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Post by Kimby on Apr 24, 2019 22:40:58 GMT
My beloved is bored....so he has decided to work on the house....the house is FINE... *sigh* I think we are married to brothers of different mothers, cheery! Fortunately, my beloved’s mother was schooled in interior design and he inherited her good design sense. But I still receive each project kicking and screaming till I grudgingly accept that he was probably right. I hope you come to love your new kitchen/whatever.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 24, 2019 23:46:17 GMT
Oh, Cheery! I echo what Bjd said: make him go outside to play. ~or~ Put up a notice on a local board that he will design & build all kinds of things for others.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 25, 2019 1:58:46 GMT
I tried ! He thinks that I'm being selfish...and not thinking of the future. It will make the house warmer. Hes quite upset because I'm being so negative. Usually I'm really enthusiastic about his projects. So...I'll have to pull my horns in and be more thoughtful. Better out than in.
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Post by questa on Apr 25, 2019 3:11:58 GMT
Give it a couple of years and he will probably observe that it looks more cramped and dimmer...and if he took off those doors and.... Actually I agree with him re heating larger areas than needed. One of my neighbours removed a masonry non-weight-bearing wall between kitchen and lounge room and the sliding door. In our case it is air-conditioning that chews up the power, and the neighbour is now up for a bigger unit to cool the larger area.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 25, 2019 17:12:52 GMT
I am so angry at my bank that if I were closer, I would go there in person and BITE every single higher-up representative of their incompetence that I could find.
Just got off the phone on day three of trying to resolve a mystery problem with them. Starting on the 19th I asked for a replacement credit card to be sent. I was helped in an efficient professional manner & two days later got an email from the bank giving me the fedex tracking number for the item. When I tracked, it turned out that the transaction had been "canceled by the sender" WTMF?! Called bank. Spent over an hour and a half with a competent woman who did all she could to figure out what happened. The best anyone could come up with was that it was "a glitch". She sent it out again & told me to call the following day (yesterday) to get the tracking number. Called yesterday and this time asked to speak to a supervisor. He reviewed the whole thing & said that it had indeed been sent and that I should get it before I have to leave on Tuesday. He also wanted me to call back the following day (today) to get the tracking number. I said I wanted an email. So, this morning I got an email with the tracking number. Upon checking the number it turned out that yes, AGAIN it had be "canceled by the sender".
Oh effing joy. So now it's obvious that I will have no back-up credit card to take on the trip with me, plus I get to talk to the bank again.
Phoned, demanded a supervisor, was put on hold so long I finally hung up. Called back and was finally connected to some miserable snowflakey twat named Keisha who attempted to "handle" my fury by using that asshole FM radio announcer voice that men always think works with angry women. It was all about how she "understood my frustration" -- frustration apparently being a code word for how much I hate people like her and how I am so disgusted with the bank that I am going to change banks after more than a quarter century with this fuckup of a financial institution -- and that she wanted to help and that I should appreciate that. I appreciated it by telling her that I could not deal with her and to get me someone else. She found another woman who spoke in a normal tone of voice, who acknowledged that my situation has uncovered some essential flaw in the system, and who is going to engage some Olympian group of executives who supposedly will be calling me back today.
It probably does not matter at this point because I can feel the blood rising to the point it is going to shoot out the top of my head & I won't need any credit cards every again.
I hate them so much.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 25, 2019 17:47:10 GMT
FM radio announcer voice that men always think works with angry women On behalf of all Anyport men and before we men all delete our accounts, I will accept that this statement was made in a moment of unbridled fury. Frankly, I have changed bank at least six times over the past 40 years and I am glad that I did so. All of the consumer groups constantly try to convince people that there is absolutely no reason to be faithful to a bank that gives inadequate service -- but it is also a well known fact that only a tiny percentage of people dare to change bank. (Why on earth not?)
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Post by mossie on Apr 25, 2019 18:15:30 GMT
That is not acceptable Bixa, as Kerouac advises it is perhaps best if you change banks and tell your current one why. In a letter to the chairman.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 25, 2019 18:15:52 GMT
I changed banks this year after 30 years with the same bank.
Mind you, the offer of £100 helped...
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Post by mossie on Apr 25, 2019 18:21:22 GMT
My gripe today is call centres, I had occasion to talk to two. The first was the electric and gas suppliers, a very pleasant Welsh lady who did sort my problem out, but her accent was so strong that I had her repeating most things. Then I went onto my bank and got a Scottish lady with an impenetrable Gorbals accent, after some minutes I gave up, politely, blaming my geriatric state, but it is very annoying. The Gorbals is the roughest quarter of Glasgow.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 25, 2019 18:24:16 GMT
Those damned foreigners!
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 25, 2019 18:50:47 GMT
I'm with Mossie on that particularly the Scottish call centres.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 25, 2019 18:54:33 GMT
Hope you get it sorted Bixa dear.
We've been with the same bank since 1981...
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 25, 2019 19:02:28 GMT
On the subject of call centres. In the 90s they all seemed to be based in Scotland because (apparently) everybody trusts a soothing Scottish accent...
