Volkswagen Assistance

Volkswagen Assistance
I have to take my hat off to them. The passenger window on my VW Beetle decided to have a funny five minutes on Friday. I’d been all day in a conference and the weather had been warm and sunny. I had to return a phone call. So, I opened both windows to let some air in whilst I made the call.
A few minutes later – time to go and - help- the passenger window only went so far up.
I phoned VW Assist. They very efficiently took my location and mobile phone number and told me someone would be with me within the hour. Not long after, the patrol man phoned to say he would be there in about thirty of forty minutes – at about half past five. He arrived at 5.35.
In the meantime, though, they started closing the car park. They suggested I move to right by the entrance – then I could look out for the patrolman. I did as they suggested – and couldn’t resist having another go at shutting my passenger side window. With a lot of effort and moaning and groaning, the window did shut. Typical! Now the patrolman would think I was a complete idiot. At least, I thought, I’d better wait and see him. It would be good at last to get an idea of what was wrong with the window.
A few minutes later he arrived. No recriminations. Yes, there was something wrong – he could see that by the marks on the window. It may be a burned out motor or it may be the acoustic panel that has come adrift. Best that he doesn’t try anything with it. Take it to my dealer and don’t open the window in the mean time.
We chatted for a few minutes. He gave me a few indicators as well about the best way to get home and avoid the worst of the rush hour.
Great. Efficient. Helpful. Friendly. Keeping promises.

Mobile Broadband

This is the latest great innovation. It may mean the end of landlines altogether in some areas. It is no more expensive than some of the normal deals – like BT, Virgin or cable TV deals.
Except when it comes to using it abroad. And unlike what happened with the phones, people are not running up bills of a few hundred pounds. They are running up bills of a few thousand pounds. Double figure thousands, almost.
This was featured on Watchdog last night, and my partner knows of someone who was still downloading a movie whilst they travelled abroad.
People cannot pay those amounts of money. What will happen if they don’t?
At least the European Commission has said it will step in if the phone companies themselves don’t do something about it.
I would say that mobile phones are still generally too expensive. Odd that we bother at all now that Skype is so easily available. I think we are not living up to the true potential of the technology. Technology is bringing us closer to being a One World – but not fast enough.

The Baby Boomers Come of Age

We are sucked in by the media at times. We are going through the “Credit Crunch” at the moment. They say credit has been doled out too easily. Maybe. But then it’s also true that the Golden Generation – those born between 1847 and 1953 are coming of age and are about to retire. We also are supporting the two generations around us. Grown-up children have been in Higher Education at a time when fees rose and grants were few and far between. Then they need a helping hand on to the property ladder. Elderly relations are living longer and the nursing homes are full. Social care only goes so far. We have to do the rest. We’re downsizing. We’re spending a little less as we prepare for retirement. And yet we do owe a lot.
There is a natural ebb and flow. On average, we bought our first homes in 1973 and therefore our first washing machines. There was a run on washing-machines. So, the manufacturer produced more – then there was glut. However, the economy in washing-machines picked up again in 1976 when the first ones needed replacing. Children arrived in 1976 also, so Mothercare boomed. It declined as the ‘60’s children (ah, yes, the Pill arrived in the ‘60’s) became parents. It’ll pick up again when the boomers become grandparents – which is beginning to happen now.
We still breathe. Money still makes the world go round. Don’t be ashamed of having it. Spend it wisely. Your wealth can create wealth in others.

