Dear XYZ Credit Card Company,
I’m sorry I’m late making my payment this month. You see, last
month I entered all my payment information into an online payment
system and now I’ve forgotten my password. Actually, I’ve forgotten
my user name AND my password.
Dear XYZ Credit Card Company,
I’m sorry I’m late making my payment this month. You see, last month I entered all my payment information into an online payment system and now I’ve forgotten my password. Actually, I’ve forgotten my user name AND my password.
I tried entering every combination I could think of. But after 20 times, the system locked me out and said they would prosecute me for being the world’s stupidest hacker if I tried to access their site again.
That scared me just a bit.
So I went directly to your Web site and tried to login to pay my bill there. No such luck. Well, I did get my login name right, but I couldn’t remember the password. I tried to answer your security question so your site would e-mail me my password – but I failed.
You see, your security question was “What was my first car?” Now that seems like an easy question – but it’s not. I couldn’t remember the answer I gave you when I first signed up on your site. Did I answer with the make and model of my first car? Or the make, model and year? Or did I use the nickname I gave the car?
It seems I didn’t answer with any of those combinations and your site asked me to leave and not try to login again. It’s just as well, really. I think the e-mail address to which you would have sent the answer is one I haven’t used in several years. There’s no way I would remember the login and password for it.
After that, I tried to find my most recent paper bill from your company. Unfortunately, I remembered that I had signed on to get my bills by e-mail. And when I did try to access that e-mail account, I was so confused by being rejected by both your site and my bill-paying site, I forgot my user name and password, and they wouldn’t let me sign on.
Of course, I did try to answer their security questions, but failed again. Their question was “What was the name of your first dog?” Well, I didn’t know if they meant MY dog or the first dog I had as a kid or even the first dog that I ever came in contact with. And since I couldn’t login to my e-mail, I didn’t really see the point of answering the question correctly. If I can’t access my e-mail, how do they e-mail my username and login to me?
I think the problem is that I am a mom. I have way too much to remember and very little brain left to work with. I have to remember my child’s allergies, the dates on which his field trips occur and when he last ate vegetables. So it’s difficult for me to remember my password and username for every site I visit.
It would help if every site didn’t have different requirements for user names. Some sites want my full name. Some want an abbreviated name. Some want a name followed by a set of numbers. Some want a combination of upper and lower case letters, followed or preceded by numbers.
And the password requirements are even worse.
So I hope you will forgive me for being late this month. I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that I have made progress on remembering at least one password. I can now login to Nordstrom’s shopping site. It’s a start. Maybe next month, I will remember how to sign on to your site.
Sincerely,
Laurie Sontag
