A Beacon Of Light.

There I was, sitting, waiting impatiently for my promised phone call. I was going through the whole conversation I was going to have with her in my head. The more I spoke about it to myself, the crosser I got and then the phone rang.

Christ, I nearly shit myself!

You see, the problem with me, is that I will wind myself up and think to myself that I am going to really shoot straight from the hip as it were, tell her how cross I am and sound really annoyed. But when it comes to the crunch, I am a bit pathetic really.

Let’s call the lady Janet.

She was really lovely. I started off by apologising to her that she had to ring me and that I was putting her to all this trouble of sorting out the mess. I genuinely did feel bad that I was causing all this trouble. Pathetic of me, I know, but that is my nature.

She had read my letter and agreed that there were a lot of issues that needed dealing with and she wanted to talk to me about them and let me know that she is on the case, but would follow up with a letter. She is also writing up a report for someone...dunno who.

She also agreed that my letter was of award winning proportions!

We started at the beginning with the whole ‘rapid reclaim’ rubbish I was told and apart from that, we agreed that things started off quite well.

The problems started when it got to the decision makers. She said that it was with them for an unacceptable length of time.

She looked up how many call I had made and was pretty horrified at the amount of times I had called. She said that they should have put me into some group thing where they do your claim the same day after I had called so many times.

She completely understood the frustration and that we were made to feel like undeserving benefit scroungers. She said that she had spoken to Ady and he sounded really lovely. She felt sorry for him and us, that we have had to go through all this alongside everything else and that we have been let down by them.

She told me that my complaint was a high level one and that she was a Parliamentary Correspondent who only deals with the big ones.

For the first time, I actually felt that someone was listening to me and that I was being treated like a human being.

We went through how the claim had been worked out and taking away my wages, and including the £20 disregard, we are now getting the grand total of £106.95.

Jesus Christ, all that for seven blood quid!

But....this does mean that I can now claim for the interest payments on the mortgage which should have been done a month ago!

It’s another complicated affair but, it so happens that the mortgage lady I spoke to the other day, asked Janet how I was as she felt sorry for me. Janet has given me her name and has told me that I can send the mortgage papers to her to sort out.

I also have Janet’s direct line number and she has told me that she very rarely does it, but I must keep hold of it and that if I have any more problems that make me steam, then I must ring her. I have to go through normal stuff on the 0845 number but don’t take any more shit!

So,it might only be £106.95, but having Janet’s number, and someone there who I can call if I need, and someone who I know is going to deal with the mortgage bit is worth so much more!

She is also going to compensate me for the distress, delay, misinformation and calls.

I know it’s her job, but she has been a beacon of light in what have been some very dark and frustrating months. She has been kind, lovely and understanding.

Words cannot describe the relief in this house, that something that has gone on for months has finally been resolved.

Now I can get back to looking after my husband and children.

I still want to speak to David or Iain though!

Oh, and Martha, Moo, Ness and Emma, I haven’t forgotten you. You are next !!