PIDU – Ill-prepared
Posted: Mon 10 July, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, I Don't Understand, London, People, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness Leave a comment »As I’ve said before, I tend to be ridiculously early for things, primarily so I know it’s all sorted well in advance.
However, I find it utterly amazing how many people appear to be so chronically ill-prepared for just about anything and everything in their lives.
My primary office is near(ish) to the local test centre for the theory part of the UK driving test. By “nearish” I mean “it’s walking distance, in a straight line, but over a significant road, so maybe five minutes walk”. On a regular basis I get stopped outside my office, and asked where the test centre is, by people obviously already running late, and get this “Oh shit” look when I tell them it’s still five minutes away. These tests are renownedly run punctually, and they don’t have much tolerance for lateness – but from memory, it makes all that very clear on the paperwork that tells you where the test is to be taken.
So because they haven’t checked where they’re supposed to be, they’re now running the risk of not even being allowed to take the test – and you don’t get a refund on it for being late and/or disorganised. I’ve never seen it as all that difficult to do, to be in the right place at the right time, but it’s obviously an issue for some people.
Similarly, a couple of weeks back I was with friends in London, and their son was meeting other friends of his so they could go to a concert/festival thing in Hyde Park. We’d got other plans once he was in the venue, but they were somewhat dependent on the friends actually having IQ points of their own. They’re similarly pathologically early to me, which helps – but the son’s friends…. weren’t.
Despite the concert tickets telling them where they needed to be, which entrance to use and so on, they decided to turn up to the wrong Underground station, at the wrong time, and at the wrong entrance. There’d been no preparation, no thought, not even an understanding of how best to get around, yet still left it all to the last minute, as if expecting some fairy godmother to wave a wand and everything would be All Right.
And it kind-of was. They got there, and we got to where we were going, but a couple of minutes late. (Anyone else, it would’ve been late by twenty minutes or more, but we can all shift our arses when necessary) So it did work out OK, but only because we knew more about where they were than they did, and walked the extra to find the fucking idiots.
All told, it’s just an attitude I don’t understand. I know I’m at the opposite end of the scale, but still, it never seems that difficult to me, to be prepared, to know what you’re doing, and get wherever on time. But obviously it’s more of a challenge for others…
Connectivity – Fixed (For Now)
Posted: Fri 7 July, 2017 Filed under: BT, Customer Services, Domestic, Utilities Leave a comment »Last weekend, as I said here, my internet connection started to go really bad (again). I know what causes it, it’s just one of those things that’s a pain in the bum when it happens.
As usual, I got in touch with BT – this time through the online fault-reporting process. Despite knowing what the problem is, there’s nothing in the process that lets you bypass it – and trying to get through it by using the phone and talking to badly-trained customer service lifeforms is even worse.
So we go through the usual farce of (in no particular order)
- Have you checked all the extensions? Yes. (I don’t have any, but sure, I’ve checked them if it makes you happy)
- Have you tried the connection with another phone? Yes. (I don’t have a spare phone just for this, and I know what the problem is)
- Have you disconnected everything else? Does the problem still exist? Yes, of course it bloody does. The problem’s in your master socket.
- Do you realise that if we find the problem is on your side (don’t worry, we won’t) then you’ll be charged £130 on your next bill? Yes, I do realise it. (You’ve been here seven times all told in five years, all for the same problem, and I’ve never been charged, so it’s a fair bet that it won’t happen this time.)
And once we were through that, the engineer was booked for Wednesday morning, between 8am and 1pm.
He turned up, 8.10 – a good sign. Agreed with my diagnosis, and had a better look at the hole in the wall where the cable comes in. (Which the other engineers should have done, but well, we’ll gloss over that) The silicone sealant was perished, and there was no drip-drop (as he called it) outside – basically, a small curve in the cable before it goes into the house, so that the lowest point for water is below the hole. Between those two things, he could easily see why water would be coming in – particularly in strong storms, which is what’s always been the precursor to the problem. So, replaced silicone sealant, and he pulled enough cable through to enable a small drip-drop.
As well as that, he agreed to move the master socket further up the wall – basically, if this new one gets water damage, it’s likely that my concerns are going to be about far more than just my internet going down!
All told, it took about an hour to do the work – and of course I didn’t get charged, because the problem was with the master socket. As expected.
Only time will tell if it’s completely fixed (hence why I’m writing about it here, as a reference point in case of future problems) but as we’ve now gone for belt, braces, and piece-of-string methods in one visit, I’m hoping there won’t be any further recurrence of the problem…
Fixing Things
Posted: Wed 5 July, 2017 Filed under: Bankruptcy, BT, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Rebuilding, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »So far, this year has involved a number of customer service clusterfucks, some of which I’ve mentioned on here, and it looks like a number of those issues are now on the way to being sorted, thankfully.
That list includes
- The Cat boots – successfully returned to manufacturer, and a replacement pair are (apparently) on the way
- The Credit Card company – seems to be sorted, with outstanding issues rectified.
- My Accountants – this has been something that’s been ongoing for a year or more, where they’re just ridiculously slack and uncommunicative. If it weren’t for the fact that they’ve been free (for the last 18 months!) then I’d have moved on well before now.
The free stuff is a story of its own, but basically when I complained to director level at the end of 2015, they told me I wouldn’t be charged until they’d fixed the issues. Eighteen months later, the issues are still there, although having had some productive conversations with the Operations Director, I think they’re turning the corner at last! - BT – Hopefully, that’ll be sorted today. The engineer is due between 8am and 1pm, and fingers crossed things will be sorted.
