It's been a while, but to be honest with the gammy ankle, and buggered right foot - there wasn't a lot to write about. I struggled into work on the Tuesday till Thursday, but walking was very, very, very painful. So I decided to work from home Friday and completely rest up my feet for the next 3 days.
Okay, that's not quite the truth.... yes walking was very painful and I did't really get about as much, but as usual , life is eventfull!
- Tuesday night 17th October – my mobile phone dies on me. I’d switched on the camera function and the screen went completely white then dead. I removed the battery and sim card and re-inserted them into the phone, but it wouldn’t switch on at all.
- Wednesday morning – I call up customer services, who advise to take the phone into an O2 shop and they will send it off to get repaired and supply me with a loan phone until they receive my damaged phone and dispatch a repaired/new immediately on receipt. However, this is were is starts to go wrong….
- I go to the O2 store in Victoria Street, London and they inform me that they have no loan phones. To which the sales reps hands me a booklet with a list of stores and tells me to phone round to find a shop which has one – on what? My phone doesn’t work, and since when did I become an employee of O2?, I don’t think that I am being unreasonable in expecting a sales rep to find me a loan phone. Strike one – I’m not impressed.
- He eventually agrees to phone around a few shops – I’m sorry to inconvenience the man for asking him to do his job, but he tells me that in the whole of central London there isn’t one load phone, and informs me that basically ‘tough luck’!, and to send the phone in myself. Strike two – I’ve wasted nearly an hour trying to resolve this when I should be in my office working.
- I’m not happy, I eventually get into work and call back the repairs department to inform them of what’s happened and the response that I receive? ‘Can’t you use one of your old phones????’ – I’m sorry what?!!!, I don’t have an old mobile phone, and when I say this, the next response is even more incredulous ‘Can’t you borrow an old mobile from a friend?’. Since when do my friends work for O2 and supply parts??? I am told that I should my returns delivery number and return details will be e-mailed to me within 2 hours. Three and a half hours later I still haven’t received a confirmation e-mail. I phone back and eventually get the return details and head straight to the post office to send the phone back by special delivery (as advised by O2 customer services at a cost of £4.50). Strike three – I can’t believe the lousy service I am receiving nor the incompetence I seem to be encountering.
- Friday – I’m still waiting on my replacement phone. Having sent it special delivery they would have received it at the latest by 1pm on the Thursday, and if they are as good as your word (by this point I am in severe doubt!), they should have dispatched it 1st class royal mail on Thursday. I phone up to confirm that they have indeed received the phone and to enquire if the replacement phone has been dispatched – only to have one of the most frustrating phone calls ever with someone who didn’t seem to have a good grasp of English and wasn’t able to follow a conversation that obviously wasn’t in a script or training manual. I leave the conversation frustrated and angry, and with no idea when my replacement phone will turn up.
- Saturday – They might have redeemed themselves. A replacement phone turned up. However, in keeping with the thread of this complaint, the phone they sent me was a dud. Oh yes, it was able to make and receive calls, but the camera function? I switched on the camera function only to fine that it didn’t work! I either got a
A completely black screen
A completely green screen
or
A distorted picture - Sunday - I call up the repairs department yet again, and explain my situation and wait for yet again another returns number and details to send the phone back again 1st thing Monday morning as soon as the post office opens. Again, I wait for the confirmation e-mail to arrive (supposedly in 2hrs) – it arrives 4 and half hours later – but at least this time it arrives compared to previous experience. I also phone up their customer services department to complain and dealt with a very pleasant individual who was extremely helpful and apologised for the distress and inconvenience I have suffered through their ‘returns’ procedure, and refunded me next months line rental.
Is it really too much to ask that they test the phone before they send it too me to ensure that all the functions work? - Monday 23rd October– So, I set off to the post office and send the phone by special delivery (they should have received it by 1pm on Tuesday) and wait.
