Do You Want My Money Or Not?

(Today’s installment on the frustrations of the 21st Century)

Simple, right?

My credit card was soon to expire, but I had not received the new replacement with updated numbers. Everyone with some sort of payment plan contacted me.

More than a score of organizations, businesses, and charities where I regularly pay money all wanted me to update my data. They sent me emails that I had to file away because I didn’t have the new card.

Well, it arrived, finally. It’s fun! Let me give thanks:

• Thanks for not providing a URL to update my information in the email warning me that my account/subscription/membership may lapse.
• Thanks for the popup window that asks me to take a survey about my experience on your website — before I have a chance to experience your website.
• Thanks, European Union for the GDPR. I know that it was meant to protect privacy, but every site now pops up with a banner to ask how I want my cookies to be handled — like I was never there before and never said “Accept all cookies”.
• Thanks, cryptic website designers who require multiple steps and page loads just to update financial information after login.
• Thanks for the total absence of an “update” my info function for my donation/payment.
• Thanks for requiring me to add a card before removing a card.
• Thanks for the helpful information about adding, deleting, updating, replacing, or editing my card information. (Which do I choose, again?)
• Thanks for the underpowered servers that allowed me to enter my login credentials and then cranked in the background to find my account. (At least I had time to get up, brush my teeth, and return. It was still a blank screen and the wheel-of-death was still spinning.)
• Thanks for taking my money each month and still not having any way to update my subscription information — at least that I could find.
• Thanks for the “donate” button (the only option) that left me wondering if I just inadvertently doubled my support.
• Thanks for blocking my IP address because I use a VPN.
• Thanks for the ambiguous account information that makes me wonder if I should go ahead for the “Premium” subscription or try some other option that is unclear and might leave me stranded by the side of the road. (That’s special treatment by Nissan.)
• Thanks for not even finding my account even though I’ve been a subscriber for more that two years. (That includes more than 24 monthly billing cycles where you successfully charged my card.)

I guess I’ll have to let those who won’t or don’t allow an update to expire. I’m sure they will follow up with me. (Oh boy!)