26.point.1

A response from Cahoot…

// June 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // FURY!, Money

So having sent my letter to Cahoot about their shitty customer service and inability to treat people like people, unless the people were on the “Process” stream I got a response about 70 minutes later that read…

“Dear Mr Pallatt,

I’m contacting you in response to your email in relation to your debit card.

I understand that you have had an issue with a debit card that had been sent, and as a result a new card had been ordered out for you.

As the first card was faulty, in order to enable you to have access to your funds we offered you a free of charge CHAPS transfer, which in your email you stated was of no use to you as you didn’t have access to another account.

With CHAPS transfers there is a cut off time of 11am, as it is a real time payment we have to process these payments by a certain time to ensure that all the payments are completed and sent off.

When you received your new card, it is necessary to activate your card, if done online you can use this immediately; however if you would like us to activate your card this can be done for you here but there is a wait of 24 hours before you can use the card as our system needs to update overnight.

Although we are a division of Abbey, Abbey accounts and cahoot accounts are dealt separately as a result when you requested a staff member from Abbey to activate your card this would not have been possible as they have different systems to ours.

In addition to this you would not be able to withdraw funds from Abbey either, as cahoot is an internet bank and also as stated previously cahoot and Abbey accounts are managed separately.

Please be assured I have carried out a full investigation for you. I hope you feel I have offered a fair response to all of the issues you raised. If you remain unhappy, you may refer your concerns to the Abbey Central Complaints Team within 8 weeks, the address to contact is:

Complaints
Abbey
PO Box 5129
Milton Keynes
MK9 2YN

You can find details of how to take your complaint further with Abbey at http://www.cahoot.com/legal/legal.html#importantInfo under the heading ‘Complaints policy which explains how we deal with complaints and, the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service. “

Which I thought pretty much just ignored every point I’d made - instead going for the old “it’s the process” tack that I’d got used to. So I sent a reply of my own…

“I’m not sure what I really expected in terns of a response, however the fact that this response took less than 60 minutes to arrive goes to the fact that nobody actually thought about my original email and you are simply trying to placate me by telling me the process again - your processes don’t work when things go wrong!

You have:

- not addressed my concerns and suggestions regarding the wording on replacement cards which are dispatched

- not addressed my concerns regarding your ability to fast track cards to people who you have failed by sending faulty cards

- completely misunderstood aspects such as a member of Abbey should be able and more importantly WILLING to give me access to a PC so that I can activate my card - I don’t want them to give me access to Abbey accounts, just a web browser!

- failed to convince me on CHAP transfers being real time - that kinda implies that they can be real time at any point in the day, not just before 11 - otherwise they’re not really that real time.

Again, I’m not sure what I expected but I do feel that you have done nothing, this has simply been passed onto a call center agent to “fob me off” with the same words about “process” that I’ve been hearing all week - and my point remains that your processes are wrong and only cater for when things go right. I want to speak to someone about why those processes exist, not just be told that I’m in the wrong because you send me a faulty card and deny me access to funds in my account for 7 days - which is why I wanted “the manager” to reply to me after considering my mail, not someone 30 minutes after I’ve sent the message regurgitating the same I’ve heard all week.

Thank you for the address to use to esculate this. Something right eventually.

Matt”

And then they sent me another little email…

“Dear Mr Pallatt

I am in receipt of your email sent in response to Maya’s email to you on 19th June.

I am sorry if you are unhappy with her response. As stated in my colleague’s email, in this case you need to escalate your complaint to Abbey Stage 2 via one of the following channels:

By post:

Complaints
Stage Two
PO Box 5129
Milton Keynes
MK9 2YN

By phone: 0845 600 6014*

By fax: 0845 600 1378

By e-mail: customerservices@abbey.com

We promise to send our final response within eight weeks of your original complaint to us, or write to you explaining why we haven’t completed our investigations and when we will have done so.

