"Clive" wrote in message
...
| In message , Chris Tolley
| writes
| Clive wrote:
|
| I have frequently been refused onto a sight and redirected to correct
my
| phone number as it's only 10 digits in total. Normally after about
two
| tries I give up, If the software is so sloppy then their service is
| likely too be the same.
|
| ... and there's absolutely no chance that you would have made a mistake
| or typing error on the screen?
|
| No, I go back to the incorrect field which is usually marked with a star
| and it's asking for a proper telephone number.

Is that the same software that refuses to accept any house number ending in
"A" (and there are quite a few) because it thinks you are living in a flat
or maisonette? Even the Post Office uses this rubbish software, as I found
out when I booked travel insurance from them. Argos does as well, resulting
in me having to fill in a form at the counter, not on their pay terminal,
when I bought a TV from them. My house number ends in "A", not because it
is a subdivision of one house but because it was built on an infill site and
the Post Office did not think it necessary to renumber every house on from
us on our side of the road. So software they use does not recognise house
numbers they have actually allocated!

There is far too much software written without checking or thinking about
whether it will actually work in the real world.
--
- Yokel -

"Yokel" posts via a spam-trap account which is not read.

On 6 Feb, 21:43, "Yokel" wrote:
"Clive" wrote in message

...
| In message , Chris Tolley
| writes| Clive wrote:

|
| I have frequently been refused onto a sight and redirected to correct
my
| phone number as it's only 10 digits in total. * Normally after about
two
| tries I give up, If the software is so sloppy then their service is
| likely too be the same.
|
| ... and there's absolutely no chance that you would have made a mistake
| or typing error on the screen?
|
| No, I go back to the incorrect field which is usually marked with a star
| and it's asking for a proper telephone number.

Is that the same software that refuses to accept any house number ending in
"A" (and there are quite a few) because it thinks you are living in a flat
or maisonette? *Even the Post Office uses this rubbish software, as I found
out when I booked travel insurance from them. *Argos does as well, resulting
in me having to fill in a form at the counter, not on their pay terminal,
when I bought a TV from them. *My house number ends in "A", not because it
is a subdivision of one house but because it was built on an infill site and
the Post Office did not think it necessary to renumber every house on from
us on our side of *the road. *So software they use does not recognise house
numbers they have actually allocated!

There is far too much software written without checking or thinking about
whether it will actually work in the real world.

Living in London, I have trouble with the ones that insist on a county.

On Feb 6, 10:26*pm, MIG wrote:

On 6 Feb, 21:43, "Yokel" wrote:
[snip]
Is that the same software that refuses to accept any house number ending in
"A" (and there are quite a few) because it thinks you are living in a flat
or maisonette? *Even the Post Office uses this rubbish software, as I found
out when I booked travel insurance from them. *Argos does as well, resulting
in me having to fill in a form at the counter, not on their pay terminal,
when I bought a TV from them. *My house number ends in "A", not because it
is a subdivision of one house but because it was built on an infill site and
the Post Office did not think it necessary to renumber every house on from
us on our side of *the road. *So software they use does not recognise house
numbers they have actually allocated!

There is far too much software written without checking or thinking about
whether it will actually work in the real world.

Living in London, I have trouble with the ones that insist on a county.

There was one company I had recent online dealings with that didn't
have any sort of London option at all - I'm quite sure a good many
Londoners wouldn't be too sure of their 'historic' county, for example
how many know exactly where ye olde dividing line between Kent and
Surrey lay? I've got a broad idea, but that's only coz I've looked it
up on maps of yore.

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010, Mizter T wrote:

There was one company I had recent online dealings with that didn't have
any sort of London option at all - I'm quite sure a good many Londoners
wouldn't be too sure of their 'historic' county, for example how many
know exactly where ye olde dividing line between Kent and Surrey lay?
I've got a broad idea, but that's only coz I've looked it up on maps of
yore.

Given that the post office doesn't pay any attention to the county,
couldn't you fill in whatever you liked?

tom

--
Dreams are not covered by any laws. They can be about anything. --
Cmdr Zorg

On Feb 7, 10:57*pm, Tom Anderson wrote:

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010, Mizter T wrote:
There was one company I had recent online dealings with that didn't have
any sort of London option at all - I'm quite sure a good many Londoners
wouldn't be too sure of their 'historic' county, for example how many
know exactly where ye olde dividing line between Kent and Surrey lay?
I've got a broad idea, but that's only coz I've looked it up on maps of
yore.

Given that the post office doesn't pay any attention to the county,
couldn't you fill in whatever you liked?

