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When I stagger out of bed on a Monday morning I can barely cope with the world as it is but this is too much...
Staggered out of bed, just managed to finish drying my hair to leave in time to drag myself through the door at the last non-late minute. Don't know why I bothered because I got soaked and turned up at work like a drowned rat.
The first customer of the week.
She wanted to apologise. She couldn't tell me why and didn't know who she should apologise to. She was very adament she needed to though.
I think she believes she was wrong to say something negative about being in the country as a refugee.
I tried to tell her that once she's living here she has as much right to insult the country as the rest of us but she was beyond convincing.
She's going to write to the Queen. When she suggested it I said I'd look up the proper address etc. and it seemed as good as anything really. Personally I wouldn't write to anyone where you had to grovel so much (according to the guide I found about how to write to her) but she should get a polite response anyway...
It wasn't a waste of time because I think I've talked her into claiming sickness benefits, but I find these cases very difficult. I find nothing more frightening and distressing than mental health problems really - the way they can take over people's lives just instantly. (And I do have some problems myself so I over empathise).
A pounding headache
Customer turned up with 3 children. A screaming baby, a little boy in the buggy and a little girl who ran around (and was very sweet except when she dished out the worst little brother smackdown I've ever seen).
The customer's phone rang and she said "I can take it can't I ?" and I explained she could answer it if she was very quick, and that I have to turn MY phone off and we do expect the same from customers.
Instead she proceeded to have a screaming argument with the person on the other end, which was obviously about the same issue she was talking to me about. For the whole time she was screaming she ignored the children as they screamed and ran riot. (I stopped the little girl running away and got her talking to me for part of the time). I am willing to be assertive and I am allowed to tell her to get off the phone BUT I preferred to listen to her yelling at the phone than me...
When she did talk to me she wanted us to help with something we'd already sent her to a solicitor for. When told she had to get back in touch with him (particularly as he is the person we go to when we're stuck) she started complaining about him. Apparently he should have asked her questions, but with children it was impossible for her to answer
And someone had impersonated him And impersonated her And he should have known better...
The headache lasted until the end of the day.
Possibly wearing pink camo
This customer has had his electric supply cut off. He believes the landlord has done this.
When asked further questions he could not tell me :
*Any reason for thinking this
*How much rent he paid (Rent is not "between £ and £ a week", rent is a fixed amount !)
*What his own address was.
Despite his claim that the landlord was responsible for the electric bills he showed me a tenancy that clearly stated he had to pay. The tenancy shows he has lived there for 5 YEARS or more.
Which is surely long enough to learn your address. (Sadly the tenancy described the property but did not include the full address).
He also does not know where his meter is. His quest is to hunt it down and right down all numbers he finds on or near it on a piece of paper. He will need to bring this to me so I can hopefully identify the meter point reference and find out who actually supplies the property. If the quest doesn't kill him before he even finds the mythic meter I think I'll get a very interesting list of numbers.
Arggh.
This is much more annoying than I can write. Everything here was repeated at least 3 or 4 times.
Customer has managed to rack up 6 parking tickets in a month. Customer has no money to pay parking tickets. She has appealed 4 of them but basically her appeal is that she didn't know and has no money. 3 appeals have already been rejected. She wants to appeal further and appeal the remaining 2...
She's on her own with this. We don't do parking appeals. (Very very very occasionally I'll help in special circumstances). We certainly don't help where there is no chance of success.
But she does need debt help, and we can help her with payment arrangements etc.
She tries to argue that I should help with the appeal. I am firm. She can appeal herself, we can't do it.
My favourite was her claiming she was not capable of appealing the 5th penalty. I pointed out that she had already appealed 4 others, so she obviously was able to do it.
"I've run out of words"
So I book her an appointment to see someone about the debt. The appointment is the first available one and it's Friday.
She can't do Friday as she has an appointment. (Fair enough).
I book her the next available appointment. It's Monday.
"I have to wait for Monday ? That's too long"
Then she tries to argue that doesn't leave enough time for us to do the appeals. We are not doing the appeals...
Then she tells me she'll take my number and call me to take the Friday appointment once she's cancelled the other appointment.
No. (I was being slightly unhelpful by this point, but I do try to avoid booking appointments where someone can't confirm they can come in, and I didn't want to have to rewrite the letter and appointment book again).
Then she starts complaining about the person she's seeing, saying he didn't help her last time. This just meant there was no way I would change it, you don't get to refuse to see one of us.
I finally got her out of the interview room. She stopped in the corridor and then started to come back
"I just think you should help me quickly with the letter (appeal) so I don't have to wait until Monday".
YOU may think that. I don't. Also we aren't helping with that on Monday. GO AWAY.
After she left I warned the person she's seeing next week. He looked up his old case. He didn't not help her, the case was closed because she refused help...
I go weeks without stories and then I have a day like today. I only see 8 people a day so this is real bad luck.
I was going to post some other stuff about work but I've cut it to put in general work chat.
Victoria J
Staggered out of bed, just managed to finish drying my hair to leave in time to drag myself through the door at the last non-late minute. Don't know why I bothered because I got soaked and turned up at work like a drowned rat.
