Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 January 2007 14:28:11
Sorry (again) not to have been here for ages. I have got some lovely pictures to show you, but I haven't been able to put them on flickr yet so hopefully they will appear at some point.
Last week was appointment week for the groover, one hospital and one health visitor. He is having special boots from the hospital which we are waiting to hear about at the moment. They should be there in a couple of weeks. I toyed with the sensible colours for a bit but in the end went for the bright red ones. They will look not unlike bright red DMs.
I'm afraid I'm really just here to rant (and not for the first time) about idiot companies and the notion of customer service. Mr b got a new lease car just before christmas, and getting it insured was a bit of a palaver, because for the last three years he has been a named driver on my policy and a company car policy but not a policy holder himself. So it took a while to find a company which would take those three years into account and give him a reasonable no claims discount.
Still, we got there in the end. We had to send in proof of entitlement to the NCD, which meant getting a letter from the guy mr b used to work for (who was therefore the policy holder on the company car) and also from mr b's earlier insurer. This being over christmas it was a bit tricky, but the insurance company said not to worry, they give us 28 days to do it anyway.
So. 29th December I send the two necessary bits of paper with a covering letter.
8th January, we get a letter saying they haven't received it and unless it comes by return, they will cancel the policy. Quite calm at this point, as with the backlog of post over christmas etc, the two letters could have easily crossed. Phone the company, who confirm that this is indeed the case, the papers have been received and we don't need to do anything about it.
This morning, we get a letter saying they haven't received the papers and are cancelling the policy. No longer calm at all, I phone the company, and have the following conversation:
them: oooh I don't know why you've had that letter, it shouldn't have been sent. we've definitely had the details we needed.
me: so the policy's not being cancelled.
them: no, definitely not, don't worry.
me: well, obviously the latest correspondence we have from you says the insurance is being cancelled, so I'd like to have it in writing that it's not, please. Can you send me something today to confirm that?
them: sorry, we can't do that. we only have form letters on the computer and we're unable to send out anything other than our standard letters.
me: *boggle*
them: let me give you my name so you can note down that i've assured you everything's okay.
me: *boggle* um. yes, okay then. Look, are you really telling me that you can't send me a letter confirming this?
them: yes, sorry.
me: *boggle*
I'm about to go and write a letter just to confirm the conversations I've had, so I can send it to them and it can go on the file, rather than just a note about a phone call. I'd like also to ask them why on earth they have this bizarre inability to write individual letters about things, but it seems a bit pointless, as they can't reply.
All together now: gah.