Following on from our last email – and in the same gin, razor blades and Leonard Cohen mood – I forgot to mention event number 5, which happened recently on a solo trip to Paradise. With one car between us it seems that Nigel has seamlessly fallen into the role of designated driver on long distance trips, which means that I get to sit and stare out the window, admiring the view and keeping watch for stray emus.The down side is that there are no ‘short distance’ ventures and most of the time our little red wagon sits forlornly in the driveway. That means that there’s only one way to prove to yourself that you can still drive and that is to do a long trip by yourself and, at 14 hours, Ivanhoe to Paradise Beach is definitely that! The trip seemed a good opportunity to sell some excess furniture that was cluttering the poolroom so I placed ads on ebay (who said it was over?) before I left home, intending to take some photos and upload them when I got there.
On arrival I discovered that at some stage and without warning our ISP (Internet Service Provider) had decided to redirect all our bills for Paradise Beach to Paradise Beach. Perhaps they thought that the holiday tenants should pay them.
Unfortunately, when we didn’t receive these bills and/or pay them, the ISP sent threatening overdue letters – still to Paradise Beach – which we didn’t receive either. So when we didn’t pay, they sent more letters threatening to disconnect and when we still didn’t pay, they cut off our phone and internet access.
Now considering we pay for the full year even though the house rents for around 11 to 12 weeks a year and, all up, we spend a couple of months there, I was slightly miffed that the service wasn’t available on one of the few times that I actually needed it.
After many, many phone calls, it seems that sanity has prevailed and our ISP has restored our phone and internet connection – and even magnanimously waived the re-connection and overdue fees. The excess furniture was sold and our poolroom is now de-cluttered.
This morning I received a phone call from Calvin (remember our banking Support Manager?) to say that he would “fix” the mistake and true to his word, he did. Within a couple of hours he had rung back to say that our agreed interest rate had been restored and that we’d get a letter to that effect shortly, as well as a refund for the excess interest. So much for the Call Centre saying that nothing could be done! So I’ve withdrawn my application to the Ombudsman and hopefully, my new best friend, Calvin, never saw the letter to the editor.
……… two to Kaye!
Married to a Country Cop 