Within something so small hides the ability of hugeness ~ the joy of Bonsai
Honestly, when last we spoke the car was playing up, getting a new(old) engine and to be back on the road before the weekend of my birthday. That didn't happen...
Then the telecommunication monopoly referred with disgust in this house as Hellstra to which we pay line rental to on a monthly basis ~ purely for the surety of phone contact should/if InterNode, our Internet and voip provider, have signal difficulties ~ decided its credit management team 'special circumstances' advice and action was up the garden path, then provided eight other consultants to stuff it up even further and more complexly over a period of eight or so days, probably taking about 8 hours of calling and hold time - not one single (promised) return contact was made - all it online, operational, communicational and Internode took under 12hrs to reinstate Internet and voip once its 'wholesaler' (aforementioned Hellstra) accepted the order blah blah techo babble request.
Sure we had to pay for a reconnection with our Internet provider, sure Hellstra issued a credit against its bill for said amount to our Hellstra account, but it is still not the end of the issue. Still chortle with a handful of disbelief at the discussion with one particular customer team member called Peter who is hopefully receiving some additional training, assistance and supervision with service protocols, anger management and ear-wax removal to enable him the abilities and right to be able to take calls from customers in the future.
Saving the BS behind the car - motor - communication saga . . . Um, is that a theme?
Is it no longer considered good business practice to call the customer, you know that person who pays to use a particular service and has the ability to source most elsewhere? Might not be the best of news, but telling me at 8.35am you're on the way to take our child to school as our car is, yet again, not available or going and having had no responses for 24-48 hours, one makes alternative arrangements...
Let's save that comedy of errors - its a good one too. And Hellstra can be left here too ~ in some ways contributing to the reduction of one of our regular, ongoing budgeted expenses. At minimum, it brings the phone down with a credit which will cover line rental costs for about 5-6 months. If we are lucky, the reinstatement of Internet might be flagged to just do the techie bitties and not a reconnect, or if a reconnect it can be the lower charge. At least, in the long run its covered - somewhere...
We are in discussions with the bank for a wee repayment break, reduction, hardship application to enable us to stay on track with payments, but get these into the Line Of Credit so if Husband does have a longer period without finding employment after 3-6 months of being the brute strength and partial motivator, house husband, carer, hunter, gardener, gatherer - we have built ourselves a buffer in case part time work offers are on the lower earning end.
eBay has had its hits and misses ~ largely impacted by being off-line (scored another mark Hellstra), but aided in some ways as we were able to de-clutter and scavange about in a more hands on fashion. Writing this, I have realised now why I am so darn achy and sore of late. Bit over doing it methinks in hindsight! Oh well. Be aware by the start of the weekend there will be a few items going up every day to get the flow going. We've got a little system going - and we've got to work in with Avon items - which earned us $14 this campaign period! Not bad!!
Biggest 'save' was the tax return which brought $3k into the picture. We'd had this 'assigned' to VISA, Line of Credit and Mortgage - the left over, if any, for birthdays (7th, 12th, 13th is family) and Christmas, including petrol to get to the 'party'. So everything got a bump and the new amounts will be up on the Weekly Update for this week. There's a fair bit to catch up on since the last report.
Until tomorrow...
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