next entryHot Ears
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind... (good way to cool one's lobes)
And no, it's not because someone is talking about me but due to the sheer fact that I've spent the best part of today trying to make some headway into getting my car fixed.
Since I'd not head anything from the repairers about picking up my car I decided to get their contact details from my insurers so that I could give them a ring and see what the situation is - after all I do have work this week and so need to know when and where they will be picking my car up. I even ask the insurers if they are sure they'd passed on the instructions, to which they said they had. Lo' and behold, when I ring the repairers, they hadn't heard a thing from the insurers, so I then promptly ring them back and say "oi! whats going on - you told me on Saturday and today that the instructions had been sent?!".
So after going through another merry-go-round of press 1 to continue, press 2 to get frustrated and press 3 to give up entirely I get through to the insurers again who this time tell me that the well known and now frequently abused "system glitch" which they had the misfortune of encountering on Saturday when I rang resulted in the instructions going to the repairer by post rather than by fax. But no fear, they will send the fax over to the repairers right away.
I then ring the car hire people who I'd got the number of from the insurers and go through yet another 30 minute conversation about my driving history etc etc and all that jazz and finally get to a point whereby I've arrange for the hire car to be dropped of at work tomorrow.Hmm, the paper trail on this whole event is getting somewhat troublesome so I then take the time to document everything that I've done so far, who I've spoke to and when just for my own benefit and of course documentary evidence should I need to sue to insurers at some point.
With that done, I decide to give the whole car thing a rest for the time being. It's depressing enough at the moment with out having to remind myself that my precious baby is the hands of bureaucrats and fools, and it may be some time before it's back from boarding school, that's if it ever gets to go there in the first place.
So what can I do to cheer myself up, oh oh oh I know! Why not pay my tax bill, that's always good for a giggle init? The delightful story behind this one is that I know I have to pay a tax bill because I had to send in a tax return from when I contracted earlier in the year. So far so good. I've now had a reminder that I need to pay my tax bill by the 31st January unless I want to die in a pit of burning money surrounded by cannibalistic taxmen and accountants whilst they chant and poke me to see if I'm cooked to a rare, medium or well done standard. The problem here is that despite me having a rough idea of how much tax I'll have to pay, I haven't had a confirmation of the amount I need to pay from the inland revenue, I've just had a "pay up or suffer" reminder.
The next phone call as you can guess then is to the Inland Revenue to find out the figure I need to pay (that made my eyes water!) and if I can pay via direct debit to make my life easier, which I can as it happens, but in order to do that I need to transfer some money around - fantastic, online banking! It is what it's made for... easy and convenient eh?
Not so because the online banking isn't working, so I then have to go the torturous maze of ringing the bank, selecting 5 zillion options and the result of my hard work was only rewarded by being put through to an Indian call center and being hooked up with someone who despite having a firm grasp of the english language was somewhat disabled by his very thick accent.
Will this day ever end? Eventually it did, and after cooling my ears after the intense radiation exposure from being on my mobile so long today I fill the time by doing some data entry into a mini project I've got brewing - and once I've hitched myself off that I prepare tea, which is roast lemon and garlic chicken served with mixed roast vegetables.
Very nice too it was.
Posted by Abi on the January 3, 2006 10:08 PM
Seems you have a rather unhelpfull insurance company. Mine is rather good compared to that. The few times I needed it I just had to call in once, send in the papers and they handle everything.