Random Rants
or
Things that make me go "Grrrrr"

Getting ones groceries delivered

Alwyn and I hate going grocery shopping. We trail around the supermarket, losing the will to live and usually end up arguing. In order to avoid this situation we started doing our grocery shopping online and getting it delivered. (So now we just stay home and argue instead!!)

Anyway, we had four deliveries over a four week period. The initial delivery was fine, the next one had a couple of missing items (beer in the main - important staple items!), the third one had a few more missing items and then the fourth delivery was missing around half of the items that we had ordered - including all of the meat - but they did manage to bring the beer! Each time we had missing items, one of us had to phone a number, blunder through a switchboard and then wait an eternity to speak to a real person in order to get the missing items refunded.

I phoned up to sort out the missing items on the fourth order. When I eventually got through to a real person, I told them that I was very unhappy with the situation and asked what they would do to rectify it. This individual said they would get in touch with the store that does the deliveries and ask someone to contact me. Needless to say, no-one contacted me that evening, or the next day, despite my phoning both the helpline and the store. Eventually, I managed to speak with the Customer Services Manager in the store. During the conversation I told her that I had been talking to their call centre in India. Do you know what she said, Constant Reader? She told me that their call centre wasn't in India, that it was in South Africa. "Oh yeah, that makes a big difference," was my reply to that particular piece of information!

My humour was wearing somewhat thin by this time, I told the Customer Services Manager that 75% of the deliveries that we had received were incorrect, and that the last order had around half of the items missing. Not exactly what you could call a good customer experience. I also told her that I wanted the money refunded for the missing items, I wanted the delivery fee refunded and that I wanted compensation. After a short pause, she came back and told me that I could have ALL of my money back; missing items, delivered items and the delivery fee. Now I had beer AND money!

We now check the order as it is delivered - the driver is able to take back incorrect items and refund missing items - and so far things have been much improved.

The NHS

Don't even get me STARTED on this.

Insurance Companies #2

So, there I was sitting in my office, minding my own business (playing games online) when my office next-door-neighbour, Bill, walked into my office and said, "Not wanting to spoil your afternoon or anything, but a minibus has just driven into your car."

I duly toddled outside to survey the damage and there was a young chap, wringing his hands in horror. Turns out he'd tried to pull in in front of my car, to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle, but had misjudged the length of the minibus - he'd just picked it up from the Student Union - and had taken the front driver side wing off my car, along with the front grille and half the bumper. He was absolutely horrified, I merely said, "No-one got hurt and this is what I pay insurance for". (As an aside, he was part of the Christian Union, God was obviously busy during this particular episode!)

We sorted out the insurance details and I contacted my insurance company, and got through to INDIA. Now this irritated me on a number of levels, largely because they couldn't get my name right, it took forever to get the information across and last, but by no means least, jobs are being removed from the UK and given to workers in India, but I'm not going to get started on that right now.

The garage that did the work on my car were superb. I had a nice courtesy car, they finished the work BEFORE schedule and were overall superb. (When I remember the name of the garage I will post it here!)

The whole insurance thing dragged on and on and I actually got better service from the insurers of the Student Union minibuses than I did from my own insurance company!

Insurance Companies #1

I remortgaged my home recently. The new mortgage lender offered me a household insurance policy, to which I replied "No thanks" not just once but on two separate occasions. This month, I looked at my bank statement and discovered that despite twice saying "no thanks" and sending them a copy of my current household insurance certificate to prove that my house is insured, they went ahead and billed me for two months household insurance. Mad? You don't know the half of it.

I got straight on the phone to them and explained the situation, whilst shaking with annoyance, and was passed between departments - don't you just hate it when they do that? Eventually I spoke to some drone who investigated their error and then told me that the money would be backdated and refunded. The way the drone communicated this sounded as though the company were doing me a huge favour by giving me back my money that they had misappropriated in the first place. Oohh made me very annoyed.

Speed Cameras!

Everyone loves to hate speed cameras! While I appreciate that there is a need to try to maintain safety on our roads, I am at a bit of a loss to explain how some of the speed cameras are supposed to ensure this.

I thought that I read somewhere (unless I made it up, dreamt it or saw it on TV) that speed cameras were only to be placed in "accident blackspots". I would very much like to know the definition of this phrase. Over the last year or so, no less than three speed cameras have appeared on a stretch of road in what used to be my home village. This particular road has houses on one side and a completely fenced in golf course on the other. I'm not sure what constitutes an "Accident Blackspot" but this road doesn't seem to fit the bill. Hmmmm

The other piece of idiocy regarding speed traps was one I saw recently on my way into work. I work on a college campus which is situated in a rather nice residential area. The road outside the college is often very congested at 9 am. I was in a line of traffic approaching the college; we all needed to turn right (across the oncoming traffic) in order to enter the campus. This was when I noticed that a "speed trap" had been placed on this stretch of the road. It was some sort of speed reading device and a screen which then displayed the speed at which your vehicle was travelling.

