The Night Mail

[Oldddudders]

Just now, polybear said:

 

Bear would've blown his stack many, many questions ago - telling them that (a) if they wanted to ask dumbasf*** questions then at least have someone who at least understood the basics of what they were being told, and (b) if they don't want your business then why don't they just say so - cos' there's plenty of other banks out there.....

As the stupid questions go on, you stop answering, but simply ask them how many times a week they have sex. Stops them in their tracks quite well, especially when you follow up "that it isn't enough"! And point out they have just lost the business - and are recommended to get a more useful job pronto. Click. 

[Tony_S]

1 minute ago, polybear said:

 

Bear would've blown his stack many, many questions ago - telling them that (a) if they wanted to ask dumbasf*** questions then at least have someone who at least understood the basics of what they were being told, and (b) if they don't want your business then why don't they just say so - cos' there's plenty of other banks out there.....

Aditi is very good at dealing with such people. I love her “we have already answered that, are you checking I still know where I live”, and “when I opened the accounts nearly 40 years you didn’t tell me I would need to keep any receipts from my accounts then. She told them even the UK income tax authorities accept that the Teachers Pension scheme isn’t a money laundering operation. The bank seemed to accept her state pension was legit without proof though. 
At the moment we can find stuff and download from the internet but perhaps as we age we may be less capable. Last time they contacted us they wanted details of our other (nominally mine) bank account. We agreed to “it is a normal  current and savings account regulated by a British bank and otherwise none of their business. 
This is all,a box ticking exercise so the bank can prove to auditors that they are doing their bit to show they don’t launder money. 
Perhaps time to find a more people centred bank 

[polybear]

15 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Aditi is very good at dealing with such people. I love her “we have already answered that, are you checking I still know where I live”, and “when I opened the accounts nearly 40 years you didn’t tell me I would need to keep any receipts from my accounts then. She told them even the UK income tax authorities accept that the Teachers Pension scheme isn’t a money laundering operation. The bank seemed to accept her state pension was legit without proof though. 
At the moment we can find stuff and download from the internet but perhaps as we age we may be less capable. Last time they contacted us they wanted details of our other (nominally mine) bank account. We agreed to “it is a normal  current and savings account regulated by a British bank and otherwise none of their business. 
This is all,a box ticking exercise so the bank can prove to auditors that they are doing their bit to show they don’t launder money. 
Perhaps time to find a more people centred bank 

 

A certain leccy company is making a right hash of the bills they send a certain Bear - the latest is that they've asked me to email them copies of the bills I downloaded from my own account on THEIR website.  I won't be. 🤣

[J. S. Bach]

11 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Aww, she's cute! 😺

[simontaylor484]

There will be a few banks/building societies that some younger ones won't have heard of.

Alliance and Leicester 

Bradford and Bingley

Cheltenham and Gloucester 

Northern Rock 

Are just a few that I can think of 

[Tony_S]

13 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

A certain leccy company is making a right hash of the bills they send a certain Bear - the latest is that they've asked me to email them copies of the bills I downloaded from my own account on THEIR website.  I won't be. 🤣

I do recall an insurance claim we had where they claimed not to be able to find something where Aditi said “would you like me to send a copy of the email your manager sent to me last time we spoke?” “Or a copy of the letter you sent”. “I thought you recorded everything, perhaps that would remind you what we agreed to”

As for our bank I just can’t see how they can not be aware of where Aditi’s income comes from and why a P60 from that organisation makes a difference. That and her state pension are the only income to the account. Everything else is outgoing. 

[Tony_S]

It basically irritates me that people,like,us who have been on PAYE from local government or state organisations with no second jobs or mysterious income get grilled about our legitimate income from pensions while real money launderers and tax avoiders seem to manage. 
At first we couldn’t remember where the money for a savings account opened about 20 years ago had come from.It only has £110 in it at present (poor interest) but once it had more.  Then I remembered it was where the money from an endowment policy for house purchase had gone. We had paid off the mortgage as the endowment certainly wouldn’t have. The chap as I mentioned earlier didn’t know what an endowment mortgage was. 
 

Edited October 4, 2022 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

As the stupid questions go on, you stop answering, but simply ask them how many times a week they have sex. Stops them in their tracks quite well, especially when you follow up "that it isn't enough"! And point out they have just lost the business - and are recommended to get a more useful job pronto. Click. 

We are quite keen to give our business elsewhere but the threat of having our current account frozen in 10 days time needed to be dealt with first. Getting a new account set up and then telling them is next. However they won’t care. We are hoping we get one of those “how did we do “ email questionnaires. The answer to “would you recommend us to your family &friends “ could be “not to friends because I like them, depends on which family….”

