Never smoothly

That's the thing around here you know, things Never go smoothly.



Current example:

- I order something by mail, parcel package. 24-hour delivery, with tracking number.
- Mail man comes down to station court, doesn't have the key for the outer gate. Rings my flat via the communication system. I'm out, my flatmate answers.
- Mail man says he has a parcel for me, asks if my flatmate could come and open the door (remote key is broken).
- Flatmate says she'll come down to let him in. By the time she's at the gate the mail man will have left without a trace.
- I check my delivery online, see it should have been delivered, but I wasn't home so they left a 'you where out' card so I can come and pick it up at the local recollection office.
- Now, I've never had any 'you where out' card. Why not? Because the mail man leaves them at the outer gate, not the inner gate, not my block door, not my post box. The outer gate. Hundreds of people pass there every hour, wind, weather. Any card left there will be gone in a matter of hours.
- I ring costumer services, explain, they tell me to go and collect it using my tracking number, ID and proof of adress.
- I walk down the office, just to be told I really need a 'you where out' card. I get a new phone number to ring.
- Go back home, call another sorting center and explain everything. Again.
- After some convincing the guy at the center gets my situation. He will send me a 'you where out' card by mail..

- Now I just have to wait for my mail to come in, take the card, ID and what not. Go to the collection center again and hopefully collect my parcel. If everything goes to plan that is..

This kind of thing happens about every time I get a parcel in the mail. It could be so easy. But instead of receiving it I have to go out and actually hunt down every parcel I should get (that is, if I know I should get one. If I don't I will probably never find out) which takes days.



Same thing with credit cards, direct debits, oyster student cards, flat payments, buying a cell phone, setting up an account, getting an NIN, you name it.
This English bureaucracy, tiring