Fining the Railways

I think we would all like to use public transport if we could. But it is frequently either unreliable or unavailable. The London Transport system does very well considering the strain it is under. Some other big cites manage admirably as well: Vancouver, Munich, Amsterdam, Boston for example. Some whole countries such as The Netherlands and Japan have it right.
What we actually have in the UK is a good rail network, which is suffering because it is old and has no or very little subsidy. The tracks are worn and anyway need to be relaid because of global warming: there needs to be more allowance for expansion in the rail as the planet warms up. In fact, this lack of expansion in older rails is what causes some of the problems – the tracks buckle. One solution would probably be to build new tracks beside the old and rip the old ones out afterwards. This may in fact be easier than trying to repair them all.
This is a problem caused by age and lack of foresight by various governments, not by any incompetence of engineers facing an almost impossible job with little funding.
So what on earth is the point of imposing fines? It won’t get the job done any quicker. It will only cause resentment amongst the workers. And most crucially, it will further remove funding from where it’s needed.
Couldn’t we apply a bit of common sense to this, please?

Earthquake, Wind and Fire

So, yes, now we’ve had the first two bits. What with the recent earth tremor – 5.1 on the scale and doing some structural damage in parts, though not killing anyone. Now we have the winds. They’re coming at the same time as the high tides and threatening to do much damage. There are warnings about severe weather tomorrow. Yes, they’re actually warning us in advance. I think I’ve actually heard of lightning strikes associated with the storms we’ve been having.
Will we hear the still small voice of calm?
I guess we can’t do anything about the madness of the weather. Or can we? If it’s to do with global warming I should think we can. Whatever, we should certainly stop the other madness.

21st Century Madness

Who owns history?A certain writer has got into a lot of trouble for mentioning that great event which is going to happen in our capital in four years time. You know what I mean, don’t you? If you do, I may be in trouble. But surely, as writers, we are allowed to refer to historical events. In fact we need to, and the public needs us to.
Just as crazily, an academic conference is not allowed to use the name of the wizard which J K Rowling invented. An academic conference, for goodness’ sake. That name now belongs firmly to Warner Brothers.

A Prince for a Soldier

So, Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan. Surely that is the ultimate that a royal can do for his people? Yet he seems so young. He looks like a boy. He talks like a boy. He uses young people’s everyday language. He says that his grandmother thought it was a good thing, but he says it as if she was glad to get rid of him. I think she may have meant it in the sense of it would do him good, but also in the sense that it would be an extremely noble thing for a young royal to do. And he seems to enjoy the adventure of it. Both he and Prince William think that has mother would have been proud. Prince William is said to be jealous.
It is a little different this time. He is, or has been, on active service. Royals have tended to be figureheads in the past. He makes light of it, but he does seem to have been brave. They’ve had to bring him back now, of course, because with the whole world knowing that he’s in Afghanistan, he’s in a dangerous position. He’d be a great prize for the Taliban. His continued presence would bring danger to those around him. More danger than he’s already in, that is. He says he’s disappointed at the way the press gave him away, but he doesn’t say angry. Very restrained of him when you think what happened to his mother.
I still wonder, though, if there were no soldiers, would there be no more wars? It’s a little complex, because don’t we all feel the right to defend what we regard to be ours? In the Afghanistan crisis, it might be to do with preserving a life style. Often war though is about property, and we should ask do we actually ever really own anything? Compare Christianity with Communism on this matter.

Looking After Elderly Relations

Looking After Elderly Relations
I had a phone call form my father’s careline on Thursday. I was in Manchester. The other key holder was in London. The alarm was showing that it was unplugged. Someone had to go and look at it. No-one could. They are now saying they will have to take it off him. But surely, he needs it more than ever if I’m away, my husband is away and my daughter is away?
There was also an item on the television today about a British born woman, who was married to an American, about to be deported. It’s madness. She is just as British as I am. She wants to stay in the UK to look after her elderly Mum. They’re saying that neighbours could look after her.
But they made the point that I made: people are strangers today. I wouldn’t want to impose care of my father on to people who hardly know us. Besides, there is no one who lives locally who would have been able to respond that day. Everyone would have been out at work.
Imposing it on to professional strangers is another matter. There must be a general need for this sort of thing these days. I did find one company who did this. I’m not too confident about them as they’ve not yet managed to contact me.

