I’m gearing up for some serious collecting, and part of his involves getting ready to bid at auction.
Last week I registered with one I’ve never dealt with before, sent in a couple of bids and am now waiting to see if I’ve been successful. If I am the winning bidder I will pay by debit card and they will send me the goods. It’s old-fashioned. It’s simple. And it’s easy to stay calm during the process, apart from a low level of excitement about the hunt.
This week I sent off a so-called registration form for another auction. I’ve dealt with them before so I listed them as a reference. I also listed one of their trade customers as a reference. You’d have thought that would be sufficient, but it seems not. That’s why I’m in low-level rant mode.
To safeguard them from fraud, and because they say I’m a new customer, I have to provide a copy of my photo ID.
That’s a National ID card (which I don’t have), a passport (which I don’t have) or a photo driving licence. Now, I do have one of those, though in theory there’s no reason why I should have one. Julia still has her green non-photo licence, and somewhere in a drawer, so do I. We moved here 30 years ago when they were the only licences available and we’ve had no legal reason to change them.
I had to change mine simply because it’s impossible to live without photo ID these days. I even needed photo ID to prove my mother’s will.
No, I don’t know why either.
We’ve dealt with the same solicitor for years, they have had, and used, my home address for years, and they have met me face to face. Suddenly we can’t do anything without me showing photo ID.
Anyway, back to auctions. I’m not a new customer. I’ve told them I’m not a new customer. I provided a reference, and I won’t be able to defraud them because they won’t part with the goods until they have payment and…
Somehow I can’t do anything without providing photo ID.
I can’t help feeling that it’s just another example of the stupidity of modern life. My photo ID doesn’t reduce the chance of fraud to the auctioneer. But it does make life more annoying for me, and, by having a photo of my driving licence floating around, it does increase my risk of being the victim of fraud.
I know this because when Cotton Traders had their system hacked we had several attempts at fraudulent transactions made on our cards.
There are times when I regret that we never went for a national ID card. Seeing that the main objection was that we might be asked for it, modern data hoovering techniques make that look quite harmless.
It seemed OK to me, and would solve a lot of problems.I’m told I can travel to Ireland without a passport, but there is a proviso that not all carriers will take you to Ireland without a passport – why should a ferry company have the final say?
Pah!
It seems to be the same with airlines that go to Dublin too.
Looks like more form filling and nonsense then. Sigh.
I sympathize. And in the U.S. a photo ID is often required, which prevents people from voting. Many people who live in cities don’t have one. A really ugly side of modern society.
At least our Electoral Register is easy to get on. When we were old enough my Mum just added me to the list, and when our kids were old enough we did the same for them. 🙂
Oh, my gosh! You would be appalled to learn what some states to do to make it hard for people to vote. Sickening. Fortunately, not in Maine.
Things have changed while we were aging, eh?!
Yes, it just crept up on me while I was degenerating. 🙂
I have to remember that line! Good one!
🙂
Systems rule OK
So true.
My wife is having the same problem with the Nottingham banks because they cannot believe she is an ordinary person, married to an ordinary person. How I wish now that I had not been a major New York mafia gang boss for all those years, not to mention a decade running Colombia,.
We left the Nottingham Building 28 years ago because they wouldn’t accept a marriage certificate as proof that we were married.
If only you’d taught Spanish you could have been a kingpin in the cartels.:-)
It’s not the same world we were born into, I’m afraid. It is too bad the best of the old ways can’t come along with the best of the new. 🙂
True. I’ll just have to become more mellow and tolerate stupidity. 🙂