08 septembre 2008
Long time no see...
Almost two months without any news on this blog. Life goes on. Lot of work, few spare time and even less money ! My misfortunes with HSBC knew a new episode in the middle of August when two more cheques were honoured by my-bank-who-told-me-last-month-that-they-had-cancelled-my-chequebook ! One of these cheques was for a sum of 900 (nine hundred!) pounds ! So, me and my wallet didnt really feel like partying in August, and i am now looking for a new bank.
However, some things happened. My company organized a Quizz Party, where employees were asked to team up and compete together. Of course, i had mine, and we finished... last. Which was good too because we won... an empty promotional Corona bucket, and a shot of something which tasted like Vodka and detergent together. But i am very proud not to know Brad Pitt and Angelica Jolie's babies or the name of the fancy UK band of the moment. No surprise we lost !
At work, I am very close from the end of my probation. It seems i have done well enough to deserve the right to stay for as long as they need me (and as long as i need them). The problem is that I feel this job is beginning to dry my brain out. How long will I stand this ?
06 juillet 2008
Cheques me out !
Sorry for those who could have waited for the last updates of my life here, and other fancy pictures of the town, the truth is that I had something other, but not really better, to think about the last times.
My problems with the bank have reached a point where it has become simply ridiculous. But i'm not fair, my problems were not with the bank, but with the post office. They messed up, and sent my first debit card and cheques to the wrong address. Never seen the stamp of my mail during one week ! So, i ordered a new one, which arrived in due time. My banker cancelled my first card, but NOT my cheques. And, in the meantime, i discovered that, whoever got my card and cheques in his/her letterbox, (s)he had time to spend nearly 200£ with them !
So, back the the bank, to put in a dispute. I went saturday morning, and spent 2 hours and 20 minutes with a great member staff. It happened that we were totally lost, me and him, and bemused, flabbergasted, irate (whatever is the word!) by the maze of the customer service of HSBC. Actually, we were calling in India, where all the fraud departements are based. Of course, with the bad communication, it took twice as much as time to make them understand, and to understand ourselves.
The good thing is that I happened to be with a very very very stubborn and bad-tempered member staff, disillusioned by the amount of time and energy to spend in such a trivial case, who would not hang up before to know if/when i would be refunded. He kicked their asses off until they would tell him : two weeks. I guess that, had I to do all this by myself on phone, I would have given up after one hour... Then, merci Kevin !
And now, let's go to the police...