Car Insurance Claim

Almost eight months ago, I was driving carefully on rather dangerous seven lane road in the West Midlands. I wasn’t too daunted. I’d learn to drive near there and in my first months of driving I used that road frequently. I was keeping to the speed limit, and I was in the third lane – maybe the second, my memory has faded now – but anyway the inner of the two lanes which got under the city and carries on out the other side as the A38. I was doing about 48 miles an hour, as was everybody else.
Suddenly, I noticed a car coming towards me at the side.
“What the heck’s he doing?” I thought.
As often in accidents, you have two memories of it – one that you were taken completely by surprise, and one that you saw it coming, in slow motion.
The car, inevitably, hit mine on the passenger side. My car spun round. As it glided towards the wall, I tried to keep calm and remembered that you should drive into a skid, not try to pull out of it. I still don’t know how I didn’t manage to hit anybody. The car did, of course, eventually hit the wall.
In fact, I was remarkably calm until the car stopped, and then I started shaking like a leaf, dialled 999, meaning to ask for the police and asked for an ambulance and then remembered to ask for the police.
I couldn’t get out of my car.
They all came.
The paramedic checked me over – no sign of any damage except a racing heart, and a slight pain in the neck and me feeling completely dazed and bewildered. The paramedic, bless him, kept calling me “Babe” and would not leave me until my hear rate returned to normal.
The police were good – taking down the details of other cars, but they wouldn’t get involved because I apparently wasn’t hurt.
Well, we won’t mention the months of not being able to sleep well, because of the discomfort of my neck, or the driving phobia which I experienced for several months. Gone, now, thank goodness, though, my heart does always start racing when I see a car comng towards my passengar side.
And, of course, there’s the day’s income I lost because I didn’t get to the school I was visiting. If you’re self-employed, and you don’t work, you don’t get paid.
Then there were the non-conversations with the Indian call centre, with a little man insisting on a post code, when any local would know what was meant by the description the police had given me of where I was. I was left for almost two hours in one of the seediest pats of Birmingham. So much for getting out to a lone woman within an hour. But there was a CCTV on me. It didn’t stop me getting chatted up by an old tramp, though. That incident would have been funny, if it hadn’t have been so dangerous.
Goodness knows how many times I’ve described the accident to various people associated with the insurance company, both orally and in writing. We’re still paying the higher rate for the insurance premiums.
I actually don’t let it get me down. It’s just a part of 21st century life. But I saw red yesterday when I had a letter from my solicitor saying that the lorry driver involved claimed I wasn’t hit and I merely panicked and swerved. I resent that. If I’d panicked in any way, the accident would have been far worse.
I’m left with the impression that unless someone admits liability on the spot – and our insurance companies instruct us never to – these claims just don’t get settled. Fortunately, in the past, one or two people have admitted faults. Are they now unable to insure?

Water Bill

I have recently had the most curious dealings with my water company. The flat in which I live has a water meter. I’ve been there since August and my first statement came in January. They’d read the meter and I supplied them with a meter reading when I moved in.
For those four months, and including the annul standing order, my actual bill came to £48.00. Interestingly, my direct debit had been for about £12.00 per month, which seemed about right, although my total bill for the year will mean that I’m overpaying as I won’t pay another annual charge until next year.
For some strange reason, they estimated that my total bill for the year would come to £239.38. Where did they get that from? Maybe that’s what a flat this size normally does. But I’m not here at weekends, and sometimes not other times as my job takes me all over the place. Clearly, from four months’ usage, you can see that I do not use that amount of water. They suggested a monthly payment of £19.00.
I protested. They agreed to bring it down to its former level. They didn’t hesitate. I get the impression they knew they were trying to pull a fast one.
All fine and dandy. Except that on the new statement they tell me that my payments will not cover my charges. Pardon?
£48 / 4 = £12.00. I’m actually paying £12.61. What I should be paying is £48 -16= 32/4=£8.00 per month. I think at the end of the year they should be giving me money back. Should I demand the interest?
Nice try!

