Posted: Wed 30 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Getting Organised, House Purchase, Work-related |
I should’ve known that the efficiency of BT in the last move was an exception, rather than a rule. I should’ve chased them up more, I know.
I was lulled into a false sense of security by someone who sounded efficient, but wasn’t.
So on Friday when I tested the old phone number at 3:30pm, and got a ringtone, I thought “Oh, bollocks.” So I rang BT’s Moving Home department, and eventually got through.
“Oh, I don’t know what’s happened there – the system seems to have decided that there was a problem with the order, and then we didn’t tell you about it”
Yeah, no shit. At 4pm on a Friday, imagine how happy that makes me.
As it turns out, the order had got completely lost in the system. No idea why, and no-one can tell me, either. Bunch of tossers.
But in fairness to them, within 2 hours of being told, the landline had switched over to the new number and the new place without any further hitches. That bit is simple, by all accounts. (Doesn’t explain why it takes them two weeks notice usually, but there we go)
Broadband, however, is a problem. Supposedly it takes five working days, regartdless of anything else. It’s incredibly annoying, but again it’s one of those things where there’s really nothing I can do except wait. Oh, and phone them on a daily basis to see how it’s going. *grin*
But ’til Monday June 4th, it looks like I’m stuck with slowband. And oh God is it slow, after being used to ADSL for the last four and a bit years…
Posted: Fri 25 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Work-related |
Well, it’s been determined, my sentence here has been extended again – I’m now here ’til the end of August.
At that point, I’ll have been in this one contract for 11 months.
Time flies when you’re having fun.
Posted: Tue 22 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Introspective, Own Business, Work-related |
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been having a bit of a crisis with regard to my workload, among other things. If I’m honest, a lot of it is down to the fact that- at the moment, at least- I have to admit that I’ve taken on too much at once. As well as the normal day-to-day work, I’ve also got one big project on the side, as well as a couple of smaller ones on the back-burner. (Although that still means they’re in my head, and need to get done) Additionally, there’s one new one where I really need to talk about it a bit with some other people. Oh, and of course there’s also all the stuff around moving house. Not much on at all then.
In fact, if I just listed the stuff I’m getting paid for at the moment, it’s still working 7½ working days per week. Not one of my saner moments, admittedly.
Fortunately, the big project has a first deadline of the end of June, and everything should still be OK for that – it’s just that a couple of the steps along the way have sort of slipped a bit. There’s some reasons for it (and I’ll probably write a bit more about those later) but mainly it’s because I just can’t at the moment motivate myself to go ferreting through bizarrely-written databases. Particularly when they’ve been done in SQL Server, rather than anything decent.
But at the moment, well yes, I’m just feeling a little bit stressed about the entire thing, and not really having all that much fun. It’ll sort itself out, I know – and fairly soon now – but all the same, right now it’s a bit more chaotic and pressured than I’d prefer.
On the other hand, well, maybe I’ll learn something from this. (Although I kind of doubt it, somehow)
Posted: Wed 16 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, House Work |
At bloody last, my poxy bank has managed to change my address details.
It’s only taken three weeks.
In other news, the credit cards and so on that I have all managed it instantly, online. Even sending off the driving licence parts to Swansea and getting new updated documents back took less time.
Truly impressive.
Posted: Sat 12 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic |
Of all the things that need to be co-ordinated when you move, you really wouldn’t think that getting your bank to change your address would be one of the most difficult bits, would you? And in general, it wouldn’t be. Unless you happen to have the Manchester branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland as your account’s ‘home’. And ooh, lucky me, that’s exactly the problem.
In general, dealing with RBS isn’t a problem. I use the online banking, that’s fine. I go into the Cambridge branch, or the Reading one, and everything happens quickly, smoothly, and efficiently. If anything has to go back to my ‘home’ branch though, it goes tits up at high speed.
I don’t know what it is that makes the Manchester branch of RBS into such a bunch of useless bastards, but I do know it’s consistent in its crapness. (Actually, I do have a suspicion about what the problem is – it’s that I had a business account with them as well, and I’ll lay money that somewhere in their system, anything to do with my personal account still goes through the business section)
This time, as with when we moved to Norfolk in December, I called the phone banking section to do the change of address. All fine, apparently. Except that I know they have to send some kind of paper-trail document to the Manchester branch for them to process. Why, I’ve no idea. But that’s the way it is. Joined up banking with the RBS, oh yes.
And when the address change document goes to Manchester, it gets lost. Or mislaid. Or screwed-up and thrown in a bin. I don’t know. What I do know is that it doesn’t get processed. So ten days later, I call the phone banking people again, and ask why it hasn’t been done. Oh, we don’t know – the system says the address has changed, but the Manchester processing centre hasn’t activated it. Why? We don’t know. It must be a small system glitch.
Aye, right. That ‘small system glitch’ is also known as ‘it entered the document black hole called Manchester Processing Centre’.
We’ll see if the change gets processed this time, now I’ve invoked a formal complaint…
Posted: Fri 4 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Geeky, Work-related |
Ah, it always comes in the end. This time it was in the form of a letter from a scumbag agency I had the misfortune to register with while down in Bracknell, wanting to move on from CrapCo. Yeah, that long ago.
Bear in mind that since registering with them, I’ve now had two other jobs, and have moved from Berkshire to Norfolk. Which Scumbag Agency knows about, because I’ve told them. Repeatedly, and at great length.
And today? An email about Java developer positions in – wait for it – London, Exeter, and Southampton. I’ve never been a Java programmer- never wanted to be, never will be. Not my thing at all.
Fucking idiots. And I’ve told them that, too. Twunts.
Posted: Thu 3 May, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Getting Organised, House Work, Thoughts |
Yesterday I called BT about us moving house, and organising the (hopefully) seamless transfer of phone and broadband from where we are now to where we will be, and all on the day we move.
Which is going to be the 25th May, just in case anyone cared/wanted to know.
It shouldn’t be a problem, as we’re only moving roughly six miles, and will still be in the same area code – but no, we won’t be able to keep the current phone number. Apparently we’re going to be on a different exchange, and this throws a spanner in the works for keeping our existing phone number.
I don’t care, particularly, but it just seems strange that BT can’t manage the (on the surface) simple thing of keeping the phone number if you move within the same phone area code. Apparently it’s fine if you’re staying on the same exchange, but it’s a no-no if you’re moving exchange. Mind you, it’s not like there’s going to be someone using that number on the different exchange, is it?
Maybe I need some landline phone expert to educate me a bit on this one…