*Calls may be recorded or monitored. The maximum cost of a call for BT customers, from a landline is 4 pence per minute (ppm) (subject to a minimum call charge of 6.5p). The cost of calls for non-BT customers or from mobiles will vary.

kind regards

Richard Buddle “

Yeah, it’s all dull, and it’s all Cahoot giving me the run around over their “Processes” and me being an antagonistic pedantic fucktard - but doesn’t it seem that they could just have forwarded my email onto the new email address? Sooner I get my money out of their bank the better.

Debt goes down…

// June 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Money, Random Stuff

My gross life debt now stands at ONLY £15,200.

It’s taken a long time, but that means that I’ve paid off the best part of £40,000 in stupid loans & credit cards.

And to think I almost declared myself bankrupt. Roll on 2011 and a debt free life. You can all come to the “Debt Free Party”, just save this blog post, drinks will be on me ;)

Punchy?

// June 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

Last night a random “homeless person”/tramp sidled up to me and said he didn’t want to be cheeky, but did I have any spare change - and could I not beat him up. The first bit you kinda come to expect living in any city in the UK i reckon - the second bit not so much. He then went onto say that I looked like the kinda person who would do that… so I gave him 2 quid.

Then went off and wondered if I really look like a angry fist throwing meathead who would randomly beat up a tramp… Thoughts?

Transformers II

// June 24th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Random Stuff

I really quite liked Transformers the Movie last year. So much so that I went into the cinema to watch the second movie with some trepadation having heard some really bad, and some really mediocre reviews.

After 180 minutes I walked out of the cinema, and felt that everyone whoi’d ever said a bad word against this movie needed their heads examining. It’s soo much better than the first! There are not to many soldiers, there is not too much comedy (though maybe the wrong type), and you really can see the action happening - it isn’t all a blur! And to see Optimus Prime die, and the Matrix of Power? Wow… was like watching the animated movie all over again.

I just hope that the third movie see’s fit to tell “the parents” to fuck off and die somewhere. They don’t add anything. Oh, and “the twins” are fucking annoying too. But appart from that the movie is riotously good. Digital action brilliance!

My letter to Cahoot.

// June 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // FURY!, Random Stuff

Reads like this…

“Dear Manager (because I would really like this to go to a manager),

I am Matt Pallatt, I live in Leeds, and for the last week I have had more trouble and less help from Cahoot than any other company in my relatively short 32 year life span. On the back of the pretty horrendous experience I’ve had with you over the last week I’d like to make a few suggestions to you.

1. I suggest that you change the wording on your replacement card send outs to “Please check your new card before you destroy your old card” – instead of the lovely blanket and blindly followed “immediately destroy your old card” message.

2. Offers of free transfers to “other accounts” doesn’t help when people in those situations don’t have accessible other accounts – so to be constantly offered it is vaguely like rubbing salt in wounds.

3. 11am is a very early time to cut off such transfers when people eventually manage to make another account available. “There is a process in place…” is a really bad excuse for why it can’t be done too – especially when I’m trying to work around a problem you’ve caused.

4. I suggest that you find a way of fast-tracking new card services – some people who are getting card replacements can wait 5-7 days for their card to arrive after it’s “pressed” because they already have  card – others, who have received faulty cards from yourself and have no access to their money possibly can’t. It would be nice to get those sent out first class post the day that they’re made I’d have thought. “There is no process in place…” is a really bad excuse for why you can’t put it in a mailbox.

5. Not being able to have customer call center agents activate customer cards without a days notice is appalling – You really still run a system which is batched every night?! Do you use punch cards too?!

6. Speak to Abbey, ask them to work more closely with the public to be able to help with requests – when I asked a member of Abbey if I could activate my card in his branch using the internet I was sternly told I could not – they own you apparently, it would be nice if they played nice when their customers by proxy were having trouble.

7. Oh, and let me use my Cahoot card to withdraw money over the counter at Abbey – there is a genius idea. Not “Sorry sir no, but you can open an Abbey account if you want”!

