wordsfromlee Posted November 12, 2021 Share Posted November 12, 2021 58 minutes ago, Carbomb said: See, this is where I screw it up. Was supposed to be a reference to Don't They Know... but obviously I went for too vague a hint. You screwed it up by calling it 'Don't They Know...' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted November 13, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2021 I see Pepsi Max have recycled their whitest rap ever straight from the Ladybird book of The Hood advert from last Christmas. Right on the pulse, faxed into the marketing boardroom straight from 1992. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 14, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 14, 2021 this stems from a major annoyance - nearly £800 in unauthorised payments taken from my account last week - but businesses that have a substantial online presence, or even are entirely online, yet have no meaningful way to contact them or actually get anything done online. HSBC give out no customer service email addresses any more, their secure messaging online and their live chat invariably just end up telling you to phone a specific number. Aside from the frustration of it - I was on hold for more than half an hour before getting to speak to someone, that person then had to transfer me to someone else even though I'd phoned the specific number I was told to call, and then that person told me that I would have to call back on Monday to get an update from their fraud team - and aside from the fact that it leaves customers at a massive disadvantage compared to email in that there's no audit trail for me to be able to refer back to what specific people have said to me on specific dates, it's a huge failure of accessibility to assume that everyone is able to speak on the phone at all, never mind having an hour or more spare to actually hope to speak to someone. Same day, I wanted to access my Paypal account to check if any of the payments had come through there. Couldn't log in, because there was a two-step verification thing asking to either phone or text a mobile number that no longer exists. Every attempt to contact them online they either redirected me to pages about resetting my password, which isn't what I asked for, or directed me to a section on the "Settings" page to change my mobile number - which I couldn't access, because I wasn't logged in. Proper Kafkaesque stuff. Eventually managed to speak to someone who understood the issue, and just got them to cancel my whole account because I couldn't be fucked any more. I've had enough issues with their customer service in the past, and barely use them any more, so would rather just fuck them off. Same day again, decided to cancel my Beer52 subscription while I was getting on top of things, and they will only let you cancel by phoning them, no online functionality whatsoever.  Back to the HSBC thing, the next minor annoyance is everywhere going cashless. Hate it. And now that I don't have a card for, by their estimate, 3-5 working days until they send me the next one (I have asked why, given they've told me it's already been created, it can't just be sent special delivery to get to me before then, but they just said they weren't able to do that - which obviously they are able to do, and have in fact done for me before), I'm fucked. I kept trying to explain to the bloke on the phone that I need my card to use public transport, as the buses don't take cash, so I basically can't get to work without my card. He just kept repeating that I can go into a branch with my ID to withdraw money in person, which wasn't what I was asking him at all, was it? And then today, I went to make myself a sandwich for lunch and found that the bread had gone off. No worries, I'll just go out and buy some more. Oh wait, I can't, I don't have a working sodding card. Oh never mind, that bloke from HSBC cheerily told me that it wasn't a problem because I could just walk into my local branch to get cash in person. Oh no wait, I can't, because it's Sunday, so they're not open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted November 14, 2021 Moderators Share Posted November 14, 2021 (edited) 10 minutes ago, BomberPat said: Same day again, decided to cancel my Beer52 subscription while I was getting on top of things, and they will only let you cancel by phoning them, no online functionality whatsoever. I have seen this a couple times now with different services, and have found the best solution to be simply canceling the payment and waiting for the company to get in touch with me. Edited November 14, 2021 by Chest Rockwell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ReturnOfTheMack Posted November 14, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 14, 2021 Beer52 you can cancel by email. They just don't advertise it, and it can take a couple of weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Healys Chutney Spoon Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 Plus, in thr main, Beer52 don't have particular great beers. I got their free box and one other and I cancelled after it as they took an age to cancel and still email everyday asking me to rejoin and whatever offer they have on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members waters44 Posted November 15, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2021 That’s shit @BomberPatand those sort of things really stress me out. They advising you to go into the bank to sort is a joke, there are no fucking banks any more! The closest bank to me is four miles away. The closest bank that I bank with (RBS) is thirty five miles away from me.  Do you have a smart phone? You may be able to make payments with that if needed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 15, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2021 16 minutes ago, waters44 said: That’s shit @BomberPatand those sort of things really stress me out. They advising you to go into the bank to sort is a joke, there are no fucking banks any more! The closest bank to me is four miles away. The closest bank that I bank with (RBS) is thirty five miles away from me.  Do you have a smart phone? You may be able to make payments with that if needed There is a branch of HSBC not far from me, but fat lot of good it does me if I need money on a Sunday. And as I said, the main reason I wanted a replacement card sooner is because too much of London is cashless, not because I need to withdraw cash or pay for things urgently - I physically can't pay for the bus or train with cash. At the moment, if I did want to get somewhere, I would have to go out and buy an Oyster card or a weekly pass - and to do that, I would first have to go into the branch and withdraw money in person. Even on a weekday, I don't know when they would expect me to have the free time to do that, given that there's not a branch near my work that I can get to during my lunch break, nor are they open early/late enough for me to get to one before or after work. Sadly, my smart phone doesn't have contactless on it - my old one did, upgraded to a more recent model, yet for some reason the more reason one didn't have that functionality on it. It's never really been an issue before now, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted November 15, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2021 1 hour ago, BomberPat said: There is a branch of HSBC not far from me, but fat lot of good it does me if I need money on a Sunday. And as I said, the main reason I wanted a replacement card sooner is because too much of London is cashless, not because I need to withdraw cash or pay for things urgently - I physically can't pay for the bus or train with cash. At the moment, if I did want to get somewhere, I would have to go out and buy an Oyster card or a weekly pass - and to do that, I would first have to go into the branch and withdraw money in person. Even on a weekday, I don't know when they would expect me to have the free time to do that, given that there's not a branch near my work that I can get to during my lunch break, nor are they open early/late enough for me to get to one before or after work. Sadly, my smart phone doesn't have contactless on it - my old one did, upgraded to a more recent model, yet for some reason the more reason one didn't have that functionality on it. It's never really been an issue before now, though. I think it's worth having a second bank account with some emergency funds in there for times like this. Before Monzo came about with it's different "pots" you can set up I used to have loads of different accounts for saving for Christmas, bills etc. I still have a separate emergency fund account. It's free to open a bank account and you can have as many as you like, some banks will even pay you to switch to them. People seem to be very loyal to the first bank they ever have, even if they treat them like shit. You could also have an emergency credit card, but you'd obviously be able to trust yourself with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted November 16, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2021 Exactly ^^ this. Without even getting into emergency funds etc it’s worth having a separate current account even it maintains a zero balance just so you have a separate card which you can transfer funds to via Internet bank/app if the main card is lost/stolen or just go temporarily overdrawn for the sake of pennies interest if you can’t move funds. In the event your provider has a habit of stopping ALL your cards with payment facility (I.e. debit/credit) when they think you may have been a victim of fraud - Barclays have done this to Mrs raid repeatedly - then there are savings accounts with cards for hole in the wall access. I know cash isn’t the issue at hand but it’s also worth being prepared for that eventuality too. I’ll never forget trying to order 3 Domino’s £19.99 deals for myself and two mates on a hangover and getting the fraud alert call from my provider. It’s nice you wanted to check this attempted £60 transaction to Domino’s just after opening on a Sunday is legitimate but if you check my transaction history, it’s far from suspicious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted November 16, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2021 On 11/14/2021 at 7:05 PM, BomberPat said: this stems from a major annoyance - nearly £800 in unauthorised payments taken from my account last week - but businesses that have a substantial online presence, or even are entirely online, yet have no meaningful way to contact them or actually get anything done online. HSBC give out no customer service email addresses any more, their secure messaging online and their live chat invariably just end up telling you to phone a specific number. Aside from the frustration of it - I was on hold for more than half an hour before getting to speak to someone, that person then had to transfer me to someone else even though I'd phoned the specific number I was told to call, and then that person told me that I would have to call back on Monday to get an update from their fraud team - and aside from the fact that it leaves customers at a massive disadvantage compared to email in that there's no audit trail for me to be able to refer back to what specific people have said to me on specific dates, it's a huge failure of accessibility to assume that everyone is able to speak on the phone at all, never mind having an hour or more spare to actually hope to speak to someone. I woke up last week to a text from Halifax to ask if I'd made a payment, mine was only £21, which I hadn't. I replied no and got a text back saying someone would phone me, which they did about 10am. Unfortunately, had to have my card cancelled. The new one still hasn't arrived but the new card appeared on the banking app the following morning and I added it to Google Pay. Can't fault the bank and new technology! Don't know if this is helpful but it happened to a mate a couple of years ago and his last purchase online was gig tickets. Mine, 2 days before, was a Ticketmaster purchase. Be careful when ticking that "save my card details for future transactions" box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted November 16, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2021 My new card actually arrived yesterday, so that's one part of the frustration down. Still couldn't get the bus this morning, as I need to use it with a PIN before I can use contactless, but one day isn't the end of the world - just means I've an excuse to swing by the pub on the way home to use my card for the first time. Setting up an account with another bank just to have the spare card makes a lot of sense - I've basically not done it because I'm both fundamentally lazy, and largely clueless about all of this stuff. There's been another payment to the gambling website, just £10.00, gone out yesterday, so I'm going to have to get back on at them today. I assume it's a payment that was processed before the card was cancelled, and only claimed by the site today, but I'm still going to give the bank an earful for allowing a transaction to a vendor I'd already flagged £600+ of unauthorised payments to, and three days after they'd told me that card was cancelled. I've also contacted the site in question, as they had told me the account had already been located and cancelled. Whole thing is just a ballache, and I'm hoping that's the last of it other than getting my money back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted November 16, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2021 2 hours ago, BomberPat said: Setting up an account with another bank just to have the spare card makes a lot of sense - I've basically not done it because I'm both fundamentally lazy, and largely clueless about all of this stuff. If you can’t be bothered going to another provider see if your bank will let you set up a second account, my provider allows for multiple current accounts. If I ever lose a debit card it takes me seconds to move money to the other account on the app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted November 16, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2021 12 minutes ago, air_raid said: If you can’t be bothered going to another provider see if your bank will let you set up a second account, my provider allows for multiple current accounts. If I ever lose a debit card it takes me seconds to move money to the other account on the app. We have a similar thing except I move it to the wife's account and then I never see it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Coconut Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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