PRUDENTIAL? VERY!

So there I was at the Prudential's website (Prudential UK that is) and I'm looking under the navigation menus and I can not find what I'm looking for. Time, I thought, to send an exploratory email or somesuch. Click on the Contact Us button. Whoa what is this? "We have implemented a secure email system for your protection". Excellent - good business sense - I'll sign up for that - click. "You are not using a browser we support - most people use Microsoft Internet Explorer - why don't you go HERE and get a copy?"

OK - rewind. These people have implemented a secure email system for my protection and then they built it in such a way that I can only use it if I am prepared to use the most security compromised browser on the planet! Not so clever after all. Yes - most people do use Internet Explorer but I run Macintoshes and Microsoft terminated support for Internet Explorer on the Mac some time back - so no security fixes are available! Ah, but what is this?

I just then spotted a menu item about Accessibility - click that! Ah - no - that's about access for disabled users. Maybe they think Mac users are disabled? Read it. No. Right. What next? Oh look - a link to comment on the website and its design - great I can tell them and maybe get some advice that doesn't require me to use that crock IE.. Click. Interesting - this one takes me into a screen that seems to set me up an ID on the secure email system that these guys have been telling me about. A trapdoor? Ah, sadly the layout is all over the place in my standards compliant browser. Shame, but that's life. So - I'm not going to be able to email them then.

Click Contact Us again and look for some telephone numbers. Yes. But no! They are all 0845 numbers - cheap calls but not available to people not in the UK. Bummer. Looks very much as though The Prudential has locked me out of all communications with them.

Much against my professional better judgement I fire up an old Powerbook that I know has Internet Explorer installed. OK here we go. Into the secure mail system setup. It is happy with my choice of browser now even though I'm not. Fill in a couple of pages of stuff - password (twice) - userid (twice) - mum's maiden name, date of birth - telephone number - stuff like that. Check all my input and click. And wait. "We are sorry but we are experiencing problems and cannot issue new userids for the secure email system at this time - error 503". Thank guys!

And to think - I used to work for these guys. Two months short of 20 years in fact. In the IT department. Sheesh. Oh well, what the hell - I'll write them a letter. Really high tech. One last click - this time on the built in dictionary on the Mac - type Prudential - "involving or showing care and forethought, typically in business". Yes - that's what I thought too!