started making up bizarre words that you can use to name a new planet or Stars Wars character, whatever, so yes, please tell me your system is breaking down.”
Voice,	“Um, can I have your student id?”
I gave her my student id.
Voice,	“Okay have you tried using upper case numbers and lower case letters?”
What the hell does an upper case number give you?
Elf Lady,	“Do you mean upper case and lower case alphabets and also include numbers? What! I’m suppose to do that?”
Voice,	“Yah, you never read instructions?”
I’m not unintelligent but the thing is, the conditions aren’t stated on the password changing page.
Elf Lady,	“Listen madam, the programmer who put up that page didn’t include guidelines you know. So you’re sure that once I have done that, I won’t have any problems logging in, because I can’t imagine myself picking up the phone and dialing your office again and going through that mechanical voice.”
Voice,	“Yes, should be fine, any problems you just call back.”

Is she even listening?

I hung up, displeased. I was expecting a tougher solution. Still, I had to clear my emails. So I went in and got redirected to the password changing page, AND successfully changed my password.

And then I saw this.

So that’s how they handle cases of flooded mailbox, by simply closing your account. Cool! I couldn’t help but smile peevishly when I think about all that junk material from useless clubhouses that I have innocently returned them. On that thought, perhaps I should just let my school mail flood up more often.

Have I ever mention how I felt about the school’s email system?