Coddiwomple Special No.3

I love technology. Although I may not have grown up with it I have always been in awe of it ever since my trade first started using computer generated engraving back in 1981. My next words are about how technology has improved company’s efficiency and totally frustrated its customers and how you can be caught out by using it.

When Sharon booked our flights back to Australia it was through Virgin. Then when Sharon tried to do online check-in she couldn’t through Virgin because our flights were booked through another company Air New Zealand. Tried to check-in online through Air New Zealand, the site didn’t want to know us. OK so we will check in at the airport. Get to the airport we did self-check-in you don’t have a choice. Typed in our booking number it doesn’t exist. Asked for help, found out we use our passports to check in. Go back to the machine that shows what page of the passport to use. Line it up on these green lights nothing happens. Sharon is now getting very annoyed, so the technology king decides to take over and I was no better. Looked for more help and all the staff are busy. Kept trying for another 5 mins feeling like fools. I looked under the machine where the green lights are and realise there is a mirror further back in the machine where you place your passports. Finally, everything works and all our documents are printed out. We get back to Australia and use a passport machine again. This time it prints out a ticket for you. You go to the gate (reminds me of a starter gate at horse racing). You need to enter your ticket, remove your glasses then pass through the first gate and wait for your face to be recognised. Nothing happens. No lights, no movement, scared of moving in case it hasn’t recognised me yet. Again, feeling very foolish just standing there I decide to put back on my glasses. I can now see the instructions that reads please remove your ticket. Then the gate opens and I race off. Not quite like that because I turn back and noticed Sharon was also stuck at the starting gate. I do have to admit it was the quickest I have been through customs and out of an airport. Apart from Oslo airport a few years ago. We had picked up our luggage and got directed down this dingy passageway only to find ourselves on the train platform that took us in to Oslo. So officially there is no record of us ever being in Norway because we never went through customs.

Our next technology hick up was with our USA Visa Waiver which is required before you can enter the USA. It is done online. Sharon called out the website to me, but it failed to load. When I typed in the web site other ones came up, so I clicked onto the one which matched what Sharon had called out to me, so I thought. It all looked official, proper logos and everything. I filled out the form but there was no cost until I put in my credit card details. It ended up being $85 US which converted to $112 Aus each. I thought someone had told me they were about $30 each. Half an hour later we both received confirmation that our visas were approved. Once I read the whole document including the small print it says they are not associated with any US government department and was an independent company. Which totally put me into panic thinking I do not have an official document. I sent a copy to our travel agent and she says it looks official, but won’t guarantee 100% it is genuine and it should have only cost us about $30 AUS. We did get on the ship so it must be ok.

Our next technology challenge was in the NSW state library. We needed to print out our boarding passes for the ship. We went and asked about printing the documents expecting just to hand over money for the printer and proceed to a computer terminal to print out our documents. Of course it is not that simple is it!. We were given a piece of paper with a code to access the computer, a visitors pass that had a number to access the printing side of the computer and another number on the visitors pass to access the printer. You had to add money on your visitors pass so you can pay for your printing. After a very slow computer, Sharon finally sent the documents to a printer. Then walked over to the printer. On one side there is a change machine and on the other is a machine to add value to your visitors card which has to be done before you can print your documents. Only needed to add $1.20 to the card so put in a $20 note expecting change. Then read the note below saying no change or refund given. Should have gone to the change machine first and only put $1.20 on the card through the second machine. Even though the staff were trying to be helpful we lost our remaining $18.80.

With all our experience’s once you have learnt all these new ways and learn from your errors technology can make things quicker but not as simple as handing over cash or a passport to a person.