The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

I think it's just their way of applying a "personal touch"



I think it's DPD that has a Google map on their tracking website, showing where the driver is, the number of drops before they get to you and approximately how long before they arrive.

I surprised the driver one day because I'd only just reloaded the page, which said he was still 15 minutes away, when the doorbell went.
I told him he was 15 minutes early, a good excuse to take a short break :rotfl:

yes, that's right, it is!

It always surprises me what a circuitous route they take to get to my house!
If I've been in a hurry, I've felt like going to the road they're in and asking for my parcel!
(Not really!)

And yes, I've been surprised by them being early! :rotfl:

The hour's window they give you is really great. I've only once not been pleased with DPD's service. It really puts Royal Mail to shame.

I also love the way you can change the delivery slot with DPD, and with some other couriers, too.
I've had a couple of Royal Mail deliveries recently, and there wasn't any way of changing the day even, which was a pain, as I knew I'd be out. So had to return home to the jolly red card. Arranged online for redelivery, and later got offered an appointment on the delivery day, but could not change the redelivery again! The only way would have been to have got another jolly red card and start again, but it was easier, if less convenient, for me to rearrange the appointment.

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

I don't use Ocado.

However, that's because they don't deliver to the wilds of extremely outer outer Herts
I used to use them when I was in Southampton.

Is Cumbria even more outer Outer Herts than wot where Generali is? :rotfl:





Years and years ago when Sainsbury's started doing deliveries, I signed up, because I worked long hours and resented spending my spare time shopping.

In those days, you faxed or telephoned your order in. I used to fax it. You had a great long list of products, and you ticked the ones you wanted and then had to fax the whole lot through to them.

I found it was great for boring stuff like cleaning products and non-perishable goods, but I missed being able to choose my own fresh stuff, although even that was useful when I was busy/tired.

It was also interesting, because when I shopped in person, I'd cram loads of stuff into a plastic bag, and this was in the days before you paid for the bags, but the delivered stuff came with loads of bags with only a few things in each!

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

The hour's window they give you is really great.

Indeed - but I always chuckle at the apparent accuracy of it - I've never had one indicated to be on the hour, half hour or quarter hour, it's always something like 10:12-11:12

Pyxis wrote: »

Is Cumbria even more outer Outer Herts than wot where Generali is? :rotfl:

Definitely not - Gen's gotta be in Under Herts :rotfl:

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

Indeed - but I always chuckle at the apparent accuracy of it - I've never had one indicated to be on the hour, half hour or quarter hour, it's always something like 10:12-11:12



Definitely not - Gen's gotta be in Under Herts :rotfl:

So, is there an Over Herts then?

I guess that would be the Moon colony, when it gets going! :rotfl:

chris_m

Doncha just love irony?

I've just received part of an order that's due from Wickes and emblazoned across the box is the slogan "Let's do it right" - but five of the items contained within the box are not the ones I ordered.

:rotfl:

Pyxis

chris_m wrote: »

Doncha just love irony?

I've just received part of an order that's due from Wickes and emblazoned across the box is the slogan "Let's do it right" - but five of the items contained within the box are not the ones I ordered.

:rotfl:

:rotfl:

Cross that out and write..... "Have another go!"

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

:rotfl:

Cross that out and write..... "Have another go!"

Ooh, that's so tempting :rotfl:

Pyxis

I've just been reading something on another thread that reminded me of when we used to pay bank charges.

When I first opened a bank account, I was a student, and banks vied for student custom by offering special gifts and no bank charges while you were a student.

However, once I started working, the charges kicked in. I can't remember if they were offset by interest on your credit balance or whether that came in later.

Anyway, fast forward to the 80s when I had to go on state benefits, and this near enough coincided with the Post Office rebranding their National Giro account, as a 'bank account' in the form of the Girobank account.

The huge thing about these accounts was that they were offered free of bank charges, and everyone was advising people on low incomes to switch to these, because in an ordinary bank, the low interest on your small credit balances wouldn't have offset the bank charges, so by switching to a girobank account, you saved money.

Although it was only a few pounds a month, it made a big difference to me! It was like free money!

Now, my benefits were paid weekly in cash, but a lot of my expenses were monthly.... mortgage, utilities, rates/poll tax whatever it was at the time, etc., so the added advantage was that I could cash the benefit for that week, and then some (most) of it could go straight into my Girobank account at the same Post Office counter to fund those outgoings.

Then the cash I kept was for food, clothes and everything else.

It was a brand new idea, that Girobank account, as well as the no bank charges thing.

Obviously the other banks gradually cottoned on to this, and over the next few years they followed suit.


I kept that Girobank account even when it was taken over In 1990 by the Alliance and Leicester building society, but I was almost at the end of my retraining for my second career by then, and off state benefits.
I still kept it , though, and it suited me well enough. It was a nice, friendly bank account! Eventually though, the Alliance and Leicester was taken over by Santander and the rot set in then! The difference was very marked, and I didn't like it! I didn't like it one bit!

I went back to one of the big four, with whom I had a business account by then, and opened a personal account with them, and left the Santander account dormant. I think it's only got about about £7 in it.

I tried closing it once, but it was a right kerfuffle and I didn't have the right ID and so I left it. Then a while later I tried to close it again, but because it had been dormant for a couple of years or something, the red tape was even worse, especially as I had moved house and no longer had proof of the address they had for me. So I left it again.

Perhaps they need that £7 more than I do!

It was a sad end to what had originally been for me a small ray of financial sunshine in troubled times.


Don't know why I'm telling you all this....... a trip down a little banking memory lane!
(Although this is MSE, so I suppose it is quite pertinent, although don't tell Martin I've still got £7 in a long-dormant account! :eek:)

PasturesNew

I remember paying 27p/cheque at the Midland - and I, too, went to Girobank. Loved it - wish there was something like it now. So straight forward.

Incidentally, I also had a TSB account at some point - and I remember reading in the paper a couple of years later that the manager had gone to prison for some fraud or other.

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

and left the Santander account dormant. I think it's only got about about £7 in it.

I did similar with the "old" Midland Bank, but for a different reason.
About a year before I'd finished at Poly and got a job that entailed commuting to Winchester every day. Being unsure that my old 1100 would cope with that I'd taken out a loan from the bank to buy a better car. Unfortunately, the company closed a year later and I was made redundant - however, the loan had come with redundancy protection so the insurance company would make the monthly payments. All seemed fine and dandy.

However, the insurance company was not overly quick at paying the money into my bank account whereas the bank was dead on time at taking it out, with the result that the manager started complaining that I was going overdrawn. I pointed out that, if he cared to look, he'd see that every fortnight I was paying in my Giro and only withdrawing half of that each week, therefore the only reason for going overdrawn was that the bank's choice of insurance company was inefficient, so I felt that I couldn't reasonably be blamed for that.

Eventually, he DEMANDED that I return my hole-in-the-wall card, to which I replied that I would not because I was only using it to draw out MY money and that I was shortly going to be starting a new job anyway - I didn't mention that I'd opened an account elsewhere into which the new salary would be paid
I got a very condescending reply along the lines that, under the change of circumstances, he'd reconsidered the case so I could keep the card.

I ran the account down to 50p and told them that I wanted monthly statements - after about three years they gave up, sent me a cheque for 50p and closed the account :rotfl: