Greenwich Council
Towed away my fucking car from my own fucking driveway.

I no longer live in London.
(AudioLag there ARE two zeros in n00b, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:53, Reply)

NTL couldn't run a whelk stall
When my emails weren't reaching me, I had to call their "help" line (read "fuck all help line"), which I could only call during office hours.

Me: I'm not receiving my emails.
NTL: It's probably Outlook. Are you in front of your computer?
Me: No, I'm calling you from my place of work as your helpline closes at 5. And I know it can't be anything to do with my computer because when I check on the webmail there are no emails.
NTL: Let's just check Outlook first.
Me: No, my PC can't have anything to do with it for the reasons I have just explained, plus I have also explained that I'm not at home.
NTL: But we need to make sure Outlook is working.
Me: No we don't. Did you hear what I said just now? I log into webmail and there are no messages, so they aren't there for Outlook to download.
NTL: Can't we just check Outlook first? It won't tale long.
Me: Look, I know you have a script to stick to and your boss may be listening in, but I'm sure he won't mind us skipping the Outlook stage.

And so on, until I finally persuaded the guy to send a test email which I could check from work. It didn't arrive.

I was sooo glad to get shot of NTL, and have never again relied on an ISP for my main email address, thus allowing me to switch if they're shit without having change email addresses.
(lolwhites, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:50, Reply)

Caffeine free
If this had ever got into the public domain there'd have been uproar and quite possible some outcry too.....

I went to a meeting with Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council at which tea and coffee was provided but they forgot about it until the end, by which time it had gone cold.

What a waste of tax payers money!
( abefroman skating on the thin life of modern life on, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:48, Reply)

British F*cking Gas propertycare service
If any of you are 'evil' landlords, never ever EVER consider it a good idea to sign up to British Gas 'propertycare' service. Bunch of fucking arse. I'm working away for a few months, so let my flat out. See the British Gas propertycare service, think "oh, not bad for £35 a month for peace of mind if the boiler plays up".

Oh more fool me. Unlike your local plumber, BG can only book you an appointment between 7 and 12 or 12 and 6. So you've got to take at least half a day off for them to get into the property. The other thing is that despite you having told the useless call centre muppet on the end of the phone that if the engineer calls the letting agent 15 minutes beforehand that they will be there and stay there whilst they do the work. Apparently it's 'at the engineer's discretion' whether they bother to make this call, so invariably they don't and just turn up, knock on the door (tenants out at work, obviously) and put in their log "can't gain access").

This happened as the boiler was playing up, I happened to be back in the UK and ended up wasting a day sitting in a tenanted property to make sure the engineer could get in!

Suffice to say, I've cancelled the 'service'

Useless bunch of cunts.
(Calamity wetter than a fish's wet bits - bloody rain on, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:40, Reply)

Have at ya ya bastards
I parked near Stockport railway station on a road with no parking restrictions, and caught a train to London for a couple of days. Later that day I got a call via my boss saying my car was being towed as it was illegally parked.

Wtf? I came back, paid the fine and contested it. Turned out they claimed I was parking on double yellows which had been removed because they were resurfacing the road. Actually what happened was that they'd informed residents but not put any notices up, so everyone knew to move their cars except non residents.
I went back to where the car had been parked before they'd redone the lines.. and it wasn't on double yellow.. contacted the police and asked for my money back.
Ist try: No
2nd try: Oh, alright, you can have £45.
Cue nasty letter from me - to the tune of 'oi, I'm either innocent or guilty, if you're gonna give me £45 give me the £125 you took as a convenient way of moving my car cos you'd forgotten to put signs up saying resurfacing.'

Cheque for £125 in the post, Job and knock. 1 nil. :)
(Countryslicker, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:37, Reply)

Quote:
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."

PJ O"Rourke
(Fothermucker, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:29, Reply)

Village Tales
.
In my village we're on fortnightly rubbish collection. So that means that we get lots and lots of rubbish piling up in the streets. And the council won't come and take it away.

But we've a secret weapon. A certain individual (who's name I'm not giving out) occasionally goes around in the dead of the night and fills his van up with rubbish. Then he drives to one of the local councillors gardens and flings the whole bloody lot over the hedge and all over the garden.