We have lots of cold calls from India and Europe, some scams but most selling insurance etc...that's why we usually let the ansaphone click in...if we recognise the caller we pick up.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 25, 2019 19:39:38 GMT
Our French call centres are mostly based in Morocco and Senegal. I used to get some Indian scam calls ("This is Microsoft. We have detected a problem with your computer.").
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 25, 2019 19:46:58 GMT
I've had a number of run ins with my bank and maybe have mentioned them somewhere. Usually to do with credit cards being sent then cancelled or countless forms to verify my identity that once I'd done it, I'd receive the same forms over and over again. I now have the email address of a pet complaints person to whom I always get in touch with first - mainly because the first complaint I made resulted in a payment of 100 pounds in compensation for my troubles and the next two I got 75 pounds for each one.
As regards call centres, I had an interim job for a few months in one in Frankfurt booking high end hotels. Quite enjoyed it and nobody complained about my accent.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 25, 2019 20:23:43 GMT
I would love to have a csllcenter in Senegal or Algeria. My IT callcenter has the message that says 'for English press one voor Nederland druk op 2 pour le français tapez 3. So I press 3. Get a romenian nice lady speaking English. Inefficient. Tried again - on 2. Got a Dutch guy. Arrogant. All is my fault. But ... he gets some things done.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 25, 2019 21:59:43 GMT
[quoting bixaorellana:] FM radio announcer voice that men always think works with angry womenOn behalf of all Anyport men and before we men all delete our accounts, I will accept that this statement was made in a moment of unbridled fury. Frankly, I have changed bank at least six times over the past 40 years and I am glad that I did so. All of the consumer groups constantly try to convince people that there is absolutely no reason to be faithful to a bank that gives inadequate service -- but it is also a well known fact that only a tiny percentage of people dare to change bank. (Why on earth not?) [bixa responds:]Whereas I am of course delighted to have provided you with the world's most tenuous reason to feel superior: "I changed banks!" , I stand by my statement re: that particular voice men will use to "handle" women. I freely grant that you have had a wide variety of life experiences, but I am positive that in this life at least, you have never been a woman. Admittedly, the men one knows will generally never use that voice on a woman friend or relative unless the man in question has a serious death wish. But in the work place and many other situations some men, secure in the belief that a wise deity has left them in charge of affairs on earth, will in fact use that insanely demeaning and psychotically irritating tone to exert control over an outrageous situation, to wit, a justifiably pissed-off woman. Re: changing banks -- I have never changed from this bank because it does some things that have always been to my benefit, such as refunding all atm and foreign transaction fees. In the past it has been a great bank in terms of dealing with any problems intelligently and humanely. It appears that since the last time I had any kind of problem they have bound themselves up with malfunctioning automation. It must be said that until I reached the wimpily useless Keisha, all personnel with whom I dealt were unfailingly professional and intelligently helpful. It's a damned shame that they are made to look bad by some incredibly stupid and undetected glitch in the bank's system. Call center people with accents are a constant source of frustration. I have pleaded hearing problems, age, phone connection, etc. in attempts to be polite and to keep from telling the call center woman from the Philippines (it's always the Philippines on this side of the Atlantic) that she is impossible to understand. (That said, I did get one the other day who had a detectable but easily understood accent and who was very competent and helpful.) It must be strange to be in Britain and not be able to understand someone from your same group of islands. Mark, my bank probably wants to give me to a dedicated complaints person, but at this point can't find one who'll take me.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 26, 2019 0:17:01 GMT
Well, especially since they are also speaking a type of English, not a Gaelic or Brittonic Celtic language. (Gaelic: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Manx)(Brittonic: Welsh, Cornish, Breton, might be some other tiny island stuff). Some of the Glasgow region accents are extremely hard to understand. Once I was working with a Polish/English translator (I was translating into French) with a strong Glaswegian accent, but he was eddicated and understandable. It was just funny.
I don't think we have call centre people from the Philippines. In English, mostly Indian subcontinent/South Asia. In French, North or West Africa. I think I've also had some from Haiti, educated young people who spoke beautiful French with an island lilt.
I'm having horrible billing problems from Hydro-Québec, who suddenly claim that I owe them a pile of money, while I was on a guaranteed payment scheme and had followed it religiously. I've sent them a letter with the (respected) payment schedule - utterly impossible to get through to them by phone, but if that happens I have to get in touch with a consumer protection association or my local riding (constituency) office. Such a pain and waste of effort!
