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I am currently sitting at the office. I arranged to have a parcel delivered to work because in the week I'm here all the time - but now it's due to be delivered on Saturday. So I had to come in to the office for 7.30 on a Saturday (and a bank holiday weekend). I can't even sit at my own desk because the door bell doesn't ring in my office. 
My manager is less than impressed that I can drag myself out of bed for a parcel (new laptop !) that early but have trouble struggling into work for 9.30. He was trying to speak to me about something just after I'd got into work the other day and I could only grunt and nod (I'm not a morning person and I was in a lot of pain at the time).
So I figured I'd take the time to tell the following stories :
My brain broke
3 days a week we do telephone advice. I think people sometimes think they are calling some large call centre but it's just one of us in a little room for 2 1/2 hours answering the calls that come in.
SC call up and launches strainght into her complaint steamrollering past my introduction and questions.
SC is very upset. Her husband is sick ("a ticking time bomb!") and those evil people at the council won't help her pay the rent.
The council do indeed help people with rent. It's called Housing Benefit. It's based on the money people have not tales of woe.
I manage to get her financial information though and she is actually entitled to help...
Me : So when they made the decision did they say why they wouldn't give you any benefit ?
SC : Decision ?
Me : Yes. When you made a claim for the benefit what reason did they give for not paying you ?
SC : Oh. I didn't claim !
Me : .... you need to claim...
Then it was really weird. Even though she was on the phone I could hear her going away, and her voice started to get fainter...
SC : Alright, I will
Me : WAIT. Do you know how to claim ?
SC :
No.
So I told her.
ARGHH.
I feel sorry for the people at Housing Benefit as she must have randomly been phoning them to tell them about her husband's health. I wonder just how much she confused them.
People I won't be helping.
Our organisation has branches all over the country but the branches are all separate little charities. We get most of our funding from the local council. They want us to see people living in this council area only, it's a condition of the funding. We turn a small number of people away at the office, but on the phones we get more calls from the surrounding area than our own.
So when I answer the phone and the conversation goes :
Me : And do you live in the London Borough of OurCouncil ?
SC : What's that ?
I won't be helping you. If you don't know what it is then you probably aren't living in it.
If you tell me you do live in our area, with a sudden sneakiness in your voice - I'll be taking your postcode and checking.
If you decide you would rather not talk to me than give your postcode I will laugh at you when you have gone.
(If you say you are not in the area, or give me a postcode so we can both find out you are not, then I look up the correct numbers for you and suggest other places to try. I'm not completely mean and horrible).
If you try and call back in 2 minutes this time claiming to be from the borough - it's still me !
If you say "Hello, I'm from NextCouncilArea. I'm not sure that you can help me but I thought you might be able to tell me where tI can get help" I will love you forever.
People I won't be helping, and who I hope fall under a bus.
If you call our line 3 times from AMERICA and bother me and my colleagues I will hope this happens to you
He was SO out of area I actually decided to advise him first of all. He wanted advice about a problem here (having moved from the UK to the USA at some point), and it's not like he is in any other catchment area.
However when I advised him of his rights under UK law he didn't like it.
So he tried to claim US law applied. (It didn't but
)
Me : In that case - seek advice in the US from someone who knows US law. I don't. I know nothing.
SC : But the case is in the UK.
Me : Yes, and the rules that apply are....
SC : But in the US rulesIlikebetter apply
Round and round and round.
I tried to give him some helpful advice. His case had no chance whatsoever, but I believed that if he argued something a little bit different it did have a chance at least. He just wouldn't listen.
I ended up telling him we wouldn't advise him any further, and suggested contacting the advice centre where his case was being heard.
Which didn't stop him calling twice more and bothering a coworker. By the 3rd call he'd lost his case (because he obviously didn't have a leg to stand on for the reasons I'd given him).
May his telephone bill be unmanagable.
My parcel has come and new technology will now distract me from the stupid.
Victoria J
My manager is less than impressed that I can drag myself out of bed for a parcel (new laptop !) that early but have trouble struggling into work for 9.30. He was trying to speak to me about something just after I'd got into work the other day and I could only grunt and nod (I'm not a morning person and I was in a lot of pain at the time).
So I figured I'd take the time to tell the following stories :
My brain broke
3 days a week we do telephone advice. I think people sometimes think they are calling some large call centre but it's just one of us in a little room for 2 1/2 hours answering the calls that come in.
SC call up and launches strainght into her complaint steamrollering past my introduction and questions.
SC is very upset. Her husband is sick ("a ticking time bomb!") and those evil people at the council won't help her pay the rent.
The council do indeed help people with rent. It's called Housing Benefit. It's based on the money people have not tales of woe.
I manage to get her financial information though and she is actually entitled to help...
Me : So when they made the decision did they say why they wouldn't give you any benefit ?
SC : Decision ?
Me : Yes. When you made a claim for the benefit what reason did they give for not paying you ?
SC : Oh. I didn't claim !
Me : .... you need to claim...
Then it was really weird. Even though she was on the phone I could hear her going away, and her voice started to get fainter...
SC : Alright, I will
Me : WAIT. Do you know how to claim ?
SC :
No. So I told her.
ARGHH.
I feel sorry for the people at Housing Benefit as she must have randomly been phoning them to tell them about her husband's health. I wonder just how much she confused them.
People I won't be helping.
Our organisation has branches all over the country but the branches are all separate little charities. We get most of our funding from the local council. They want us to see people living in this council area only, it's a condition of the funding. We turn a small number of people away at the office, but on the phones we get more calls from the surrounding area than our own.
So when I answer the phone and the conversation goes :
Me : And do you live in the London Borough of OurCouncil ?
SC : What's that ?
I won't be helping you. If you don't know what it is then you probably aren't living in it.
If you tell me you do live in our area, with a sudden sneakiness in your voice - I'll be taking your postcode and checking.
If you decide you would rather not talk to me than give your postcode I will laugh at you when you have gone.
(If you say you are not in the area, or give me a postcode so we can both find out you are not, then I look up the correct numbers for you and suggest other places to try. I'm not completely mean and horrible).
If you try and call back in 2 minutes this time claiming to be from the borough - it's still me !
If you say "Hello, I'm from NextCouncilArea. I'm not sure that you can help me but I thought you might be able to tell me where tI can get help" I will love you forever.
People I won't be helping, and who I hope fall under a bus.
If you call our line 3 times from AMERICA and bother me and my colleagues I will hope this happens to you
He was SO out of area I actually decided to advise him first of all. He wanted advice about a problem here (having moved from the UK to the USA at some point), and it's not like he is in any other catchment area.
However when I advised him of his rights under UK law he didn't like it.
So he tried to claim US law applied. (It didn't but
)Me : In that case - seek advice in the US from someone who knows US law. I don't. I know nothing.
SC : But the case is in the UK.
Me : Yes, and the rules that apply are....
SC : But in the US rulesIlikebetter apply
Round and round and round.
I tried to give him some helpful advice. His case had no chance whatsoever, but I believed that if he argued something a little bit different it did have a chance at least. He just wouldn't listen.
I ended up telling him we wouldn't advise him any further, and suggested contacting the advice centre where his case was being heard.
Which didn't stop him calling twice more and bothering a coworker. By the 3rd call he'd lost his case (because he obviously didn't have a leg to stand on for the reasons I'd given him).
May his telephone bill be unmanagable.
My parcel has come and new technology will now distract me from the stupid.
Victoria J
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