First off has been some very enlightening days as our Verizon 3G unit bit the dust. Happy to say the unit has been upgraded to a more modern unit with better capabilities. I guess, I will no longer be able to complain about poor speed. Of course is not the point of this rant, just a background so all can see where I am coming from. So, this all happened Friday with PC connection going down, so that starts this scenario.
I then decided since have no PC connection will do all business on the smartphone. So, I said great I have the Bank of America(BOA) banking application from Google Play, should be good enough to check my balance, right??? WRONG WRONG WRONG. You know I called up a few of these so-called technicians from BOA, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both of these nit-wits sat there reading from some lines of script explaining to me how to install the Google Play app of theirs. Hmm, was very amazing and told them both a dozen times, is not the problem. I figured since I did not give the smartphone number to the teller that opened the account for me, was the reason I was getting denied. I was assured by the first tech, that I would be able to use the app. Of course did not work. So, in the afternoon I called and finally told the technician give the script a rest after 10 minutes of that noise. Technician referred me to another phone number which he switched me to directly.
This time a woman talked to me and not really sure where some of her information was coming from? She started telling me that to use the app, I must be using Android 5? I told her "Now that is like telling me I should be using WIndows 9. Android is only on 4.5 which has just barely been released to some high tech devices. Android 5 is likely as Windows 9 since neither has been produced yet!" After that she then asked me what kind of Tablet I was using to access the BOA application? I said "Tablet? If I wanted one of those huge monstrosities I would just use my laptop. I am using a 3.5 LG Smartphone." So, she went on to tell me that the BOA appication is only for 7in and above tablets. I now wonder why there is no warning for that application on Google Play???
Same thing happened for another card I hold from an employer. Incidentally they also have a downloadable application from Google Play. Is called ADP Online. I received the same hassle of not being able to use the application. Also, even if I do not use any of the two applications and try on a regular browser on the smartphone I am denied the simple task of loging in to either site. See, I am not looking to do any complicated action, am just looking to know my balance. Now for the life of me, I do not comprehend why these banking institutions deny service on my smartphone. I may even look to change these institutions to others that will work with me instead of against. I want to be prepared in the event I get into another situation as I did Friday. These institutions need to understand not everyone can have PC and an Internet connection that never errs.
Then I have another issue that has just locked me out of another account I have. Auto-complete, you know is a great thing when you are trying to type things out on that tiny keyboard, but there are limits. Now, when it comes to some security question, I think I know what I want to answer and that would be the correct answer. Using Mozilla on my Smartphone, it decided 3 times in a row the answer I typed out needed to be changed to what it wanted and not what I wanted. Now that hurt me greatly and now cause this lock out which I will have to deal with soon. So, you can see some things like auto-complete can be devastating when it comes to security questions for a bank account. So, conclusion for smartphone and 3 bank accounts is terrible and in this modern day of technology where these devices are supposed to handle simple sign-in tasks is absolutely unfair for anyone in the above predicament.
I can understand if I am asking the Smartphone to wash dishes or drive my car to work, but something mundane as signing into a website???? Also most applications in Linux state their purpose and what they will work on. So, why can't those same standards hold true for Google Play Android Applications??? Some of this, I know sounds repetitive, but think about it, I am not asking to burn CD's, build an OS or create graphic designs on this small device. I am asking for something stupid and what any normal user would want to do, right??? After all, if these devices can not handle something stupid like logging into a website, what good are they???