Weds 12th September 07

A slow start to the day, but got up and doing stuff by 10.30. I did some paperwork, sending off a postal order and doing some sorting. I found a letter from the City of York Council telling me about a payment for work I did with the Gifted and Talented Summer School, but no evidence of a cheque, which I'd asked for on the invoice.

So I rang the Financial Services department, and they told me it had been paid by BACS. I was annoyed, as several times before I've had problems with BACS and never want to use it again. I feel comfortable with cash or a cheque, and I always request one of these methods in my confirmation letters and invoices. But the Council still had my account details, and tried to pay me via BACS, so I rang my Building Society, and had to wait for two runs through an automated menu before someone answered my call, and they said they had no record of a payment. They said that it might have 'bounced' in which case they would have no record of it. So I rang the Finance Office again, and they had no record of it being bounced. I rang the Building Society again, and got put in a queue as my account was a type which couldn't be dealt with by the first person I spoke to this time (it was ok before!) and after 15 mins in a queue, I spoke to a person in Sheffield who needed 3 tries to get my account number correct, she then said she couldn't deal with it as my account was deemed to be a business account, and put me through to someone I knew in the York Office, after another 10 mins wait. What a bind!

It turns out that the BACS thing was made payable to a slightly different version of my name, and it should bounce back to the Council, and they should make out a cheque and put it in the post! What a palaver. I asked the Council to remove my account details so they cannot try the BACS trick again!

This took til lunchtime. After lunch I did more 'paperwork', on the computer, actually, paperless work, happily! Wrote a piece for the LETS newsletter about the Freecycle/LETS social in June, and had a good chat with my friend over the pond on Googletalk.