| Greg's POSTIDENT |
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
|
POSTIDENT is a mobile phone app created by Deutsche Post DHL for various identification purposes. In July 2022 the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (pension fund) asked me to submit my my annual “proof of life” using it.
It doesn't work. There are an amazing number of bugs, but the biggest appears to be that not only can Deutsche Post not validate the identity documents, they don't even know what they are. This page currently consists of copies of my diary entries regarding my attempts.
And of course there's the annual „Lebensbescheinigung“, which they translate in different places as “Life Certificate” or “Proof of life”. We're used to that: go to a total stranger at the police station in Ballarat and show my driver license. Get a signature and send it off. I can't get one from my doctor; what would he know?
But this year it's different. I can do it with a mobile phone app, they say. Just download POSTIDENT and “scan the personal QR code—at the top-right of this letter—with your camera”.
Presumably they mean the mobile phone camera. OK, do that:
Huh? What transaction number? I checked the letter again. No mention of a transaction number. Take a photo of the QR code?
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
That looks good, but that's after it displays a transient “No transaction number found”.
Try to scan with Google Lens? It just starts the app.
Is this a problem with the English version of the app? I would far rather have had it in German, but no, it refuses to change to anything except the language that is set in the phone settings.
It's not clear that the results will even be accepted. The instructions continue:
You will then be asked to take a picture of the front and reverse of your official ID document, ....
OK, Renten Service [sic], you do know that I'm not German, right? Here it is:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
The problem is, there is no such thing as an official ID document in Australia. People use driver licenses, but they're not official. So there's every reason to believe that they will reject the results if I find a way to produce them.
I had my doubts about the usability of this app, but this is just plain stupid. I'm alive, but I'm not so sure about the people who wrote this app.
More examination of yesterday's problems with POSTIDENT. Why is it such a complete failure? I followed the instructions exactly, but I couldn't even go to the URL specified in the QR code: it automatically diverted to the app.
OK, what happens with a phone without the app? Tried with enzian—it's good to have a spare mobile phone around—and got to the web site, where I was asked to enter my name and email address. And how about that, without any further checking I was sent email with details of how to proceed. So maybe there is hope yet. But not today.
I've already established that the POSTIDENT app is useless, at least for the purposes for which it was recommended to me. The instructions say:
But that doesn't work. The app doesn't recognize the QR code. So I gave it a review with 1 star (because I can't give less):
Funktioniert nicht wie beschrieben, erkennt QR codes nicht (ohne App werden sie einwandfrei erkannt), besteht darauf, auf Englisch anzuzeigen. Ich kann den App einfach nicht benutzen. Ich gehe davon aus, dass das Problem durch Fehlkommunikation zwischen Post und DRV enstanden ist.
But then I saw other reviews, notably this one (which, for some reason, still gave 2 stars):
Not working as intended. Scanning proof of life QR in app does not work (as expected). Scanning QR with other apps (tried three) takes me straight to this app, but without code. Had to use another phone without this app to scan the QR. This took me to the POSTIDENT website where I had to log in with full name and email address to receive my 12 character case ID. This I had to transfer to the app to work. Very convoluted process and surely causing a lot of frustration to a lot of people.
Exactly my problem. So clearly Deutsche Post DHL, apparently the author. will fix it. No:
Hello Volker Haring! Scanning the QR code, on the letter to provide proof of life, must not be done with the Postident app. Scan the code on the letter with a standard QR code scanner (own app/integrated camera function). You will then receive a 12-digit transaction number on the website, which you transfer to the Postident app. Your POSTIDENT Team
What's wrong with this response?
So I rewrote my review, greatly hampered by the 500 character limitation and automatic removal of line breaks:
Für den digitalen Lebensnachweis funktioniert diese App nicht. Entgegen der Anleitung erkennt sie QR codes nicht. Die Antworten von Deutsche Post DHL sind gleich einer Pleiteerklärung: „Das Scannen des QR-Codes, auf dem Brief zur Erbringung des Lebensnachweises, darf nicht mit der Postident-App erfolgen.“ Das ist aber genau das, was die Anleitung verlangt. Und warum nicht? Weil die App kaputt ist? Ich kann nicht mal mehr mit der Kamera scannen, weil ich dann gleich zur App geführt werde.
In English:
This app does not work for the digital proof of life. Contrary to the instructions it doesn't recognize QR codes. The answers from Deutsche Post DHL are like a declaration of bankruptcy: “The QR code on the proof of life letter must not be scanned with the Postident app”. But that's exactly what the instructions require. And why not? Because the app is broken? I can't even scan with my camera, while it brings me back to the app.
Response to my criticism from Deutsche Post DHL today:
Hallo Greg Lehey! Es tut uns leid, wenn Sie unzufrieden sind, wir arbeiten bereits an einer Lösung zu Ihrem Problem. Ihr POSTIDENT Team.
