Trekkie Travels

flu and finances in Cusco

I made the mistake last week of dancing until 5am at Garabatos while I had a sore throat. That meant I only got one hours sleep thanks to the builders upstairs and turned it to flu and a nasty chest infection.
I tried the usual stuff, rest etc but to no avail. I ended up so ill that I lay on the sofa for two days with no food feeling like death. I knew I needed a doctor but didn't have the energy to find one. Luckily the wonderful lady who does my cleaning and washing came round and fetched my friend Rosa who took me to a doctor who gave me an injection of antibiotics and a course of antibiotic tablets. That and the wonderful soups and hamburgers that Rosa made me would probably have seen it off if were not for the supreme incompetence of the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society.

I finally managed to open an account with a bank here on Monday (thanks again to Rosa and a friend of hers) and e-mailed N&P with instructions to transfer enough cash to pay for the apartment I was taking on an anticresis agreement for two years. The last time I asked them to do this, to Australia, it took 3 days so I had 2 days in hand before I needed the cash available here.
They stalled me for 4 days with stupid questions like what's the name on the account - the accounts here don't have names, just numbers and I did say it was MY account and with 4 of my accounts in their bank you'd think they'd know my bloody name! Then it was it will take 10 days, the excuse being that 3 days was only for Europe. Now I know I've been out of the UK for a month or so but has Australia really joined the EU? ????
Then it was that they needed to know what currency. Now if I told you I wanted to transfer $x,000(dollars) would that not give you a clue? The whole reason I included the word was cos I know how stupid they are.
Finally my daughter stepped in to help and said if I could get the money into her account by 2pm on the Thursday she could do a telegraphic transfer to my account. This was followed by a phone call from my bank who agreed to it all, including the fact that as my internet was down I'd given my daughter my login details and full authority to send the mail requesting transfer. All this was between 2.30am and 4.30am and eventually when I'd heard nothing by 5.30 I figured all was ok and caught an hours sleep before the builders upstairs woke me up.
The first thing I see when I login is that the bank won't accept the instruction cos it was from my daughter! So much for the agreement! She could have just pretended to be me but as N&P had agreed to her sending the mail she thought she'd be honest.
I was up half the night and spent a fortune on internation calls and was no further forward!
Following a rather 'strong' email to N&P they promised to have the money in Julia's account on Friday. More lies! I was up half the night again with more international phone calls and it was only after more emails and at 3pm on Friday that the money reached Julia's account.

That of course was too late and I have lost the apartment, plus after 2 nights with no sleep the flu is back with a vengeance.

Thanks for nothing Norwich & Peterborough, I have known incompetent banks in my time but you really take the cake! This has cost me a lot of money and a lot of ill health plus I now have to look for another apartment and move in within 4 weeks.

Advice for anyone thinking of opening an account with them - DON'T!

posted by Incurable Trekkie @ 11:37