There’s a couple of other things coming up that so far seem positive, but I’m waiting for them to come through properly before I write about them.
All told though, yeah, it’s all feeling a bit more fixed and positive.
Connectivity
Posted: Mon 3 July, 2017 Filed under: BT, Business, Customer Services, Domestic, Technology, Thoughts, Utilities, Weather Leave a comment »Yet again, my home broadband connection has gone to pot over the weekend.
It’s an ongoing problem – basically, there’s a leak in the outdoors part of my connection, so when it rains heavily, water gets in, and corrodes the connections in the master socket. I start to know it’s going to be bad when any phone call I make (not that I make many on the landline, but still) starts to get crackly. After a while, it then gets bad enough that the next ingress of water breaks things properly, and leaves my modem/router dropping the connection and reconnecting on an all-too-frequent basis.
In the five-and-a-bit years I’ve been in this house, I’ve had four master sockets. Now soon to be a fifth.
BT refuse to believe that this is the problem – this has been going on for ages, and they’ve done line checks etc., but won’t replace the outside part of the connection, for some reason.
So we go through the farce of doing fault-tracking, “We can’t find anything” and then booking an engineer to come out. Every time, I get told “If it’s a problem past the master socket (i.e. with my own wiring) then it’ll cost £129.99 on your next bill”. It won’t be with my wiring, because I’ve got precisely one socket, and one connector/splitter (also supplied by BT) on it.
Everything else will be fine, it’ll just be corroded connections in the master socket. Again.
This time, I’m going to aim to get the engineer to reinstall the master socket, but do so higher up the wall (so water doesn’t get in, as it can’t climb cables) or on a longer cable inside the house, so I can put it on a shelf or whatever, and again, let gravity deal with the problem.
The engineer’s coming out on Wednesday morning, so we’ll see what happens from there. It’d be nice (and really quite novel!) to have it sorted properly this time. But only time will tell whether that’ll happen or not.
Halfway
Posted: Sat 1 July, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts Leave a comment »Somehow, we’re now already halfway through 2017.
As usual, in some ways it feels like I’ve done (or achieved) absolutely sod-all this year so far. In others, it feels like I haven’t stopped at all, and have done loads. Time’s weird like that.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. Soon be the Festering Season again…
Capital Issues
Posted: Fri 30 June, 2017 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Rebuilding, Thoughts 1 Comment »A couple of months ago, I got a letter from one of my credit cards (well, from the company behind one of my credit cards, to be pedantic/accurate) telling me they wanted to upgrade my credit limit, and if I wanted to accept, drop them a line.
I was OK with that, so I confirmed the upgrade, and it got applied to my account two and a half months ago. (That’s relevant in a minute)
This weekend, I got a text message confirming that my upgrade was being processed. Then on Monday I got a letter, also confirming the same thing.
Now, one of the main things you’re always told by card companies is to get in touch with them if you start getting unexpected letters from them, and particularly when it’s either replacement cards, or stuff about credit limits. Additionally, with my own credit history I’m more aware of these things.
I gave the card company a call yesterday, and it did not go well.
First of all, the person I spoke to seemed to think she was working in a different department, and her first question was “What are you going to offer us?” (I’m assuming she’s usually in debt recovery or something, or dealing with people who are going to say they’re in the shit)
I explained that I had concerns about my credit limit, because…
“Your credit limit is £[x]. Anything else?”
“Yes, I’ve got concerns about the security of my account. As you’ve shown no interest in even listening, let along caring, I’d now like to speak to your manager, please.”
*Huge sigh* “I’ll just look at your account activity”
“No, I’m not happy with you doing that. I’d like to speak to your manager, please. And the sigh is not helping things.”
*Pause, and then another huge sigh* “I’ll see what I can do, but I need to check your ID and activity”
“No, I’m not happy with you doing that. I’d like to speak to your manager, now, please”
“I’ll see whether I can find someone”
I did eventually get to speak to a manager, who sorted out that there *had* been a problem in the card company’s processes, but there was no evidence that the account was compromised. I also left a complaint about the first person, because their attitude sucked so hugely.
I don’t expect anything else to come of it, but it’s all reported and dealt with, and I’m happy with how things stand, so at least it’s had a fairly positive outcome.
Footwear Fails
Posted: Wed 28 June, 2017 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »For the last twenty-odd years now, I’ve been a pretty loyal wearer of Cat Boots. I’ve always found them to be comfortable – although the quality has gone down significantly over the years, but the price has always remained the same, so I understand why/how that’s happened – and to have a decent build quality that generally lasts me well in comparison to other boots.
However, back in March I bought two pairs from the online shop for Cat boots. All went well – and thankfully I paid by credit card – and I started wearing one of the pairs. All well and good.
However, last week, I started getting blisters on one foot while wearing the boots. That’s less than three month’s wear, and that’s totally not acceptable. I know I can be tough on boots – I walk a lot, as has been mentioned before – but they haven’t even been worn every day of that time. So I’m working on the fact that they’re not fit for sale.
I’ve been back in touch with Cat Boots, and returning the boots to Cat this week. We’ll see what they have to say about them.
Mind you, if Cat don’t come back to me satisfactorily, I’ve also still got Section 75 to fall back on – and I’ve already checked with the card company, and got all the documentation and photos I need – so I can go that route instead. Either way, it’ll work out fine from my perspective. Probably less so from Cat’s perspective, but well, we’ll see.