Cleaning Up
Posted: Sat 26 August, 2023 Filed under: Domestic 2 Comments »One of the best decisions I made when I moved to New Place (almost a year ago already!) was to take on a regular cleaning service for the house.
I’m not a horrible house-keeper in general – despite what a couple of now-exes said – but I also make no claims about being perfect. There are things I won’t notice or worry about until they get (by my standards) bad, but then I’d always handle them. But when I moved out of Tiny House, the moving of furniture etc. made me realise that there were things I hadn’t done at all (like moving the bed to get under it for cleaning purposes)
So with this one, I have a service that comes in once a month and does a general cleanup. It only needs an hour a month (and they keep on being surprised by this, that a man living on his own isn’t some kind of absolute sty-dweller) but it means everything’s being kept up to date. To me, that’s absolutely worth what I’m paying.
The only thing that annoys me though, is that, despite each person saying “Oh, I’m so OCD about cleaning” and so on, not one of them has been able to clean stuff and then put it back where it was. I suspect it’s a thing that’s meant to say “Yes, we’ve cleaned round this”, and that’s fine – I’m sure they have customers who need to see that sort of thing, otherwise they’ll feel the work hasn’t been done. Thankfully, I’m not that sort of customer.
So anyway, I understand the motivations, but it still grates a little. But still, having the service is worth those minor irritations.
Finance Trials – Follow Up
Posted: Tue 22 August, 2023 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances 3 Comments »Following on from my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman about [Company A]’s fuckery, I got a response this morning from them.
Well, I say a response. More of an acknowledgement. With this in it…
We try to resolve complaints as quickly as we can. But there’s currently a very high demand for our service – so it might take around four months before a case handler gets in touch with you and starts looking into your complaint.
(That’s their emphasis on the timescale, not mine)
So on current evidence I’ll be lucky to hear anything at all before 2024…
Laid Waste
Posted: Thu 17 August, 2023 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Green 4 Comments »One of the (admittedly silly) things I’m generally proud of is how comparatively little non-recyclable waste I generate here. When it comes to my bin-collection days, I’m usually quite surprised by how full the bins of my neighbours are in comparison.
Now admittedly the other households usually have more people in, and I take that into account – but all the same, those bins are filled to the brim most fortnights.
Mine seems to generally work out as one bag per fortnight, so I generally (unless it’s been stupidly warm, in which case I’d rather be rid) actually only put that bin out every other fortnight – and even then, it’s nowhere near full. I could probably get away with only putting it out every six weeks, to be honest.
On the other hand, I’d be considerably more stuffed if I forgot to put the recycling stuff out for collection. (I base that on knowledge, I messed up one day and missed it when the collection came far earlier than usual, and it was a pain in the bits to catch up!)
I know that, all things considered, it means precisely cock-all. But I’m still happy that I’m not landfilling much stuff at all. (Obviously most of my carbon footprint is taken up with idiot drives, rather than the waste I generate)
Finance Trials
Posted: Fri 11 August, 2023 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Getting Organised, Rebuilding, Thoughts 3 Comments »Over the last few months I’ve been intermittently fighting with two different finance companies about their shitty ways of handling things. I’m not going to name names (yet) so it’ll be “Company A” and “Company B”
Company A
The shorter of the disputes started back in June when I logged in to the app for their credit card, and discovered that my credit limit had dropped from around £6,000 to £1,000. With no notice or warning. Which is, it’s fair to say, a bit of a concern…
I rang them (I know, old school!) to find out what was going on, and was told “Oh, well you weren’t using your full credit limit, so we dropped it”. Which is, to be honest, well within their rights – I wasn’t using it, and *shrug*. But it’s still not right to do so without any notice or warning – if they’re increasing the limit they give you 30 days notice and allow you to decline the change, so why not do the same for a decrease?
I got the change rescinded, but made a complaint about how it had been done. There could’ve been any number of reason why I might’ve been relying on that card/limit that Company A were unaware of (if I’d been getting the car significantly repaired, as one example) and where a sudden drop would’ve landed me in the shit. (Fortunately that wasn’t the case – but they didn’t know that)
Alongside that, a drop in credit limit would almost certainly have a negative effect with the credit-scoring people – at a bare minimum it would have raised the Credit Utilisation percentage (the amount of your available credit that you’re actually using) But it also makes other lenders twitchy – that whole perception of “why would Company A drop the limit if they didn’t think there was a problem?” and so on, and would’ve lessened my credit score as a result.
I got the response from them last week that my complaint wasn’t being upheld “because we can’t find any errors in how we administered your account”. Which again is (kinda sorta) true/fair. Errors weren’t made in the decisions (although who ever heard of a credit card company decreasing a limit?!?) But errors were definitely made in how that decision was then actioned, which was the actual reason for the complaint.
So today that’s gone off to the Financial Ombudsman for them to have a look at.
Company B
Company B’s problem has been *far* more long-winded. Back in December I had fraudulent transactions made on the card, which got spotted and reported. No idea where that leak came from, as it wasn’t a card I used often, but there we go. Stuff happens.
When I next used the app, as a result of the fraud, I had a flag put on for “heightened security”. Just to check it was me, verify transactions etc. And then they sent me a new card (as expected)
Only somewhere in that process, things went tits-up. I went through the “heightened security” checks, validated myself, had to call them (I know, old school again!) and that should’ve been that. But instead, the app locked up, and stayed that way – every time I went through the process for registering the new card in the app, it froze on insisting I needed to give those checks again. I did that four times, with Company B saying each time that they couldn’t understand why it was still wanting those checks, I’d definitely already done them.
I *suspect* that what happened was a clash – the “heightened security” was on the old card, which then got cancelled, but somewhere in the depths of their system, it wasn’t cleared in my account. So when I registered new card, it was still checking back and seeing that flag from old card.
