It was one of those days yesterday. First off, the problem of the Missus’s PC not being able to connect to the wireless network reared its head again. Despite buying a load of new gear, I am beginning to think that this is an issue with Windows ME and that maybe I should upgrade her to XP.
Then some little herbert decided to hack one of my other websites. It wasn’t too serious but it meant that my evening was taken up with putting it all back together again.
Another problem I have been having is with my bank, Abbey (or Abbey National as my card and chequebook still calls them). I ran out of cheques and urgently need a new chequebook. I ordered a new chequebook from the ATM machine a fortnight ago but nothing has arrived, so I called their help line to find out what was going on. Unfortunately, Abbey has outsourced to an Indian call-centre and so this makes communication a little difficult. I am pretty good with accents, having been raised in the East End of London and going to school with children from many different ethnic groups, but the woman I was dealing with spoke so fast and had such a strong accent I had to ask her to repeat everything. Then she couldn’t understand what I was saying…
So it took me about 10 minutes to get through the security clearing, before she told me that there was a block on my account meaning that I can’t have another chequebook. This completely stuffs me and makes my bank account with the Abbey useless. So I ask why? She can’t tell me. She says I must go to my local bank to find out. I don’t want to do this, I just want a new cheque book and carry on with my business unaffected. I wouldn’t mind if the Abbey had sent me a letter or phoned to call about this block, but instead I have been left in the dark and to worry that my chequebook has been stolen in the post. So now I will be withdrawing my money and going elsewhere, partly because the Abbey never warned me about this, partly because of the Indian call centre. I am going to take my cash to the Nationwide Building Society, which has vowed never to outsource their telephone operations.
Then Alex the Wonderdog decided to throw up on the stairs at midnight and I did a bit of a Jack Douglas and spilt the bowl of disinfectant/puke water all over myself.
Moan, moan, moan…will this man ever stop? 🙂

« »