A frugal life is an easy life!

Our sprog number 2, is fast approaching 9 months of age. Here is the latest top ten list of things that hold her attention, that she likes to play with:

1. String or spaghetti
2. An empty cardboard box
3. Labels - be it on clothing or muslin squares
4. Her own feet
5. An old mobile phone
6. Wooden clothes pegs - the "dolly" type (ace for chewing as her teeth come through!)
7. Zips
8. An old remote control
9. Balls - of any size and texture. Cricket, tennis, football, etc, of any size
10. The cat's tail

£8 odd for fancy rattles and god knows how much for musical teddy bears, waste of space so far. Things with different textures and sizes, things she sees mum an dad using around the house are much more fun it would seem.
Who would have thought that toy manufacturers after all these years would still be struggling to find the "ideal toy" for a child under one year of age?

As cock-ups go, the MBNA credit card has to be the worst ever!

I am currently helping a family member out with their credit card, which transferred over from Alliance and Leicester to MBNA two months ago.

All was fine, card had its balance paid off every month by direct debit. This was the 'norm' for over two years.
Then two months ago, the card finished as an Alliance and Leicester card and became an MBNA credit card.
Not to worry, "nothing will change, your direct debit will stay in place and continue as normal."

In March, some purchases were made - in April, the direct debit to clear the balance was paid (according to the MBNA credit card statement shows). This is where the common sense goes out of the window.

Despite the statement showing the balance carried forward, being cleared by the direct debit payment, according to MBNA, they received no payment.
MBNA then re-added the purchases to the account balance from March.
MBNA then added the carried forward balance to the new account balance.
MBNA then added interest to the new balance.

Moving on two weeks, another statement comes through, stating that no payment off the balance was made in April...
MBNA have now added on a late payment charge to the balance.
MBNA have also charged more interest on the new balance.

Moving on another week, another statement now states that no payment was made in April or May (the balance is cleared each month by direct debit remember).
MBNA have now suspended the card so it cannot be used.

Not to worry, MBNA have included a contact sheet, stating that they "are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week!"

I called them on both numbers provided, today, Saturday.
After going through various security checks, all I get is a messagebox, to leave a name and number for a call back.
I waited an hour then tried to phone them again...
This time I got a recorded message, which stated there was no one there after 1pm on Saturdays!

Questions:

• What happened to the "Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?"
• How can MBNA charge interest to an account by the day, if a customer is unable to contact them on any given day?
• Why are MBNA informing customers they can leave a message and they will be called back, but not informing customers they are not open after 1pm on saturday?
• What happened to the promise of "No need to change anything, your direct debit to clear the balance remains the same?"
• Why are MBNA adding purchases to an account balance, when they have already been part of a balance, which has been cleared?

Broken promises - unable to maintain a simple account - lying to customers (Re: customer services, opening hours) - applying charges despite evidence of errors by the company, etc, etc.

It staggers the imagination how a company operating as MBNA have done, manage to obtain a consumer credit license, to even trade.
I challenge YOU, to find one with worse service than this...

It is reassuring to know, that Santander bank have their customer's best interests at heart and that security at their branches is of paramount importance...

Unless of course, you actually need to use one of their branches!

It has taken four (that's FOUR) phone calls, to establish that they are refusing legal tender.
With 21 bags of change to be deposited in the wife's account, we were advised previously (when the bank was Abbey) to notify them in advance, should we have a large amount of change bags to be deposited.
We finally got through to a call centre, that deals with branches, despite trying to phone the branch direct, who have refused to take more than "Five bags of change per customer, per day only!"

It is deemed to be a security risk to have more than this on the premises - when was the last time you heard of a bank robber demanding the bank teller to load up bags with just change?
As a result of Santander's wonderful lack of customer service, we now have to trek across town for five days just to deposit legal tender in the wife's current account.