There's soon a bin man around to pick that lot up.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:20, Reply)

NTL
After reading about BT ineptitude- I have to add a comment about NTL.

We had phone and Sky.

we wanted to get rid of phone and sky after the service we received verged on incompetance of the highest order.

So we gave our 1 month notice as we HAD to do. Two weeks later- phone line and Sky cut off- not good as we had sky around to connect us up.

Turns out NTL had not only stopped our account, but CUT OFF the phone line - which to be reconneceted would cost us £50.

They then kept billing us for a)a phone line they had severed and b) for a number that wasn't even ours.

We then kept receiving bills saying we had to pay the £3 something that THEY OWED US - THE LETTER SHOWED THAT THEY OWED US.

Needless to say we didn't ring to get it credited to our account

AVOID NTL AT ALL COSTS. EVIL FUCKTARDS.

Rant over, sorry
(audreyforbes audreyforbes, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:19, Reply)

President rswipe
I must say I'm quite tempted by rachelswipe's manifesto below.

Even if it does sound like a bit of a (hopefully benign?) dictatorship she's proposing, the bit about getting laid three times a week is enough to swing it!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:17, Reply)

Hammersmith and Fulham again
When I was doing my flat up - moved out for three months, got an exemption, but one of the 'inspectors' came round and had a peek through the windows, saw a sofa in there and I got a short phone call from some council nazi telling me that they would be taking me to court for evading council tax. I suggested that as tax evasion is a crime that maybe the police would like to come round, perhaps take a piss in the hole in the floor where the toilet was going to be, and if they could find me a bed just the right size to sit on the joists since there were no floorboards in the bedroom. Perhaps the large skip outside and the trail of dust out of the front door might have given the game away, but no, nothing for these bright sparks.

It didn't occur to this inspector that the fact the room with the sofa in it was also obviously full of all the other junk and furniture that one might find in a house. Fucking Jobsworths.

I'm going to move to Putney. Wandsworth council are also cunts but at least they are cheaper!

GRRRRRRR

this qotw is doing nothing for my blood pressure!
(Calamity wetter than a fish's wet bits - bloody rain on, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:12, Reply)

Old joke
Reading this reminds me of the old joke about the three wee boys who were arguing about whose dad was the quickest.

I can't be bothered writing out the bulk of it - you can make it up for yourself - but the punchline is that boy 3 decides his dad is the quickest of all as he works for the council. He finishes work at 5pm, and is home by 3.

Boom - tish!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:11, Reply)

Woo!!
Rswipe: £200 a month for a two-bedroomed flat? Bargain!!

But let's talk about me instead.

When working for various councils - fuckit. Explanation needed. I worked for an outsourcing company that provided IT services, among others, for a shitload of different councils. So that meant that I simultaneously worked for dozens of the buggers.

Right. So one of the call centre ops got this call.

Op: How can I help you sir?

Caller: I want someone from the council round straight away to clear up the leaves in my garden. They're all over the garden and make the place look untidy.

Op: According to our records, sir, you own that house. And you own the trees. Therefore you also own the leaves. It's not the councils responsibility to clear up your garden.

Caller: What! What! Do you know who you're talking to? I fought in the war to defend you young buggers from the Germans. And I pay £1000 a year in council tax so I want you round straight away to clear up those bloody leaves.

Op: Sir - they're not council leaves. They're yours. And our records show that you're 52 and that makes you a bit young to have fought the Germans....

Caller: Don't you give me any of your cheek. And get someone round to clear my leaves.

Op: Sir - they're not our leaves - they're yours. You're responsible for clearing them up. I mean, what have you done in previous years? You must have noticed that this happens the same time every year.

And so on and so on.

I know most councils are full of fuckwits but you really should listen to some of the calls they have to deal with.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:11, Reply)

Oops!
My comment about Watford Council being quite good seems a bit stoopid after reading golddust's post!
( Joliet, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:05, Reply)

Harrow Council
Born and bred under this council which is why I funked off to live under Watford Council who (touch wood) haven't caused any problems and seem to be quite sensible about stuff.

Our glorious PM has recently announce that the answer to the trouble with yoof today is more Youth Centres! Just as Harrow Council have finished knocking down the town's only Youth and Community Centre for "affordable housing" which was meant to be designated for people on a low wage. Instead it's mostly gone to "buy to let" landlords.

