Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Day of Free Coffee

Yesterday I had another appointment at the bank, which was set for 11am. I wrote this down, and even set up a reminder in my Outlook calendar - that's how organised I was. When the bank sent me a reminder letter, complete with a huge list of documents I really really had to take with me, I filed this away for later reference, but basically forgot about it.

Until Friday, when I started gathering the documents together, at which point I noticed that the time was different on the letter: it said 10am. This surprised me, but I assumed that I must have made a mistake. Surely the letter was computer generated (it certainly looked like a 'form' letter), so it must have the right time.

So, I moved my alarm back an hour, and went to the bank, arriving just before 10. Where, of course, I was told that the appointment was at 11, and that the letter was wrong. There were profuse apologies, but I basically had to go away and kill and hour.

So, Mr Bond and I went to Starbucks, where I spent a reasonably enjoyable 45 minutes reading. (I always take a book with me to these appointments, preferably a good book. This one is a good book.) There are worse ways to spend an hour.

However, while I was there, I was approached by one of their people, who was wondering if I could fill in a survey for them. Naturally, being at a loose end, and in keeping with my debonair 'secret agent' persona, I would be delighted.

So, I filled in the survey. The line of questioning was... interesting. Anyway, as a reward for spending so much of my precious time on this, I was given a voucher for a any free drink from Starbucks.

So, the net effect: one free cup of coffee.

I went to my appointment, which went well. Although it did seem that I actually knew most of the answers already - seems I'm better informed than I think.

After the appointment, the advisor said that the bank would reimburse me for the coffee I had bought. I demurred, of course, but she was insistent. And so, I was given money for coffee. Only, rather than take a note of the exact amount (as I would have expected), I was just given a likely amount, that actually proved to be more than double the actual cost of the coffee.

So, the net effect: two more free cups of coffee. Or, a total of three free cups of (very expensive) coffee.

Huzzah!

(After going to the bank, I then went over to Ikea, where I actually found the table and chairs I wanted, and promptly spent the better part of £400 on furniture. So, it still turned out to be a very expensive day. But that's not really important to my story.)

#51: "Octopussy and the Living Daylights", by Ian Fleming

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My bank have never treated me with such a respectful manner.

My initial temptation was to blame the particular bank I am with; however, upon reflection, I think a better plan would be to deposit a large amount of money in my account so they actually care about my custom.

I will need a four- or five-stage masterplan to accomplish this, as I am currently broke.

I will consider the matter and get back to you.

Kezzie said...

Yay, you've got one book to go!!! I am slightly behind schedule at the moment, lots of distractions, so need to try and do some sneaky reading over half-term! Why don't you see how many extras you can read before the new year?! You have to read something with a funky or 'appropriate'title for number 52 though!!!!

Steph/ven said...

Chris: I'm really not sure what has happened to my bank - they do seem to be being unusually helpful at the moment. I think perhaps it's desperation creeping in.

Kezzie: I'm afraid #52 is "Devil May Care", which isn't really an 'appropriate' or funky title. Once I'm done with that, I'm going to continue keeping track of books as I read them, but I won't be keeping score as such - I have other things that I need to focus on instead.