Why is the Royal Mail being Privatised?

Like most people I assumed that the government selling off Royal Mail was simply another attempt to profit from their public limited company.  Royal Mail have been losing profit in recent years because the EU has allowed private companies to cream off profitable areas whereas the Royal Mail has to provide a service for the whole of the country.

Then I discovered the European Union Postal Services Directive which as usual is the real reason that the government is having to sell off the Royal Mail.  Most of us suspect that privatising the Royal Mail will lead to a reduction of the service to the public even though in recent years it is a fraction of the efficiency of yesteryear.

Bit by bit the EU is attacking everything that we hold dear.  Every expensive 'white elephant'  hoist on us emanates from the socialist group of non-elected commissars from Brussels (HS2 for example).
If you want to learn more about how they operate and force us into what they call 'modernisation' then this guy explains it better than I can.

I just wish that our politicians would come clean once in a while!

Customer Service?

This past week I have had problems with the Tax Service (HMRC), Santander ( my mortgage) and the AA! Sometimes I think that I am going nuts but then don't we all have the same problem. We phone with our complaint and have to hand all the relevant facts and then we get the same response.... Press 1 for...Press 2 for...etc etc.

Is it not time that we rebelled against this automatic telephone system? Can we not refuse to deal with companies who force this modern abomination upon us? These companies are really taking the Michael out of their customers. We often cannot talk to a human being! It takes many minutes to get through to someone who we can even talk to and then quite often they don't have a clue what we are talking about.

The onus is always on us to prove that we have a real problem. The customer service personnel are often extremely unhelpful. It is time that we, the public, rejected this customer service farce. If a customer service telephone number is not openly available then don't deal with the company. You will be paying for a long time on the phone.

Phone SKY and just experience how long you have to spend on the phone with the simplest complaint. Phone Santander and see the hoops that you have to go through to speak to someone who will help! It is high time that this system is changed. They can afford to employ people and that is who we should be able to talk to.

How about that for a marketing ploy? Bank with us and we will ensure that you talk to an actual person! Ha! Will it catch on?

Customer Service - Abbey National (continued)

You will remember that on Saturday I was not very pleased with Abbey National. When I told my brother he predictably replied 'I don't believe it' but wait till I tell him what happened today!

I rang NatWest to try and obtain a closing balance. A perplexed Customer Service person asked why I wanted a closing balance on an active account. Pause...deep breath... 'This account was closed on 9 May because my wife's card was declined.'
"I don't know why it was declined it must have been a random decline because your account is perfectly healthy. She should have presented it again"
"Have you not heard from Abbey that we wish to close the account?"
"No Sir."
Pause... another deep breath, 'Right if you do here from them bloody ignore it I want this account to stay right where it is."

I then rang Abbey to discover that my Customer Service Manager who had asked me to provide her with a closing balance on Monday had gone on two week's holiday! I did speak to someone else who informed me that only two of our direct debits had been switched. I told her to cancel the whole transaction as we were keeping the Natwest account because I couldn't wait for any more cock-ups. She also informed me that it was our responsibility to contact any employers or pension providers even though we had specifically been told that they would do it!

Could anything else go wrong? Well the piece de resistance came when I rang Charnwood Borough Council to get my direct debit for Council Tax reinstated with the NatWest. The official informed me that they had never heard from Abbey and the direct debit to the NatWest still existed!!! As it stands I have actually not physically lost out at all (so far) but the stress levels and the cost in time have been ridiculous and it has all been caused by inefficiency at a crass level.

Do you know I strongly suspect that they will try and charge me for services rendered or overdraft facilities or anything where they can make a buck out of this whole fiasco. Beware folks these people promise everything and deliver nothing.

In the immortal words of Gordon Brown speaking to Tony Blair , 'I will never trust anything you (they) say ever again.'

Customer Service - Abbey National

On 14 April I wrote about the pleasant experience that I had in the Local Abbey branch after completing the forms to change the current account from NatWest where I had banked for 50 years. I take it all back.

The transfer has been a disaster. We arranged to close the NatWest account down on 10 May. They closed it on 09 May so my wife had a card declined for the first time in her life. Abbey then granted us an overdraft which we did not want and did not request. We don't do overdrafts!

Two weeks after we completed the forms my wife discovered that her employer had not been informed of the change of accounts for salary payment purposes so I asked the local branch why this had been and was informed that everything was fine but the employer would be sent a reminder.

On 16 May I went to withdraw cash and discovered that we still only had the overdraft facility and the money that was in the NatWest account had disappeared into the ether. Well it wasn't with the NatWest and it wasn't in my new account so where was it? We have now been forced to use the overdraft to survive! I am going to wait and see if they will be cheeky enough to try and charge us for this.

I entered the branch to enquire where my money had gone. There was nobody on reception and only one young girl behind the counter. Eventually I got a message to my customer advisor who was dealing with another customer. After waiting 45 minutes to see her I had to leave because my parking ticket had run out.

This morning we received a letter from the department in Bradford who are dealing with the transfer (dated 13 May) stating that they are now dealing with the standing orders and informing our various employers and pension providers that we have a new account. This is a month after we filled in the forms! My local branch have no idea where our money from the NatWest is!! Today I was asked to obtain a closing balance from the NatWest which 'should help' to sort the problem out. This is a matter of a few thousand pounds that has gone missing and nobody knows where it is.

Abbey National, don't go near them folks because frankly they are completely incompetent! No wonder our banking industry is in such a mess if this is an example of their efficiency.

Customer Service

Today my wife and I went into our local branch of Abbey National to sort out our finances. We had too much money doing too little.

We were first introduced to Jayesh who listened to us and explained the various accounts which should help us maximise our potential. I have banked with NatWest for over fifty years and yet nobody has ever taken an interest in me as an individual.

Having gained our interest Jayesh handed us over to a young lady called Paulina. It was her job to sort out the details and she guided us through the various processes which would take me, after 50 years from the NatWest, to Abbey National. Now Paulina spoke fluent English (obviously) but I detected transatlantic tones and I suddenly discovered that this treasure was Mexican. She was brilliant! She combined the friendliness and the inbred service training which is standard across the water and charmed us throughout the whole process which could have been a drag.

If I was Abbey National I would get hold of this young lady and get her to teach their entire staff the art of customer service! They should at least have a person permanently on their reception desk.

Thank you Paulina (and Jayesh)! My wife and I thought that you were a star(and my wife can be REALLY difficult)! I hope that you enjoyed the rest of your day watching the wrestling!!