Have you ever heard of anything so stupid?
Like customers have nothing better to do with their time and money - this is on a par with Natwest's mobile banking service.
After closing many local branches, in the name of security and losing many jobs, they have devised and advertised their wonderful mobile banking services, as if it is the best thing in banking history.
Sadly, it is less secure than small local branches were originally, proving that their excuses for closing said branches, were false and misleading.

As you can surmise, I loathe banks with a passion, they are money making machines that care not one jot for their customers, if all banks were closed down tomorrow I would not care one bit.

Why people continue to buy ever more expensive work top cleaning products, is beyond me.

Take a one litre ordinary spray bottle - available from pound shops - write on the label in big black letters "BLEACH" - then add about an inch of bleach and fill with good old tap water.
Spray on your work surfaces, leave for a minute then wipe off with warm soapy water.

It gets rid of stains and kills germs for a fraction of the price, pennies, when compared to all those chemicals and fancy sprays that you pay £2 to £3 a time for.
Job done.

Simple problem:

AA repairman has broken the immobiliser on my van, whilst attempting to fix a brake problem. Van is towed to my local garage for brakes repair, garage are unable to start the van to drive it into the garage to fix it.

The garage have brought in a mobile auto electrician, who failed to fix the fault.
The garage mechanics cannot fix the fault.
The auto electrician has contacted another auto electrician, who is mobile and can recode keys - on hearing the problem, he has offered to "come and have a look at it" but for a price of £70!
He has said that for this £70, he cannot guarantee to fix the fault - so I could have to pay £70 and the fault will still be there - yes, I have lots of money to shell out another £70 to not fix a fault (you couldn't make this stuff up!)

I contacted the AA claims department, told them of the problem and that I was unable to fix it.
After an hour of pure waffle, they finally conceded that they would have my van towed, free of charge, to a dealership to repair the immobiliser so the vahicle can be driven again.
For the repair, I would have to write in to the AA for them to investigate, which can take upto four weeks, plus I would have to pay for the repair up front - how unhelpful is that!

As a last resort, I contacted yet one more auto electrician, this one from Bolton, who advertises a mobile service for recoding LDV's - as soon as I mentioned it was an LDV and that the immobiliser wouldn't work so we couldn't start it, he got sheepish, "oh err I haven't had any dealings with LDV, sorry can't help you!"

I didn't get a chance to ask why he was advertising "25 years in the business, local and reliable auto electrician and mobile key coder for LDV" - the call was terminated.

Not to worry I thought, if I find a dealership for LDV, then I can have the AA tow the van over to them and then take it from there.

My first contact was number one on google, Thomas Hardie - LDV Preston - their website is prestonldv.com
I asked them to check with their service department if they could fix my immobiliser fault - the answer was "No" as they do not deal in LDV vans!
Once again I never got to ask why they are number one in google for LDV dealerships and even have LDV in their web address.

As things stand, I have a van that will not start, a garage that cannot fix it, two auto electricians that do not know what they are doing and another auto electrician that wants £70 payment for just coming out to have a look at it!
I have contacted numerous companies who claim in advertising to be able to fix faults with LDV immobilisers, but as yet, they have all mysteriously "never dealt with an LDV before"
I have now contacted an LDV dealership, who tell me they do not deal with LDVs.

I sometimes wonder if I live on a different planet?

ADDITIONAL:
LDV immobiliser repair - things go from bad to worse!
LDV.com (Specialise in LDV sales and servicing) have recommended a company called F&G used truck and van centre - 25 miles away but I have a free towing service from the AA to take it there - have instructed me, I kid you not, this is what their service department say,

"you won't be able to repair or bypass the immobiliser as they don't make them anymore. In effect, you may as well scrap the van!"

So the LDV dealers word is that for the price of a new ECU and someone to fit it, I may as well scrap my used LDV convoy van, worth around £4000 - that is the opinion of their professional service department!
I asked why they continue to sell LDV vans and promote servicing for them, he didn't have an answer.
It is so demoralising having so much bull spouted by people in the trade, who just want easy jobs for big money. Surely someone, somewhere must have a clue what they are doing?

It would appear not!