It\u2019s been a couple of weeks for me.<\/p>\n
Not really rough, but tiresome.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Fraud Department of one of my credit cards contacted while I was on the way to the car service people. Someone was trying to book a 4K stay at a luxury resort in Wyoming using the card I\u2019d just pulled out of the safe for the car repair.<\/p>\n
Great!!! Just what I needed. More annoying was that Apple and CarPlay won\u2019t let you press or select any numbers while driving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Know what that means? If you\u2019re stuck in traffic and have something like this happen, you can\u2019t get through the fucking phone tree. \u201cPlease make a selection\u2026 Please make a selection\u2026 Please make a selection\u2026 Please make a selection\u2026 Please make a selection\u2026 Please make a selection\u2026 I didn\u2019t hear anything, Goodbye!”<\/p>\n
I haven’t found out if it\u2019s a setting I can change in the phone or if this is some \u201cNew\u201d feature. I turned off CarPlay, dug my earbuds out of my pocket, put them in, then dialed the number again. This time I could press buttons and was breaking the law doing it. I also wasn\u2019t able to use the fancy built in functions in my damn car like hands free interfaces and the Microphones and speakers built into the car.<\/p>\n
Very annoying! What are business people who are reliant on entering extensions, or even pressing 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for Hindi, 4 for Farsi supposed to do? There are people that make a living going from client to client all day long. How are they supposed to call a client to say they\u2019re hung up in traffic and will be an hour late?<\/p>\n
Unintended consequences! Someone didn\u2019t think this through.<\/p>\n
Did a quick search and it appears this is some bullshit thing that the car manufacturers did. BMW, Kia, Ford, Hyundai, Subaru, and others customer’s are all bitching about it in IOS 18. I\u2019d seen it once before, and had also noticed I couldn\u2019t scroll through my contacts list anymore either.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Siri, and the BMW voice recognition just doesn\u2019t understand what you\u2019re saying due to traffic \/ road noise. Try getting Siri to understand you while you\u2019re sitting next to an Idling big rig, or someone in the car next to you rattling your teeth with their overly amplified bass music. That happens all the time in epic Southern California traffic jams.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the point of a safety feature that forces you to be unsafe to accomplish a simple thing like make a phone call, or call your next client whose name you kind remember but not exactly?<\/p>\n
I swear to God, I\u2019m sick of living in “nanny world”.<\/p>\n
If I can\u2019t use my phone driving with a fully integrated hands free system then what\u2019s the point of having a damn phone with me all the time? Honestly, maybe going back to land lines with answering machines wouldn\u2019t be such a bad thing.<\/p>\n
I guess having CarPlay installed in the car isn\u2019t that much of a priority anymore. If it\u2019s this broken why bother? Maybe I\u2019ll disconnect from CarPlay and see if my system will allow just a bluetooth or wired connection to work properly.<\/p>\n
Sounds like an interesting experiment for sometime this weekend.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, the 4K charge was declined, and all the other charges were declined\/reversed as well. I might be on the hook for $50 but thankfully that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
The person I finally got to talk to after navigating the phone tree, entering zip code, account numbers and all the rest of the bullshit to verify I was indeed a person, was actually helpful. They closed the account then issued a new card which arrived FedEx the next day.<\/p>\n
I still have no idea how that number got out into the wild. The card had been in my safe for over a year, and wasn\u2019t being used for any recurring payments. In fact I hadn\u2019t charged anything on the card for at least 18 months.<\/p>\n
The situation was handled but really hacked me off.<\/p>\n
I checked all the other accounts and found no unrecognized charges.<\/p>\n
Today, I was notified that one of the credit reporting agencies had a breach of 4 million records Name, address, phone number, SS number, DOB, and literally everything else a credit reporting agency has access to, probably including account numbers.<\/p>\n
Thrilling!<\/p>\n
So be mindful out there, check those transactions, especially over this holiday weekend. I sincerely hope that the fuckers trying to take a luxury vacation on my dime get screwed or worse.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d personally like a few hours with them, in a good old fashioned S&M dungeon. Believe me, they\u2019d not have a good time. I\u2019d make Torquemada look like an amateur. At least when I was done, they wouldn\u2019t contaminate the gene pool any further. Testicle pat\u00e9 anyone? I feel pretty much the same way about the call scammers too.<\/p>\n
To get a feel for what I\u2019m saying, watch the movie \u201cThe Beekeeper<\/em>\u201d No S&M but the protagonist burns a bunch of telephone scammers shit down. It\u2019s very satisfying!<\/p>\n Starting with the credit card, an unexpectedly expensive car repair, and dealing with various aspects of the medical profession I need the long weekend. I\u2019m not working, if I was also dealing with the stresses of a job, I\u2019d be a complete nut case.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m getting too old for this shit!\u201d To quote Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon”<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n I think I\u2019m going to turn off the technology and take a techno-break for the next few days.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a good binge show and you\u2019ve got Amazon Prime, I can recommend “The Terminal List” <\/em>everyone gets what\u2019s coming to them, deservedly so. It\u2019s another pretty darn satisfying series.<\/p>\n Time for me to pack it in.<\/p>\n Have a great long weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been a couple of weeks for me. Not really rough, but tiresome. Last week, the Fraud Department of one of my credit cards contacted while I was on the way to the car service people. Someone was trying to book a 4K stay at a luxury resort in Wyoming using the card I\u2019d just … <\/p>\n