The Council fucked up, left Chris in the dark for a few months and then started to make stupid demands to him. He came to us, we sorted it and got an apology. Proof, if needs be, that miracles do happen.

TO: Complaints Department
       Council Headquarters

SENT: 16 April 2005

Dear Sir/Madam,
                     I am writing to you with a complaint regarding the standard of service at the Service Point in *********. I would have written to someone at this office, but due to the fact that it concerns most of the departments, I felt the urge to take this matter to a higher authority.

I attended the service point yesterday for the purposes of a meeting, I don't know if you are familiar with the layout of the service point, so let me briefly explain it to you. Upon entering through the automatic double doors you are into the main foyer, on your right is the pay point and directly ahead of you is the service point, which looks rather drab and uninviting to say the least. I can only sympathise with wheelchair users who use this venue to pay their rent and also if they have any enquiries, to reach the desk they have to pass by a large bookcase situated, somewhat like an island in the middle of the floor. I doubt that you have taken any notice of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which was recently updated in October 2004. There is no possible way that a wheelchair user can gain access to the service point desk without having to manouevre their way past this island.

I approached the desk and spoke to a fairly young female, mid twenties with long brown hair. She wasn't wearing a badge to identify herself to the public. For arguments sake, we will call her Jo, this may or may not be her real name, I don't know. There was also another female behind the desk, who did have a name badge. Her name was Claire, but we will come back to her later. I identified myself to her and told her whom I was meeting. She then duly called the mythical place that is known as "upstairs" and I was asked to take a seat. I did so, next to the desk. During my fifteen minutes wait I partook of many time filling tasks, such as: admiring the childish scrawl on the back of the Local Constabulary Guidebook 2005 and the young couple, plus offspring, coming in to pay a bill of some description at the pay point. After they left a male entered, he was approximately mid thirties and had a well-maintained goatee beard. He had some confusion over a Council Tax form, and it appeared that Claire didn't know much about this form either. She assured the male that she would pass on the form to the Council Tax department "upstairs" and they would be in touch. He seemed happy with this and left the premises.

Claire was writing something on the form when "Jo" who was standing looking over her shoulder pointed out that "There's two p's in there." To which, Claire replied, "Well, I didn't need spelling to get this job." Now Claire is the first port of call when you come into the service point, if she is on duty, and if she didn't need spelling to obtain this position of somewhat authority. I can only enquire, should you choose to answer is entirely at your discretion, what qualifications do you need to become a Council Service Point Advisor?

Claire and "Jo," then proceeded to be under the influence that I was "one of them", granted I had been sat there for twelve minutes, am I a fully fledged Council employee? I think not. Nevertheless, they decided to share a little internal joke, maybe it originated from "upstairs" I have no idea. They disclosed to me that as soon as I had left, they would "rip the piss", as they had done on the goateed male's departure, please note the carefully chosen words by Claire, who I am presuming that, and correct me if I am wrong, because she "didn't need spelling to get this job" decided to resort to swearing in front of customers. Granted, it was a Friday afternoon and I was the only person waiting in the service point. Then "Jo" pointed out "only if you have an attitude problem", as if to make right of what Claire had previously said. I'm sorry "Jo", but your comment was too late, your colleague had already sworn in my presence and it appeared that it was, in fact, Claire who had the attitude problem.

So, we are already this far and I haven't even started on the actual complaint. Although that could be construed as another complaint, I'll leave that decision up to you.

I was then beckoned into the small interview room, one of two "private" rooms in the service point, this one being 'Interview Room Two.' The invite into this room was issued by a Ms. Mary Smith, who was accompanied on this occasion by a Mr. Tim Delaney. I was greeted with the usual informal questions. The whole meeting was approximately half an hour long, this does not include the fifteen minutes I had to wait, whilst observing childish cacographies and the service point staff imprecating on members of the general public, myself included.

The somewhat blatant disregard of several departments of the Council had led me to be in this situation. The manner in which this meeting was conducted was disrespectful to me, as I found myself being continually talked down to. Perhaps a training course in Customer Relations would be of some help to them, or maybe if you could see fit to let them out from "upstairs" once in a while.

Mary then proceeded to inform me that my rent account was in "serious arrears." That was undeniably my cue to produce; evidence letter number one. A letter on Council headed paper from the Financial Services, dated 12th March 2005. Basically it states that from the 13th December 2004, I was entitled to Housing Benefit to the value of £****, my gross rent being £****. This means I pay, yes, nothing. They also telephoned me in January after I had brought in my payslips that this was the case. I presumed I wouldn't have any problems with my rent account after this. As Housing Benefit covered my rent and the Council Tax benefit I was being paid also covered the full amount.

