Having started Saturday with an argument in B and Q because when I offered the 4p and a five pound note for an article costing £4.84 I was returned the 4p with the assistant advising that the £5 covered the purchase price...
When I explained the idea was for me to get a 20p coin rather than a load of shrapnel, I was advised that this would muck the till up. At that moment a supervisor arrived, asked what the question was, and the till person stated that this customer wants 20p change out of £5 for a £4.88 item (eh???)! Having re-explained the hugely complicated proposal to the supervisor I was told again this would muck the till up.
On receipt of the shrapnel (and my 4p) I asked if I could now exchange all of this shrapnel for a 20p coin - to be informed that the till drawer was now closed, the transaction was complete and it would require the attention of the store manager to open the till on a no-sale basis but now they did see my point with the till person stating "would I believe he had achieved grade B in Maths"?
At which point I replied no, left the 20p shrapnel on the till and left.
Saturday then went well until around 6pm at our daughters house - the events of which are summarised in my email of this morning to Customer Service, The Sunday Times
Quote
Good morning.
My subscription number is xxxxxx and around 1815 (BST) on Saturday 25th July 2015 I logged on to the The Times online service to apply a holiday stop to the next day's Sunday Times voucher which I had omitted to bring with me for a weekend break.
Having filled in all of my details (and noting that the online notification service stated to be notified by "1800 GMT") I was surprised that the request was declined.
Accordingly, I called customer service and the first call handler again notified me that I was too late but when I advised him that the time limit was 1800 "GMT" and that we were in fact only at 1730 Greenwich Mean Time he said he would have to check.
After some considerable delay he returned stating that he had not idea what GMT was (I believe he called it Grimsby mean time) but he had spoken to his supervisor who also confirmed I was too late.
I then asked to speak to the supervisor (a Mr Ian Bxxxxx) who repeated that I was too late and when I explained the cut off shown was 1800 Greenwich Meantime he then stated "well, Greenwich is in London, we are in London and the time here is 1835 - so you're too late".
Having explained that the current time was 1835 British Summer Time Mr Bxxxxx stated that he had no idea what I was talking about and insisted again I was too late. Having expressed my total disbelief at what he had said, and stated that I believed GMT and BST would be understood by 11 year old school children, Mr Bennett still did not believe me, stated that he had been very happy with his education but (and with a bucket load of condescension) stated that "on this one occasion" he would allow the holiday stop.
It was therefore hugely ironic that the next day's issue of The Sunday Times (which I purchased for cash) contained an article about "Tim Nice But Dim" characters who were as thick as the proverbial plank but are holding down well paid jobs. I haven't laughed so much at a newspaper article in years.
Having encountered three Times Ltd employees (the call handler, Mr Bennett and the IT person setting up the Holiday Stop system) it would seem that my experience would show that statistically 100% of Times staff are Tim Nice But Dim's?
I sincerely hope someone at The Times can prove my statistic incorrect, gently enlighten the customer service team about GMT and BST and then amend the online Holiday Stop process?
Kind regards.
Iain Hxxxxx
(soon to be an ex Sunday Times Reader?)
Unquote
Please tell me it's not just me?
When I explained the idea was for me to get a 20p coin rather than a load of shrapnel, I was advised that this would muck the till up. At that moment a supervisor arrived, asked what the question was, and the till person stated that this customer wants 20p change out of £5 for a £4.88 item (eh???)! Having re-explained the hugely complicated proposal to the supervisor I was told again this would muck the till up.
On receipt of the shrapnel (and my 4p) I asked if I could now exchange all of this shrapnel for a 20p coin - to be informed that the till drawer was now closed, the transaction was complete and it would require the attention of the store manager to open the till on a no-sale basis but now they did see my point with the till person stating "would I believe he had achieved grade B in Maths"?
At which point I replied no, left the 20p shrapnel on the till and left.
Saturday then went well until around 6pm at our daughters house - the events of which are summarised in my email of this morning to Customer Service, The Sunday Times
Quote
Good morning.
My subscription number is xxxxxx and around 1815 (BST) on Saturday 25th July 2015 I logged on to the The Times online service to apply a holiday stop to the next day's Sunday Times voucher which I had omitted to bring with me for a weekend break.
Having filled in all of my details (and noting that the online notification service stated to be notified by "1800 GMT") I was surprised that the request was declined.
Accordingly, I called customer service and the first call handler again notified me that I was too late but when I advised him that the time limit was 1800 "GMT" and that we were in fact only at 1730 Greenwich Mean Time he said he would have to check.
After some considerable delay he returned stating that he had not idea what GMT was (I believe he called it Grimsby mean time) but he had spoken to his supervisor who also confirmed I was too late.
I then asked to speak to the supervisor (a Mr Ian Bxxxxx) who repeated that I was too late and when I explained the cut off shown was 1800 Greenwich Meantime he then stated "well, Greenwich is in London, we are in London and the time here is 1835 - so you're too late".
Having explained that the current time was 1835 British Summer Time Mr Bxxxxx stated that he had no idea what I was talking about and insisted again I was too late. Having expressed my total disbelief at what he had said, and stated that I believed GMT and BST would be understood by 11 year old school children, Mr Bennett still did not believe me, stated that he had been very happy with his education but (and with a bucket load of condescension) stated that "on this one occasion" he would allow the holiday stop.
It was therefore hugely ironic that the next day's issue of The Sunday Times (which I purchased for cash) contained an article about "Tim Nice But Dim" characters who were as thick as the proverbial plank but are holding down well paid jobs. I haven't laughed so much at a newspaper article in years.
Having encountered three Times Ltd employees (the call handler, Mr Bennett and the IT person setting up the Holiday Stop system) it would seem that my experience would show that statistically 100% of Times staff are Tim Nice But Dim's?
I sincerely hope someone at The Times can prove my statistic incorrect, gently enlighten the customer service team about GMT and BST and then amend the online Holiday Stop process?
Kind regards.
Iain Hxxxxx
(soon to be an ex Sunday Times Reader?)
Unquote
Please tell me it's not just me?
Last edited: