28 days left...

[wiseheart]

... and the next "lovely" surprise just raised its ugly head.

Mum's gone through the central heating cheques - she does that from time to time; she worked as a book-keeper for half a century, and old habits are hard to break - and discovered that they let us pay the yearly difference three times. Three different sums.

Okay, that sounds convulted, and it really is. We pay a certain sum of money for central heating every month, based on how much heat we used the previous year. They divide the price of that by twelve, slap to it our part in the heating the corridors and the official rooms of the house, and that is. Once a year, a guy from the central heating firm comes and exchanges the heat-o-meters for new ones and notices how much we've used. Then they calculate next year's price based on that, and if we used more than we've paid for, we have to pay the difference; when we used less, they take it off from next year's price.

So far so good. There are always small differences, and they send out the cheques somewhat irregularly, so I certainly wouldn't spot the problem. But Mum has the eye for it - and the time and the patience to go through everything from last year, and so she realized that something is wrong.

Now I wanted to register at the website of the central heating firm. I got all the necessary identification numbers and stuff, checked the "I'm not a robot" box and dutifully did what they demanded for verification. Then I hit the continuity button - and got an error message that told me I haven't checked the "I'm not a robot" box and please do so. I did it again. And again. And again. Always got the same error message. After the 5th attempt I gave up.

So, tomorrow we'll try to call Customer Service, which is always a horrible procedure, and if we don't get any useful answer, we'll appear in their central office in person. I'll probably be so mad by that point that I'll slam someone against their desk, but we'll see.

Comments

[meathiel]

Ugh - I hate that "I'm not a robot" stuff. Yesterday I couldn't sign into my Amazon account because it wouldn't believe I wasn't a robot ... *grrr*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

So you think I might actually succeed tomorrow?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

You don't have an ad-blocker on, do you? If so you could try switching it off for the page whilst you do it and it might help. I speak from experience...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have an ad blocker... although sometimes I wish I had.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Maybe they made it that way on the website so you can't complain about paying something 3 times.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not even being able to register would do that.

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

I hate the "prove you are a human not a robot" by clicking on the pictures thingy. It always screws up. But, the worst is Captcha, where you have to figure out the letters and numerals hidden underneath squiggly lines. That one I fail not because of a computer or programming glitch, but because of the human (me) error. Wish you luck with customer service, hope you get the refund you deserve. Sounds like a nightmare.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It surely is. I hate Captcha, too; I usually ask for another code so long that they finally offer one I can actually see. We old ladies with poor eyesight have to be sneaky. ;)