First snowdrop of the year

What with losses, reorganization of the household around one cat, and various other more normal things, this has been an exciting few days. Not improved by the sewer company, whose employees, though willing and friendly, have zero information but tons of confidence.  No emergency, just a billing snafu.

Saga, involving several emails, long fruitless wait on the phone, listening to stories of how wonderful a company they are, finally busting them on Twitter, which did get a quick, if uninformed response, companies hate to be embarrassed on Twitter, anyway it was about a check I sent that never cleared my bank.  I have two accounts.  One check cleared, one never made it. Except the day after I complained, suddenly it was processed....hmmmmm.

This was in the middle of their claiming it never arrived, and demanding that I send images of front and back (how? if it never arrived..) and failing to help me get into my website account.  

I pushed until their IT admitted they had failed to enter my second account on my section, finally did it, and then had no idea how I should navigate to get in...eventually I broke through all their defences, their Twitter helper having no idea how to enter a nickname, their FAQ silent on the issue, what it was,was it assigned, should it be created, etc., their IT just leaving a voicemail saying just sign in, yeah, got into the accounts, found both are up to date.  Nothing lost at all.  

Then comes another email, saying I still only sent one check, they couldn't tell me for which account, and still wanted info.  I pointed out rather astringently that it was up to them to search their own accounting at this point, since both checks cleared, were correctly processed, and why were they still working off information from weeks back, huh, huh?

I will definitely post to Twitter a full accounting of this if I get one more email demanding I do something, when they are the folks being paid to do it...folks, no use being nice if you know zero about what you're doing.  Especially to someone already close to the end of her tether.  We're done here.  

This is the same company that, when I tried to switch to direct debit a while back the last time they failed to process a check, put me through numerous screens to fill out with info, until finally admitting that direct debit had not been implemented for my region yet..that's why I'm still writing horse and buggy checks.

But, as always, Nature has a remedy: out on the patio, the first snowdrop put in an appearance, just the bud.  So welcome. She knows what she's doing. Nature gets the job done!