Anyway, complaints (yes, plural) were made – firstly because of how badly it was handled (they agreed, and I got their default compensation payment) and then because the problem was *still* ongoing three months later, I couldn’t log in to the app. That ended up going through their app support team, who might as well have been a black hole for all I heard from them. And so I gave up for a while, and left it. I wasn’t using the card, didn’t have any payments to make, so *shrug* what the hell. Their problem, not mine.
Last week I reinstalled the app again, just to see. It’d been six months, after all…
And lo, it finally worked. No-one from Company B had been in touch, despite those outstanding complaints and support issues, but at least it was working.
I got back in touch with Complaints because not being told was a bit shit, and they agreed. (In an hour-long phone call) It hadn’t been handled well, the support team were rotten, blah blah.
So I’ve had another default compensation payment out of them, and it’s now all done and dusted.
Conclusion
All told, life could be worse. I’m stupidly lucky to be in the position I’m in now, where neither of those issues has actually caused me any more inconvenience than yelling “Oh for fuck’s sake” on a regular basis.
But both of these companies are supposedly specialists in dealing with people with credit issues – as I was when I got them – yet haven’t seemed to have any real insight on how these issues could/would affect someone who truly was still having those issues, or anyone for whom life was a bit tight at present. (and god, who *isn’t* in that situation to some degree or other – even if it’s “just” being aware of how much prices have risen and so on?)
As such, I’ll be the person to use that fortune/luck and privilege to be able to have the time and energy to raise these complaints and hopefully make things better as a whole.
But really, neither of these things should ever have been as much of a problem as they turned out to be. And that’s what makes it all so frustrating.
Standing Still
Posted: Fri 4 August, 2023 Filed under: Domestic Leave a comment »This weekend, I’m actually doing as little as possible. It’s needed.
The last two weeks have been busy (pretty much through my own decisions) and have both involved driving about 800 miles.
Two weeks ago involved day trips to Oxford (my normal on-site day), Newcastle and Leeds, as well as a day at the cinema.
Last week was day trips to Oxford (again), Nottingham, and Somerset.
This week’s only had the Oxford trip, and the rest of it has been home-based, with getting a bundle of other stuff sorted instead – just without the travel. No bad thing.
It’s been fun, I’ve enjoyed it all, but… it’s going to be nice to be not doing that this week!
Subscriptions and Stupidity
Posted: Mon 26 June, 2023 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, I Don't Understand, People, Stupidity 3 Comments »Interesting to see that subscription things are now the latest target in the Government’s “How can we protect stupid people from being stupid?” process.
Now OK, some of the tactics used by subscription-model companies can be a pain – particularly the “sign up for a free trial and we’ll charge you after that” thing – but also (as that summary hints) they bloody well tell you what they’re going to do! I assume that people just get as far as “sign up for a free trial” and then stop reading/comprehending, but it really isn’t rocket science.
If you’re wanting to try it, then sign up for the free trial. But at the same time put a reminder in your phone for 25-ish days away that says “Cancel [x]”. Then when the phone says “Cancel [x]”, do so. Voila, no charge.
Yes, the model absolutely relies on people being stupid and not bothering to cancel the subscription. Similarly, most gym memberships expect/hope that the majority of people will sign up for the year and only use the place for two or three months. (although that one is a contract, so they can’t easily get out of it) But a subscription model paid month-to-month is an easy one to cancel – assuming even a vague level of competence, of course. The first time the payment comes out, if you don’t want it, it’s easy to go “Oh, fuck it. Forgot that – let’s cancel that now so I don’t have to pay again next month!” and just log in and get it cancelled.
Now OK, I accept that I’m probably not “normal” on this, but I keep a close eye on my money – I know when payments come out, I know what I’m expecting to pay, and I check my bank account every couple of days, minimum. I know where I stand on all of it on any given day. So it absolutely gobsmacks me to see things like this (from the story linked above) :
John, for example, told the BBC he had signed up to Amazon Prime video for a 30-day free period and forgot to cancel it when he had to start paying for it.
“I’m just gutted I spent £6.99 a month for 18 months for no reason”.
Now, I’d like to see Amazon’s side of that story, and see whether “John” actually watched Amazon video in that time, and/or whether he got Amazon deliveries in that time. It’s worth noting that Amazon is actually an oddity in this case, in that you pay for Prime delivery and get the video stuff as well – so if he’s paid for Prime to get things delivered next-day and made use of that then it’s not been a waste of money in the first place!
As for cancelling, John comes up with this gem…
“It was such a stressful ordeal and left me with a lot of anxiety. It ridiculous, these companies only care about the money not the person”.
I mean…. A) Welcome to Capitalism. And B) it’s a simple process. Yes, they’ll say “Are you sure? Here’s what you’ll lose out on” and so on, because they do want to keep your custom/money. Of course they do. But it’s not a challenging thing to just say “Yep, cancel it”. Certainly most (if not all) of the online companies make it easy – a couple of clicks and it’s done. Even the dating sites don’t make a big thing of the people leaving – they know they’ll have plenty of other people signing up or staying on.
All told, if someone says they’re short of money (“Cost of living crisis” etc. etc.) and yet still ‘not knowing’ that they’re paying out for subscriptions, then they’re not actually that short of money. (Or are congenitally and irredeemably stupid)
On the other hand, I can absolutely see that it would be good/ethical for a subscription service to send a check-up message if the person using it hasn’t accessed that service at all in (for example) six months, and have them opt back in (or at least say “Yes, I want to keep going with this”) at that point. And if they don’t respond, then their account gets deactivated. Among other things, that would be useful in scenarios where the person has died or become incapacitated, and reduces the whole nightmare of trying to unsubscribe someone from something where you don’t even know their username/password.