I'm working for the cash machine - my diary

gwen80

I am eating After Eights I've put on God knows how much weight over Christmas and I'm not happy about it. The diet starts tomorrow...I'm not entirely sure what diet it is yet, but I do know that After Eights don't feature in it :rolleyes:

I've just double checked my Nationwide bank account and the DD's and SO's definitely haven't moved over, so I need to call them tomorrow to tell them to pull their finger out and get on with it! :mad::mad:

I also need to go to my local M&S store tomorrow. It's quite a long story, but I ordered some things before Christmas from them (one item was a cute little outfit for my best friends new baby). I couldn't get to the store to pick them up, so I called them up and asked for the order to be held there until tomorrow. This morning I get an email saying the order has been refunded...does this sound familiar??? I called up the store and enquired about it. The man on customer services there told me he would call me back once he'd looked into it. He did and was very apologetic, there'd been some software error and it had gone back to the warehouse yesterday. He'd been round the store and found most of the items from in-store and is now holding them for me until tomorrow night. Then he said there'd be £15 in gift vouchers for me to pick up aswell when I go in! I'd used a £15 ecoupon (from a previous complaint :rolleyes:) on the order. I'll get that back and £15 in vouchers too. Now, I almost feel guilty taking them...I've had £40 in vouchers from M&S in less than 6 months :rolleyes: Maybe I should just stop shopping there (but no M&S would be :eek::eek:). Come on Mr Marks and Mr Spencer - SORT IT OUT!

I'm now thinking of using my £15 M&S ecoupon for some more underwear. I've seen a lovely set I like, but it's £28, with the coupon, it'd be a far more reasonable £13

I used my Tesco ecoupon today on my online shopping order, so that saved me £10.

The bank account isn't looking great, but not terrible either. Hopefully I should be able to make it through January ok.

Gwenx

Bibbitybob

Hi gwen, just come across your diary after 'meeting' you in the SAID thread :hello:

I think you should send the rest of the After Eights over here and don't feel bad about the M&S vouchers - it was their mistake after all! And cheap undies definitely sound good

Drove out my way to visit a Laura Ashley store last night only to find that it was closed...no signs on the door and the website said it'd be open til 7. I thought about writing a complaint letter in the hope that there might be a voucher in it, but I wouldn't know where to start :rolleyes:

January's a long month isn't it...glad to hear your account's not looking too terrible.

Bibs x

gwen80

Bibbitybob wrote: »

Hi gwen, just come across your diary after 'meeting' you in the SAID thread :hello:

Hello! :wave:

Bibbitybob wrote: »

I think you should send the rest of the After Eights over here and don't feel bad about the M&S vouchers - it was their mistake after all! And cheap undies definitely sound good

Gladly! I've still got half a box left and I feel sick I'm sure I'll get over the M&S vouchers when I've got my new underwear

Bibbitybob wrote: »

Drove out my way to visit a Laura Ashley store last night only to find that it was closed...no signs on the door and the website said it'd be open til 7. I thought about writing a complaint letter in the hope that there might be a voucher in it, but I wouldn't know where to start :rolleyes:

Oh, that's a pain :mad: I'm afraid to say my letter writing skills seem to be pretty good I'm better in writing than on the phone. I seem to get walked all over in person and on the phone quite frequently. My first M&S complaint last year, I phoned up and got through to a woman from customer services who was very rude and I just sort of went 'Ok then'. I was still annoyed though, even more so, after her rudeness, so I just added that to my letter. Fortunately I'd got her name... to her

Bibbitybob wrote: »

January's a long month isn't it...glad to hear your account's not looking too terrible.

Bibs x

Yeah, too long! I hope it'll be ok. I normally have to spend the first few months of the year desperately trying to break even again, so it'd be nice if I didn't have to do that this year.

Gwenx

makeup

Hey Bibbitbybob

As a person who has read a number of complaint letters as part of my job, I would advise the following:

Keep it simple and straightforward.
Try not to embellish too much - let the facts do the talking. (ie, on ordering I was told the book would arrive in 5 days but eventually arrived after 15)
Calm down on the dramatics, one or two sentences on how upset / disappointed / etc is fine but don't go on about how this has ruined your whole life blah blah blah (we used to laugh at the 'we could have been killed' dramatics.......)
Sarcasm rarely reads well
Explain what you want if you are looking for refund, replacement etc but you can just leave this bit out if you are after compensation for poor service. Most big companies will send vouchers or something if you have been on the end of bad service.

Hope that helps, why not give it a go and see what happens. I don't often write but I will if I receive really poor service as it is so frustrating and like Gwen says, if you write is easier than phoning as not so much chance of being railroaded.

gwen80

Argh! Banks are ....!? Ooh, naughty Gwen...

I've been sorting through my post. I have a letter from HSBC, saying they have took my overdraft off me for that current account. I suppose it doesn't really matter that much, it's my old current account. I was planning on using it as my 'matched betting account' though. I probably still can, I just like having an OD on it...I'm not even sure why

My Barclaycard statement has arrived and last month the minimum payment they took from my current account was less than the interest charged! :mad::mad: Luckily I sent more money to them anyway, but that can't be right. If you're only paying the minimum payment per month, your debt is still increasing. They didn't used to do this. Has anybody else noticed their Barclaycard minimum payments going funny recently?

Gwenx

Bibbitybob

Thanks makeup, much appreciated. Although I just went onto the LA site to take a screenshot and the opening hours have changed :rolleyes: I SWEAR it said 7pm...I double checked at lunchtime yesterday, but now I'm starting to wonder whether it was a blonde moment

I'll pm my address gwen

gwen80

makeup wrote: »

Hey Bibbitbybob

As a person who has read a number of complaint letters as part of my job, I would advise the following:

Keep it simple and straightforward.
Try not to embellish too much - let the facts do the talking. (ie, on ordering I was told the book would arrive in 5 days but eventually arrived after 15)
Calm down on the dramatics, one or two sentences on how upset / disappointed / etc is fine but don't go on about how this has ruined your whole life blah blah blah (we used to laugh at the 'we could have been killed' dramatics.......)
Sarcasm rarely reads well
Explain what you want if you are looking for refund, replacement etc but you can just leave this bit out if you are after compensation for poor service. Most big companies will send vouchers or something if you have been on the end of bad service.

Hope that helps, why not give it a go and see what happens. I don't often write but I will if I receive really poor service as it is so frustrating and like Gwen says, if you write is easier than phoning as not so much chance of being railroaded.

Very good advice from makeup. I think I googled 'how to write a letter of complaint' or something when I first did it.

Writing is a pain, takes longer, costs a stamp, but I think they take it more seriously. If you've gone to all that trouble, you must be pretty pee'd off!

Gwenx

Lula-Hula

gwen80 wrote: »

The diet starts tomorrow...I'm not entirely sure what diet it is yet, but I do know that After Eights don't feature in it :rolleyes:

Sounds rubbish, dont do it

Shoe_Gal

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Sounds rubbish, dont do it

Lula, you're terrible :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Bowski_1011

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Sounds rubbish, dont do it

Gwen... on this one occasion please don't listen to Lula...she's a bad influence