A frugal life is an easy life!

News earlier today was abound, that Bodycare stopped a member of their staff at their Wigan branch, from wearing a poppy.
The reason given was that company policy did not permit any badge or emblem, charity or otherwise, to be worn, for fear of offending someone.

This decision has now been reversed... I wonder what changed their mind?

Was it, as is reported, that a Chorley MP stepped in and saved the day, or did the company fear the financial damage that would have been done to their business, had they continued with their staff policy of not allowing a poppy to be worn?

Day 16: Still no access to our account.

Promised us on Saturday that an email would be sent to "the back office staff" regarding our account being mixed up when transfering over to their "one time passcode" system (I cringe whenever the word system, is combined with a customer service issue!)
We were assured that the matter would be rectified by Tuesday, it is now Tuesday, still in exactly the same position as last week, no change, still cannot access our bank account.

They have broken the Data Protection Act, by discussing our account with us, on the basis of incorrect information - we are told that we cannot discuss the account at all as now the date of birth on the account differs from the one given for security... How, they do not know!
Previous advisors have openly discussed the account after asking for this information.

So far Abbey staff have blamed:

• the system - it has mixed up the details on the account somehow
• the system again - this time it is "a known fault for the past three weeks," as regards accounts having date of births messed up when transfering to new system
• us - for registering the wrong details
• the data protection act - for not allowing them to discuss the account and sort the problems out

Notice one blame target missing? Anyone who has spotted that the Abbey staff have failed to blame an actual person, advisor or manager, after continuous promises from them, give yourself a mars bar!

Just one message today for the Abbey: If you continually fail to sort out problems for your customers, on accounts that you are supposed to be managing, making customers wait 4 days, then two days, then the next day, then it is NOT 24 hour banking is it!

ADDITIONAL: Day 17, still no sign of our account.

After just a few weeks of product placement being allowed in our TV shows and radio, it is already apparent that it is dictating the direction and topics, that some shows are using.

Jerermy Vine (dinnertimes radio 2) is a prime example. I listen in on way to and from work, all this week we have had "vote for your favourite bedtime story" being rammed down our throats, promoting BBC website (to vote), promoting calling in about books, authors and fans reading excerpts from each book, etc.
It is one thing promoting reading for children, I have no problem with that, but I find it over-bearing and a personal insult, for shows to force feed me into taking an interest in any subject.

Enough is enough already, we are not America!

One of my favourite tv shows, the darling buds of may, is being rerun on ITV3, from today at 6.50pm.
As escapes from reality tv goes, this is one that gets my vote... why doesn't David Jason return to more comedy roles?

If you miss it, then you can watch them on the ITV player - linked on the right sidebar here for your convenience (Non UK viewers will need a UK i.p address to use it).

ADDITIONAL:
I had forgotten how good this series was!
Every week night it is on (set our freeview recorder to record the whole series) it is a fine example to the sprog* about how England used to be, he tells me he is going to watch it.
I wonder, if we compare life then, to life now, which has the better quality of life?
I know which one I would pick everytime...

The Abbey national has now sank to a new low!
Not enough that I cannot access my account using Abbey online banking (due to the system being down for two weeks) it's not enough that they didn't ring back after more than an hour on the phone trying to have their errors sorted out, not enough that they didn't ring back when they said they would that day, not enough that Abbey then attached and old savings account to the wrong current account details and proceeded to lose our current account, not enough that it was to be "sorted out by monday" yet has still not been sorted out, not enough that I now need to register a mobile phone number to obtain abbey's new "one time passcode" (at a cost of £120 per year to me) just to use their online banking that is still not working.....

Abbey are now demanding a new registration number for their telephone banking!

Not bad for a bank that has lost our current account for TWO WEEKS and the best they can do to sort it out is offer to pay for a taxi so I can visit a branch 14 miles away to try and sort everything out - and they have the cheek to say that I am not secure enough and bring in extra layers of security?

If you need to contact customer services/telephone banking call 08459 724724