An in-between phase

PennysIntoPounds

Not a hugely productive day as spent most of it watching the covid inquiry, but at least it was productive in furthering my knowledge

Admin and small bits of work

Managed a shower and hairwash

Sent a snotty complaint to housing association as they hadn't got back to me within their promised time frame about my complaint about how long it was taking to get a response

Sent a snotty response to Yougov for redirecting me with a warning about if I don't give quality controlled answers they'll suspend my account- I gave my real answer, sorry that I haven't heard of your million insurance companies all with pretty much the same name 🙄

Entered some competitions, today I'm mostly looking forward to winning some knives (because they look good quality kitchenware, honest! I'm only mildly cross, not stabby)

Had a decent walk picking up some Olio books, more than I expected so knackered now, but an interesting pile to peruse/possibly put some on ziffit for flat funds 

PennysIntoPounds

More covid inquiry watching today but I did at least restrict my viewing to just one of the people giving evidence

Did a Yougov survey, clicked through to another two from two different providers to be told the survey was closed despite them having just sent the email. Why do they do this?!

Ordered mum a new fridgefreezer, making sure to go through a cashback site. Hopefully there won't be issues with them being !!!!! as she doesn't live on the ground floor

Had a polite but no nonsense conversation with the housing association about how much they're mucking mum around about works they've decided to do

Little bit of work

Over to Mr PIPs making sure to travel outside peak times for cheaper fares

It was the last day of Lidls pizza 15% off coupon so took advantage of that again, will be a good weekend dinner and helps avoid any temptation for a take-away!

PennysIntoPounds

So tired today, forgot about the joys of upstairs neighbours stomping around at ridiculous hours

Then had to contend with an effing Argos chatbot who was both unable to answer me or put me through to a human

Did bits of productive admin, housework, and at least hopefully progressing a couple of jobs

Entered some competitions- today I'm mostly looking forward to winning a luxury Christmas gifts hamper

Walked up to high street to recycle plastic packaging and buy some healthy own-brand bits. Hips extra hurting today so was glad to get back before today's downpours began

Did a coop survey, and a Panelbase one that asked if they could record me watching an advert (for no extra points or anything). That would be an 'absolutely not'

Did a good session of finance COAs- funnily enough the banking apps were all simple and quick enough whereas the Brewdog process, for a £100 share I got about a decade ago, took blimmin ages.
Obviously HMRC wasn't providing a Change of Address service today, gotta love how they're like 'Did you change a personal detail? You must tell us IMMEDIATELY! Tell us if a mate down the pub shortened your name in conversation, WE NEED TO KNOW. Did you forget about an extra £5 someone gave you on your 10th birthday? TELL US OR PRISON FOR YOU... Obviously we can only enable you to tell or ask us anything between the hours of eleventy and fiddlesticks on a day ending in 'P' once you've located the magic blade of grass that grows but once a moon 'pon Bournemouth beach, good day to you'

I'm a bit tired 😂
Mse dinner of own-brand baked beans and a tub of mash that I found in the freezer, and a blimmin large glass of red wine!
Hope no-ones been too badly affected by this grim weather x

foxgloves

I did appreciate your HMRC rant, @PIP, especially as I have been ignored by them for weeks on end. When I did speak to someone, I was told that my letter is stuck in a queue with the department with the 60 week backlog!
I loathe chatbots too. I feel patronised by  them, as though my numpty question will fit so basically into a little box from a list of things us tragically dim customers are most likely to ask. If one submits a question with any degree of articulacy, it is not answered, as the wretched bot programmes are looking for certain words. If you type in (for e.g) "Why have I not received a bill?", there will be a reply, generally directing the enquirer to the website page already visited 146 times. If the question is more detailed, in order to elicit the information required, my experience is that the bot can't cope so grabs a couple of keywords from its sorry lexicon & answers the wrong question. 
I have also heard of elderly people going online to sort out a problem & not realising they are dealing with a chatbot. It then becomes very confusing when the response is "I'm sorry, I don't understand" - the poor customer then trying again & again, thinking "Well if you don't understand & it's your job, how am I supposed to know!". 
The sequence of words which never seem to appear in their programming is "Please can I speak to a REAL PERSON" or any variant thereof.
Awful things. Destined to tell you nothing other than the most basic guff you could read straight from their website.
Have I finished my rant now?
Yes, alright. Just don't get me started on why I don't want to do everything on a phone app! I could fill 3 pages with that one, PIP !!
F x

PennysIntoPounds

All of wot you said @foxgloves! If you're ever in need of writing a 3 page rant, my diary is a safe space for that sort of thing 😁

Blackcats

I thought I would be next to step up to the PIP diary soap box and start my rant about trying to contact customer service to answer a question that I couldn't find an answer to on the website or with a bot.  I was ready, really I was.  I'd rolled up my sleeves, huffed and puffed but then a real human at Am a zon answered the phone, dealt with my query, arranged my refund and sent me a confirmatory email.  Refund received within 2 hours.

However, I can assure you that when I work up the will to ring virg-in media about the exorbitant price rise that they are inflicting on my dad then I will be begging to converse with a chat bot rather than trying to communicate with a human in their call centre.  

PennysIntoPounds

Gosh dang Am a zon with their acceptable customer service when you were ready and waiting!

Do keep us updated about virg-in, very few things boil my blood like older or vulnerable people being taken advantage of. 
If they're particularly awful you could always tell your in-laws there's a free bar at virg-in HQ *innocent face* 😁

I was thinking of you today, you having said this was the day you'd be particularly remembering your mum at this point in the season. Raised my glass to you both, and all who are conscious of All Souls Day 

in_need_of_direction

Easiest way to speak to a person in vir gin is to chose the leave option.

PennysIntoPounds

Not much to report, been tired from upstairs noise. Got Olio bread out of freezer and used that for breakfast and lunch

Won a couple of hundred quid on the premium bonds, thank you Ernie, much appreciated. Will probably put full amount in the flat pot but also slightly tempted to put some towards a date night in, or that winter break I'm still pondering on....

Did minor bits of work, a few surveys and a sainos receipt survey

Managed a shower and hairwash despite achey body

Did a small bit of cleaning, I'm counting anything that results in getting any deposit money back as a long term mse win

Dinner tonight is that good value pizza, yesterday was defrosted yellow sticker mac cheese with chopped onion in for a bit of f&v with garlic bread which was £1.20 cheaper than a fancy one that was very tempting, so that difference can go in the flat pot.
It's DEFINITELY all the completely random premium bonds wins and £1.20 savings that'll get us a tiny flat of our own

Happy weekend to everyone but the billionaires paying half a percent in tax

Sun_Addict

That’s fabulous news about the win 🥳👏