So, in closing I’d like to say that it would be very good if I could get back the opinions on these suggestions from “The Manager” as opposed to another call center agency who purely knows what the processes are as opposed to why the processes are in place. At the moment I’m about 8 months from clearing all my accounts with you, and at the moment I have every intention of moving back to a high street bank – one who can give me help when I need it and one who can transfer cash in and out of my account without 4 days notice – though obviously they will still also put the interest on my current account down at the same time as they’re putting the interest on my credit accounts up… Just like you seemingly do on a monthy basis (oh, and the bank probably won’t be Santander).

This concludes the first letter of complaint that I’ve ever had to send,

I thank you for your time,

Mathew Pallatt

PS. I’m going to send a hard copy of this too, just in case you don’t manage to get it digitally, after all there might not be a process in place to allow an email to be forwarded.”

Solo Quiz 1!

// June 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Quiz

No Gav this week, but this weeks quiz was ACE!

Brand Slogans
1. Which brand uses “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Oh what a relief it is!” to entice us to purchase?
2. Which chocolate brand promises that it’s “The sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite”?
3. Which soft drink brand demands that you “Obey your thirst”?
4. Which company has asked you to “put a tiger in your tank”?
5. Which electrical “giant” has spent almost 30 years with “The Appliance of Science” as its brand slogan?
6. Which bank was responsible for telling you to “Come and talk to the listening bank”?
7. Which ill-fated car brand told us it was in “A Class of its own”?
8. There is a tyre brand which quite rightly informs us that “Power is nothing without control” – which brand is it?
9. Which brand proclaimed it’s product to be “Good news for your sex life, bad news for beds”?
10. Which pain killer asserts that “You can’t hit pain much harder”?

Wait, update!

// June 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Diet and Exercise

So, in May/June I’ve lost 2 stone.

In June/July Iwant to lose 1.5 stone.

In July/August I want to lose 1 stone.

I want this diet to finish on the 15th of August. Then I will go out and eat pizza.

Internet Bank Accounts (CAHOOT) are shit!

// June 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

Well, I’ve been waiting for a month for my new debit card - as the 06/09 was upcoming and I didn’t want to be left with no card come July the 1st. Well, last night (this morning) when I got into the flat my new card had been delivered and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I ceremoniously signed my new card and cut my old one into tiny peices which I then melted into a congielled ball (that last bit as actually a lie). And then went to bed.

This morning I woke and decided to go shopping - imagine how annoyed I was when my card was declined in the first store, and then refused to give me any money from a cash machine. Cahoot Customer Services number cam in particularly handy at this point - until they sounded lost and didn’t understand what I was telling them. And then when they did click they could do nothing to help me - telling me only that the magnetic strip must be broken. And that if I could survive on the 30p I had in my pocket until Monday they could transfer some cash to another bank account for me so that I could access it.

So I guess I’m going to have to make that 30p last a long time… And no, as per always I have no food in the house…

Fun times. I hate Cahoot.

But I do really like Fly With Vampires who I saw last night at the local Elbow Room. They are aceness.

I’m a happy webbie…

// June 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Random Stuff

Okay, that’s a complete and utter lie, I am NOT a Happy Webbie. However, the wonderful Adam Campion has “done me” in the style (almost) for one of our internal twentysix projects… And I love it!

Losing more pounds…

// June 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Diet and Exercise

Well, I’m eating my way through enough meat to keep a few cow/chicken farms going for the foreseeable, and been doing a fair number of miles at the gym every week too - not to mention the crazy amount of vitamins and supliments I’m feeding into my body on a daily basis … and what this means is that in the 24 days since I’ve been on my fAtkins diet I have lost 1lb short of 2 stone… I don’t expect that to carry on at the same pace, but I am glad that it’s going to be payday soon so that I can buy some new jeans that fit.