Carphone Warehouse (by alaric)

...appear to be incompetent.

About a year ago, we moved house. I wrote them a letter with my new address, and asking to change the bank account my direct debits come from, since Sarah and I consolidated all of our direct debits to come from the one account that our pay goes into, to simplify our joint finances.

Some time later, the mobile phone stopped working, because apparently I'd not been paying the bill. A little prodding revealed that they'd been sending the bills to my aunt (who lives next door), since they had the address somewhat wrong, and appeared to have not performed the direct debit change; I'd stopped putting money into my old account, so the DDs had been failing.

So I wrote them a grumpy letter, and they apologised profusely, and said they'd send me a new direct debit form to fill in.

Which never arrived.

Instead, nasty letters and phonecalls from a debt collection agency started to appear.

I spoke on the phone to CPW, who said they'd send me a direct debit form. Which never arrived.

I spoke on the phone again to them, and they said I could set up the DD over the phone, which I did.

Then a letter came bearing the mysterious message "We have no direct debit details for your account", which I rang them about; apparently this is SECRET CODE for "We tried to send the DD to your bank and they rejected it". They suggested I rang the bank, who said they'd had a DD come in for my account, but with some of the fields not filled on, so they rejected it. I spoke to CPW again, who said they'd do no such thing, but consented to send it again.

The debt collectors then threatened us with bailiffs.

So I went to a CPW shop in a nearby town, and they looked in their databases, and said that my DD should be working now, but it'd be a while before the next monthly billing run, so I should pay off the outstanding balance with my debit card in order to stop the bailiffs, which I did. They said I should have no more problems.

But the debt collectors keep ringing me demanding payment.

So I told them CPW said they shouldn't be ringing me any more.

They apologised, and said that CPW had neglected to tell them this, and suggested I write to CPW pointing this out, which I did.

CPW have not replied.

And tonight, at 8pm, I get called again by the debt collectors, and this time they're being nasty and saying that unless I pay up TODAY they're going to Take Further Action and Harm My Credit File. I explain the history, but they have none of it. So I say I'm not going to pay anything until I've spoken to CPW first. They say that they're very busy right now and if I hang up to ring CPW then try to ring them back I'll be in a very long queue and they close at 9pm so I might not get through, and if I don't pay today, I'm in trouble. The woman also suggests that if I just pay up then I can pursue CPW for a refund if what I'm saying is correct.

sigh

I don't like the principle of people ringing me up saying I owe them money, and when I disagree, threatening me with Trouble if I don't pay, and saying that if I really don't owe, then I can claim the money back. Since it seems to have taken CPW some trouble to understand that I paid them off, I don't fancy being out of pocket until they get their act together, if they ever do.

Anyway, I dug out a number for CPW and rang them, and went around their voice menu system, unable to find a human being, and it's now just turning 9pm, so apparently I'm in trouble.

I think I need to visit the Citizens Advice Bureau...

Marble runs (by alaric)

We were in a pound shop once that was selling marble runs for a pound each. We picked up three boxes, and they've sat around for ages, until this evening when we had a play.

Two sets combined:

Three sets combined:

But it looked too wobbly, so we tried again:

If they still do them, we want to go back and spend twenty pounds and get enough to make a marble run that fills the room...

Getting Home (by alaric)

Today, we went down to Bristol to visit Costco and stock up on baby supplies, and to have an outing in the city centre itself.

It was a lovely place to explore, but I was a bit sad - I remember visiting there about 15 years ago and there being a road with loads of big academic bookshops on near the University; but when we went there today, there was just a single small Blackwells. The others had been replaced with clothes shops, shoe shops, and hairdressers, it seemed.

Still, at the end of the day, we headed back up the M5 with Jean asleep. As we approached junction 11A, I commented that we were nearly home - it was just about ten minutes from there. We took the junction, went along the A417 one junction to the A46, but at Crosshands Roundabout - the exit to continue up the A46 was coned off. "ROAD CLOSED - ACCIDENT".

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Spooky cows (by alaric)

This evening, we were walking along the drive. It was dark, so I had a headtorch on, and I made a spooky discovery.

You see, the drive is bordered on both sides by farm fields, with a row of bushes and small trees marking the boundary. And the field on one side is full of all-black cows.

The spooky thing is that the cow's eyes light up in a torch beam in the same way cats' do. As in, at the distance away they were, the torch beam didn't light the cows themselves up any more than a faint black sillhouette, but there were several pairs of bright glowing eyes - a disturbing distance apart, leaving no doubt that they belong to something quite larger them myself - peering at us through the hedge.

I'm going to see if I can find a way to get a photo of this rather alarming effect!

Maize Maze (by alaric)

There's a Pick Your Own place near us, just by the Shurdington A46/A417 roundabout, which I sometimes drive past on the way to or from Cheltenham. And for ages, I've been intrigued by their "Maize Maze Open" sign.

I'm rather fond of mazes, so this morning, after dropping Jean off at her nursery, we stopped off at the maze on the way back.

Life being rather busy at the moment, I rarely have time to do something fun except from making empassioned blog postings about technology when I should be going to bed (or when I should be working, so I end up working when I should be going to bed), so I was rather excited about this outing.

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