One of the more boring, or at least less welcome parts of a house move, is tackling the long list of utilities, companies and other august bodies to inform them of said house move and register the change of address. When I was helping Dad to move up here, the list was probably just as long but didn't seem nearly as onerous, possibly because in every case, I was able to ring up the people I needed to speak to and get things organised relatively quickly.
This week a very good example of how things are not working nearly so well is my experience of contacting our old and new councils. The new council was a piece of cake. I could inform them online, set up the direct debit to be activated from the date of our move and I even got an email of acknowledgement.
Fast forward to our current council.
Approximately ten minutes trawling through the website to find out who to contact and how to do it (council tax department, on the phone only), followed by my first attempt at ringing.
Several minutes of chat in Welsh and then English, basically trying to persuade me to go online, even though I couldn't do what I needed online, or in desperation, suggesting that I might like to push off and try again another time as they were "currently experiencing a high volume of calls" How often have I heard that phrase this week!
I tried again the following day.
This time my strategy was to try the switchboard number which failed because I was told I would have to be put through to the council tax department anyway and although she would do her best, 'they are very busy' (Isn't everyone?) With that, I found myself listening to the same baloney as last time with the same invitation to push off.
Next attempt: Keith rang the number and vowed to stay on, listening to the rubbish music until he managed to speak to a human. By this time, the battery of our cordless landline was dying, so he had moved on to his mobile and, hey presto! after much more waiting, he finally got through to a human and passed the phone over to me.
And would you believe it? After going through all the details, the wretched woman said she couldn't register our change of address until a week before we move!
"Please don't say I have to ring this department again," I said, metaphorically banging my head on the floor.
"Yes, you will have to ring here again," was the reply. (Did I detect a note of triumph in her voice?)
"You have no idea how long I have spent trying to get through today and yesterday," I said.
"Well, it's best to ring in the afternoon. We're less busy then," said my tormentor.
"Well you weren't less busy yesterday!"
"Ah well, it was Monday yesterday," she said.
I rang off and went to wrap my head in a wet towel ...