All very clever you may think. However, as many of the vehicles, myself included were attempting to turn right and other vehicles were squeezing past this line of slow moving traffic on the left, the speed display was reading "Your speed is 20 MPH" "Your speed is "15 MPH".

People often do travel too fast and need to be reminded of how fast they are going, however, placing a speed trap in an area where congestion is slowing the traffic down anyway is not really going to be of much consequence.

I would imagine that assembling and configuring such equipment is going to take quite some time, possibly with two people involved, for what was pretty much a waste of time due to the restriction of the traffic speed by the traffic itself!

Customer Service?!

Everyone likes to have a whinge about things sometimes, but recently I seem to have been on the receiving end of some of the most appalling customer service ....

The Tesco Incident
I wanted to buy a case of six bottles of a particular wine in a case to give as a gift. There were no cases of this wine on the shelf, so I went to the checkout with a single bottle and explained to the checkout operator what I wanted. She called over a colleague and asked me to explain what I wanted, which I did. This new member of staff pulled a face, said "I don't think there's anyone on in that section and anyway if there was a box they'd have to open it to scan the bottles. Do you understand me?" My temper reached boiling point - I felt like saying "Of course I understand you dear, I have a PROPER JOB." Instead and being determined not to cause a scene in the store where I do a great deal of shopping, I gave her my best PMT glare, said "I'll come back." and stalked off in disgust.

This particular story does have a redeeming feature (for Tesco, at least). I went back a week later as I was determined to purchase the case of wine. There was a young lad working on the wine aisle so I asked him about the case. He said he wasn't sure but would go to check for me. Five minutes later he came back with the box of wine. "You're in luck!" he said "Take a single bottle off the shelf for the checkout operator and they won't have to open the box. Would you like me to carry this to the till for you?" I thanked him profusely and went on my way a happy little bunny.

The Mobile Phone Incident
I have a contract for my mobile phone (rather than pay as you go). This contract is with Singlepoint. My phone battery started to lose charge really, really quickly, to the extent that any conversation that went beyond "Hello! How are you?" got cut off. I telephoned Singlepoint, told them the problem and asked what they could do about it. The answer that came back was less than satisfactory; there was nothing they could do.

I had been going to cancel my phone contract in the summer, but had been persuaded to stay with Singlepoint as they had offered me free line rental, more free minutes and free text messages. Now, four months later, my phone is useless and they are telling me that because I accepted the offer of free minutes, etc which was their persuasion for me to stay with them they cannot do anything for me.

I asked to cancel my contract. They told me that I couldn't cancel before January 2005 or it would cost me in the region of �120.

Then they offered me a new phone - to buy. "The cheapest one we have, if it's in stock, is �70. Oh, it's not in stock." Well I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

Their final piece of advice was to go to a phone shop and buy a new battery, which would cost in the region of �20.

My humour had worn through completely by this stage, so my rather pathetic parting shot was that I would cancel my contract in January.

I went onto eBay and purchased a new battery for the phone and fully intend to cancel my contract in January. Hmph.

The Nail Bar Incident
When I was off sick in the summer, my nails grew really nicely (no gardening, cleaning or anything else to break them, you see!) About a month ago, I went to Balance (Helen's Salon in Barry) to have a proper manicure. I had broken one nail, so I had an extension put on it so that it matched the others. Fab! I had a facial whilst I was there, it was terrific!

Last week I decided that my nails needed to be done again, so I thought I would try the Nail Bar which is around the corner from my house. I walked in an asked to make an appointment. The girl behind the counter asked another woman - the salon owner - about the appointment. The salon owner demanded to see my nails (I felt like I was back in school!). She said "These are your natural nails?" I pointed out that one was an extension and she said "I can see that." Okaaaay. I made the appointment for the following day at 9.30 AM.

Just before 9.30 AM the following day, I walked around the corner to the Nail Bar to discover it was shut. There was a note on the door which read:

"Rhian, The Junior messed up the appointment time, we don't open until 10 AM. I have rebooked you for 10 AM."

Well OK, but let's not forget that 10 AM might not have been convenient for me AND they hadn't bothered to take a telephone number to contact me in just such an event.

Just before 10 AM, I walked back to the Nail Bar and guess what? It was still shut. This time the girl who had made my appointment (the junior) was standing outside. "She's not here yet." Okaaay. I stood outside the Nail Bar for five minutes before telling the junior that I didn't think much of the way her boss treated her clients and that I had better things to do with my time, and leaving.

I had my nails done again at Balance which was a lovely, stress-free experience. Thanks Emma!

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