21st Century Sanity Bouquet

I’m awarding this time to two young men I know how work in the property business. One is an estate agent, who, without any compromise to what he owes to his employer, sources below value property for me. The other finds mortgages. He may not be one of these people who has the whole market at his fingertips, but he does know the market well and he does act promptly. He keeps in communication by email and if he phones, he does leave content on the phone, or is there when I phone back.
I’m building them into my team.

Cyber Bills

It really does get very frightening. “Watchdog” this week did a feature on how telephone companies are switching people to new providers without their knowledge or permission. “GMTV” today did a feature on how people are getting rogue bills with huge amounts on which they can’t possibly owe and how the bailiffs are then being sent in.
What makes all of this even scarier is that you then have to spend time and trouble getting through to these people. Unless you are assertive, you get a machine followed by a powerless human being. You do have to use your wits to speak to someone in authority.
And the scariest thing of all is not having the time to do it.
Perhaps we shouldn’t have. Aren’t there many things in life much more important that all of this?

Ecocnomic Hysteria

We are in what they are calling a “Credit Crunch” at the moment. Fewer mortgages are being agreed each month. More and more repossessions are happening. The stock markets are going wild – but mainly plunging.
There is of course a natural cycle. Take for instance the trajectory of the baby boomers. They all start earning at the same time, max out their spending power at the same time and anyway, once they’ve paid for the wedding, started the mortgage off, and equipped themselves with all the mod cons they don’t need to buy so much for a while. The retailer sells less, has to make staff redundant, who then also have less spending power. The baby boomers gradually get promotion. The first round of electrical goods stops working. They start spending again. Perhaps they also now need childcare. Another group of people are emloyed. All these rhythms are natural and acceptable.
But what makes things worse is the attitude of the press. “Things are going to be awful. We’re going into a recession,” they say. Everybody stops spending and the recession gets to be worse than it would have been.
I wonder also, all of you who work for building societies, whether you send out those letters about missed payments with a type of glee, with a rubbing of the hands. I’d caution against that. Who would buy these repossessed houses anyway? The people who you repossess have to live somewhere – it may even be on benefits – which means in the end that you’re paying anyway. Do something else. Lengthen the time of the mortgage – you’re going to get the house when they die anyway – with its added value unless you’re dealing with a pretty shrewd investor.
And of course, why it’s become bad at the moment is due to the baby boomers again. They’ve probably just put their children though higher education, they’re beginning to take early retirement, and they’re looking after elderly relations, financially, as well as anything else, because the state can’t any more. It will pass. Just hold tight. Protect yourself, but spend if you can: you’ll be giving somebody else a livelihood. Money makes the world go around. The love of it is the root of all evil, they say. It is, in the end, but an abstract concept and there to serve us not rule over us.

Pay and Display Car Parks – Another Immoral Way of Criminalising Motorists

Why do we still have these relics form the 20th Century? We have the technology now to make everything much fairer and to make sure the councils do get their money. Have you noticed, anyway, how many Pay and Display car parks are very tatty, with great big holes in them which do nothing for your suspension?
I was in Blackpool recently with my cousin. Neither of us had much change, and so we managed not to park on two half empty car parks. Blackpool off-season, on a cold day. Who’d want to stop there except mad fools like us, anyway?
You always worry about those traffic wardens (personally I really do worry about them. Just think: if nobody volunteered to do the job, we’d never get another parking ticket. What sort of person really wants to do that job? (Just humour the grumpy old woman – next thing she’ll be saying if nobody volunteered to be a soldier there’d be no more wars.)) coming and ruining your windscreen by sticking on a parking ticket three minutes after your time’s run out. You usually put another hour on just in case.
And why have those machines anyway, full of cash? Isn’t that asking for trouble? Why do we still have cash? If we have to pay cash, why can’t there be a change machine nearby? The Grumpy Old Woman thinks she smells a plot. If you supplied a cash machine, you may not be able to fine as many people.
It would be interesting to know how much money they make form parking fines and what actually happens to it. I’m sure it doesn’t go towards keeping the car parks in good repair. Some must go towards the traffic warden’s salary and uniform. But does it actually go towards undoing the harm I’ve done by parking my car there? Will it go towards undoing the damage that owning a car for over twenty years has done to the environment? Or will it just help to meet some target? I hope it helps to keep the Council Tax down for the good people in Blackpool.
In the end, though, I didn’t park in the Pay and Display in Blackpool. We found a side street. I have had a fine in Southampton because I misread a confusing notice. I argued my out of one in Salisbury because I’d tried to pay, in good faith, and thought I had. They are Pay and Display, but at least there’s a way of paying electronically if you don’t have the cash. Its complex, it doesn’t actually work, but at least they try.
But, come on council folks, you could do better than this.
Interesting though: I wonder what would happen if you just left an honesty box there, and asked people to give what they thought it was worth? On Malta they have uniformed car park attendants – and you can park all day for a minimum of 50p. You are invited to give what you think it’s worth to park there. One even washed all the windscreens after a sandy rain shower.

