Customer Service

[doodles]

You are lucky we don't get bins but have to put the bags out before 7am.

Because we kept missing the slot and because we can't put them out the night before because of the foxes most of us have bought our own bins (I seem to remember they were about 50quid each) but we've had a directive telling us to put something like an upturned box into the base of the bin to stop the operatives (their word) having to reach into the bin to get the bags out When did being a waste operative stop being a physical job?

We also have to pay £45 per year for a license for a garden waste bin

And don't get me started on the woman answering the sandbag request line whose system couldn't cope with one person to ringing up to request bags for the dozen houses in the close and wanted us all to ring separately. I did try to explain that there were several vulnerable old ladies and to just send the requisite number per household and the beefy teenagers in the close would sort them out. Don't think Christmas eve community spirit fitted in the box on her screen.

Along with ruining my tyre this week on an pot hole and street lights being turned off early to save money I do wonder what I pay the council tax for!

[sbarnes]

I think most of the poll tax goes into funding their pensions as well as bonuses for top level incompetence called management.

[southbucks3]

Aww..doodles, now I feel bad for having my rant!

You can have some of our other useless coloured bins:

Big blue: good: glass and plastic
Big green: useless: garden waste of a very specific nature only.
Big black: landfill waste: vanished!
Small brown: food waste: we have none due to our chickens and compost making.
Small silver: inside food waste: ditto
Medium green: clean paper and card: we burn all ours in the burner to keep warm! so only used in spring and summer.

You could say that about 10 foot of our garden us dedicated to council bins! People in smaller houses have actually taken to leaving them on the kerb, or they cannot get to their front door!

Sbarnes, do you write for the daily mail by chance?

[Fatnorville]

I think most of the poll tax goes into funding their pensions as well as bonuses for top level incompetence called management.

I am one of those incompetents you refer to as 'local government management'.

I have just spent the best part of the past two weeks working 16 hour days try to keep basic services such as roads, schools and social care available during some of the worst weather seen in this country for years, often to those individuals who are most in need in society. I even worked with the Environment Agency to help fill sandbags to protect homes and help individuals move personal possessions upstairs to mitigate the risk of damage in the coming floods.

It's not even my job to do this. I work in IT. I should be sitting in a nice warm office surrounded by technology. But someone asked for volunteers and I just couldn't say no.

I won't get payment for this, and I won't ask for payment. How can I profit from someone's misfortune? I also haven't had a pay rise for four years, and I expect to lose my job in the next two years, not because I am incompetent, but because local government can no longer afford me mainly due to the budget cuts forced upon the public sector due to the greed of the banks in trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of a bloated finance sector.

So in summary, thanks for that bit of well researched insight. I think it said nothing about local government....but it says an awful lot about you...

[southbucks3]

Well said...

Dh in local govt too, has also spent many weekends sorting out storm damage jobs.

Our household income has gone substantially down over 4 years, where as dh is working 28+hours for free a month extra, as staff are made redundant. His pension will be laughable by the time he retires.

Oh, and his customer service skills are exceptionally good!

Even more annoying that we cannot get a blooming bin!

[doodles]

Our household income has gone substantially down over 4 years, where as dh is working 28+hours for free a month extra, as staff are made redundant. His pension will be laughable by the time he retires.

Sounds horribly familiar even though not in local govt.

SB I'm very worried that even with your connections you can't get a bin

[Y]

I think you can put out black bin bags instead of the bin - households without space get bags. So that would free up your green bin again!

[southbucks3]

think you can put out black bin bags instead of the bin - households without space get bags. So that would free up your green bin again!

I tried that...they left them in the lane! Even though it was the same bin men that presumably lost our bin in the back of their lorry!

Still no bin....I reckon I will be chatting to nice lady again on Friday!

Amazing how such a small thing can really really turn you obsessed, I actually brace myself when I open the gates in anticipation that it may have been delivered.
An Amazon delivery agent cane to the garden today, wearing a vizzy vest...My heart leapt a beat...He must have wondered why I looked sooo disappointed when he handed me a parcel!

[southbucks3]

Still no bin...we are into week 8 now! Nice lady still convinced she can sort it out. Head of waste and cleansing is guarded by pit bull type admin team I am thinking of reverting to ambers plan of going to the press, or dh' s plan and nicking someone elses!

Thought about buying a bin from well known web site, but went out and nought myself a very lovely pair of heels instead...when I showed ds3 he asked if I had bought them to wear across the floods...sarcastic little so and so. He is but 9 years old, he will learn to always compliment a woman's footwear and new hair do before I release him on unsuspecting women I promise!

[doodles]

It's me again I'm afraid!

4 1/2 hour power cut - ok so not a lot that could be done about that one but....... when I called the help desk I was unfortunate enough to be answered by what I can only think was a script reading parrot Given that I was on my mobile bill the ensuing argument of me saying that the whole village was without power and her insisting that I needed to be sure of this and had I spoken to the neighbours and tried flipping my switches (her words) was a little irritating.

She was insistent that I give permission for an engineer to enter my property to inspect my fuse box why she thought one man with a tool box in my understairs cupboard could rectify the problem for the whole village is still beyond me. Screaming I want to speak to your boss did seem to focus her attention and she seemed only too willing to pass me onto somebody else! Luckily he confirmed my switches weren't at fault but that a major substation problem was .

My rant......people in call centres who don't know what they are talking about and can only recite "company policy" and don't THINK!

Thank you for listening.