NS&I website login problems with telephone code

deurgar

Same problem - hash key not recognized. Landline phone.

wmb194

deurgar said:

Same problem - hash key not recognized. Landline phone.

Try a vanilla version of Chrome, check time and date on your computer is correct, try a different device, if you’re using a mobile broadband connection try a fixed broadband connection, clear cookies.

Swipe

For this reason, it's really not advisable to keep money in NS&I that you need quick access to. 

mikb

wmb194 said:

deurgar said:

Same problem - hash key not recognized. Landline phone.

Try a vanilla version of Chrome, check time and date on your computer is correct, try a different device, if you’re using a mobile broadband connection try a fixed broadband connection, clear cookies.

Bluntly: How does any of that help? 

A LANDLINE phone has no browser on it, or cookies. The problem is 100% NS&I having useless technology that cannot recognise DTMF tones, and yet requires these for verification. The browser/computer/etc. doesn't come into it anywhere! 

valiant24

I sometimes wish I was 25 again.  In that sense NS&I is doing me a favour ... it's systems are like going back to 1997!

Skibunny40

Same issue for me with the hash key on an IPhone today. I had this problem last year, eventually got access and haven't had to do the phone call since...until today...couldn't face calling but will have to do it tomorrow

wmb194

mikb said:

wmb194 said:

deurgar said:

Same problem - hash key not recognized. Landline phone.

Try a vanilla version of Chrome, check time and date on your computer is correct, try a different device, if you’re using a mobile broadband connection try a fixed broadband connection, clear cookies.

Bluntly: How does any of that help? 

A LANDLINE phone has no browser on it, or cookies. The problem is 100% NS&I having useless technology that cannot recognise DTMF tones, and yet requires these for verification. The browser/computer/etc. doesn't come into it anywhere! 

Because from other threads one of the issues appears to be that it can be something to do with time syncing between your computer and the phone, or the time NS&I is using when receiving the tone. Some people use browsers with lots of blockers for this and that and they cause issues. Some people report issues with some mobile broadband networks. 

The title of the thread is, "NS&I website login issues with telephone code" so a computer (or smartphone) is definitely involved.

If you're so angry and upset about NS&I's technology then move on to another provider.

mikb

wmb194 said:

mikb said:

wmb194 said:

deurgar said:

Same problem - hash key not recognized. Landline phone.

Try a vanilla version of Chrome, check time and date on your computer is correct, try a different device, if you’re using a mobile broadband connection try a fixed broadband connection, clear cookies.

Bluntly: How does any of that help? 

A LANDLINE phone has no browser on it, or cookies. The problem is 100% NS&I having useless technology that cannot recognise DTMF tones, and yet requires these for verification. The browser/computer/etc. doesn't come into it anywhere! 

Because from other threads one of the issues appears to be that it can be something to do with time syncing between your computer and the phone, or the time NS&I is using when receiving the tone. Some people use browsers with lots of blockers for this and that and they cause issues. Some people report issues with some mobile broadband networks. 

The title of the thread is, "NS&I website login issues with telephone code" so a computer (or smartphone) is definitely involved.

If you're so angry and upset about NS&I's technology then move on to another provider.

The time when NS&I receives the tone isn't really the problem. It's that it doesn't recognise that you have pressed that key at all. Please press hash. Beep. Please press hash. I did. Beep. BEEP. I'm sorry, you didn't press hash. -- that's just a failure to recognise DTMF tones.

That is separate from excuses about "is the time wrong?" on your phone/computer VS NS&I's systems.

Obviously a computer/smartphone is "involved" but it is not the _fault_ here. The computer has _no_ involvement in person-pressing-hash-key-on-phone. None.

The problem exists with landlines, and mobiles too. I know that -- I also know NS&I are famous for handing off their tech problems to other people, rather than fixing it. "You need to contact your landline provider to sort out your hash key" and "It is a problem for your mobile operator" (both of which are not actually true, but it gets rid of the customer, job done).

I'm not sure your final comment has any relevance. No other provide provides Premium bonds, and you probably know that. 

How does me moving to another provider help those who want to continue to use NS&I and hold them accountable? Seems an utterly pointless and entirely selfish move to me. I would rather help people see where the problem lies and cut through the NS&I nonsense, rather than excuse it and avoid it. YMMV.

wmb194

mikb said:

wmb194 said:

mikb said:

wmb194 said:

deurgar said:

Same problem - hash key not recognized. Landline phone.

Try a vanilla version of Chrome, check time and date on your computer is correct, try a different device, if you’re using a mobile broadband connection try a fixed broadband connection, clear cookies.

Bluntly: How does any of that help? 

A LANDLINE phone has no browser on it, or cookies. The problem is 100% NS&I having useless technology that cannot recognise DTMF tones, and yet requires these for verification. The browser/computer/etc. doesn't come into it anywhere! 

Because from other threads one of the issues appears to be that it can be something to do with time syncing between your computer and the phone, or the time NS&I is using when receiving the tone. Some people use browsers with lots of blockers for this and that and they cause issues. Some people report issues with some mobile broadband networks. 

The title of the thread is, "NS&I website login issues with telephone code" so a computer (or smartphone) is definitely involved.

If you're so angry and upset about NS&I's technology then move on to another provider.

The time when NS&I receives the tone isn't really the problem. It's that it doesn't recognise that you have pressed that key at all. Please press hash. Beep. Please press hash. I did. Beep. BEEP. I'm sorry, you didn't press hash. -- that's just a failure to recognise DTMF tones.

That is separate from excuses about "is the time wrong?" on your phone/computer VS NS&I's systems.

Obviously a computer/smartphone is "involved" but it is not the _fault_ here. The computer has _no_ involvement in person-pressing-hash-key-on-phone. None.

The problem exists with landlines, and mobiles too. I know that -- I also know NS&I are famous for handing off their tech problems to other people, rather than fixing it. "You need to contact your landline provider to sort out your hash key" and "It is a problem for your mobile operator" (both of which are not actually true, but it gets rid of the customer, job done).

I'm not sure your final comment has any relevance. No other provide provides Premium bonds, and you probably know that. 

How does me moving to another provider help those who want to continue to use NS&I and hold them accountable? Seems an utterly pointless and entirely selfish move to me. I would rather help people see where the problem lies and cut through the NS&I nonsense, rather than excuse it and avoid it. YMMV.

I'm sorry for trying to help. I'm not sure what your helpful suggestions are. You don't have to own Premium Bonds and you don't have to manage them online.

david72

Anyone who is exasperated by NS&I's technological (in)abilities, whether it is phone codes or awkward saved browser processes, etc, might find this article (found via Monevator, thanks!) of interest:

NS&I digital revamp is four years late and £1.3BILLION over budget, report finds (This Is Money)

No surprise, convoluted outsourcing (and disentangling from a previous supplier) has been involved, somehow it has cost over £3 bn (Just how? It's not as if they are a full-service banking operation, essentially they're really just a pretty simple savings account operator with a prize draw attached! Many of our smaller building societies (but sadly not all - there are some that are even more clunky) have considerably more professional online banking systems!), and I'm sure that at no point past or present have any brown envelopes or cosy back-room deals between private-schoolboy mates ever been involved… «sigh»

Why is it that our public or quasi-public services so often manage to get so completely screwed over and over-charged by IT outsourcing?