Tuesday Rant

I wish I’d stayed in bed. This should have happened yesterday and I could have joined in with Paula’s Monday Peeve.

Following Hubby’s trip to A&E over the weekend, he tried to ring the doctor’s surgery this morning, knowing our favoured doctor or our favoured alternative would be on duty. He could not get through as the line was permanently engaged, so sent an email, explaining what the duty doctor in A&E had asked him to request and to pass the message on to either of the doctors mentioned as they had dealt with his particular issue before.
We had a phone call from reception offering him an appointment with the HHA (who we would not touch with somebody else’s barge pole) which he declined.  Best bit? No, she could not forward the message on and if he wanted to speak to either doctor, he would have to call tomorrow. We asked if he could write a letter which was OK, so we did and dropped it off on the way out this morning. Brain of Britain has no competition with this receptionist who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

That was frustration one.
The second was with our Roadside Assistance company.  Four times I have asked for a copy of the policy to be sent in the post, and when yet another PDF file turned up in our email, I’d had enough.
There is no return email address on theirs as it is one of these DO NOT REPLY messages. Instead, they refer you to their website or give you a customer service line. Sigh. Where to start.
The website has no email contact address, just another number for customer service and the usual FAQ section. You cannot even ‘talk’ to an machine operative online as there is no log on button, or at least I couldn’t find one.
Phone call it is then, and I was already close to blowing a gasket when eventually a recorded message told me there was a delay of 30 minutes. They have a callback system, and as I usually use my mobile but was on the landline, I had to enter the number, in national format so with the 44 in front minus the initial 0. I punched in the wrong number so had to start again, more expense on the phone bill which will now be way over budget for August. I tried to ring on the mobile only to have the call time out on me because of their blasted messages before I connected with anyone. Back on the landline and left that number, so we had to stay in. I eventually got a call back and said I wanted to cancel my policy. When asked why, I said their service. They were practically impossible to get hold of, there was no email address available, and I still hadn’t received my documents in the post. The PDF in my email this morning was the last straw, and I was cancelling my policy. The payment isn’t due to go through until the end of the month and even though I had already renewed my policy but had changed my mind, I still don’t trust them not to claim the payment. So it meant a trip to the bank.
And so we come to frustration 3.
In my High Street days, it was simple to stop a payment going through your account. Not so now. As this was not a regular monthly or annual direct debit, it could not be done at the counter or at a machine, and I’d have to ring the bank, using their telephone banking service.  Oh joy. We’d kicked this into touch when they changed the system to voice recognition, but as there was a phone in the bank lobby I could use, I decided they could pay for the call. I was glad I did as it took over 40 minutes!!!!
I got through to a female in a foreign call centre and it was like she was talking through the ocean or a bubble machine. I could not hear or understand her and with her tinkering at the other end trying to improve the line, she put me on hold as she had to ask someone else. This set the pattern of the call and I now have their 4 note ‘hold music’ as an ear worm in my head.
This was probably C, B, C, G, A on a standard piano keyboard (not an ‘F’ in sight LOL).
Each time she came back on the line, the bubbles were in full flow. It was confirmed that my payment went through in July 2020 and that could not be stopped. I said that was fine, it was the 2021 payment I wanted to stop, so again I was put on hold………… 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,  1………………. my patience had now left the country let alone the building.
Eventually, I got put through to someone else, equally bubble faced and hard to understand, and I don’t know how I managed to stay coldly polite, but I think they have stopped any claim from the company concerned. I shall be checking my bank statement very carefully. It’s a good job my accounts are thorough.

But that’s not the end of it.
Coffee. I needed coffee and it was past lunchtime, so we decided to have a snack out. Hubby had a steak slice and cup of tea, and I had a latte coffee and bacon roll. We both had the sugar fix of a flapjack. Hubby took the lid off his tea and white lumps were floating in it as the milk had turned. Luckily we had bottles of water on board and I could not be bothered to fight my way through the layers of ignorant blubber aka holidaymakers back to the shop to complain.
We are glad to be home.
Hopefully the day will improve, but with only 8 hours left of it, and 3 of those will be after our usual bedtime, I will be surprised.

 

 

 

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