Home improvements, day two...

[mrph]

The bathroom now has proper walls again, instead of just raw brickwork. Apparently the toilet is also a "bit wobbly" and the water supply should be turned on and off each time it's used, just in case it's left on and floods something...

...I'm told that this bit will be fixed for tomorrow.

The real panic today was due to certain Lloyds TSB staff getting a Bit Confused and telling my plumber that he hadn't  received any money from me, and couldn't possibly have received my payment into his account yesterday - as I'd only sent it the night before and such things take three working days between banks. Since one of the terms of the job was 50% payment on day one (to cover purchase of materials, fixtures and fittings), the plumber was not best pleased by this.

Since I work for a bank and I've spent the last six months preparing for the intro of Faster Payments - which is now in place - I was also a little unhappy to hear that they'd told him this without even bothering to check the account. He called them back. They checked the account. The money was, in fact, there - and had been there since yesterday, as promised.

All sorted out. But a little bit of needless excitement that didn't improve my afternoon. Or my opinion of Lloyds TSB's business telephone banking service, for that matter. Muppets.

Comments

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

*Laugh* at LLoyds....Did you speak to them and mention your employer ?

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Nope. They wouldn't say a word to me, anyway - there are DPA rules on that, and banks receiving payments will generally refuse to tell you whether or not your money has successfully landed in a specific person's account.

On the other hand, I had just checked with Barclays who were immediately able to confirm that it was successfully received into the Lloyds account - or at least that's what the Lloyds systems had told theirs - and would be able to give me a formal trace document (acceptable in a court of law, etc) showing this, if need be...

I've got a certain amount of experience at dealing with other people's disputed payment problems. :)

[paulw.livejournal.com]

Glad to see everything is moving along.

I got the delivery yesterday and started on the CB piece last night. I should have it completed Saturday afternoon providing I don't accidentally smash the rather large piece of glass and need a replacement.