How To Manage Dormant Accounts
This afternoon, I got an e-mail from William Hill, the bookmakers.
It said that I hadn’t used the account for some time and would I like to use some of the money there to have a bet.
Quite frankly, I’d clearly forgotten I had the account and I think the last time I used it was well before 2007, as I know C was still alive. I think she had asked me to put money on a horse in the Grand National.
They said there was about £50 in the account, which let’s face it, buys a reasonable meal around here for two.
On trying to login, the site told me the account was locked and would I contact them through the on-line chat button.
I did this and after about an hour of patient chat, I got a new password and they unlocked the account so I could log in.
I then updated the account with my new address, phone number and credit card and then duly withdrew the balance.
Perhaps after the good service I’d got, that was a bit mean.
But it does show how if you manage your customer support well, you can get customers pleased with your company.
So thanks to William Hill, I’m now going to have a free meal.
How many other betting companies or financial institutions would have left the money there earning them interest?
I should also contrast this episode with the service, I’ve received from a well-known energy company (Not nPower or British Gas!) who supplied electricity and gas to the tenants of this house, before I bought it.
When I took over the house, I felt that it might be easier to stay with this company. But after waiting on the phone for twenty minutes or so to contact them, I gave up and went elsewhere.
I did owe them a small amount for when they supplied me until nPower took over, but they did try it on a bit and I still haven’t received what I consider to be a properly audited bill. E-mails to the company are unanswered and I have spent quite some time trying to phone them. I have spoken to friends and most feel that this company has a miserable standard of cutomer support at best.
So if I haven’t heard by Friday, I’ll probably pay the bill in a manner that A P Herbert would have approved of.
I of course advise anybody who uses the company to seriously think about getting an alternative supplier.
Noticing the Little Things
I’ve just put my washing away. I am now noticing that simple actions like matching pairs of socks are so much easier, as my hands are getting better.
I know it will all take time to get fully better. But, hey! I can wait!
Travelling With a Horse
Well not really, as the pony wasn’t allowed on the train.
I do remember a news story many years ago, where someone took a billy goat to a Scottish Island, by train from London. It travelled as a dog.
Scottish Devolution
They are debating this old chestnut on Radio 5 Live at the moment.
Apparently there has been a poll in The Sun, which says that those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are more in favour of devolution than the Scots.
If they do leave the Union, then can they please take the Royal Bank of UK Taxpayers and its debts with them. And they can keep that banker, Fred the Shred too!
The question has to be asked as to whether the EU would admit Scotland. After all Spain has regions that would like independence and may vote against, as it doesn’t want Spain to split.
An IKEA Linen Bin
My current bedroom is not as large as my previous one, so space in some ways is at a premium. I have given away some of my larger furniture and replaced my bedroom chests and dressing table with Expedit ones from IKEA, mainly with Branas baskets.
A Branas Basket as a Laundry Bin
For a single man living alone, the one next to my bathroom makes an excellent linen bin.
Incidentally, I’ve put my old laundry bins on eBay. They are stainless steel and wood by Miller of Sweden and are in very good condition.
Iconic Photos
They’ve just announced the route of the Olympic Torch Relay before the 2012 Olympics.
I know Britain pretty well, but what has surprised me is how many of the stops of the torch on the route, aren’t really that recognisable from the iconic photographs published alongside the interactve map. Obviously, for many cities they have used the cathedral, the castle or an iconic building and for Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Bristol they have used bridges. Liverpool has been indicated by two of the Three Graces. Some though, like Bolton, Hull and Luton have struggled, as they show what looks to be the town hall or some other unworthy Victorian pile that could be anywhere.
The worst is probably Ipswich, which shows an anonymous modern waterfront, that could be anywhere and is easily confused with London Docklands.
Ipswich has three iconic buildings all of which are Grade One listed buildings; Norman Foster’s Willis Building, Christchurch Mansion and the Ancient House.
I’d have shown the Willis Building, as it is one of the few truly great buildings from the 1970s, we have in this country.
Does the NHS Computer Records Fiasco Create an Opportunity?
I am certainly convinced and there are many others out there of the need to have a wordwide on-line database with the important details of my health records.
In my case, I think it should contain such things as.
- GP and specialist contact details.
- A health summary. Most people could write that themselves.
- Repeat prescriptions.
- Test results for things like INR, B12 etc.
- Eye and hearing tests.
- X-ray and other images. It is getting commonplace for specialist to give you these, but all we need is for them to be in a standard image form.
- E-mails from health professionals.
You would be responsible for the uploading of the data. In many cases it would just be ticking a box or writing a simple sentence.
Suppose someone was to provide such a service, then I would use it a shot. Someone might already have created such a database, but I’ve not heard of it.
People will worry about privacy, but then look at the average Facebook page. A lot of much more confidential information is often published there.
So go for it! There is a lot of money to be made!
And money to be saved by health consumers.
Imagine on a simple level you lose your glasses on holiday. If you’ve uploaded your prescription, you could probably walk into any optician and get new glasses quickly. Whether they’d want to supply without giving you an expensive eye test, would be up to the optician, but in most cases you’d be fixed up without trouble.
The NHS Computer Records Fiasco
Fiasco is not too strong a word for it, as this report shows.
Isn’t the whole NHS records missing project something here?
If I deal with my bank, solicitor, utility and phone companies, or many shops, I can go on-line to see what is there and communicate directly by e-mail, telephone or post as I require.
Where is that objective in the specification?
After all we can’t let patients see what’s wrong with them as it would be a breach of their confidentiality!
But my body and mind are generally under my control, so why shouldn’t I have the right of access? In some ways, it’s going that way, as my previous GP let me read my past records without any cost or hindrance. Also nearly everything about me from Addenbrooke’s has either been copied to me directly by post and in some cases e-mail.
Interestingly, when the practice nurse and I went through my records a few years ago, we could see the pattern of coeliac disease , which no-one had picked up. I know this was with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and nothing really serious was missed, but is the reason doctors don’t like patients seeing their records, is that they might get sued? Doctors have told me my atrial fibrillation is fairly obvious, so perhaps I should have been referred to a cardiologist before I had the first stroke?
But what is the past is best forgotten!
I should say one thing though. In Hong Kong when I had the stroke, they wanted to know my cholesterol levels, to check them against. As I put them on this blog, they were able to read them. So now, I put things like that up here, so that if I need them at any time, they are there.
Surely, this illustrates the power of an on-line database, where we all have a simple ID/Password system so that we can access the data.
If I could access my bank records from any Internet connection and a browser, why can’t I do the same with my health records?
The Anonymous Widower 