Keep calm and carry on....

badmemory

Soft drinks have been more expensive than beer for some years.  Lime & soda is much cheaper.  In fact one place I go it appears to be free as they don't have a code for it on their till.  As for soft drinks, they say it's coke but if you are lucky it is pepsi otherwise who knows what make it is cos it never tastes right.  Non alcoholic is not the cheap option in most bars.  After all they want people to stop thinking about money & just spend it.  Also many landlords have to buy their alcoholic drinks from the brewery they rent from & sell at the price they dictate.  The soft drinks are often all theirs, so charge more - make more profit.  Then there are the ones who cheat on the spirits.  Sometimes if a spirit is on an optic & the label is upside down, they've bought from the local supermarket.

greent

Meat costs have gone up, I've found. And butter. Am sure there's more that we regularly buy that has noticeably gone up in price but my brain is not supplying the details right now! 

South_coast

Funnily enough, I bought butter (reduced) the other day. Good timing too, as I was about to run out of the last lot (bought last time it was on offer 😀) Need to divvy it up and freeze it tomorrow (I never manage to finish it before it goes mouldy 🤣) Not bought meat for 11 years, so that probably helps 😀 Actually, I often look at my shopping list and think it's bizarrely short, but I'm feeding myself 3 meals a day and I've not starved yet, so it must be enough!

In other news, I'm not enjoying this new-look forum - not least because the colour scheme is exactly the same as my old company 😥 and it pings my sub-conscious every time I look at it. Speaking of old job, I've sold my shares this week. Massive loss (just over 50%), but this is the best price they've been for about 2 years now (pretty well since I bought them 🤦‍♀️) and I didn't really want to hang on any longer on the off-chance they went up further - and frankly I'm glad of the clean break. I'm trying to think of it as £600 gained (as I'll have that money back in the bank) rather than £600 lost. It will be a good boost to the new car fund once it arrives (in a few weeks, by cheque, after I post back the share certificate - it is 2021, right 🙄🤷‍♀️?)

greent

Weird how some companies hang on to paper methods - dealing with paper costs more, I would have thought! 

South_coast

The certificate is fancy thick paper too - very pricey 🤣! You'd think shares would be all electronic these days, they're supposed to be fast-moving and dynamic!

Picking back up on the shopping thing, it's shortages that I'm noticing rather than price increases. I keep having to roll things over to the next shop/shop again sooner than I'd planned. Lidl didn't have any kale earlier. I cannot live in a world without kale 😱!

Oh, and I unpacked a big underwear order earlier and one of the bras is missing (the one I liked the most 🤦‍♀️) They've billed me for the full amount, so contacting them to convince them it was missing and I haven't nicked it is on my list for tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun 🙄!

greent

I could happily live in a world where kale didn't exist at all!🤣

If the underwear order was Em n Ess I have had missing items with them before and they happily sent out a replacement item no problem

South_coast

Grrr, after 3 thoroughly unsatisfying live chat experiences in the last 10 days, I am starting to believe they are largely manned by muppets (I work in Customer Service, so I am allowed to say this 🤣)

eBay: Dealt with my concern (but only once they eventually understood it and I had connected to 4 different real people), but didn't leave me feeling particularly reassured. Took over an hour

Amazon: Did refund me after over-charging me, but only after I connected to EIGHT real people 😱
Amazon: "Hello, I'm looking forward to helping you"
Me (getting slightly tetchy by this point): "Well I hope you can, as you're the 4th person I have been connected to"
Amazon: "Agent has left the chat" 

M&S: Cut me off without warning! I think I might have failed security, as I couldn't remember the mobile number on the account (funnily enough, updating it wasn't my top priority when being made redundant and having to give my old phone back 🙄)
Me: "It's either this or this, my current phone number is this"
M&S: "Agent has left the chat. The chat has ended"
At least tell me if you can't help!!! I've now emailed them, but got an automated response saying that sometimes deliveries get despatched in different packages, so it might not have arrived yet - except that the "come and get me" email said it was in the delivery, so I think they think I've got it. So does the automated email mean they think they've answered my question and I won't now get a response from a real person 🤷‍♀️? 🤔

And don't even get me started on the poor standard of English which seems to be the norm on live chat. I totally get that they're under pressure to respond quickly and are probably messaging several people at a time, but can you not proof-read a two-sentence message?

I have taken some of my ire out on Virgin Money, who chose today to send me a customer satisfaction survey. They being the same Virgin Money from whom I applied to switch my S&S ISA on the first day of the new tax year and it STILL hasn't gone through 😡! Vanguard website says it's in process and could take up to 30 days. Er, no,  two and a half months and counting 🤦‍♀️!

Right, off to lower my blood pressure 🤣!

South_coast

Ooh, just remembered I've got two days' worth of kale in the freezer - things are looking up 🤣!

South_coast

greent said:

I could happily live in a world where kale didn't exist at all!🤣

If the underwear order was Em n Ess I have had missing items with them before and they happily sent out a replacement item no problem

greent, I thought we were friends - you can't start hating on kale 🤣🤣🤣! 

It was! I was too busy ranting about them to see your reply! Hopefully I will hear back from them with lots of sunshine and positivity then 🤞

penny*pincher_2

I love Kale!! @South_coast I thought I would come and find your diary and tag along

I have experienced some pretty shocking customer service recently. One with car insurance where I was promised a reduction prior to renewal and they still took the full amount out. I called them 2 weeks ago, told I would get a refund in 5 working days... and guess what. No refund. 

I apparently had a pet insurance policy for 10 years with no renewal docs sent to me. The direct debit was under a different insurer and (i do take responsibility for not keeping an eye on my DD) apparently it is my fault I have had no renewal docs/ correspondence from them, because it is inconceivable I did not get it, and they hope that concluded my query. I love dealing with customer services. The sad thing is I would have claimed on it had I realised about 5 years ago!!