New handyvan arrives tomorrow. I call the insurance company I've been
with for 8 years.

Simple task. Switch policy form old van to new van. Leave old van on
policy till the end of the month.

How long could that possibly take?










52 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On 10/08/15 17:27, David Lang wrote:
New handyvan arrives tomorrow. I call the insurance company I've been
with for 8 years.

Simple task. Switch policy form old van to new van. Leave old van on
policy till the end of the month.

How long could that possibly take?










52 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Well, I have to ring HMRC tomorrow. I am pretty sure I am going to beat
you by a factor of 3 at least!

In article ,
Tim Watts writes:
Well, I have to ring HMRC tomorrow. I am pretty sure I am going to beat
you by a factor of 3 at least!

I must be lucky - I rarely call HMRC, but I've always been answered
promptly, and the quality of the help has been outstanding, getting
things corrected instantly whilst I'm on the phone.

May need to call them again soon - a previous employer has just issued
me with a P11D, long after I've done my tax return, and the only things
on it shouldn't be on a P11D anyway (I didn't have any taxible benefits).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 10/08/2015 20:14, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I must be lucky - I rarely call HMRC, but I've always been answered
promptly, and the quality of the help has been outstanding, getting
things corrected instantly whilst I'm on the phone.


Yup. Recently tried to transfer my wife's tax allowance to me by
registering on-line. At least an hour spent trying to get it to work (my
mobile phone couldn't receive the code they kept sending me).

My wife rang them up - it took two minutes tops (we had our NI numbers
handy because of the above).

Another Dave
--
Change nospam to gmx

On 10/08/15 20:14, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Tim Watts writes:
Well, I have to ring HMRC tomorrow. I am pretty sure I am going to beat
you by a factor of 3 at least!

I must be lucky - I rarely call HMRC, but I've always been answered
promptly, and the quality of the help has been outstanding, getting
things corrected instantly whilst I'm on the phone.

You were lucky...

May need to call them again soon - a previous employer has just issued
me with a P11D, long after I've done my tax return, and the only things
on it shouldn't be on a P11D anyway (I didn't have any taxible benefits).


35 minutes waiting for an answer.

Then failed the security check because some of our details were
incorrect (that was the secondary purpose of the call, to verify an
address).

And the dumb **** wouldn't let me have another go as I suspected which
question was the failure. Said I had to call back and wait another 30
minutes. That resulted in some restrained (polite) but extremely
righteous indignation being fed her way.


Next call

34 minutes - this lady was actually helpful. We prewarned her the
details needed updating and guessed the wrong details correctly (old
address[1])

After that managed to update everything. Including the *material* change
where I might owe them some money.

[1] We'd naively assumed that as our employers would have told HMRC our
new address when we last moved, that all parts of HMRC would have that
on our NI numbers. Wrongo....


Apart from Self Assessment, the HMRC computers are a mess and the
website stinks in terms of being able to do anything. You can't even
register key details like addresses even if you have a Gov Gateway
login. You think they could manage that. And they've closed all their
offices so you can't even walk in with your papers and go through
everything.


Then they wonder why people don't pay the right taxes...

"Tim Watts" wrote in message ...

On 10/08/15 17:27, David Lang wrote:
New handyvan arrives tomorrow. I call the insurance company I've been
with for 8 years.

Simple task. Switch policy form old van to new van. Leave old van on
policy till the end of the month.

How long could that possibly take?










52 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Well, I have to ring HMRC tomorrow. I am pretty sure I am going to beat you
by a factor of 3 at least!

Fifty eight minutes holding for them a few months ago, muttered to the
advisor and was advised to phone earlier in the day, or on a Saturday. That
proved to be a bit shorter. YMMV... good luck!

"Richard" wrote in message
...
"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...

On 10/08/15 17:27, David Lang wrote:
New handyvan arrives tomorrow. I call the insurance company I've been
with for 8 years.

Simple task. Switch policy form old van to new van. Leave old van on
policy till the end of the month.

How long could that possibly take?










52 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Well, I have to ring HMRC tomorrow. I am pretty sure I am going to beat
you by a factor of 3 at least!

Fifty eight minutes holding for them a few months ago, muttered to the
advisor and was advised to phone earlier in the day, or on a Saturday.
That proved to be a bit shorter. YMMV... good luck!

Two letters going back four months. Unanswered so far - asking to confirm
Mrs Pounder's tax code as to her pension.
They are pure ******s.

On 10/08/2015 17:27, David Lang wrote:
New handyvan arrives tomorrow. I call the insurance company I've been
with for 8 years.

Simple task. Switch policy form old van to new van. Leave old van on
policy till the end of the month.

How long could that possibly take?










52 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're lucky it's a straight switch:
I just changed the car last week and before changing, did an online
quote with my insurer (Direct Line), which showed the new car to be
cheaper by ~20%. Comparable with, if a bit more than, the trend for a
market comparison.
When I called them up (4 months into the policy), they wanted the
equivalent of the total price quoted online on top of the premium
already paid for the remaining 8 months. They verified that my online
quote was accurate, but couldn't match it for an existing policy, so
suggested I cancelled and started a new policy. So much for rewarding
customer loyalty!
I took the first part of that advice, but saved another lump of cash by
going elsewhere.
A good half a day wasted there.