Insurance Battle

I expect this clip of an email tells the whole story!

Laughable Zimbabwe

So Judge Tendai Uchena, three days after the constitution requires the election results are released and fours days after the MDC’s application, says “I find that the application is urgent. The case should now proceed.”

from: Gaurdian
(click image for full story online)

 

Filling In Forms

Today I had to fill in a form to allow some blood to be drawn for blood tests.

The form was first of all designed in A4 and then printed onto A5. Being a busy form on A4 it was almost impossible on A5 epecially without 20/20 eyesight, which many of their clients are – thats what aging is about you need more testing and see less!

Then a few lines in the following were called for

ID Number Date of Birth Age

which I filled in as follows:

471104nnnnnn 1947/11/04 60

Yes the first six digits of my ID make the other data redundant. The form is designed for cmputer capture so the waste of time is repeated!

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What A Garbage Strike Teaches Us

Today my problems resulting from the Tshwane Municipality’s failure (outlined in all its misery below) were solved by an entrepreneur who travelled the smelly streets of Tswhwane offering to remove garbage for a fee!

So what did I learn?

• There are entrepreneurs in South Africa – I think this is brilliant although it cost R20
• The Tshwane Municipality has no clue about customer care either proactively or reactively
• The Municipality doesn’t have a toll free complaints number – it would cost them a fortune

The Story – its clearly not nitpicking.

Since at least last week Tuesday, Pretoria’s garbage has not been collected. The garbage bins stand overflowing in the streets. Driving past is an experience in stenches.

And still I have received no notification or information from the municipality. Trying to use the complaints line was farcical at the start – long waits / cut offs etc meant we were unable to get any information about why the garbage wasn’t collected.

We eventually heard from friends and saw that there was an 11/09/07 press release on the Tshwane website. This was apparently the first attempt at direct communication.

So today I tried enquiries again and had luck. Seemingly waking someone on the number from the website. When asked when I could expect my garbage to be collected, he was clearly annoyed, said he “didn’t have a clue” and rattled off a number which took several retries to allow me to get it correctly.

Now the only good bit in the story – the lady on the line was totally helpful and seemed unperturbed by what could not have been the first call of the day. I can expect my garbage to be picked up after a 10 or 11 day delay!

So what did I learn?

• Entrepreneurship does exist amongst South Africans
• The Municipality has made no attempt to communicate with me about the suspension of service – although they have all my contacts and a meter reader was at my house today and could have dropped a note
• The municipality’s telephonic communication is not toll free and is really useleswith this. No company would survive with this kind of service
• There is always a silver lining – the entrepreneur and the lady who gave me information

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