FFS! tax company!

[BlaqueKatt]

Just a rant because the "online tax professionals" have become anything but.

I cannot get into my account because I forgot my password, which happens with websites only used once a year right?

so enter my username, click "forgot password" and what?

call customer service, explain problem.

me-yeah I have the email from last year when I reset my password and set up my security question, but the reset form is giving me a totally different question.

CS-yeah without the security question answer we can't do anything

Me-ok it's a question I didn't set up, I'm looking at the email right now, i set up x question, and it's asking something totally different.(think, "what city was your hamster pedigreed in?", vs "what line is in your favorite movie at the 32 minute timepoint?" it's that drastically different)

CS-yeah without the security question answer we can't do anything

Me-are you even listening to me? the problem isn't that I don't know the answer, it's YOUR SOFTWARE asking the wrong question, there would be nothing to match any answer to because I never set up that question.

CS-yeah without the security question answer we can't do anything


seriously 20 minutes of this, I offered to verify absolutely anything else. But no they have to have the answer to a question I didn't set up, have proof I didn't set up, but nope, only the one magic question apparently set up by magical faeries will unlock my account.

I was told I could set up a new account, only problem is it won't let me because "I already have an account, please sign into the existing account."


Seriously, company, you don't want my money? I've been using you for the past decade plus, I recommended you to numerous people because you were good. This is how you do business?

[bex1218]

I had the issue with yahoo email. Somehow the secuirty question got changed to what was the name of my first born child vs whatever I put (I don't remember anymore). I tried contacting them. I don't have a child. I have 2 dogs and a lizard and the occasional fish. They said there was nothing they can do. I made a new account and a gmail account (which is hooked up to my not so smart smartphone). I was pissed. I needed something in that email.

[AccountingDrone]

I had the issue with yahoo email. Somehow the secuirty question got changed to what was the name of my first born child vs whatever I put (I don't remember anymore). I tried contacting them. I don't have a child. I have 2 dogs and a lizard and the occasional fish. They said there was nothing they can do. I made a new account and a gmail account (which is hooked up to my not so smart smartphone). I was pissed. I needed something in that email.

On my smartphone they set up the email that goes with it, for some stupid arsed reason I can't remember the password from 5 years ago and it has no other way to get the password ... no second email account is pinned to it, so I can't change anything on my phone that requires using the email because I can't access the email [you know, after a certain amount of time they make you reenter your password, like every 3 months or so or some such garbage like that] and trying to get any live human with gmail to actually respond in a sensible manner is impossible.

I freaking hate automated only internet associated shit. It should be law that there is a way to actualyl contact live human customer service.

[Rageaholic]

I had that happen to me twice recently.

The first was with facebook Now I was never that active on facebook, but I did like to check it every once in a while. But they don't like me checking from a different wifi because the one time I did, I was forced to answer a security question. Okay simple enough, they just want to know my birthday. Except that apparently I don't know my own birthday. I didn't bother calling customer service because facebook was never that important to me, but it was frustrating.

But what IS important to me is getting a wage. And when after 2 months of not being needed at the library, I finally get some hours, but had forgotten the PW to clock in (it's all online). I even had another employee take me to the libraries tech support to see how I could reset my password, but they didn't know jack. So I had to do it by hand.

The problem is that you need is a password for everything, even things you shouldn't need one for (why do I need an account to fill out a job application?). And I already have another PW and account for the libraries email and online bulliten board. I would normally make it something simple and easy to remember, but some of these programs are very picky about how many letters and numbers are in a password.

[Bloodsoul]

This is one of the reasons† why I set up my forum to remember your login for ten years (or until you manually log out). Originally it was set up for twenty-five, but apparently setting the date to 2038 or beyond via PHP tends to make things screwy (at least when it came to storing cookies on my 2DS' browser).

†The other reason being that I'm lazy and simply hate logging in every so often.

[HYHYBT]

It's bad enough with a free service, but when it's your taxes...

Mom had a similar problem with her phone; the store set it up for her, which was good up to a point, but they didn't tell her she could use an existing account, or even ask if she had one. It doesn't matter much because she's not into getting new apps and she can get at her "real" email, but why they would do that...

I ran into something akin to the OP, though thankfully only with a news site. New York Daily News, I think it was. It was showing me as logged in at the top of the page, but the comment box said I wasn't. My profile page showed scrambled gibberish in almost all the fields. They did respond to my email, and said I needed to reset my password. I successfully did that, but it had no effect on the problem. Through several exchanges, they kept telling me to reset my password, ignoring everything I said about having done it not just the once, but each time they'd said that, and using the method they said to use. On the fourth or fifth round, when I directly asked why they kept telling me reset my password even though I'd done it multiple times already, they finally gave a reason (which they should have said first thing in their original response) for the first half: that some error or other months back had scrambled everybody's, and that going through the lost password process would fix it. They didn't answer the by now more important question of why they were ignoring that I'd done that and it *didn't* fix it, but they finally did respond to that the next time around, by saying to send them a screen capture and they'd look into it.

I did, and haven't heard back since. Subsequent emails asking about this have been totally ignored.

[Panacea]

I keep a notebook with logins, passwords, and security questions in my safe deposit box at the bank for just this emergency. Don't know this would have helped the OP, but I want to be sure I don't lose access to my own financial information.

[BlaqueKatt]

Don't know this would have helped the OP, but I want to be sure I don't lose access to my own financial information.

probably not, The only financial websites I use the passwords have to do with the arrangement of items on my desk*(both action figures, and common items-no one touches my desk), my password is changed everytime I clean my desk(once a month or so)

example would be:

action figure, pen cup, speaker, scissors(other items interspaced seemingly randomly)
becomes

ActFigPCspeaScis+random number

With the amount of stuff on my desk-even sitting in front of it and giving away that I use this method-the randomness of letters taken from each item and random capitalization it would be difficult to guess-I just use the items as a reminder.