You could - it'd be an interesting test of the extent to which Royal
Mail doesn't pay *any* attention whatsoever to a county that's given
as part of an address! I dare say one might find that helpful
interventions might be made... one can test it for the price of a few
stamps, and perhaps some strange looks from your postman, I suppose
(that said mass produced mail from mailing houses might be treated
with more tolerance for absurd address elements than evidently
personally addressed mail). There's still a good number of postman who
do give a damn.

On Sun, 7 Feb 2010 16:43:29 -0800 (PST), Mizter T
wrote:


On Feb 7, 10:57*pm, Tom Anderson wrote:

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010, Mizter T wrote:
There was one company I had recent online dealings with that didn't have
any sort of London option at all - I'm quite sure a good many Londoners
wouldn't be too sure of their 'historic' county, for example how many
know exactly where ye olde dividing line between Kent and Surrey lay?
I've got a broad idea, but that's only coz I've looked it up on maps of
yore.

Given that the post office doesn't pay any attention to the county,
couldn't you fill in whatever you liked?

You could - it'd be an interesting test of the extent to which Royal
Mail doesn't pay *any* attention whatsoever to a county that's given
as part of an address! I dare say one might find that helpful
interventions might be made... one can test it for the price of a few
stamps, and perhaps some strange looks from your postman, I suppose
(that said mass produced mail from mailing houses might be treated
with more tolerance for absurd address elements than evidently
personally addressed mail). There's still a good number of postman who
do give a damn.

Putting the wrong county could have an affect if the OCR fails to
recognise the postcode but reads enough of the rest to produce a
unique match to an existing address which is not the intended
destination but not enough to exclude wrong addresses which would have
been ignored if the correct county was shown.

In article
,
(MIG) wrote:

On 6 Feb, 21:43, "Yokel" wrote:
"Clive" wrote in message

...
| In message , Chris Tolley
| writes| Clive wrote:

|
| I have frequently been refused onto a sight and redirected to
| correct my phone number as it's only 10 digits in total. Normally
| after about two tries I give up, If the software is so sloppy
| then their service is likely too be the same.
|
| ... and there's absolutely no chance that you would have made a
| mistake or typing error on the screen?
|
| No, I go back to the incorrect field which is usually marked with a
| star and it's asking for a proper telephone number.

Is that the same software that refuses to accept any house number
ending in "A" (and there are quite a few) because it thinks you are
living in a flat or maisonette? *Even the Post Office uses this
rubbish software, as I found out when I booked travel insurance from
them. *Argos does as well, resulting in me having to fill in a form at
the counter, not on their pay terminal, when I bought a TV from them.
*My house number ends in "A", not because it is a subdivision of one
house but because it was built on an infill site and the Post Office
did not think it necessary to renumber every house on from us on our
side of *the road. *So software they use does not recognise house
numbers they have actually allocated!

House numbering is the responsibility of the local council, not the Post
office. We have such A numbers in my street, both for the reasons you give.

There is far too much software written without checking or thinking
about whether it will actually work in the real world.

The trouble is the customers of such crap providers get just as frustrated
as you do. We have problems at work as our web site contractor forgot that
the rest of the world doesn't have postcodes in the format we use in this
country.

Living in London, I have trouble with the ones that insist on a
county.

I always put "X". Teach them right for being so stupid.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Feb 6, 10:26*pm, MIG wrote:

Living in London, I have trouble with the ones that insist on a county.

You just put London in again, I think

Living in a Unitary Authority, I have trouble with the ones that
insist on a county (I put the UA name in again). Worse, some assume
that the previous County still exists and insert that automatically.
Then there is the Health Centre one that spells my street name wrong...

On Feb 7, 5:47*pm, ticketyboo wrote:

On Feb 6, 10:26*pm, MIG wrote:

Living in London, I have trouble with the ones that insist on a county.

You just put London in again, I think

Not if there's a drop-down list and it's not there!


Living in a Unitary Authority, I have trouble with the ones that
insist on a county (I put the UA name in again). Worse, some assume
that the previous County still exists and insert that automatically.
Then there is the Health Centre one that spells my street name wrong...

Simply because the county council no longer exists, doesn't mean the
county doesn't exist any more - e.g. Berkshire continues to exist as
an administrative entity (specifically as a non-metropolitan county),
albeit one without a county council. Other places that have UAs
continue to sit within ceremonial counties - e.g. the Borough of
Middlesborough and City of Tork are both UAs, but are within the
ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.

With regards to postal addresses, the situation is different again -
postal counties were in routine use until 1996, and many continue to
use them - see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_county

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

Berkshire continues to exist as
an administrative entity (specifically as a non-metropolitan
county),
albeit one without a county council.

fx: Panto Oh no it doesn't :-)

--
Paul Cummins - Always a NetHead
Wasting Bandwidth since 1981