So no youth centre and the "affordable housing" has gone to only the wealthiest people. The one saving grace is that they've bought flats in the crappiest part of the borough.

And finally, the mentally and physically disabled of the borough were being taught life skills such as computers, admin, cookery and all sorts in one pokey building in Northolt. It was funded by the council and prepared some for living in the wider world and it gave the more serious cases a purpose in life. The council have been looking for an excuse to shut this place down and not fund it for the past 20 years and they finally got their wish when the landlords of the building wanted it back (to build affordable housing!) and the council can't be arsed to find a new place for them so they're all supposed to sit at home and stare at four walls instead.

Harrow Council may have the funniest MPs ( Eileen Kinnear ) but they're all a bunch of cnuts.

p.s. it was designated the worst council in London as it was making no provision for athletes for the Olympics. If anything it was cutting funding for sports.
( Joliet, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 12:02, Reply)

Oxford council parking
Oxford council were nice enough to send me a parking ticket dated a week before I bought my car.

You'd think at the point when they requested the car owner details from the DVLA they'd offer the date of offence too so the DVLA could give them the details of who owned the car when the offence occurred!?

I couldn't be bothered to fight that one so waited for the court date then posted a photocopy of my V5 document to the court and didn't bother to attend. Didn't hear anything back either so assume they dismissed it.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:59, Reply)

Dig those utilities....
I mentioned in another reply that my folks had a house built for them a while back, this was at the end of a small cul-de-sac.

As the house was on unused land there were no utilities to the plot and in turn they had to be supplied.

SO, electricity supplier turn up. Dig a trench for 50ft up the road, takes them about 5 days. Then they fill it in, tarmac it and are done.

A week later British Telecom come out, decide due to a corner they cannot string the phone cable from another house or put in a telegraph pole. So they dig another trench up the road, sometime overlapping the one dug by the electric company. Again a week later they're done and tarmac it and away they go.

Later still the water company decide they need to connect up the drains built into the new house and connect the water. Evidently the old Victorian cast iron one wasn't up to the job of one more family of turds flushing down it, so they too dig up the road!

Luckily we were not bothering with gas, however by now the road was looking somewhat battered. Not in the best condition to start with it now had 3 different bodge jobs by lowest quote contractors and a series of tarmac snakes up and down the road.

Que the council coming along and literally saying "OMG! This HAS to be resurfaced, we'll put it on the priority road surfacing list".

Now that is interesting, as it turns out the money is allocated kind of by postcode or grid square of the town. Sadly about 150m from the house is a main road with one way system on it that is the main route into Watford from Harrow and has railway bridge/station etc etc.

Turns out that whenever they have money to spend in "our" gridsquare they go "Right, what roads are the priority here then? Ah, the main one way system has been torn up by buses for another year, lets resurface that first". Then the road budget is all gone and our road doesn't get done. You just can't argue with a council that will resurface the same piece of road EVERY year but leave another one indefinately....

After 15 years mum & dad moved out last year, the road still hadn't been resurfaced. It has however had 15 years to develop some more pot holes and of course by now the gas board have attacked it too for one of the neighbours!
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:49, Reply)

next rant
why do you get caught and pursued ruthlessly for driving in an empty bus lane at 2am (the 24 hour bus lane sign was beautifully and cunningly hidden behind a tree) but noone gives a fuck when your house is burgled and some twat, probably a council tenant, runs off with your laptop?

more seriously, my friend's boss was beaten up in the street and stabbed in the eye, which he subsequently lost. the council hadn't fixed its broken cctv camera so the culprits got off in court.

two months later, he comes home from holiday to find his house all boarded up. this is because he had been burgled and it had been trashed. the police had been round to secure it.

and had left him a bill for their time.

they never caught the culprits, but they made sure he paid for the boards and nails...

