baldysblog.co.uk

I pose the question as in; “Are we now totally incompetent as a Nation ? The reason I raise the question lies in three recent experiences, two to do with Banks and a Motorway Service stop on the M4. Having been “off the scene” for almost 6 years looking after my parents, I wonder if this is the world of commerce that I am returning to ?

It is probably a sign of age but there are some things that really irritate me a lot and cause a disproportionate amount of frustration although, they are slightly different in nature than my main topic.

For Instance…

A good example being that for some reason best known to themselves, we get “power outages” on our electricity supply at home but, only for a few seconds – why ? I then have to go and reset the clocks on the microwave and conventional oven, the timing device on the latter having been designed by a total idiot and resetting it may result in getting the time right or having the oven turn itself on in the middle of the night ! I find the unpredictability, rather unsettling

Having reached the age of 64, I have had to become used whilst cooking to ‘putting’ saucepan lids on a worktop only to see them mysteriously ‘throw themselves’ on the kitchen floor and whilst ironing, the flex of said iron to wrap itself around my foot so that either it or I ‘come crashing down’ if either moves away too far ! However and having had very fast reflexes throughout my life, I can understand that likely such ‘incidents’ are caused by my ageing. My mind is still 21 and ‘holding’, my body 64 and ‘resentful’, the consequence of a few nano-seconds difference, the saucepan lid or iron hits the floor !

No, Not At All…Banks

About a year ago, I started saving money on a regular basis into an ‘associated account’ to my current account. No problem, it was as a preparation for when my Mum died, I would need extra cash and I would become responsible for paying the monthly bills, time to get into training ! Frankly, all my ‘banking’ is done over the web and obviously you can print out your own statements however, I realised that I didn’t get a monthly statement on this ‘savings account’ and as it is just a linked ‘secondary account’ to my current account which is all that it is, why it isn’t mentioned on my monthly statement.

I raised this issue with my Bank and after some months, got an incomprehensible reply from them so frankly, didn’t bother further until…

Post My Mother’s Death

My Mother banked with a certain former Building Society, now a Bank and Spanish owned. She had two accounts, a current and a savings one and into the latter she put all the funds to pay her funeral and Probate costs. The Solicitor on applying to freeze all transactions on her accounts was told that she only had a current account…

It was to take a lot of shouting and screaming before some brain dead Muppet replied in writing that yes she did have a savings account of this number and containing this amount of money. The simple fact was that apart from me knowing of this account, there was actually no proof that it existed and the the staff of the particular Bank, clearly did not have access to or, understand how to use Relational Databases which if they did, would have shown up any and all accounts held by that person at that address with that date of birth.

The conclusion was even funnier: my surname is Haynes and on the letter to me, it was correctly addressed until it got to “Dear Mr Hayes…” and this on the same page ! It got even better: all I ever wanted was written acknowledgement of the existence of this account so that when Probate was granted, I could get the funds to pay off the funeral and Probate costs.

For whatever reason, these people decided to give me “…as a gesture of goodwill…” a cheque made out to a Mr Hayes for £55. I have no idea how they arrived at this figure, my guess is that in additional Solicitors charges, their incompetence has likely cost me at least £250. I sent the cheque back to them so that they could pay Mr Hayes – whoever he maybe. Just how totally hopeless can anyone be and still get paid a salary ?

In Parallel

I also pursued my own Bank because I realised that there was absolutely no proof that I had a separate savings account, a stranger dealing with my affairs after my death would have no expectation that there was anything other than my current account.

Very reluctantly and with no good manners or grace what so ever, I got an annual statement on my savings account so that finally in my file and as a “note for the babysitter”, there is proof of both my bank accounts. My conclusion on this is fairly simple, no wonder we had a banking crisis, these people have no idea how to run their own businesses, the miracle is that the whole lot didn’t collapse long ago.

Food

Having the ‘freedom’ to undertake a longish journey is still a novel experience for me but the other week I had to visit a friend to sort out their IT needs. The journey was 168 miles each way and from where I live was M5, M4, M25 so having had to make an early start, I decided to target a breakfast after about 100 miles which meant the Services at Reading.

Much mourned are the “Little Chefs”, the only eatery I can remember where you could buy a really decent, grease free variation on the “Full English Breakfast” – oh where are you “Olympic Breakfast” of yesteryear much loved and mourned by all ?

I tried my arm at the Reading Services version of an “English Breakfast” served up by someone of, I suspect Eastern European origins with the same indolent disinterest last seen in the 1970s by grumpy middle aged old bats at Watford Gap Services on the M1. Suffice to say, the food matched, both inedible and expensive – I had time travelled, all I needed was Gene Hunt and I could be in an episode of Ashes to Ashes !

To be fair to the Operators, they had a web site where you could post negative comments for others to see plus, when I complained at their HQ web site, after a week or 10 days of silence, I got a well crafted letter that not only apologised but answered all my specific points, which showed that it wasn’t a standard letter written by the local Manager. They also enclosed vouchers that more than covered my costs so, fair enough, to me they were far more on the ball than the two Banks I had had to deal with.