I’ll have to do it by phone

It took two days for two engineers to remove our old  and dying Alde boiler and install the new Webasto system. They left behind one gunged up radiator which they will replace in due course. Now there was a need to make sure our diesel fuel was clean, free from diesel bug bacteria, water, and dirt, any of which would harm the Webasto, so we called in Lee to "polish" (the technical word for "clean") our tankful before we started to use it. The following day, we would cruise.

It was a good thing we got the polishing done. The diesel was found to be really quite dirty, and Lee left the filtering pump running for hours.

The anticipated start of a cruise had to be postponed because of my desperate need to visit an insurance broker in person, someone to sit face to face with me to help me find the right policy at the best price.

After sending me details of my new car insurance policy - it's due to be renewed next month - in which they had me down as paying monthly instead of annually, Direct Line kept me waiting on the phone for over an hour, with a man every thirty seconds spouting such nonsense as "We're sorry to keep you waiting. We're doing all we can to speak with you", and "Thanks for waiting. A member of our team will be with you soon", and several other lies. These were interspersed with the same thirty seconds of awful muzak for the entire time I was waiting. Never was I told how far down the queue I was, so I didn't dare ring off  - what if I were next in line?

So why on earth did I wait? Why didn't I renew my policy online? Well, I did try, but the website's "assistant" - an AI bot - didn't let me get far through the process without telling me that, if I wanted to change the way I paid, I needed to speak with a member of their customer service team. By phone. The greatest irony of all was that, before I was put on hold, the recorded voice told me that it would be much quicker and simpler if I did the job online!

To cut a long story short, I eventually rang off, I complained about it, they said they couldn't change my payment period without me furnishing them with lots of personal information - all of which appears on the renewal notice they sent me. I told them I'd go elsewhere for my insurance. I resisted telling them where I thought they should go.

I then tried Churchill online for a quote. It was a good price. Okay, I'll take it. At which point along came their "assistant" which advised me to phone the Customer Service Team. Would you believe that my wait for the privilege of speaking with said Service Team was punctuated with exactly the same lying "We're sorry you're having to wait..." messages as those I had suffered with Direct Line? This time it was spoken by a recorded woman. The snippets of music were different, but still dreadful. I rang off.

Finally, I went to The Insurance Store in Harpenden, spent about forty-five minutes with a human being, and came out with an insurance policy and a huge smile, wishing I'd gone that route in the first place.  It was a joy. Lesson learned. I will enjoy telling Direct Line that I won’t be renewing my policy with them.

Except that I’ll have to do it by phone. I've just discovered it cost me £12.53 last time.

😖😖😖