The first customer of the week.
She wanted to apologise. She couldn't tell me why and didn't know who she should apologise to. She was very adament she needed to though.
I think she believes she was wrong to say something negative about being in the country as a refugee.
I tried to tell her that once she's living here she has as much right to insult the country as the rest of us but she was beyond convincing.
She's going to write to the Queen. When she suggested it I said I'd look up the proper address etc. and it seemed as good as anything really. Personally I wouldn't write to anyone where you had to grovel so much (according to the guide I found about how to write to her) but she should get a polite response anyway...
It wasn't a waste of time because I think I've talked her into claiming sickness benefits, but I find these cases very difficult. I find nothing more frightening and distressing than mental health problems really - the way they can take over people's lives just instantly. (And I do have some problems myself so I over empathise).
A pounding headache
Customer turned up with 3 children. A screaming baby, a little boy in the buggy and a little girl who ran around (and was very sweet except when she dished out the worst little brother smackdown I've ever seen).
The customer's phone rang and she said "I can take it can't I ?" and I explained she could answer it if she was very quick, and that I have to turn MY phone off and we do expect the same from customers.
Instead she proceeded to have a screaming argument with the person on the other end, which was obviously about the same issue she was talking to me about. For the whole time she was screaming she ignored the children as they screamed and ran riot. (I stopped the little girl running away and got her talking to me for part of the time). I am willing to be assertive and I am allowed to tell her to get off the phone BUT I preferred to listen to her yelling at the phone than me...
When she did talk to me she wanted us to help with something we'd already sent her to a solicitor for. When told she had to get back in touch with him (particularly as he is the person we go to when we're stuck) she started complaining about him. Apparently he should have asked her questions, but with children it was impossible for her to answer
And someone had impersonated him And impersonated her And he should have known better...The headache lasted until the end of the day.
Possibly wearing pink camo
This customer has had his electric supply cut off. He believes the landlord has done this.
When asked further questions he could not tell me :
*Any reason for thinking this
*How much rent he paid (Rent is not "between £ and £ a week", rent is a fixed amount !)
*What his own address was.
Despite his claim that the landlord was responsible for the electric bills he showed me a tenancy that clearly stated he had to pay. The tenancy shows he has lived there for 5 YEARS or more.
Which is surely long enough to learn your address. (Sadly the tenancy described the property but did not include the full address).
He also does not know where his meter is. His quest is to hunt it down and right down all numbers he finds on or near it on a piece of paper. He will need to bring this to me so I can hopefully identify the meter point reference and find out who actually supplies the property. If the quest doesn't kill him before he even finds the mythic meter I think I'll get a very interesting list of numbers.
Arggh.
This is much more annoying than I can write. Everything here was repeated at least 3 or 4 times.
Customer has managed to rack up 6 parking tickets in a month. Customer has no money to pay parking tickets. She has appealed 4 of them but basically her appeal is that she didn't know and has no money. 3 appeals have already been rejected. She wants to appeal further and appeal the remaining 2...
She's on her own with this. We don't do parking appeals. (Very very very occasionally I'll help in special circumstances). We certainly don't help where there is no chance of success.
But she does need debt help, and we can help her with payment arrangements etc.
She tries to argue that I should help with the appeal. I am firm. She can appeal herself, we can't do it.
My favourite was her claiming she was not capable of appealing the 5th penalty. I pointed out that she had already appealed 4 others, so she obviously was able to do it.
"I've run out of words"
So I book her an appointment to see someone about the debt. The appointment is the first available one and it's Friday.
She can't do Friday as she has an appointment. (Fair enough).
I book her the next available appointment. It's Monday.
"I have to wait for Monday ? That's too long"
Then she tries to argue that doesn't leave enough time for us to do the appeals. We are not doing the appeals...
Then she tells me she'll take my number and call me to take the Friday appointment once she's cancelled the other appointment.
No. (I was being slightly unhelpful by this point, but I do try to avoid booking appointments where someone can't confirm they can come in, and I didn't want to have to rewrite the letter and appointment book again).
Then she starts complaining about the person she's seeing, saying he didn't help her last time. This just meant there was no way I would change it, you don't get to refuse to see one of us.
I finally got her out of the interview room. She stopped in the corridor and then started to come back
"I just think you should help me quickly with the letter (appeal) so I don't have to wait until Monday".
YOU may think that. I don't. Also we aren't helping with that on Monday. GO AWAY.
After she left I warned the person she's seeing next week. He looked up his old case. He didn't not help her, the case was closed because she refused help...
I go weeks without stories and then I have a day like today. I only see 8 people a day so this is real bad luck.
I was going to post some other stuff about work but I've cut it to put in general work chat.
Victoria J
How the hell does someone not know their own address? Okay, I can see it if you've just moved in, but after living there for FIVE YEARS, receiving mail addressed to your address, having it on your drivers license/government ID/whatever, etc., there is no excuse for not knowing your own address! 
g-lieveable.
God help them if they ever need an ambulance. What ambulance company is going to appreciate "that dark house waaaaaaaayyyyyy in the back of the lot with no lights or numbers"?
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