This is going to be a rant, so apologies in advance, but why can't financial institutions deal effectively with deputyships? Obviously some do but I'm about to write a third complaint. The first two were to high street banks and this latest one will be to a major building society.
The deputyship order was sent to them months ago, I got it back with a letter saying thanks we'll update our departments and systems, I then had cause to be in touch with them about a simple matter and all was fine, and then out of the blue, the week before last, problems. One department I spoke to on the phone couldn't see me on their systems so a big sorry but they couldn't discuss anything with me, and the second department could see the deputyship but the chap kept insisting that my aunt-in-law had to write in giving her permission before he would discuss her account with me.
I went into one of their branches and a lovely woman staff member called their customer service department and then head office and by that time no one could see the deputyship anywhere.
So I went back to branch a couple of days later with the order and ID and a nice man did all the paperwork all over again.
I've just been on the phone to them to resolve the original issue, something that should've taken 20 minutes tops, only to be told that yes, the deputyship was in the system but my aunt-in-law would have to write in giving permission yadda yadda...
I want to scream.
Given that us deputies don't get anything for our time, I though I would start logging my hours because between my mum and my aunt, it felt like I was spending hours on their affairs, and given that I need to earn some money to pay my bills, I've started to take taxis to speed things up a bit sometimes, and get back to doing some work. The hours being logged thing is to justify this in case the OPG think my expenses are too steep! Well, the matter I've just described has taken almost 12 hours so far - this includes being on hold, queuing in branch, waiting to be seen and so on. And since the 24th of April the aunt's affairs have taken over 33 hours.
The really annoying thing is that almost every single black hole into which my time disappears into is created by other people not doing their jobs properly. But when the annual report time comes around us deputies need to reconcile everything to the last penny and have all the answers. Don't get me wrong, the OPG people are lovely on the whole but when during an 'early days' visit a while back I explained that I don't have an invoice for a cheque I'd written (although it was to the care home and cashed) in spite of sending 8 emails and making several phone calls I was made to feel that it really, really was my responsibility to have everything in order. Sure it is. I still haven't had the invoice so I suppose my next step needs to be visiting their head office in person, an 8 hour round trip. But I can claim some petrol money.
Yay.
The deputyship order was sent to them months ago, I got it back with a letter saying thanks we'll update our departments and systems, I then had cause to be in touch with them about a simple matter and all was fine, and then out of the blue, the week before last, problems. One department I spoke to on the phone couldn't see me on their systems so a big sorry but they couldn't discuss anything with me, and the second department could see the deputyship but the chap kept insisting that my aunt-in-law had to write in giving her permission before he would discuss her account with me.
I went into one of their branches and a lovely woman staff member called their customer service department and then head office and by that time no one could see the deputyship anywhere.
So I went back to branch a couple of days later with the order and ID and a nice man did all the paperwork all over again.
I've just been on the phone to them to resolve the original issue, something that should've taken 20 minutes tops, only to be told that yes, the deputyship was in the system but my aunt-in-law would have to write in giving permission yadda yadda...
I want to scream.
Given that us deputies don't get anything for our time, I though I would start logging my hours because between my mum and my aunt, it felt like I was spending hours on their affairs, and given that I need to earn some money to pay my bills, I've started to take taxis to speed things up a bit sometimes, and get back to doing some work. The hours being logged thing is to justify this in case the OPG think my expenses are too steep! Well, the matter I've just described has taken almost 12 hours so far - this includes being on hold, queuing in branch, waiting to be seen and so on. And since the 24th of April the aunt's affairs have taken over 33 hours.
The really annoying thing is that almost every single black hole into which my time disappears into is created by other people not doing their jobs properly. But when the annual report time comes around us deputies need to reconcile everything to the last penny and have all the answers. Don't get me wrong, the OPG people are lovely on the whole but when during an 'early days' visit a while back I explained that I don't have an invoice for a cheque I'd written (although it was to the care home and cashed) in spite of sending 8 emails and making several phone calls I was made to feel that it really, really was my responsibility to have everything in order. Sure it is. I still haven't had the invoice so I suppose my next step needs to be visiting their head office in person, an 8 hour round trip. But I can claim some petrol money.
Yay.