[polybear]

On the subject of pensions, this may be of interest to some:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/savers-rush-to-annuities-as-bond-chaos-boosts-income/ar-AA12utMT?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d50c02ac12374adebbed8b41b39c3a5d

 

47 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We are quite keen to give our business elsewhere but the threat of having our current account frozen in 10 days time needed to be dealt with first. Getting a new account set up and then telling them is next. However they won’t care. We are hoping we get one of those “how did we do “ email questionnaires. The answer to “would you recommend us to your family &friends “ could be “not to friends because I like them, depends on which family….”

 

On the subject of changing bank accounts, some are paying money to switch (e.g. Nationwide is two hundred quid plus 5% for a year) - the MSE website has plenty of info, including customer review scores.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

It basically irritates me that people,like,us who have been on PAYE from local government or state organisations with no second jobs or mysterious income get grilled about our legitimate income from pensions while real money launderers and tax avoiders seem to manage. 
At first we couldn’t remember where the money for a savings account opened about 20 years ago had come from.It only has £110 in it at present (poor interest) but once it had more.  Then I remembered it was where the money from an endowment policy for house purchase had gone. We had paid off the mortgage as the endowment certainly wouldn’t have. The chap as I mentioned earlier didn’t know what an endowment mortgage was. 
 

Quite so. When I worked in a payroll department we were only required to keep records for seven years so if anyone asks me for anything more than seven years ago they can whistle for it. 

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

It basically irritates me that people,like,us who have been on PAYE from local government or state organisations with no second jobs or mysterious income get grilled about our legitimate income from pensions while real money launderers and tax avoiders seem to manage. 
Snip<

 

I got that here (a place where in the past there has been oodles of dirty money, but very much less so now, ask me about a deceased certain Liverpool entertainer one day) and asked to attend an interview at the tax office, which was next door to my office at the time.

 

I was then accused of running an electronic/TV repair business and not declaring it.  So,,,I was a civil servant whose details were instantly available to them, and worked....for the police. I asked how they could make such a link, pointed out I was originally a mechanical engineer not electronic, and it was because my initials were the same (NH) as this business they had stumbled across.  Pointing out my initials are actually NWH caused a little shuffle of papers.  They had a few tries to trip me up, just how they thought I had time then to run a business on the side I have no more idea than they did.  The interview ended with a sort of 'watch it, we're still looking at you' sort of thing.  Their attitude was absolutely disgusting.  Complaint made the next minute as I arrived back in my office!  Not much of a result, just a 'a mis-understanding just doing their job' reply. I bet my card is still marked.

[Tony_S]

I just checked and the bank who phoned have 14 million active UK customers. If they spend as long interrogating each one as much  as they did us about really simple financial transactions it would take about a thousand person years. I am not surprised there is such a long hold time on the phone. 

[PhilJ W]

8 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I just checked and the bank who phoned have 14 million active UK customers. If they spend as long interrogating each one as much  as they did us about really simple financial transactions it would take about a thousand person years. I am not surprised there is such a long hold time on the phone. 

I'd seriously think about changing my account to another bank if it was me.

[Northmoor]

8 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I just checked and the bank who phoned have 14 million active UK customers. If they spend as long interrogating each one as much  as they did us about really simple financial transactions it would take about a thousand person years. I am not surprised there is such a long hold time on the phone. 

That's the "by-word for efficiency" private sector you're talking about, you know.....

 

I've worked for long enough in public and private sectors to see that both are equally capable of incredible levels of inefficiency.  The public sector doesn't hide it and calls it "administrative overheads"; the private sector calls it "internal projects".

[jamie92208]

Funnily enough I got interrogated by the bank today.  I needed to set up a new payee on my French Internet bank and had to phone a call centre to do it.  The language barrier made Things interesting .  I eventually got it set up by them.  I then casually told him how much I needed to transfer.  That's well above the limit sir.  What's this transaction for.

 

I replied that it was for a new septic tank.  Looking back I could have been much more imaginative about  something that will take 3000 litres of merde.  As it was I wanted to get the bill paid so had to hold my tongue.

 

Jamir.

Edited October 4, 2022 by jamie92208

[PhilJ W]

Unexpected visitor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-essex-63090432

[Tony_S]

54 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

As itvwas I wanted to get the bill paid so had to hold my tongue.

