Invalid Password????

Right. I know I have not used an invalid password!

Everyone has seen this stupid screen at one time or another...usually at the worst possible moment...like when you absolutely need to get a payment made on a credit card before the 3:00 cut-off! (Why do they make the cut off at such a ridiculous time anyway? Have they ever been told the day ends at midnight???) And by the way, I wouldn't be making this rush payment if they would accept a payment any day, but because of a holiday, I have to make it like "four hundred days" ahead of when it is actually due in order to get it there on time!!!

By the way...have you ever noticed that the credit card companies will make your payment due on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday...BUT they DO NOT accept payments on Saturday, Sunday or holidays??? What is it with that? Do they not know they can set the computer to set the due dates so they do not fall on a Saturday, Sunday or holidays??? Can they not use some of the money they are earning from us to have decent software so that can happen??? Come on!!!

I know that I typed the right password. I did it again...being "very careful" that I typed the correct password. Still...INVALID PASSWORD!!!

OK. Let's try this again!! Humf! Still the same response. Once again...same thing. Over and over I try what I know is the right password with them telling me it is the wrong password as if I think if I keep at them long enough they will give in and change their mind and let me in MY account!!!

You see, here I am at work, wanting to pay my bill like I said I would when I acquired the bill and now they won't let me pay it!! I know this security stuff is all for my benefit but sometimes I think they get carried away. Like why can't the government do something about these passwords?? I mean really...they regulate everything else??? I wouldn't be having this problem if password requirements were all the same. But no...I have to have six letters only for this password...no caps...over eight letters for this one...you can have caps...but remember passwords are case sensitive!!! This one you can have letters but you also have to have digits...and this one you have to have at least two digits! On and on...how am I possibly going to remember all these passwords? Why can't we say...OK...for passwords you have to have this format and EVERYONE has to use it? How simple would that be? All we would have to do is memorize OUR password! We would use it every time for everything! OK. Maybe not that secure but for sanity I could live with it!!!

Well you say, why don't you write them in a secure place so you could find them? I did. Only you see...I put them in my electronic organizer which is passworded! Oh oh you are saying...she forgot her password! Wrong. You see there is another screen we have all seen. The one where after thousands of times of trying the INVALID PASSWORD they give you the option of changing your password. I don't want to change my password. My DH knows the password (I am saying I know it, too, however we seem to be in disagreement here...) and I don't want to mess him up and change it. Then he will see this stupid screen when he tires to log-in!

So...seeing that it is now 2:30 and I have to have this payment in by the end of they day which they say is 3:00...I consent to changing the password. After only twenty-five minutes of trying to find a password they will agree fits their requirements I sneak the payment in and make the cut-off by just a couple of minutes!! Mission accomplished!!...Sort of!!

You see, by this time I am pretty frustrated and just want to close the site down and forget about this whole past what seems like four hours!! I do remember to stick one of those post-it-notes to my little pill timer case (I have to take medicine every 3-1/2 hours so I have to carry a timer) so I am sure to tell DH the new password...which I did, and changed it on the master-security-sheet at home,too! Pretty good, right?

But low and behold...through my own error...when I go to rush a payment in again...when I have to get it in way ahead of the due date due to it being due on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday...I am again at work...the end of the day time of 3:00 is fast approaching...and I get the same INVALID PASSWORD screen again.........because in my frustration...I forgot to change the password in my electronic organizer!!! The beat goes on and on and on!! *sigh*

I still refuse to take credit for this failure of forgetting to put the new password in my organizer BECAUSE none of this would have happened if they would not have made the due date on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday or if they had not made the day end at 3:00 in the afternoon! If those two things didn't happen I would have been at home on the day that the payment is usually made to have it post on time paying it before the end of the day which, 'in the eyes of a reasonable man' as they say, is midnight!!! Case closed!!! Their fault!!! However...I am frustrated and they are not! So I guess I had just better calm down and take it all in stride. This will never change so I guess the change has to come with me. What a bummer!

Speaking of security. Like I said I really do appreciate and understand the need for security on the net, but sometimes I just don't get it. Like the other night I registered with a site. Got it all set and hit submit. Nothing happened. I thought I would get a confirmation or a screen that said I would get an email and have to validate or something! Nothing. So I thought...ok...I guess I can just go log-in. Wrong. Invalid password!! Do you believe this? I think maybe the password gremlins are after me!! LOL LOL So I go through the same routine again and again. Still won't let me in. Now I am thinking that maybe I didn't get submitted at all so I start to register again. Not going to happen...says that user ID is already taken. (Do you think I should stay off the Internet???) So I write to Contact Us knowing it will probably take at least a week before I hear anything. Well was I wrong. I sent the email at 2:30 a.m. and by 3:17 a.m. I had a response. Not the response I was expecting but still a response. It said they reset my password to 123456, tested it and it is now working. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please try the site and make sure it worked for me and it it did not please let them know. Wow! That was quick. I tried it and it worked!!! Great. Except what about this thing called security? I thought they would want me to reset my password but no. There is no place for you to do it!! Duh. So here I sit with the all time most difficult password in the world to remember being MY password!! Yea!! Glad this is not a site with any important information on it! Not even an address so I guess that is why they are not really concerned about it!!

Oh my. I have rambled tonight but I am sure all of you have suffered with this same thing! I guess that in the world that we live in now, this is just the way it is going to be!! I am just hoping beyond hope that you can teach old dogs new tricks!!

Enjoy...