In English:
We're sorry if you're dissatisfied, we're already working on a solution to your problem.
Hopefully it's a solution to the problem. But I also looked at a message I received a couple of days ago, which led me to this page, which states:
If you reside in Australia, Chile, Canada, Kosovo, South Africa, Thailand or Ukraine, you are eligible to participate this year in our digital proof of life pilot project. The new service allows you to provide the required proof of life digitally using POSTIDENT by photo.
So, a pilot project for a small number of countries without any obvious connection. And it links to more details of what documents are accepted. For Australia, ID card, passport and Driver license:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
ID card? What that? It doesn't exist! And the instructions are clear: front and rear of the document, so according to that requirement this passport photo would really be sufficient:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
OK, pilot project, but this sounds more like a case of “It compiles! Ship it!”. The instructions still contain the same sequence that has been shown not to work.
Last month I had lots of fun with Deutsche Post's POSTIDENT app. But I have to prove that I'm alive, so a couple of days ago I ran the thing, which was relatively straightforward. It accepted my images and told me that I would be informed.
That came today:
leider konnte Ihre Identifizierung für rentenservice.de/DLN noch nicht abgeschlossen werden.
Grund: Es konnten nicht alle Aufnahmen erfolgreich geprüft werden.
Bitte führen Sie den Vorgang erneut mit einem unterstützten, gültigen Dokument durch.
Sie können die betroffenen Aufnahmen erneut erstellen.
All (only) in German! And this from an app that won't let me use German in the interface. What it says is basically “unfortunately not all images could be checked successfully. Please repeat the operation with a supported valid document”.
What's wrong with this approach? Which images couldn't be “checked successfully”? Why not? What is a supported valid document?
The idea is good. The implementation is amazingly broken.
Another attempt at proving my existence to POSTIDENT after yesterday's unspecific rejection. At least it had saved my identification, so I just needed to rescan my “ID” (really my driver license). The previous photos looked good enough, though of course they were far too sensitive to store on the phone for me to examine. But the license has a clear section with the birth date and expiry date on it. Potentially it could be difficult to read if photographed on a dark background. So today I put a sheet of white paper underneath it.
How did it come out? It looked OK on the screen, but who knows what got to Germany. About the only indication of where the problem lies was that the app no longer wanted a video of me, thus violating one of the basic principles of authentication.
Will it work this time? Somehow I doubt it. The app is broken beyond recognition. But what's its problem? Unable to read the text? My guess is that the people who wrote the app don't know that every Australian state has its own driver license, and they've never seen one of these before.
Back home, received the next expected message:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Photo and video quality are “not sufficient”? OK, take the photos with a Real Camera and send them a photo of the display on the screen. That way I have some control of the quality.
But when I continued, I got this message:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
“The document is not supported”. That's a complete contradiction of the previous message. Is one of them correct, or are they both wrong?
I had already mentioned this list of accepted documents, but it's an excerpt. It offers the full list in PDF form, which contains (conveniently only in German):
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
In English: they accept an identity card (which doesn't exist), a passport and four apparently different driver licenses. Four? There are 8 different Australian Driver Licenses, one each for each state and territory. So it looks as if my guess is correct that they don't know that Victoria has its own driver license. So my guess is that the only thing that will work, at least in Victoria, is a valid passport. But I'm still amazed that they can be so incompetent.
There was one other option: the message I received suggested that I visit https://postident.deutschepost.de/user/start/?caseId=ZRDHWTEKV9V3. Did that and got:
|
|
|||||||||
“Thank you for your identification. Your photos will now be checked by an employee of Deutsche Post”. In other words, the page failed because it couldn't take photos, but it was too polite to say so.
What a mess!
As far as I can see, Deutsche Post's POSTIDENT app just plan Does Not Work, at least for me. I strongly suspect that they don't recognize even those forms of acceptable identification that really do exist. OK, send them an email asking them to explain.:
Will I get an answer? Well, I did, sort of:
Ihre Nachricht ist eingegangen. Eine schriftliche Eingangsbestätigung der Lebensbescheinigung ist wegen der großen Menge leider nicht möglich.
Lebensbescheinigungen werden nur in folgenden Formaten berücksichtigt: Word – PDF – Digitalfoto JPG / JPEG – Bilddatei TIF / TIFF
Hinweis: Die Abholung der Lebensbescheinigung von einem Webserver per Link oder Ähnlichem ist aus datenschutzrechtlichen Gründen nicht möglich.
That sounds like a “got your message, here's your potted reply”. And while checking I discovered that I had already written to them last November with a formal complaint. And even then I didn't receive an answer.
| Greg's home page | Greg's diary | Greg's photos | Copyright |