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 26, 2019 0:35:15 GMT
Mark, my bank probably wants to give me to a dedicated complaints person, but at this point can't find one who'll take me. I suspected with my bank that they wouldn't tell me they have a dedicated complaints department, who do have quite a lot of power to get things done and have access to all sorts of information a call centre employee doesn't, until I uttered the magic words of wanting to make an officially recorded and registered complaint. I said this over the phone and in writing over my bank internet access. I was then contacted via my email rather than the bank access by someone and given a complaint reference number to follow through with.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 26, 2019 0:44:10 GMT
I love it! It's almost as though you got the complaint reference number from someone on a shadowy street who went "pssssst" as you passed by. Joking aside, I will be following your example. Anyway, part 2 of USAA Bank cl*sterf*ck extravaganza: About an hour ago I was upstairs getting ready to take the dogs out for their evening walk when someone rang the doorbell on the gate. I went downstairs and could hardly believe my eyes, as I could see there was a FedEx truck parked out in front. And yes indeedy-do, it was my credit card. This is just about the cherry on the cake of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. When I went online to activate it, it turned out that the bank had arranged for this card to continue paying my monthly internet/phone bill which the one it replaced had been paying. This despite the fact that every single one of the reps to whom I spoke told me that I'd have to get in touch with my internet provider because the credit card numbers would be different & that would void the auto-pay. Accordingly, yesterday afternoon I changed the auto-pay to my other credit card, so gee thanks, Bank. I am completely fried by all of this.
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Post by questa on Apr 26, 2019 1:03:43 GMT
In Oz our call centres are mainly in the Philippines or India. I take the initiative and ask the speaker to speak slowly and clearly. Then if I miss something I can just ask them to say it again.
I switched from banks to a credit union which has a much better system. When you join you pay $10 for lifetime membership of the union and the members own the organisation. We all vote in the Board and their decisions can be overturned at a meeting. They get a fair salary with no fat bonuses...profits go back into the membership. Over 50s members pay no fees or charges and all the lending, borrowing etc of banks is done with favourable interest rates for the member. I have had phone calls checking my location when I have used my card in another city, and they detected a scam withdrawal within minutes and closed down my account until it was fixed.
The personal service is always friendly and they know their stuff, I would never go back to a Bank again. Do you have Credit Unions in your regions? They were once called 'Building Societies.'
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 26, 2019 3:51:10 GMT
In France we have "mutual" banks that are owned by the account holders and operate the same way.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 26, 2019 3:57:53 GMT
I am positive that in this life at least, you have never been a woman. If you were a man, you would know that we get spoken to the same way, sometimes by mean women.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 26, 2019 5:30:10 GMT
I switched from banks to a credit union Questa, I always thought that credit unions were only for people who were part of a particular entity such as a school system or something. Guess I'll check that option out! we get spoken to the same way, sometimes by mean women. Poor y'all.
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Post by questa on Apr 26, 2019 6:24:02 GMT
My reason for switching from a bank? I applied for a small loan to start a business. I had the money to get it up and running, just asked for 5% to cover unexpected dramas. He agreed my business plan was good and asked what my husband thought of it. As soon as I said I wasn't married he collected up all the papers, stood up and said, "We don't lend to single women" No apologies or explanations. I was stunned but managed to ask for a closing account form and carried my wealth to the nearest C.U. office, joined up and been happy with them for years.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 26, 2019 8:56:07 GMT
The main problem I was having is that every time I phoned, not only did I have to explain whole things again, I was then given information different to what I was previously told. Mostly that something could be done as opposed to previously it couldn't, and vice versa - such as I would have to physically fly back to England to pick up a credit card from my branch because they wouldn't send it to me.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 26, 2019 9:50:17 GMT
Last I changed bank it was when my banker told me she could not solve my problem. I asked why and she said she (and the bank) had to respect procedures. I said, yes, like in Auschwitz : Befehl ist Befehl. We are not friends anymore since.
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Post by bjd on Apr 26, 2019 12:26:02 GMT
Years ago we had to open an account with a bank (Banque Populaire, not to name it) in order to be able to join a kind of credit union for civil servants. The latter offered the choice of getting interest on your deposit (always low) or getting points which got you good rates on real estate loans.
Over the years, the many times I had to deal with this bank (debits made twice, being asked to show my ID after being in there often over time, general incompetence about bank charges that I would have to argue about and write letters to senior management...) I thought that I definitely have to change banks. The crunch came one day while I was in line behind a woman who had ordered US dollars to take to Ecuador. She was leaving the next day. They handed over a bunch of Turkish lira. The poor woman had a fit while they told her to go to another branch of the same bank and maybe they would have dollars for her.
The next day I went to change bank and have had no trouble ever since.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 26, 2019 14:50:46 GMT
Here in Québec ours are called Caisses populaires. At the outset they were by parish, though of course they are secularised now. Unfortunately they also act much more like commercial banks.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 26, 2019 17:33:58 GMT
Huckle, that is lovely and it's wonderful when a client can feel so secure with her banking establishment. My bank used to be a lot cozier. The real kicker of this whole mess-up is that all the people who attended me were extremely pleasant, polite, professional and helpful but were having the rug pulled out from under them by some mess in the bank's system.
An update on my saga: I will have to change my name on this forum to onlyMark2 because a bank executive did in fact call me this morning AND gave me his private number in case there are any more problems. Please god, no, but it was nice that I got some attention from upstairs, although it took an awful lot of squeaking for this wheel to get some grease.
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