There are many things that I could rant about today. However, my random ranting spotlight has fallen upon electronic signature devices. Have you experienced them?
Very often parcel delivery workers shove them in front of parcel recipients to demand our signatures. The trouble is that it is virtually impossible to produce anything that even vaguely resembles one's signature on the slippery little screens we find in front of us. When ever I write my "signature" upon them it looks more like the scrawl of a chimpanzee in a laboratory experiment or the mark of an illiterate peasant from the highlands of New Guinea.
How could that mark ever stand up in a court of law? How could the parcel company ever be able to use it as proof that the parcel was indeed delivered? Anybody could have made that mark.
Ever since I could first write, I have written my name. As the years passed my signature evolved to become a part of me like my fingerprints or the colour of my irises. That signature is a symbol of my identity. It is in my passport and it is how I still very occasionally sign cheques. And yet the parcel delivery companies are clearly not interested in our real signatures any more. They just want the hopeless screen scrawl with their little electronic sticks like the illegible scrawl that everybody else produces for them.
What I would like to see is this. When asked to provide a "signature" on one of those devices, members of the public should start saying "No! I will give you my proper signature on paper but I am not going to sign anything on this device as I find it impossible to write upon. Go back to your company and tell them so. From a customer's point of view the device is useless and I do not wish to compromise myself by even touching the thing. Who ever invented it needs shooting!"
Ha! Well, you're right that it's impossible to produce anything resembling my normal signature on one of those devices. But I don't really care. I just make my scrawl and move along.
ReplyDeleteI guess you have got bigger fish to fry.
DeletePress on harder. If that fails learn to write on a graphics tablet.
ReplyDeleteThe fault is not with me nor with other members of the public.
DeleteTry being a lefty - it's even worse! And yes, I know they should work the same regardless, but they don't.
ReplyDeleteMy rant at the moment is with BELL Canada (my landline provider). They have been doing all sorts of upgrades in our neighbourhood and we were informed that if there was an issue with our phones it would only last about 20 minutes. It's now been 8 days! They managed to knock out a big chunk of the neighbourhood. Our Super is going mad because they show up - do nothing and then leave again and of course she got all the complaints from us tenants. I have been waging a Twitter War with them for days now. A tech is due sometime this afternoon - we'll see.....
In this day and age, in a bustling modern city like Toronto, such a hold-up in one's telephone service is totally unacceptable. I wish you all the best in your Twitter war but these big corporations often appear immune to all criticism.
Delete2 Techs showed up - wandered around - then disappeared without even saying they were leaving. Received an email saying another tech would be out today between 8 and 10am - it's now 10:30 and no one has appeared. Now day 9 without my phone! At the moment BELL is too busy congratulating themselves all over Social Media and on TV ads about a conference they are sponsoring tomorrow on Mental Health. A worthy cause to be sure however, they have seriously impacted my stress levels & my BP with this nonsense so perhaps they should concentrate on those of us who pay for their "services" and therefore fund these sorts of things! Not just me - apparently they knocked out service all over Southern Ontario last Monday!
DeleteI hate it too. Therefore, I have for the last couple years, and will continue to put a smiley face!
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! It's a technology that is slightly out of synch with people and we are meant to just accept it like sheep. Baaa! Baaa!
DeleteI agree. It's a usless device and sometimes the delivery men don't clear the screen properly so there is always a blotch from the previous scribbles! However I never sign delivery parcels with my real signature but only write my surname in block letters (we do not sign with our husband's surname in Italy we keep our maiden name on all our paper work: I.D., car licence, etc.) What worries me most is the device at the post office desk where one has to slide the a card and then sign on the device. My signature looks like a free- range chicken has signed for me!
DeleteGreetings Maria x
Well that's an interesting point about how Italian women keep their maiden names when signing legal paper work. I never knew that. I am glad that you share some of my irritation about these devices.
DeleteDare I say, "Take a chill pill, honey pie!" or would you then threaten me with a hammer, or maybe just an electronic signature device!
ReplyDeleteI'm like Steve, it just doesn't matter to me, but I purposely developed an illegible signature back in the old days of signing cheques. I could recognize it anywhere even if no one else could.
May I conclude that you approve of these devices? You deserve a medal if you are able to reproduce your squiggly signature on those little screens. Finally, may I assure you that there is no way that I would threaten you with a hammer Jenny. You may sleep peacefully.
DeleteThe way they hold the device in their hand and it's unsteady and you can't lean your hand on anything all adds to the phenomenon. I'm just glad to get my parcel and get on with my day
ReplyDeleteBut if the signature is illegible and so unlike our real signature why do we have to sign anyway?
Deletebecause some tech obsessed person thought it would be a good idea
DeleteI agree. My signature becomes an unintelligible scrawl on those devices. It is impossible for a person to write their signature as they would normally write it.
ReplyDeleteI do a lot of online shopping. I prefer that convenient, hassle-free method rather than having to face the madding crowds of large shopping centres, as well as the frenetic drivers on busy roads and motorways (all of which I hate) in Brisbane city or the Gold Coast.
The majority of the courier guys now know, and we always make comment re the mess of my signature on the device when the need for a signature arises.
As you say, if it had to hold up in a court, I know mine wouldn't. Even I wouldn't recognise it!
The judges would interpret the "written" evidence before them and conclude that our mental capacities were very minimal.
DeleteI could have told them that without having to go before them in court - and all that unnecessary expense.
DeleteMy mental capacity, like your own, has always been very minimal...that's why we understand each other so well, Mr. Pud! :)
Ugg!
DeleteIt's so long ago that I had a parcel delivered that I forgot about the signature business. It's exactly as you say. I work the casino for a charity and they have similar devices you have to sign.
ReplyDeleteRather than signing you could just press a colour button - Red!
DeleteAnd the truly ridiculous part is that the delivery guys have admitted to me on many occasions that if no one were home, they would simply shove said item (assuming it to be slim enough) through our security door and leave it!
ReplyDeleteIt's just a ritual - like a game. Surely the squiggles mean nothing.
DeleteOne could say that this is a minor inconvenience, but I totally agree with you that it is a useless annoyance. No one ever looks at those scrawls, but we seem to believe now that "security" is the most important issue in our lives, and that some illegible electronic scribble provides us with "security."
ReplyDeleteDear god, we all know the entities we need protection from are the very ones asking for the signatures. I'll spare you endless examples of corporate fraud and deception...you'll have your own favorites. As far as I can see, this nonsense is just cover for the big-time thieves, who can say "but we use the latest security measures...it can't be our fault that you were burned." Why yes, I feel quite strongly about this issue!
May I apologise for stirring your fire Kate? Before you read this post you were probably in a chilled out transcendental state.
DeleteWhen I took delivery of my passport recently I was presented with one of these devices to "sign". All I actually had to do was press my index finger on the very greasy screen, and that was that ! How in the world they know who's who if they ever try to decipher it, I don't know !
ReplyDeleteIt would only work with parcel recipients who have a criminal record - with fingerprints on file. You must have a dark history CG!
Delete