Identity Paranoia

There’s been a lot in the news about the amount of data that’s kept about us and the amount that is carelessly lost. I don’t mean lost in the sense of deleted, but I mean actually a physical record lost in such a way that people who might use it wrongly could get hold of it. A memory stick misplaced with medical records on it, for instance, a CD lost in the post and bizarrely some paper records ending up in the middle of a traffic roundabout.
But are we forgetting who we are in all of this?
Can out true identities be boiled down to a few administrative details?
Aren’t we really a lot more than that?
Personally, I would actually be more worried about somebody not being able to find my medical record than too many people knowing about it. If we make everything too “secure” we’re in danger of losing the plot in the detail.
Yes, of course it’s important to keep bank details safe, and to look out for people misusing them. But we do behave oddly. We send our driving license or passport out to scores of people when applying for mortgages, or ironically, to have CRB checks. We give our credit card details over the phone, including the security code on the back. Anybody could make a note and use them again. They don’t, because most of us are basically good and if we’re not good, we might just be scared of being found out. I’d challenge anybody to misuse my credit card or take money from my bank account; I’m a very efficient spender. There’s never anything there.
I‘ve had to apply for a new passport recently. Despite all the paranoia about identity and terrorism, it was actually easier than it’s ever been before. I didn’t have to have anyone confirm that my passport picture looked like me. It certainly looks nothing like the old one. But I risked it. I figured that as no one had questioned me in recent weeks, it must be near enough and I wish I did look like I did ten years ago. I went for the “check and send” service. The man at the post office has known me for a few weeks. He said it was okay. Well, the passport came back wihtin the suggested two weeks, despite a postal strike. Makes you think.
Going back to those people who lost that personal data. I doubt whether they did it on purpose, or that they were negligent or even careless. I guess they just made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I’ve managed to destroy a memory stick myself by running over its string on my office chair.

Non-integrated systems

Oh, why am I having to send so many letters like this?
Thank you for your letter of 7th of January. However, it has left me dismayed. You threaten court action. Yet, in a letter form one of your colleagues sent earlier, your company thanks me for supplying my new bank account details –on the 1st of January by phone! – (actually, I think it was several days before, by mail) and tells me that should you in the meantime try to take money from the old bank account and it should fail, you will go to the new one.
Fine.
However, I do object to the £35.00 default fee and it is imperative that you do not terminate my agreement because you have already given me a schedule for payments from my new bank account.
I can see what the problem is. Sadly, although I have understanding and knowledge of these things I do not have the IT expertise. You do not have integrated systems. I urge to pass this letter on to
• Your complaints department
• Your most senior contact within your company
I urge them to employ as quickly as possible a systems analyst. It is frightening the number of companies who operating in this totally chaotic way and I have firsthand evidence that many of the problems of a rather large finance company are more to do with this type of problem than over-borrowing.
How ridiculous is this?
1. I write to you giving you new bank details.
2. You claim that you had a phone call on 1st of January.
3. You write acknowledge the bank details and tell me not to worry if you inadvertently go to the old bank.
4. You go to the old bank. It fails; you threaten then court action, cancellation of policy, that I must pay the full amount you immediately.
5. You take another £35.00 just because you can. (If you have taken it, please refund it or maybe I’ll think about the small claims court myself – and let my Landlord Organisations know. It is already in the hands of the Highest Court which exists, so beware)
I am including a cheque for the disputed amount. If this results in an overpayment, please credit my account with that, or destroy the cheque and return it to me.
I do expect:
1. an apology
2. an assurance that my account is up-to-date
3. an assurance that the service I am paying for is still provided

