Peter Taylor asks... [S2E16]

 

Peter Taylor •

Here's another one for you. It requires an intro story:

Late one Saturday night I was making a flight booking online. It was a long process involving lots of decisions and choices. Finally I reached the point of payment. I entered all the card details and hit 'Pay'. It took me to my banking site where I needed to fill in a one-time pin. I waited for my mobile to ping and then entered the pin provided. The page went blank and up popped a message "Error 502: Bad gateway". There was no way back, no way forward and no indication as to whether the payment had gone through or not.

Now I had a problem. Should I reload the browser and make a new booking? But what if the old booking had been successful and paid for? I phoned the credit card hotline. A very nice young lady answered and I told her my tale of woe. I asked if she could just tell me whether or not the payment had gone through.

"No problem, Sir, but first I must ask you four security questions"

"Shoot"

Questions 1-3 go swimmingly. Then:

"Do you have an XYZ account?"

"Huh?"

"Do you have an XYZ account?"

"What on earth is an XYZ account?"

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I'm not authorized to discuss that"

"But I don't know what an XYZ account is, so how can I know if I've got one?"

"Do I take that as a 'No' then, Sir?"

"NO!....Wait!....I don't know!"

"I'm sorry, Sir, but there is no 'I don't know' option. You must answer either 'yes' or 'no'"

In desperation I answer "No" because that sounds like the most honest answer:

"I'm sorry, Sir, but you have failed the security test. Your account is now locked"

"What? But that is ridiculous! You forced me to answer yes or no to a question that I didn't understand! What now?"

"I am authorised to ask you another four security questions to unlock your account, Sir"

"Great! Go ahead"

Again, questions 1-3 go swimmingly. Then:

"Is your XYZ account still active?"

Ok, so what would your answer be and why?

 

 

Give Peter your thoughts on this predicament.  What should he have done?  What would you have done, in this scenario?

And thanks for favoriting and supporting the thread!

(posted by PrimalSoup)

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