Author Topic: Mumjabar at the VA (Read 1615 times)

daryl66 · « **on:** September 30, 2015, 01:01:42 PM »

I recently had a blood screening done by my family doc (non-VA) and attempted to provide the results to the health portal (My Healthy Vet) at the VA. The VA has a feature called "Secure Messaging" to do exactly that (among a ton other things). The short version of this rant is: I could not get an .xlsx document to "attach" to the message. The text message got there but no attachment. Out of frustration I finally fired off a message to their "tech support" site advising them of details ie: osx 10.9.5, Safari 7.1 and Firefox 41, asking for assistance. I received an e mail shortly advising "due to the nature of your inquiry you will have to call us". I did

Enter Mumjabar #1. after a brief conversation it was obvious that she had not read the original message (asking about security settings etc) so when I advised her that it was a MBP etc the immediate response was "OH, it is well known that government sites do not play well with Mac's and Safari. After some back and forth she took all of the info and advised me that it would be turned over to their "web design folks" and they would get back to me in 3 or 4 weeks. I am embarrassed to say that at that point I lost it.

Enter Mumjabar #2 her supervisor. In a more dignified manner I complained that 3 - 4 weeks was totally unacceptable and that the response of "Macs and Safari" do not play well was also unacceptable since I had been using this site for several years. When I questioned him he advised that the site was built around Internet Explorer and she (level 1) and he (level 2) could only offer "technical support" for that. Level 3 was the "web design folks"

Totally frustrated I punted. Downloaded Chrome, which I have purposely have never used (paranoia) suspecting if IE worked Chrome would probably work also. It does.

I have zero complaints about my limited medical experience with the VA, however if Mumjabar(s) are an example of IT support at this and other govt sites I cant help but wonder about all of the recent compromises, hacks etc

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #1 on:** September 30, 2015, 03:45:05 PM »

QUOTE

built around Internet Explorer

Would that be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10? Did they provide any reason to not use html/CSS 1 standards? Are they still using XP?

I've found that "We'll let IT know about this" to be the standard reply when the 'help' desk has no idea what you are talking about. To be fair, most of them have absolutely no authority to even contact "IT" and certainly no training on web interface design. They may not even have seen how their own site operates! In fact, they are usually restricted to a set list of answers that may or may not be applicable to your problem; all they know is what the monitor screen provides them.

Just for grins, was ".xlsx" the only format allowed?

QUOTE

.xlsx [is] the file is in a NEW Excel file format, bgv, created in Excel 2007.

That should give you some idea about how up-to-date their site may be.

OTOH, there are several web-based converter sites... most likely, Safari was converting things to Mac standard characters instead of Windows character sets.

Just poor/sloppy backend site design to restrict the format. Of course, it probably makes "security" easier.

Finally, I think we need to remember that the VA gets only minimal support for upgrades in "IT". Only marginally better for higher priority needs.

daryl66 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 30, 2015, 04:48:21 PM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Sep 30 2015, 03:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just for grins, was ".xlsx" the only format allowed?

Finally, I think we need to remember that the VA gets only minimal support for upgrades in "IT". Only marginally better for higher priority needs.

No, actually their instructions indicated it would support all of the "Office" formats plus pdf, jpg, rtf and maybe a couple more that I can't think of off the top of my head. I tried a .doc test just for drill with the same results which led me to the conclusion it was probably a browser issue. Now I just gotta remember to download Chrome if I want to do an attachment to the site again. ( I threw it in the trash, don't even want it on the computer)

Daryl

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #3 on:** September 30, 2015, 05:05:44 PM »

It could be that it wants the "new" M$ formats for Word/Excel/Powerpoint/etc. I think they all have gone to the four character suffix model, with an "x" added: .doc is now .docx, .xls is now .xlsx, etc.

daryl66 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2015, 06:35:57 PM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Sep 30 2015, 05:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It could be that it wants the "new" M$ formats for Word/Excel/Powerpoint/etc. I think they all have gone to the four character suffix model, with an "x" added: .doc is now .docx, .xls is now .xlsx, etc.

Naw that would be too logical. If you go back to the original post you will see that the first attachment was in fact .xlsx. Their instruction page seemed to indicate both the 3 letter and 4 letter "office" tags were acceptable.

Since I finally got the file to the destination I wanted and in all probability won't be using it again until next year (god willing and the creek dont rise) they can cease and desist pursuing a solution for me. ( SWMBO indicated that given my rant on the phone they probably threw the trouble ticket in the trash (said that is what she would have done)

)

Daryl

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #5 on:** September 30, 2015, 07:43:55 PM »

I might suggest that your blood pressure increase may make it unhealthy to use that site! But I won't...

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Author Topic: Mumjabar at the VA (Read 1615 times)