Silly, silly man.

It was around the middle of March, when I was sent a copy of my rent statement and a letter informing me that my account was in arrears. How could this possibly happen? I checked the rent statement closely and found the problem. I was, and had been from around the 13th of December 2004, having my Housing Benefit paid. But, a small oversight on the Council's part had decided not to pay the full amount and only pay the princely sum of £10.94 per week. What happened to the other £** that was supposed to have been paid into my account? It certainly wasn't and the Council had not written to tell me that I wasn't being paid. Hence, this is the reason why my rent arrears rocketed. I enquired the origins of this letter to Ms. Smith. Who, after reasonable time to make up an excuse in her head, came up with the slow-witted response of "It was a mistake." A mistake? Surely an organisation as large as the council doesn't make mistakes. A mistake? Let us look at that word again:

Mistake >noun 1 a thing that is incorrect. 2 an error of judgement. >verb (past mistook; past part. mistaken) 1 be wrong about. 2 (mistake for) confuse (someone or something) with.

-ORIGIN Old Norse, 'take in error'.

Look at the verb interpretation of the word "mistake" number two. The word confuse crops up? Perhaps Ms. Smith was confused and couldn't come up with a feasible excuse, perhaps I was confused as to how the Council could make such an error. Nevertheless, I was still unsure as to why I was told, back in January, that I did not need to pay rent as Housing Benefit covered it. Then they make an almighty mess of it and manage to keep £*** per week. A total figure of £407.26 since the beginning of January. That's an extraordinary amount, pray tell me, what exactly was it spent on? Coffee?

Ms. Smith then brought up the subject of a secondary bank account. I explained to her that it was not my account, but that of a relative and as it had little and nothing to do with my claim and I had explained this to Ms. Hannah M. Nicol of the Finance Service office "upstairs" previously. Ms. Smith then went onto explain that the Finance Section was not happy with my explanation and asked for written confirmation from my relative. As I had not received any further letters from Ms. Nicol requesting this information, I was under the impression that all was in order. Ms. Smith still insisted that it wasn't, even though it took me no less than three attempts to explain the account to her. She telephoned the finance department "upstairs" and they informed her that they were happy with my explanation to them two weeks prior to this meeting and no further documentation was needed from myself.

Ms. Smith looked slightly sheepish to say the least, and Mr. Delaney was more interested in the posters on the wall.

I can only say, on hindsight, I wished I had brought up the subject of CPAG. I decided not to, as I had better things to do with my time. I am sure that you are well aware of the body that is CPAG.

I was then asked to give details of my current financial status, in order for them "upstairs" to make a rough calculation as to how much rent I should pay. I gave them the information requested and pointed out that I had previously submitted this information to Ms. Smith and Mr. Delaney at a previous meeting and nothing had changed since then.

Ms. Smith, after she had hung up the telephone, asked me a question; which in all honesty almost made me fall off my chair. She asked me how much I was prepared to pay for my rent and rent arrears.

I am being asked to pay for the council's mistake. To be quite honest, I am totally perplexed at this fact. It is completely ridiculous that when the Council makes a mistake such as this, that the general public are the ones who are ultimately left to pay for this erroneousness.

I can appreciate the fact that this letter is fairly substantial in size and I can also appreciate that something of this size will possibly never be read, due to the paperless office. But, and this brings me quite nicely to my next point, as most of the council workers in the service point are asking the question, "Can I check my e-mails?" You may say this is pure fiction, but I can assure you that it isn't. I have heard this phrase uttered several times by different service point staff. Do we really pay our Council Tax for office workers to check their personal e-mails at work? Presumably at dial-up rates, as installing broadband would be stupidly meretricious and virtually ineffective. It begs the question, the £407.26 which was supposed to have been credited to my rent account was probably used to pay the phone bill for one service point staff member to check their personal e-mail account. It costs more on dial-up, hence the reason why the Council uses a method of profligately high Council Tax to fund the internet charges.

I can also appreciate that council workers spend a lot of time on the internet, at our expense no less. Which is why I have taken the precautionary measure, that as you would like a paperless office as they have "upstairs," I have posted this letter on my website.

I have not included a link to my site in this letter, for one reason: my Council Tax is too high as it is, without several hundred Council employees bombarding me with hate-mail and pushing up the internet charge for that month, thus rendering my Council Tax for next year even higher.

I await your imminent response to this matter.

Cogsy@ST
Sent on behalf of a friend