Moans

To my one fan/follower (thanks Jan) I hope you haven't felt abandoned. I have my moaning blog up and running on www.sstopford.blogspot.com But since no one reads it, I'll start including them on this.

So, my moan of the day is to do with the Inland Revenue. I expect lots of people have their complaints about this revered organisation, but mine goes as follows.

In January I got a huge tax bill which I couldn't pay all at once, so arranged a direct debit.... so far so good.

After a month, I got a letter saying I hadn't paid my outstanding tax and I must do so immediately. I phoned up straight away and was told to ignore this letter, they went out automatically until the full amount was paid.

I did wonder why they couldn't give you a code or something which told the computer that you had arranged an alternative form of payment to save these letters going out, but, satisfied with what they'd told me, I ignored it. The following month, I simply threw it away without even opening it. Big mistake.

The next month, I got another letter, which I opened. This threatened me with all sorts of horribleness if I did not pay up IMMEDIATELY. It also warned me that the bailiffs would turn up within days and this might 'cause embarrassment', not to mention distress!

I phoned up again, quite distraught and furious, but as their systems were down, they could not access my account. They didn't really know what to say when I asked them what I should do if the bailiffs appeared at my door that day.

Enraged, I wrote a letter to them, asking why on earth they didn't sort out their computer system so that these letters did not come automatically, as well as having a diatribe about how distressed such letters could make people, especially elderly or vulnerable people. Apart from all that, it's a total waste of money - how many people get these letters month after month?

I got a very apologetic reply, explaining that whoever had set up the original direct debit had basically cocked up and they should have told the computer to leave me alone. I wondered why, after two phone calls, they hadn't rectified the original cock up, but couldn't be bothered to write and ask them that.

The irony was that, accompanying the sorry letter, was another letter extolling the virtues of paying ones tax by direct debit. Yeah, right.