AND congestion charging. i know full fucking well i was on the right side of the border. they sent me a picture of my licence plate and a demand for £100. i demanded to see the full picture. they demanded £20 for "data protection". what the fuck? is it a picture of me, or not?

i won that one.

this qotw is raising my blood pressure. bureaucrats suck. vote for me - i'll make sure everyone has to do something to get any money at all; thieves have their hands amputated after three previous offences; arsenal fans are all deported along with their grey faced manager and it is the law that everyone gets laid at least three times a week. oh, and a three day weekend.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:43, Reply)

I used to be one of those cunts
When I worked for Stroud District Council many years ago. I worked in many departments but ended up in Housing for my sins.

I used to think of myself as a champion of the tenants however, and would always state in the work order that they had no hot water so someone would come round within 4 hours to fix it. It must've cost the council more, but as I don't live in the district, what did I care?

I left shortly before a load of employees were sacked for viewing porn, and a couple of computers were taken away by the Feds.

Less bureaucratic than the MoD though, I could only stomach that for 11 months.
( M3rx likes the Asian ladies, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:38, Reply)

i have
the great misfortune to live in the borough of hammersmith and fulham, which translates into 137 other languages as "the most expensive useless labour run rip off piece of shit in the country". if i were one road further up, i'd be in kensington and chelsea and my council tax would be a third of what it is.

so i pay over £200 a month in council tax for a 2 bed flat in one of those victorian mansion blocks. it's a private road. my service charge pays for our own street lighting and road surfacing. the porters in the block do the rubbish disposal. i don't have children so i don't use the schools. i have private healthcare so i don't use their clinics. i don't break the law, with the occasional exception of the speed limit, so i don't use the police. i don't set fire to things so i don't use the fire brigade.

so what the fuck am i paying for?

subsidising the lifestyles of everybody who lives in the council accommodation or council funded accommodation there and doesn't bother to work, maybe? gah!!!

i never used to be right wing, but god, since i became a 40% tax payer some of these scum suckers are better off than i am and the council help them! am i stupid to get up at 6am every day and maybe work until midnight just so that someone else can have a free house and free money and then complain because the council won't pay for sky as well?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:22, Reply)

Richmond Theiving Borough Council. Picture This!
So you read how Richmond have a low crime rate, expense with police etc and how CCTV will assist in all area's. So they install CCTV in St Margarets to keep in an eye on Crime. But no, all thay have done is train the camera on the local shops and ticket you for parking when you get a pint milk from your local shop. When approached as to why, you find they have shoved a sign up a post dictating new parking regs that you can read whilst on a bus or are equally tall! With regards to TFL, why do I get a £75 fine for leaving the congestion charge zone at 7.02am in the morning. Wankers. All they do is collect money to repay their general balls ups in their own departments. Richmond won't disclose why they gave a few million to a nigerian fella in their purchasing department who bought on their behalf a few hundered kitchens and central heating equipment, paid his own company then fucked off!! Audit didn't pick it up for nine months and we have to pay that all back...and what happened to ice rink they where supposed to replace when they sold the original site for millions. Thieving stupid bastards. Not bitter...really...
(jellylegs, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:17, Reply)

Edinburgh Council
I live in a smallish village near Edinburgh.

We have a main road behind our house, which heads right out of the village. On the outskirts of the village, the road has been closed for about a year as a new trunk road is being built which bridges over the main road.

Keeping up so far?

Immediately behind my house, the road takes a blind bend. On the other side of the road, just around the bend, is a nursery and a community centre, and as a result, the spot is a popular crossing point, with mothers, toddlers, buggies, prams, wheelchairs - you name it, crossing the road.

A lollipop lady used to operate at this point, as there is no pelican crossing. However, she has been relocated to elsewhere in the village to fill in for a colleague who left his job. Our crossing was deemed by the Council to be no longer important enough to have a lollipop lady as the main road was closed further down the road, and hence the road is no longer busy enough. However, there is still plenty of local traffic moving up and down the road, so there is still a danger.

The council, in their infinite wisdom, have now decided to place bus stops right on the bend - on both sides of the road. Traffic coming down the road, and around the blind bend - often moving too fast - now have to go on the wrong side of the road to avoid stopping buses, and then have to slam on the brakes to avoid running over mothers with prams struggling to cross the road because there is no fecking lollipop lady any fecking more.

When the trunk road is opened, and our main road is reopened, traffic will no doubt return to the previously high levels. There will still be no lollipop lady.

