At the weekend I had to work and that involves starting at 6am. At about 5.30 I went out to my car to get it started and warmed up, I turned the alarm off, lights flashed so all seemed OK.
I got in turned the key in the ignition and all I heard was “tick, tick, tick….”
“Oh no!” was my first thought.
I left the ignition on for 30 seconds tried again but nothing.
I borrowed my partners car to get to work and a bit later phoned my breakdown people to get my car started, this is where the fun started…
I spoke to ‘Mathew’ and passed my details down the phone, using the phonetic alphabet when giving my vehicle registration to avoid any mis understandings. “The breakdown truck will be with you within the hour” assured Mathew so I made myself a cup of tea and got comfortable.
45 minutes later my phone rang, “hello.”
“Hello Mr Lewis, my name is Michael from breakdown company, exactly where is it you live?”
“Churchill Avenue, Bulford, Wiltshire” I replied.
“Oh, we are miles out!”
Expecting him to be on other side of village I asked “exactly where?”
“Burnley, Lancashire.”
“Oh” was all I could say to that! Upon checking Burnley is approx 175 miles away.
Upon phoning breakdown people again to clarify situation it turns out Mathew had taken down my vehicle registration incorrectly despite me using the phonetic alphabet to ensure that couldn’t happen!
Am I the only person here who nobody can find? :confused: :confused: :confused:
By: adamdowley - 6th November 2006 at 22:26
lol. reminds me of the time i spent working for a call centre dealing with breakdowns for people with insurance policies with some big UK insurance providers.
Similar mistakes happen all the time – I remember a few incidents where we would send breakdown companies to one location, only for us to realise that the client was on the other side of the county.
motorways were the worst. drivers very often, i found, didnt know which junctions or towns they are between – all they would be able to tell me is where they joined the motorway – you would end up having to ask the breakdown company to just drive along a stretch of the motorway until they spotted the Ford Fiesta that had a flat battery/flat tyre/overheated.
By: WP840 - 6th November 2006 at 21:04
How incompetent of Matthew !! So how much longer do you have to wait ?
I phoned up originally at 1045 Sunday and the breakdown company arrived at 1245 today, Monday.
That’s 26 hours by my reckoning.
The breakdown company that came are based 30 miles from me so that means they ‘rushed’ to my aid at 1.15mph. 😮
By: mike currill - 6th November 2006 at 20:47
Probably have ended up in Bangor, Maine.
By: Spitfire Pilot - 6th November 2006 at 16:51
😀 😀 😀 LMAO 😀 Well I never. I wonder what it would be like if you had given them a grid reference 😀 😀 😀
By: Arm Waver - 6th November 2006 at 13:35
Trust in technology at your peril….
Also remember “Pay peanuts, you’ll get…”
By: DazDaMan - 6th November 2006 at 12:27
They’re commonly called “asshats” 😉
By: Kernowglyn - 6th November 2006 at 11:59
I find it quite astonishing in this day and age when computers, global positioning systems and mobile phones are commonplace that humans can still screw things up bigtime!
By: Mark9 - 6th November 2006 at 11:31
At the weekend I had to work and that involves starting at 6am. At about 5.30 I went out to my car to get it started and warmed up, I turned the alarm off, lights flashed so all seemed OK.
I got in turned the key in the ignition and all I heard was “tick, tick, tick….”
“Oh no!” was my first thought.
I left the ignition on for 30 seconds tried again but nothing.
I borrowed my partners car to get to work and a bit later phoned my breakdown people to get my car started, this is where the fun started…
I spoke to ‘Mathew’ and passed my details down the phone, using the phonetic alphabet when giving my vehicle registration to avoid any mis understandings. “The breakdown truck will be with you within the hour” assured Mathew so I made myself a cup of tea and got comfortable.
45 minutes later my phone rang, “hello.”
“Hello Mr Lewis, my name is Michael from breakdown company, exactly where is it you live?”
“Churchill Avenue, Bulford, Wiltshire” I replied.
“Oh, we are miles out!”
Expecting him to be on other side of village I asked “exactly where?”
“Burnley, Lancashire.”
“Oh” was all I could say to that! Upon checking Burnley is approx 175 miles away.
Upon phoning breakdown people again to clarify situation it turns out Mathew had taken down my vehicle registration incorrectly despite me using the phonetic alphabet to ensure that couldn’t happen!
Am I the only person here who nobody can find? :confused: :confused: :confused:
How incompetent of Matthew !! So how much longer do you have to wait ?
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November 6, 2006 at 11:17 am