Thursday – I’ve still not received a replacement phone. I phone up their return and repairs yet again and they inform me that they haven’t received the phone! By this point I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I am given an e-mail address to send ‘proof of postage to’ and duly do so and am informed that on receipt of this e-mail you will dispatch a replacement phone to me. I ask on my e-mail for a reply from them to confirm that they received my e-mail and will indeed be dispatching a replacement phone immediately.
Friday – having not received a reply back from them I call back and again, have a frustrating conversation with their staff who don’t seem to know what’s going on. Eventually I’m told that a phone has been dispatched and I should get it within 3 to 5 working days!!!!
So here I am, it’s Sunday and I have no phone, I’m have to spend yet more of my time chasing up the replacement of my phone. I do have better things to be doing with my time than spending it phoning and writing to them, or spending my lunch hours standing in the post office queue.......
Now if it was just the phone incident, I could deal with that - but I'm also trying to get compensation back from 'Lastminute.com' for the complete and utter cock up of our flights to Greece! And that seems to be going no better either! So it's now time for a snail mail complaint and talk of taking them to the small claims court.... We'll see how that goes.
It's not all Doom and Gloom!
Of course it wasn't all doom and gloom this last couple of weeks, I have been hobbling about and having fun socialising!
Last Wednesday I went down to the Pimlico Wine Vaults with Anna & Heather for a few nice bottles of red, and Tim & Kirsty joined us later. It was a very, very good night and we certainly felt the effects of it the next day.......
On the Thursday I met up with Kate, Matt, Steve, Frederick & Tim down in the cruddy bar after work and it was quite nice having the old 'crew' back together again! However, Morrish and I were the last to leave and boy.... all I can say is 'Thank God' I was working from home on Friday - I felt like hell!
The weekend was quiet as I was determined to keep my weight off of my foot - and it seemed to do the trick. By Monday, I was walking almost normally!!!
This week was fairly quiet as well, I was back home early Monday & Wednesday night. Tuesday night I met up with Adrian in the Westminster arms as he was down in London for the day training at DTI. A few beers with Adrian, Heather & Sunil and I head off back to Stokie to meet up with Teresa in the Auld Shillelagh for a few more before grabbing a pizza and heading home.
Thursday
Thursday was a big one. A huge one. Pierre had organised drinks down in the cruddy before he goes off on his travels.
Jim & I had the joys of the HMT/ONS Public Accounts Data Quality Group meeting that afternoon and were in dire need of some amber necter. (I wish I hadn't had sooooo much...) There were quite a few of us down in the pub.....
Me
Tim
Steve
Jim
Matt
Nishi
Fenn
Sunil
Andrew
Vicki
Glen
and of course Pierre.
Vicki 'accidently' lets slip about me having to wear a red dress for my sister Farrah's wedding next year and I spend the next 2 hours getting the shit ripped out of me mercisly. These guys are enjoying my pain way too much.... They also threaten to decend into Dundee to catch a glimpse of me in this 'red dress'.....
Oh boy.
I need more beer. This is going to be a long, long, long night.
Eventually, Glen, Pierre, Tim and I head off to some Turkish place for food. I can't say that I remember that much apart from the wine was kinda rank and we got a cab home.
Friday
6:30am Friday morning.
I am praying to the porcelian god.
I can see all the contents of my stomach from last night in the toliet bowl. Oh god I don't feel well. But I still have to go into work as I've got a deadline that day.
Slowly, very slowly, I make my way into work and get through the day's tasks.
I meet up with Morrish after work for a 'hair of the dog' - a quick couple of drinks before we head off home. Well, not quite a quick couple. 5 or 6. Then home.
Saturday
I spend the morning, sorting out my mail, writing my complaint letters to O2 & Lastminute.com, and writing a letter to Nafissa (my sponsered child in Niger). Later I head into Angel to meet up with Morrish and Stuart for beers which then turns into a bit of a pubcrawl around Angel. Glen & Cameron joined us as well along with Annie (Stuarts girlfriend).
I got home after 1am.
Today
It's a quiet, quiet slow day today. Thank god.