I pointed out to the Council that perhaps while the road is closed, they could have put in some traffic calming measures in the run-up to the bend.

The response, from the Manager of Transportation Planning no less, was "Oh we never thought of that, we were going to put in some traffic calming, but we were going to wait until we reopened the road".

Me: "What? You were going to re-open the road, and then close it again to put in the traffic calming?"

Him: "Er...yes. So then we could monitor the level of traffic before and after we put them in."

Me: "I see. Will you also be monitoring the levels of dead bodies littering the road after you re-open the road without any traffic calming?".

Him: "Probably not, no".

Cnuts.
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:12, Reply)

My Dad vs the Gas board
This is a long time favourite tale of how my teenage attitude and British Gas stupidity caused much mirth.

Back in '91 my folks had a house built for them which had a large block paved courtyard in front of it meaning the house was about 30ft from the street.

Being interested in energy conservation my mum had dictated to the builder that the house be electric only and so able to utilise storage heaters etc, but relevant to the story no gas supply.

So one afternoon after school the doorbell goes and I find the gas meter man at the door asking to read the meter and moaning that the only one in the cupboard outside was electric.
Long story short I refuse to let him in but ommit to say why. "Shall I just estimate the bill then?" asks he, "Do what you like" says I.

So a few weeks later rather amusingly my dad recieves an estimated gas bill for about £65, quite a lot for a house with no gas and the gas main stops 30 ft from the house.

He ignores the bill and in due course the black bill arrives, followed by the red one. In time this escalates to letters threatening court action and my Dad is smugly looking forward to his day in court. Meanwhile another bill for the next quarter arrives.

Sadly I cocked it up for dad when a customer liason lady from British gas calls at the house and I answer.

She went on about the bill and asked if we were having trouble paying it?
"Err No" I smirked.
"So why haven't you paid it?" she asks.
"I dont think we have to" I reply.

This obviously pisses her off a little "And why do you think you don't have to pay your gas bill when everyone else does!?" she defiantly demands.

"'Cos we don't have gas." I smugly answered.

This obviously baffles her and she doesn't know what to say or do. "See you in court next week" I say and close the door.

Sadly we recieved a letter saying they had cancelled the court action and were withdrawing their demand for payment. No apology, but I like to think I cost them some money.

Length? 30ft from the front door.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:11, Reply)

Valuables on display
I live in a fairly out of the way road in my town. I own a land rover and my girlfriend rides a motorcycle.

The bike had a flat, so I had to go pick it up in the Landy. We loaded it into the back and drove home. Me being lazy, it got left in there for a couple of weeks before I got round to fixing the tyre.

A month later, I got a letter from the council telling me that I had left an item on display in my vehicle and it was a target for thieves. The letter went on at great length saying what a bad idea it was to leave valuable items on display. It was at this point I realised that they were referring to the motorcycle!

I did send a letter back to them pointing out that a) we appear to be paying traffic wardens to wander round roads (where there are no parking restrictions) and to nose around peoples cars looking for things to nick... and b) if the bike had been on the road next to the Landy, then they would have ignored it.

They sent back some patronising reply with a made up statistic saying how much they were cutting crime and improving the roads... That wasn't of much comfort when some bastard vandalised the landy and the bike got another flat due to all the pot holes in the road.
( Beastie is doing science with his arse, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 11:00, Reply)

council workers don't need a brain
OK, it's not my story but I thought it was appropriate.
It has just been proven that you only need half a brain to work as a civil servant. Literally.


A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life as a civil servant.

Scans of the 44-year-old man's brain showed a huge fluid-filled chamber took up most of his skull.

French researchers say it left room for little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue.

"He was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant," Dr Lionel Feuillet of the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille wrote in a letter to the Lancet medical journal.

The man went to a hospital after he had mild weakness in his left leg.

When Dr Feuillet's staff took his medical history, they learned he had had a shunt inserted into his head to drain away water on the brain as an infant.

The researchers were astonished when scans showed a "massive enlargement" of the lateral ventricles - usually tiny chambers that hold the fluid that cushions the brain.

Intelligence tests showed the man had an IQ of 75, below the average score of 100 but not considered mentally retarded or disabled, either.

