The Perils of Paying BIlls

Ok so my dad is not the only one.. here follows a story from Mat..

Mat: your husband sucks
Mat: never answers his phone
Mat: there is NO WAY that I am related to my mother
Mat: you think your dad is bad
Mat: you have NO idea
Mat: I need alcohol
Mari: LOL
Mari: whats happened?
Mat: oh where do I start
Mari: heheh
Mat: she was trying to pay her council rates online
Mari: oh dear
Mat: so she calls me up to say she's at the Botany Bay council website but can't find any sign of an option to pay rates
Mat: so she tells me the URL and I go there and there's a button to pay your rates
Mat: after some mind-destroying investigation it becomes clear that she's searched for the council via Google
Mat: and is most likely looking at a Google cached version of the page rather than the page itself
Mari: LOL
Mari: ahhh google is becoming the bane of our existence methinks..
Mat: so I click on the link on the page I'm looking at and it sends you to a third-party financial portal
Mat: so I figure I may as well just get her to type THAT URL into the address bar and go there
Mari: lol
Mari: ok
Mat: so .. I begin telling her what to type
Mat: this was painful in itself
Mat: I tell her to select the text in the address bar .. so that begins more pain
Mari: lol
Mat: "Where's the select button?"
Mat: "How do I select?"
Mari: PMSL
Mat: "USE THE MOUSE TO SELECT THE TEXT"
Mat: "Where?"
Mat: "IN THE ADDRESS BAR!"
Mat: "What's that?"
Mari: mwahahahahah!!
Mat: "OH FFS!"
Mat: so I help her to find the address bar (or so I think but that's giving the game away)
Mat: and I start dictating this URL
Mat: "type clearance"
Mat: "clearance?"
Mat: "yes .. the word clearance"
Mat: "there's no ... clearance"
Mat: "IN THE DICTIONARY THERE IS A WORD CLEARANCE"
Mat: "oh you want me to type it out ..>"
Mat: *SOB*
Mat: through much pain she types out the whole URL
Mat: and hits enter at my behest
Mat: page not found
Mari: ROFL
Mat: crap, I think, she's typed a bit wrong ..
Mat: "ok click the back button .. no wait .. don't ... it'll probably go back to the cached page you had up ... what does it currently say in the address bar?"
Mat: "it still says http://www.google.com"
Mat (starting to have a meltdown): "you typed that whole URL into the Google search box didn't you?"
Mat: "What's that?"
Mat: "it's too difficult"
Mat: "No Mum it's not .. it's really not .. kids can do this .. Josie will be able to do this shortly!"
Mat: "What is at the top of your screen ..."
Mat: "There's a box with http://www.google.com in it .. and then Q .. and then there's google and another box"
Mat: "and that's the box you've been typing into haven't you?'
Mat: "yes ..."
Mat: "ok just tell me your goddamn rates notice reference number...." (start to do it myself)
Mat: finish rate payment and bang head on desk
Mat: repeat
Mari: ROFL
Mari: ok are you gonna blog this or am i
Mat: heh .. you can ... I told her i would when I was going through the ordeal .. but now I just want the memory to fade
Mari: LOL ok

lol.. See at one point we all thought Google was the schnitz when it came to getting our parents off our backs when they were looking for something on the internet. "Just google it!" we'd say.. but alas, those days are over.

Last week my mother was trying to find the specs on a Toyota Tarago. She of course googled it, which is great, but then she didn't go to the actual Toyota website when google came back with the search results, so of course didn't get any further. And of course when she rang me for help she told me she was looking at 'toyota page' which I took to mean http://www.toyota.com.au. Obviously she was still looking at the google search results.

Fast forward a few days and I get an IM from my dad wanting to know how to bring up an ebay auction from an ebay auction number he had. Did he go to http://www.ebay.com.au? Of course he didn't. He went to google. When I told him to put the number into the search box in the top right hand corner of ebay.com.au he said there wasn't a search box there. I asked him if he was on ebay's website, and he of course said yes. Was he? No of course he wasn't.. he was on google's search results.

Come on!! Its really not that hard to understand!!

Parents! Listen to your children!! Stay AWAY from the internet!!!