All hail illiteracy!

We have two products here at work that require that the user install a digital certificate on their computer to use them. It's a security thing.

So when these people apply for one of these products, we send them out instructions telling them how to enroll and received the certificate.

One quirk about our system, is that everything has to be entered in capital letters. Personally, I think it was some bad programming on our part, but no one asked me. Anyway, if they don't enter everything in capital letters, they get an error.

So we send out instructions to potential users. Step 3 reads: Complete the enrollment form by filling in all required fields. Enter in UPPER CASE only.

Not exactly the best wording, but it's pretty straightfoward.

Why is it, then, that by a large percentage, our most common call goes like this:

Them: Hi, I'm John Blahblahblah from Stupidly Named Insurace company. We'er trying to enroll Carol So-And-So for the digital certificate and got a Passcode Mismatch error.
Me (or other Help Desk Peep): Did you enter everything in every field in capital letters?
Them: No.

Now, granted, I'm not big on reading directions for things either. I get a DVD player, or new software, or a toaster oven, I'm usually pretty confident I can get it set up without much help.

BUT....if there is a problem....if the software doesn't work, or the DVD player doesn't play, or the first time I try to make toast, the bread turns into old tennis shoes.....well, then I bust out the instructions and try to figure out what I missed.

Do people not do this? Can they just not read? I mean it says upper case in UPPER CASE!

I guess I shouldn't complain, because these are the easiest calls of the day. But it does get frustrating to have to deal with it on such a large scale.

People, man. People.