It’s a windows thing I guess. See, I bought this beauty iMac last fall so I could run what’s called the Wells Fargo CEO (Commercial Electronic Office) on my computer. It’s a little web based portal that allows me to never have to go to the bank unless I actually want or need cash. I have a scanner so that when I get checks I just log in, scan, balance and confirm and next thing I know the money is in my bank account.
Also, I can make wire transfers from the comfort of my office. I can do a few other banking things as well. When I signed up for this I a little gizmo came in the mail, looks like a mini thumb drive but it had a six digit number that changes once a minute. To do sensitive banking stuff I have to log on with my pin number and the number showing on the device. How does it know? It’s amazing.
Of course, all this only works in Windows. So, I bought the Intel iMac, Parallels and Windows XP and have been up and running with this for about five months now. Once a week or so I log onto Parallels Desktop, fire up my IE browser and do my banking.
A few days ago a message appeared when I started up the browser, something about my ActiveX controls and security. I followed the steps recommended to keep my information safe but then something happened and the computer no longer recognized the scanner. Well, I’d run into this problem before, called tech support and they told me how to fix it. (Unplug the scanner, then plug it back in.) So when I had the problem this time, I did the same thing but it still did not recognize the scanner. I messed around a bit with some other settings and as the day was getting on and I was getting more and more frustrated I decided to call tech support.
Now I usually have a lot of compassion for tech support people, I know they must get the brunt of everyone’s frustration so I try really hard to be polite. But I have to say that my tech support person on this day, a Mr. A. Hole I believe his name was or if it wasn’t it should have been, was not going to end up with my very best wishes. See, after I explained the problem (the computer won’t recognize the scanner) and he asked me to perform a task (unplug and scanner and plug it back in), the next thing that happened was I read him the message that appeared, which was “Parallels Desktop recognizes a new USB device, would you like to…” and that is where he interrupted me.
“Excuse me,” he said, which a tinge of frost in his voice. “Can you please read that statement again?”
“Sure, it says Parallels Desktop…” when I was again interrupted.
“We don’t support the Mac.” he said.
“Well, I know that but when I signed up for this service my local rep said you did, and when I found out you didn’t I went out and bought this computer so that I could run Windows on my computer and use the service,” I said.
“You need a computer with an Intel chip to use our service,” he said. “We don’t support the Mac.”
“Dude,” I said, “you are beginning to really harsh my high here. My Mac has an Intel chip, I’ve been using this service for five months and all I want to know is if you can help me get my check scanner going.”
“If you want to use our service with a Mac I highly suggest you purchase a copy of Boot Camp and a Legal copy of Windows Vista and at that point maybe I can help you.”
“You know what?” I said. “My software is legal, I resent your implication, and I don’t think you can help me.”
Then I hung up the phone. No goodbye, no nothing. Just a click. I messed around with the security controls a little bit more, restarted the virtual machine and eventually got the scanner to work. I hope his boss monitors his service calls because let me tell you, I can write the things he said but I can’t write the inflection of his voice. It wasn’t nice.
The other thing I found out later, was that I logged onto my CEO portal on the Mac side in Firefox. There was a message that said I may not have full functionality but it made the wire transfer I needed to do just fine. Next time I have a bank deposit I’m going to try it on the Mac side first, just to see if it will work, and a great big neener neener to Wells Fargo tech support if it does.
Tridiot rating: 334 781, this number will change in one minute
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