Check this out, recommended by my friend ‘emergency Tom’; why this rather than Skype (apart from me not liking Skype) you may ask?
Will give it a go and let you know about quality etc.
Viber | Free calls, free voip, free phone calls from iPhone.
Well, that’s at least what Lloyds TSB told me on the phone. Awkward. I never reported a virus on my PC. Not on Jan 10th (as I was told). And certainly not on a PC – excuse me lady, but I’m a mac! So what’s the issue?
The issue is that my internet banking login does not work – for a few days now. On a Friday evening I try again to login – and fail at the same error message: ‘We’re sorry, but we don’t recognise the user ID you entered…‘ Calling the hotline, I get the answer that I reported I had a virus, on January 10th. Funny that! Of course, I’m not a pro in IT. I’m only an enthusiast since the age of 12. But lady, seriously – there is no actual virus for a mac. Furthermore, I should be the first person to remember that I’ve reported something only 3 days ago. Early onset dementia – unlikely!
After 2 more minutes on hold – there you go, it wasn’t me reporting a virus (surprise surprise), it was the system that spotted a virus. Firstly, lady – we’re going in circles here – no virus, not on mac, and how did you spot some sort of abnormality in the first place, with me not having used any software of Lloyds TSB?
Secondly, why – the heck – doesn’t my bank tell me when they are convinced that there is a security issue?
So I get put through to the supervisor. A lady who kindly lectures me on the fact that my Mac is not as safe as I always thought (there are viruses out there affecting Macs, Mr. Kaier). Unfortunately, she cannot explain, how their system at Lloyds TSB might have spotted an abnormality leading to the lock down. Apparently they check with other websites. Very trustworthy indeed. It might be my IP address shining up somewhere suggestive of a potential virus threat. But that’s only part of their security/anti-fraud system. The very same lady lecturing me about safety on a computer does not know how their systems work, which should prevent me and my account from getting hacked/abused/etc.
Bottom line is: I need to run (or: pretend to run) a virus scan on my Mac before contacting the call centre again to unlock my account. Whether I actually do that or not does not really matter – how should they ever be able to check? Guess what – I just did that, and there is nothing. Nada. Niente!
Furthermore: the Lloyds TSB hotline is happy to lecture me on online security, but does not have a clue about how they actually check the integrity of my IT environment. They lock your account without even telling you so – remember the error message stating that my user ID is not recognised? That does not automatically prompt me to think down the line of a security issue. How can it happen, that I receive the information that I locked the account myself? Last but not least: If you are, hypothetically, really concerned about me having a virus – why do you not contact me, your customer?
Merlin Mann is the man behind 43folders and, in particular, the project Inbox Zero. Taking a break from revision a couple of weeks ago (or possibly just procrastinating) I stumbled across a few blogs which focus on procrastination (how convenient), time management and productivity. Not long until you’ll find Merlin Mann’s thoughts and I have to admit – some of these have changed my life (parts of it, at least). Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the look of your inbox, got annoyed by the fact that this email from a good friend/relative/colleague at work is still un-answered, lying in your inbox, waiting for the magic 60 minutes in which you sit down, bursting with motivation, to answer all the neglected messages?
Well, only so much – forget about it. That’s one of the take-home messages of Merlin’s series of articles about his project ‘Inbox Zero’ – you have to work on email rather than just read them. Work & process, make clear decisions about what you want to do with that particular message. Set up a designated folder system which basically handles all the messages you want to answer at some point but you’re not sure about when (side note: the last folder is containing all messages not processed within 60 days – Merlin called the folder ‘Euthanasia’ and it only takes you 1 second to process these emails – just think about how often you spent 5-10 seconds to be annoyed about the fact that this email is still unanswered, and now you solved the problem within 1 second, 1 click – and deleted it).
All above is just a tiny part of the – in my point of view – work of a genius that helped me to an inbox that now never ever contains more than 8 messages. It’s only a little thing in one’s life, but this certainly makes mine happier. Try it!
One could begin to wonder. We’re talking about a simple business account at a local bank. Not that I would be particularly fussy. My business is likely going to exist for tax and expense purposes only. But hey, even more important that I don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money every month on maintaining an account. Nevertheless you never know how things turn out and I’d much rather stay with my bank managing my current account – which turns out to be rather difficult. Let me get this clear – I’m thankfully not in a hurry! Because that, clearly, would not have been supported by my bank (we could name the bank ABC, or Lloyds, whatever imaginary name you prefer). You apply for an account online and they ring you back to tell you ‘We’re going to ring you back tomorrow’ - great. That was three weeks ago. Since then I rang the business account helpdesk who promised, that as soon as the representative responsible for me is back from his lunch, he would ring me back. Funny enough that hasn’t happened either. An email to the helpdesk did not help – no response.
So what do I do? Patient as I am (not!), I send another application online. A local business manager rings me back, leaves a message on my voicemail, I ring him back – and no response. So I leave two more messages on his voicemail and – four days down the line – I begin to wonder if this person has gone on holiday. Clearly bank ABC does have communication issues. And furthermore, I should give up chasing them and just open an account somewhere else, where they appreciate new customers…
What a geeky idea. You know who’d gonna get one…
