For those unaware, 2FA stands for 2 Factor Authentication. It's when you need more than one way to access something. Imagine it as the equivalent of needing 2 keys to open a door.
The contract for my tablet was up, so while in town I decided to pop into the store and see what options were available to me. Before they'd even talk to me they wanted to see current valid photo ID. Not a problem as I had my driving license with me. They looked up my account and confirmed that I was indeed out of contract so could do an upgrade. Next up they had to send me a text message to the phone number I use for my account with a security PIN. Again, not a problem as I had my phone with me. We worked through my options and we settled on a better tablet than I have now, with the same amount of data but for a cheaper price. Not arguing there. After that they had to do yet another security check by emailing me and having me show them that I'd received the emails. Again, simple enough. I showed them the emails by accessing the account on my phone. They didn't have to see the content of the emails, just that I'd received them. 15 minutes later, out I walked with a brand spanking new tablet and a new contract. One thing I still had to do was cancel the old contract as they were unable to do that in the shop. They gave me a number to call, told me which options I needed to press and wrote down the number of the old tablet. So to recap, to get the new tablet I'd needed a copy of my photo ID, to be able to give them the PIN they texted me and show them that I'd received the emails they'd sent me.
When I got home, it was time to call and cancel the old tablet contract as they basically make a new contract for you with the new tablet and then have you cancel the old one. I called up and this time had to verify the number I was talking to them about with another PIN, then give my date of birth, full name and address. Fair enough, as this time they didn't have my ID in front of them with the details alongside a picture of my ugly mug. This process was sped up as the person I spoke to in the shop had left a message on my account to let them know what I was calling about so they wouldn't go into "customer retention" mode. A few minutes later I was all sorted. At this point I'd spoken to 2 different people and pretty much had to give them my life story.
Now, My tablets are with one company, but my mobile phones are with another one. As I had a spare SIM that had the same allowance as the 2nd SIM in my phone, I decided to call them and cancel it, plus check out if they had any deals on the SIM package my wife and I are on as that was also up. Once again I had to tell them the PIN they sent my phone before they could do anything, but that necessity out of the way the rest of the call proceeded with nothing more than my having to tell them when we moved into our current house and when we opened our bank account for the credit check. I'd already done that in the shop earlier too, so was expecting that. 20 minutes later, the SIM has been cancelled and we've been put onto a better deal. All this juggling around meant I save about £25 a month so it was worth it.
Let's jump back now to 2 years ago. My father in law had just passed and it was left to me to do the calling around cancelling various accounts he had. Now, my FIL had his TV, phone and broadband all with the same company. I called them up, explained who I was, explained the situation and after they'd offered their condolences for our loss, they cancelled it all. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not complaining. They were by far the best company I dealt with in those trying times. They were far and away better than the company we tried to change the delivery address of an item he'd purchased not long before he passed with. You'd think we were asking them to turn back time the way they ummed and ahhed before finally agreeing to send it to a different address, only for them to completely ignore that and send it there anyway without any notice! Like I say, not complaining here. It did leave me a bit worried though that I could get his account closed down with nothing more than a phone call with his customer number and a sob story. A true sob story, but a sob story nonetheless. A malicious person could have dug an old bill out of his (or someone else's as he never seemed to throw anything away, but that's another story) bin and made his life a living hell just for the fun of it.
Let me ask you this question. What would you prefer, to have to jump through hoops to do something as simple as upgrade your tablet or be able to cancel/edit an account with nothing more than a customer number? I know which I'd rather. 2FA (or even multi factor authentication) takes more time, but at the end of the day it's a far better option than having someone else pretend to be you and potentially steal everything you have. Agree?
