Rant: Logging in shouldn't be this hard

One of our client’s just sent a PO notification. So I have to go retrieve from their EDI service, Exostar. Here is my rant I punched into their help/support form:

“1. Does not work with Firefox.
2. Does not give any warning about not working with firefox.
3. Tells me my user/pass is incorrect instead.

… So I attempt to log in and reset password in IE. (I see the website add some text to the end of my user_id when I press submit, which apparently is what Firefox couldn’t do). I get a temporary password.

4. Now I have to select my secret question and secret answers? Why, why, why, do I have to select my secret questions?

5. Now I am locked out from logging in for 5 minutes?????

Could you make it any harder???????????”

Yes, I have to select two secret questions from a pulldown list of four. Then provide an answer. And all four questions are things you ‘like’:

Who is your favorite author?
What is your favorite book?
What is your favorite sport?
What is your favorite food?

The answers to these questions may change over the years. I may have answered these questions 5 or more years ago. My favorite things may have changed. My mother’s maiden name will not change. Neither will the city that I was born in.

Apparently my submission was given a case/ticket. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of reply I get.

UPDATE: Semi-related: Mean Dean explains how poor ‘secret questions’ were the cause of Sarah Palin’s email getting hacked. Publicly available info makes poor questions, too.