Now Nationwide Drops A Clanger
According to this report on the BBC and a message on their site, Nationwide have processed debit card transactions twice. It didn’t affect me, as I only use a debit card to get money from a cash machine.
This should never happen.
I have said that processing and senior management should be co-located and preferably at the same place where the programmers work.
As in this Nationwide clanger over 700,000 accounts were affected, it is quite likely that several senior managers or their friends would have been effected by the error. If those managers were worth employing, they should have been straight on to those responsible to find out what had happened. Co-location puts the fear of God into operators and programmers. Try doing that if they’re halfway around the world.
But at least in this clanger, Nationwide found out what had happened quickly and rectified it within 48 hours. But how much did the whole incident cost Nationwide and its customers? And as Nationwide is a mutual, how much did it indirectly cost its members?
I always remember Bob, the guy who taught me cost accounting, said that banks had a totally different approach to the way things added up. Perhaps things haven’t changed all that much!
The Big Secret
The Times has a letter today saying that all the thousands of people at the Opening Ceremony rehearsal have kept the secret about what is to be shown.
They were sworn to secrecy and as the letter writer says, isn’t it wonderful, that the secrets have not leaked.
In these days of social media, it is even more surprising.
Perhaps the surprise in the show, talked about by the letter writer is so good, that she doesn’t want to spoil it for everyone else by revealing anything.
I must admit to being a bit cynical about Opening Ceremonies in the past, but I’m actually looking forward to this one.
How To Not Lose A Wallet
I should say that I keep one credit card, my rail passes and my Freedom Pass in a little folder that I keep in my pocket, so I can just pull it out to touch the various Oyster readers on buses, trains and tubes.
On Saturday, I managed to lose the folder on a bus, as my nose was running so much, that I must have dragged it out with a tissue, which I was using every minute or so.
I’d just cancelled the credit card and reported the Freedom Pass as lost, when the bus driver phoned to say, he’d got the folder and would take it to the depot at the end of his shift at 19:00. He had got the number from a card I keep in the folder containing my e-mail address and mobile number.
So I went to the garage at Leyton at the time he said and after a few minutes he turned up and gave me the folder. So job done! Stagecoach didn’t even have a charity box for a reward, but I rectified that on-line to one of the charities I support.
By Monday, my Freedom Pass was reactivated and then yesterday, I got a new AMEX card.
So we may complain about service, but I can’t fault anybody here.
Torch Chasing in North London – Islington Green
I went up to Islington Green to see the Olympic Torch Relay.
The only sad bit, was that the Police seemed to have arrested a drunk.
Is that blue sky real?
Where Are The People?
I went up to Islington Green this morning to see the Olympic Torch Relay at Islington Green. The bus was virtually empty on the way up and totally so on the way back.
It was like having a personal large red taxi.
The Anonymous Widower 