Travelling On

Boy oh boy. Network Rail and Lloyds Bank have conspired to make this day *so* stressful for all three of us:
- problems on Merseyrail, different train needed to London.
- problems outside Euston, delayed another 30 minutes. We need to return to Euston by 1510, the clock is already ticking.

- guy we were supposed to see for identity checks, at 1pm, is ill, so meeting cancelled. No one at the KX branch has the authority to do the checks. No meeting room is available. No chairs available in the foyer till very late in the day. No apology forthcoming until we started to talk about turning up in good faith.
- running, literally running, back to KX to get the tube up to Camden, that branch has someone available. They say they will see us immediately we arrive. We need to get my brother to Euston for the 1510, the fare costs are already astronomical.
- that man isn't there, but someone else is, and we run through the ID checks. She asks the right questions, but mumbles them to her computer. She ignores most of our documents, and only checks our passports, that bit is fair enough, but odd.

- She's puzzled as to why we've arranged this appointment so suddenly. We haven't, we all say, to which I add, we're coping with a problem created by Lloyds Bank. If a staff member is ill, apparently, a central unit is supposed to phone that person's appointments and find other branches to take up the slack. We've been living on our phones the whole day, because of transport and appointment issues, and no one has tried to contact us.

- the guy we're supposed to see will see us now. We tell him about our 1510 deadline too. My brother isn't used to London connections, and doesn't believe we'll make it, but I used Camden tube for 10 years, and I know we can. He's too stressed to hear me.
- this was supposed to be about ID, but this guy suddenly says he needs to see the death certificate and the probate. These were certified by the bank branch on Merseyside, but the guy says they had no right to do that, he has to see them, while we're seeing him right now. Thanks to gods and little fishes, my brother has brought them. Crisis over, we think.
- but this guy piles on the final agony by telling us that since our mother was also a customer of Lloyds Bank, it is necessary that we have her bank details. Of her account that was closed in December 2016, by me. Eruptions, they've gone too far, and each of us is ready to sue them within an inch of their corporate marketing strategy. He suddenly remembers he can fill that in later, without us being there.



I remind the guy of how much we're trusting them, they have copies of all sorts of our documents, and we literally run to the tube station with nothing at all in our hands to confirm we've had these meetings. If they decide to continue playing dirty, we're stuffed.


We made it to Euston in enough time that we could get my brother a cuppa tea for *immediate* consumption.