[Critique Group 1] cleora june submission

[sitting.duck at springmail.com]

13280 words
scream, curse, throw things
by C. S. Boyd

Any of us who have had to deal with technology to get something done, have experienced the frustration and irritation of the sometimes impossibility of accomplishing our goal.

We boot up our computer only to be confronted with its demands that we perform some update, reconfigure settings, or reboot so it can finish some update of interest only to it. We launch an app to perform a task and spend endless minutes searching for the magic link or button to take us to the desired feature and then struggle thru the steps to get the program to find and select the correct items to submit the task.

I just finished a two day, actually all told it has been four days, project to make a simple deposit and transfer the funds from one bank to another. 
The first hurdle was to convince my bank app to accept an image of the front and back of the check and deposit the funds in my account.
Next, is to move the money to an account specifically set up for transfers to the other bank.
No! Says the program. The money is not yet available even though I can see the transaction and that the money has been added to the balance.

The reason for this, as I'm sure you know, is that the bank insists on confirming that the check is good before letting me do anything with the money.

So, I wait.

Now, I get an email from my bank informing me that I haven't used Zelle, an instant money transfer option that I set up a little over a year ago, in the last 17 months, so If I don't use it in the next three weeks, my account will be deactivated. I am assured that if I decide to use it after it is deactivated, I can simply go in and set it up again. Since it took me a full day and the help of five different agents of varied knowledge and ability to set it up in the first place, I determine that I will try to keep it active.

Ok, I think, I need to transfer the money from the check. I'll use Zelle to do that. Two birds with one stone, as it were.

I check the next day and find that the funds have been made available.

I log into the bank app, record by balances, tap on the menu button, select "Transfer with" and find myself in the Zelle transfer option.
I select transfer to friends and family.
Can't believe, things are going entirely to well.
I press on
Now, what I need is a list to pick the destination bank from.
There is no list.
I find a link that vaguely sounds like it may help.
Hmmm... 
After some fiddling, I call the internet banking customer service number.
Fortunately, I get a representative that while he doesn't listen well, at least has some ideas how to get this done.
After 15 minutes of diligent labor, I am rewarded with a transfer of $2,000 of the $3,821.85 that I wanted to send.
Turns out there is a$2,000 daily limit. I propose that maybe I could transfer the rest from the other bank where Zelle is also set up.
“No,” the rep tells me. “The limit is $2,000 from my bank no matter which bank I make the Zelle transfer from.”

But, I have transferred more than $2,000 using the ACH transfer. The limit is on Zelle transfers only. Okay, I think, fine, I will set up an ACH transfer for the rest and the money will get there tomorrow.

I go to the transfer feature and find out the Earliest I can set the transfer up for is tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Friday, That means the transfer will not be processed until Monday delaying its arrival until Tuesday.

The rep was right. It would be faster to use Zelle to transfer the rest tomorrow.

So, next morning I'm lying awake in the wee hours and decide to get up and make the transfer.
It goes smoothly. Sort of. It's really hard to find the buttons and links sometimes. With Zelle, the screen is not logical at all and there is the worry that the app may decide to log me out before I finish.
After successfully transferring the remaining funds, I now need to use the other banks app to transfer the money from the account that is attached to Zelle, to the savings account so it can earn higher interest.

If my local bank's app was a challenge, the other bank is even worse, but after 30 minutes, I have accomplished my goal.

Now, what I have to remember is that 50 years ago, I would have had to take the check to the bank to deposit it. Then, write a check and mail it to the other bank. This process, given the mail service at that time, would have taken 3 to 5 days.
Despite the frustration, thanks to technology I can deposit a check from my home, transfer the money back and forth between multiple accounts almost instantly, and I could have done none of this as a blind person 50 years, and some of it not as recently as 10 years ago.

All in all, as irritating and frustrating as it is at times, we need to pause and give thanks for the amazing capability technology gives us. Oh, wait. If I had deposited the check and then mailed a check to the other entity to transfer the funds, or if I had just mailed the original check for deposit to the other bank, it would have taken 3 to 5 days. So the only benefit from technology, is I was able to do it here at home using my apps, and didn't have to find someone to take me to the bank and help me mail a check to the other financial institution. So, in this case, technology didn't save any time, it was just more convenient.

other technical challenges

The Automated Assistant that answers the phone. You know, the one that tries for three minutes to convince you that it can help and a person isn't needed. Then there is the answering system with a menu of options none of which fit the reason I'm calling. Once I'm finally in the queue for a representative, it periodically tells me that I can Go to www dot blah blah blah for faster service. Have you ever tried that? If this option is really easier, why is there a long wait on hold to talk to a person? Maybe they are so sure that the website or automated assistant can help they only have one person answering calls.

If it weren't for technology I couldn't record a show that airs at midnight and watch it at my leisure. For that matter, I wouldn't be able to record a movie and watch it a few minutes at a time over a week. One thing I particularly enjoy is being able to fast forward through the commercials. I couldn't attend a worship service remotely, and I couldn't attend far away conferences. So, I admit it, technology is great, but I don't think it really saves us that much time. In most cases, it just makes things more convenient. 

I recently heard of yet another innovation. A friend and his wife went to a restaurant. When they asked for a menu, the waitress told them it was the bar code on the table. They had to take a picture of the bar code with their phone to download the menu and make their selection. What if you don't have a smart phone? Will it work with voice over? For another time, the things technology makes impossible for those of us who can't see, or who don't have the latest and greatest gadgets.