"What I find amazing to this day is how the brain can deal with something which you think should not be compatible with life," said Dr Max Muenke, a brain specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute.

"If something happens very slowly over quite some time, maybe over decades, the different parts of the brain take up functions that would normally be done by the part that is pushed to the side."

www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2425014.html?menu=news.quirkies
(Lakejen800, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 10:51, Reply)

South tyneside homes(cunts)
where to start? Stupid as i am, i moved in with then g/f bout last feb (she lived 30 miles away aswell). i wasnt registered living there until we thought it was right to, luckily for me i was never registered living there because the relationship went tits up last september. anyways, wen i came back to south tyneside, my sis had moved out of her flat and took my room, thinkin i'd be living down there for good. Ave been waitng since last september for a flat, put my name down for loads, and watchin other ppl get them. Am on the sick aswell, numerous appointments with the local homeless team, which is a piss take, i'd rather be sleepin on me mates setees then sleep in sum of the smack-rat infested b&b's i was offered like. Fuckin sick! :( still waiting....... never move in with a slut
(She is the walrus superMinx, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 10:46, Reply)

Gateshead Council
Mrs Chewy and I moved into our council flat back in April. It had been vacant since last December when the previous occupant died in the bath. Seeing as the council had been involved in removing his body, cleaning the flat and doing several repair jobs, you'd think that they'd have made a note of the fact that Mr Ronald Buckland was dead. No such luck. We still get letters addressed to him from the council, even though we've managed to get the council tax bills sent in our names now. The most useless bunch seem to be the Decent Homes crowd. These guys are supposedly upgrading homes to better standards. Before we moved in we were told we'd be getting a new kitchen, new bathroom, new internal doors, and new uPVC windows and doors in September. Then we got a letter saying that as the sadly deceased Mr Buckland hadn't bothered getting out of his grave to go to a planning meeting, we'd be getting nothing. Some well placed phone calls put us back on track, although we still get letters for Mr Buckland. Then, to top it off, we get a letter from Decent Homes saying we'd be getting just a kitchen. What happened to all the other stuff? Tried ringing them, got no meaningful answers. Wrote to our councilor, then got a call back from the Decent Homes Liaison Officer saying sorry about the mis-information, but flats aren't eligible for windows and doors, so fuck you basically. The most annoying thing is that we already have one uPVC window that was fitted before the rest of the upgrade to save time later...

/rant over.
(Chewy , masticating since 1978., Fri 27 Jul 2007, 10:24, Reply)

Champagne Hangover
There's nothing funny, clever, interesting nor laudable about Liverpool City Council, however, I got one marriage proposal, four offers of dates and passed two exams yesterday.

Relevant? No

Bloody fantastic? Oh yes
(Jugular, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 10:20, Reply)

Not councils but...
Trains. Northern Rail to be exact. I used to catch a train from Leeds which was late every day for over six months on account of having to couple up with another train (which was always late). So I wrote a letter to their complaints office.

The repy was a mass-photocopied letter covering a few of the most obvious complaints (over-crowding, temperature, frequency) - but there was no mention of what I had written about. Indeed, no-one had even read my letter - just sent out a standard reply.

So then I wrote to the Office of Rail Services (or whatever it's called) which is supposed to regulate the industry and see that complaints are properly dealt with. They responded with a mass-photocopied letter telling me that all complaints should be directed at the first instance to the railway operator (Northern). They had not read my letter either.

So I changed jobs and now I cycle to work. Fucking railway cnuts.
(Fothermucker, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 10:08, Reply)

Smile.....
you should've done what this chap did

www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/zerobill.html
(chili_kitten Cheese, peas and honey bees, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 9:55, Reply)

Norwich this time
We moved into a flat and registered for council tax. However, bills kept arriving for the previous tenant, which then turned into demands. We photocopied our bill and took it personally to the council offices to prove that the old tenant no longer lived there. But the bills kept coming. Three times we returned bills to the council saying that she was no longer resident, but they kept coming.

We left that flat after six months and left a message for the new residents to forward our mail. And we still get those council tax demands for a woman who hasn't lived there for almost three years.
I wonder if anyone has considered that she's not going to pay up any time soon.
(frankspencer, Fri 27 Jul 2007, 9:51, Reply)