Muddles versus common sense 3:0

My father lives with us, though because both my husband and I frequently work away from home, social services treat him as if he lives on his own. He has Meals on Wheels and two visits a day from care workers. He is rather frail, physically, though very good mentally. Not that he has all the much understanding of the 21st Century, but then who does? He is profoundly deaf and has lost considerable confidence socially. But still, we feel, too healthy and manageable to go into an old people’s home.
My father had to have an operation on his eye this week. He’d already had the first one done some months ago. This new appointment was very much last minute, with no letter being sent beforehand. They’d tried to ring him first but typical conversation with my father:
Ring, ring.
“Hello?”
……….
“I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Bang.
By the way, Dad has a state of the art hearing aid, and with a fresh battery in that, he has one quarter of normal hearing. Ironically, he can hear quite well on the phone if you’re talking about something sensible.
Eventually, they phoned us and we established, and convinced him - that was not easy because he was expecting a letter which only arrived on Saturday - that the operation was to take place last Monday and that a car would come for him at 8.30. When will they understand the words “Please contact us about arrangements”? Well they won’t. Patient’s dignity you know. What happened to common sense? First thing Dad always does is tells us or asks us to deal with it! He then got a phone call telling him the car would come at 7.15. He only told us this after it was too late to phone and check.
A car came at 7.15. Another came at 8.30.
They botched the op.
He had to go back Tuesday to have the mistake put right, Wednesday to have it redone, and he has to go back again another time. Cars came for him, two hours early. They discharged him with eye drops and no instructions.
“I’ll type them up and send them to you,” said the clerk.
In the mean time, what do we do with the eye drops now?
My husband has phoned. The carers have phoned. No one talks any sense.
Isn’t there a better way? And isn’t it to do with good old common sense?

21st Century Sanity Bushell's Letting Agency

Another of my Letting Agents. Bushells, of Streatham, excel themselves. First of all, they have found me very nice tenants and have maintained a good relationship with them. They are now into their fourth year of renting my property. Maintenance issues are dealt with promptly. The rent is also paid on time. They have even sourced good quality reasonably priced flooring and furniture. They certainly get contractors out to the property quicker than I could. They really do do a fantastic job.

Contacting Credit Card Providers

I had a letter form one of my credit card providers, saying that they had not managed to collect my direct debit. Well, yes, it had been a difficult month and yes, there probably hadn’t been enough for the direct debit to go out.
So, I tried to phone. I got through to their automated paying service. After much punching in of numbers, it recognised me, my card, and the debit card with which I was paying. Then it started to read back the number I had given, in its funny, tinny voice. It got almost to the end. Then silence.
I rang back in, and went through the whole rigmarole again. It was still saying I owed money. I opted to speak to an operative. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait too long, although by the time I did speak to someone, I had been trying to solve this for forty minutes – forty minutes I wouldn’t normally have. And by the time everything was solved, we had used up an hour. Depending on which way you calculate it, my time is worth anything between fifteen and sixty pounds an hour.
I’d also been puzzled by the fact that the machine told me that my next payment would be paid by direct debit and the letter said it was cancelled. The young man I spoke to did get it all sorted out. The direct debit was still in place, but the debit card payment had not gone through. Good job I checked, really.