These anti laundering type limits can really cause problems for genuine payments and I suspect none whatsoever for large scale fraud. I have mentioned before having the bank (Aditi’s current account , it is a joint account) stop my payment for Matthew’s funeral as paying for a funeral in Ireland didn’t match my profile. I was getting cross with the unhelpful woman and said how could paying for my only child’s funeral be a profile item. Fortunately another bank employee rang on my mobile and told me to hang up on the awful woman who was saying she would freeze our account. Freezing the account if you don’t comply now appears to be a threat this bank trots out. 
Just to show banks can be nice. After the problems paying for a funeral the day before I bought a car I rang my bank (not the lot Aditi uses) to,warn them a lot of money was going out as I was buying a car using my debit card. Not a problem. The lady said “just being nosy, what are you getting”. I told her and she said how lovely and hopes I enjoyed driving it. Made me think well of the bank!

Edited October 4, 2022 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Unexpected visitor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-essex-63090432

Using the cat flap isn’t really “breaking in” though. 

[newbryford]

15 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Unexpected visitor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-essex-63090432

 

I never knew the Class 89 ran in Essex.

[jamie92208]

16 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Using the cat flap isn’t really “breaking in” though. 

It fit's Section 9 of the Theft Act quite well though, entering a building or part of a building with intent to steal .  However it could always claim legal immunity as it is a protected species.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

11 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

It fit's Section 9 of the Theft Act quite well though, entering a building or part of a building with intent to steal .  However it could always claim legal immunity as it is a protected species.

 

Jamie

The local badger experts reckoned the badger setts on the hill behind the house Aditi’s family had in Nottinghamshire had existed longer than their house. After the badgers destroyed some of his netted vegetable plots Aditi’s Dad left routes through the veg planting so they could get to where they wanted to go. He was even tolerant of the moles on the lawn but MiL wasn’t. 

[jjb1970]

Pensions in Singapore are self funded. There is a mandatory fund which locals pay into. Foreigners get a tax concession to pay into a special retirement savings account. I pay into an SRS account and keep getting calls from the bank advising me to invest rather than just leaving it as money in the account. I keep telling them I track the various funds available and they're all losing money and then ask why they are recommending that I invest in a fund which is declining in value? They then follow one of two paths, either mumble some pleasantry and end the call (which is the better response) or then go all out to try and convince me that investing in a declining asset is the smart way to invest. Now I get that the secret to investing is 'buy low, sell high', but that is predicated on making a judgement that a value has either bottomed out or is close to bottom, you don't buy when the value is in freefall with no indication of slowing down. It's insulting really. 

[BR60103]

We had our fifth Covid shots on Saturday. When we told nurse that we had not had any previous problems, she said to sit for five minutes, but not to drive for fifteen.

 

[Sasquatch]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The local badger experts reckoned the badger setts on the hill behind the house Aditi’s family had in Nottinghamshire had existed longer than their house. After the badgers destroyed some of his netted vegetable plots Aditi’s Dad left routes through the veg planting so they could get to where they wanted to go. He was even tolerant of the moles on the lawn but MiL wasn’t. 

Sorry to read about your problems with the bank Tony. That's just profoundly insensitive, these numpties should learn to remember whose money provides their wages!

 

There's a badger set in the now missing village of Balsdean outside Brighton, the badgers were there long before the village ever got built. On one fresh autumnal evening half a lifetime ago, I sat with my ex-wife in a field of sheep with our jumpers pulled over our knees watching the family of badgers vacate said residence one by one, youngest first! Just wonderful.

 

We're big fans of wildlife but this year our tolerance has worn a bit thin. The dear have been coming by to eat fallen pears but have also eaten the roses, herbs and all the grapes. Even the hydrangeas which I caught them doing red handed and chased them out of the garden all the way down the drive, road and across the bridge. With only about 5-6 dozen pears left we had planned to get up there and pick them last Saturday but the racoons beat us to it overnight leaving us with just 5! I keep telling myself it's not their fault, they're just hungry because of the drought. Now we have chickens but they're not laying either, so much for becoming more self-sufficient.

The moles we tolerate too but the gophers make a real mess, we had to smoke them out only for yellow jackets to move into the empty labyrinth and they became be a real problem.

 

Regards Shaun

Edited October 5, 2022 by Sasquatch

[jamie92208]

We had moles until I had to empty the pool and the water all went into the backfilled trench thst the electricity supply runs through.to the pump. We haven't seen any molehills since. I presume that we  must have flooded the tunnels. We see deer in the fields and forests round the village but haven't had them in the garden.  We have seen a couple of dead badgers on roads nearby and sometimes see wild boar at night.  

 

Jamie