Rantity rantiy rant
Well, I had an interview with the job centre today. Or, at least, I should have done.
Well they had, being disorganised for some reason, not managed to send out their information to me until this morning, so when I got up this morning I was nicely confronted with a pile of forms as thick as your arm to fill in for my meeting just past two this afternoon.
Finish these off to the best of my abilities and head off. Now, when ringing to make the appointment I had specifically asked them not for the Job Centre at Ealing, which is normal for my postcode, but for the one just next to Harrow Bus Station as it is far easier to get too from my place
So I look at the address and, quite correctly, it says the address of Station Road as the place for the meeting. All seems good.
I arrive with plenty of time to spare so potter round the shops for a while before heading into the centre at ten past, for my appointment at twenty past. Oh, they say, sorry. This isn't the Station Road branch, this is the Kings House brance. Station Rd is up near the civic centre
About a twenty minute walk away...
So, it seems that they've booked me into the wrong job centre. Right, so I have about ten minutes before my appointment, so I ask if I can call them to let them know that I'll be late, and they tell me certainly, use extension number 1.
Peter says:
I phone that up, and they say that they can give me the number but not put my call through direct as they don't have that facility there. Unfortunately I don't have a pen with me, and they don't provide them little ones on chains here, so I can't take down the number. Don't worry, they say, I'm sure the job centre that you are currently at will be happy to give you their number.
Are they? Are they fiddle!
Oh, don't worry, just go over to the civic centre, they say, and explain it to them (after I have been queueing up to see them again to ask whet the number it). May I remind you here that it is a twenty minute walk away, and also that I've never been there before.
So I get directions and off I trundle.
So now, when I finally arrive at the correct centre I am about half an hour late, perhaps a bit more. Reception is difficult to find as it is up two flights of stairs, and due to the layout of job centres these days, presumably in an attempt to make things less formal and intimidating, they don't have a proper reception desk at all, just a couple of stand up booths that noone were standing at anyway
So I look confused for a while and then someone finally comes over, and I begin to say that I had an appointment but was at the wrong centre, so I am late. She asks me what my name is. I tell her and she looks at her papers and tells me, 'Oh, you're very late, you should have been here half an hour ago'
Thanks, I had realised.
So why was I late? I explained that I had gone to the wrong centre and she began to critisise me. Hadn't I checked the address? I told her that I didn't know the addresses of either of the job centres, or even that this one existed, but I had thought that Station road sounded a likely one for the one by the buss station. Well, you would, wouldn't you?
And of course I hadn';t exactly had time to check this morning as the forms only arived in the post today and I've been filling them all in since I got up.
So, she asks, why did I think it was there, when it was obviously here, even if you did specifically ask for it to be there and the address seemed reasonable and could she please have my postcode?
Certainly, and I give her my postcode as politely as I could at this point, which to be fair probably wasn't all that politely after all...
Oh, she says, we don't serve this postcode here, you should have gone to the one by Harrow bus station!
AAAARRRRRGGGGggggghhhh!
So WHY THE FECK DID THEY MAKE AN APOINTMENT HERE WHEN I SPECIFICALLY ASKED THEM FOR IT ELSEWHERE?
So I stormed out
And then, thie icing on the cake. I was approached on the way home by a man who said he wanted to talk to me about Jesus and Forgiveness!
And this, my friends, is why I am REALLY pissed off today!
And the best bit is, the only reason I'm going in is to be told that I'm not going to qualify for any income support, as they can't tell me the alternatives until I have already been rejected
Well they had, being disorganised for some reason, not managed to send out their information to me until this morning, so when I got up this morning I was nicely confronted with a pile of forms as thick as your arm to fill in for my meeting just past two this afternoon.
Finish these off to the best of my abilities and head off. Now, when ringing to make the appointment I had specifically asked them not for the Job Centre at Ealing, which is normal for my postcode, but for the one just next to Harrow Bus Station as it is far easier to get too from my place
So I look at the address and, quite correctly, it says the address of Station Road as the place for the meeting. All seems good.
I arrive with plenty of time to spare so potter round the shops for a while before heading into the centre at ten past, for my appointment at twenty past. Oh, they say, sorry. This isn't the Station Road branch, this is the Kings House brance. Station Rd is up near the civic centre
About a twenty minute walk away...
So, it seems that they've booked me into the wrong job centre. Right, so I have about ten minutes before my appointment, so I ask if I can call them to let them know that I'll be late, and they tell me certainly, use extension number 1.
Peter says:
I phone that up, and they say that they can give me the number but not put my call through direct as they don't have that facility there. Unfortunately I don't have a pen with me, and they don't provide them little ones on chains here, so I can't take down the number. Don't worry, they say, I'm sure the job centre that you are currently at will be happy to give you their number.
Are they? Are they fiddle!
Oh, don't worry, just go over to the civic centre, they say, and explain it to them (after I have been queueing up to see them again to ask whet the number it). May I remind you here that it is a twenty minute walk away, and also that I've never been there before.
So I get directions and off I trundle.
So now, when I finally arrive at the correct centre I am about half an hour late, perhaps a bit more. Reception is difficult to find as it is up two flights of stairs, and due to the layout of job centres these days, presumably in an attempt to make things less formal and intimidating, they don't have a proper reception desk at all, just a couple of stand up booths that noone were standing at anyway
So I look confused for a while and then someone finally comes over, and I begin to say that I had an appointment but was at the wrong centre, so I am late. She asks me what my name is. I tell her and she looks at her papers and tells me, 'Oh, you're very late, you should have been here half an hour ago'
Thanks, I had realised.
So why was I late? I explained that I had gone to the wrong centre and she began to critisise me. Hadn't I checked the address? I told her that I didn't know the addresses of either of the job centres, or even that this one existed, but I had thought that Station road sounded a likely one for the one by the buss station. Well, you would, wouldn't you?
And of course I hadn';t exactly had time to check this morning as the forms only arived in the post today and I've been filling them all in since I got up.
So, she asks, why did I think it was there, when it was obviously here, even if you did specifically ask for it to be there and the address seemed reasonable and could she please have my postcode?
Certainly, and I give her my postcode as politely as I could at this point, which to be fair probably wasn't all that politely after all...
Oh, she says, we don't serve this postcode here, you should have gone to the one by Harrow bus station!
AAAARRRRRGGGGggggghhhh!
So WHY THE FECK DID THEY MAKE AN APOINTMENT HERE WHEN I SPECIFICALLY ASKED THEM FOR IT ELSEWHERE?
So I stormed out
And then, thie icing on the cake. I was approached on the way home by a man who said he wanted to talk to me about Jesus and Forgiveness!
And this, my friends, is why I am REALLY pissed off today!
And the best bit is, the only reason I'm going in is to be told that I'm not going to qualify for any income support, as they can't tell me the alternatives until I have already been rejected