Christmas Greetings

Getting those refunds (2)

I sent a couple of “gentle” emails to the travel agent, asking for a status report about our cancelled travel to the US (scheduled to have occurred in May).    As I’ve mentioned, I received a refund for some pre-paid accommodation that I’d booked directly.   Then after a bit of a delay, I received a phone call from her, saying that some money had already come through (part of the cost of the cruise that we’d paid for) and she had applied for a cash refund of the airfares.

I sent off our bank account details so she could send the money she was already holding – but then – silence!   This lasted a few weeks and then some money turned up in the bank account.   I was grateful…..but wondered about the rest.

So a few days ago, I sent her another gentle email.   And she replied, yes, we ought to get a refund of the airfares (the biggest single cost), but she hadn’t yet received it from the airline.   But in addition, there would be a further refund from the cruise line (not sure how much, but anything would be appreciated), and (unexpectedly) probably a refund of some of the travel insurance premium.

So, if it all comes to pass, it will be quite an acceptable outcome, but it certainly has taken time.  I have some sympathy for the airline and the cruise company, but if there are refunds to be had, I don’t see why I shouldn’t have them. 

I also have a little sympathy for the travel agent, whose business must have been devastated.   In fact, another $123 odd has recently turned up, but there’s no explanation what this might relate to;  I wonder if there are some fees here (in spite of the fact that these were supposed to be waived)?    Moreover, my sympathy for the agent is tempered by the fact that I suspect she’s been on JobKeeper and probably the specific industry assistance.    Thus, I take the view that the taxpayers (including me) are paying her for her work in applying for these refunds. 

Dishwasher

As I’ve mentioned, we needed a new appliance.  More particularly, a dishwasher. The faithful machine we’d had for quite a few years had stopped heating, so was giving the dishes a cold wash and not drying them. Ah-ha, I thought, the heating element. But things aren’t as simple as that these days. The service guy arrived (on schedule) and merely pressed a few buttons so that the display indicated a “fault code”, apparently in the motherboard or whatever the dishwasher equivalent is. Yes, it was repairable, but was it worth it? It was a border-line decision, but predictably the outcome was to get a new machine.

There’s quite a range of brands and models out there, so some basic decisions needed to be made: a rotary dial machine with a white door? Or an electronic display machine with a stainless steel door? Or a premium brand with interesting (but perhaps not very useful) features, such as “bottom rack only wash”. And various combinations of these!   The place to start one’s research is obviously on the internet, where you can get hopefully-reliable data on everything that might matter, including noise levels.    This was important to us, and I was better informed than the sales guy when we got to the store.

For me, it’s still important to “touch and feel” the machine before committing to it, although as it turned out, this was just a formality – as was the price (having of course done the research on this aspect, too).

But, just the same, a visit to the store was useful. There might be quite an array of machines on display, but they’re not all in the warehouse. Some have to be ordered in, which results in a delay factor. The sales guy can look this up. Likewise, the store can set you up for a delivery slot.

Bottom line? It was well worth doing the research, the machine arrived when it was promised, and works as it ought (in particular, it’s nice and quiet).   The only thing I hadn’t noticed in my research was that it was made in Turkey.

Christmas ribbons and lights

Putting a ribbon on the street tree seems to have become somewhat of a tradition, at least around our way (although I see elsewhere as well).   And this year, there are even more trees bedecked with a ribbon than in previous years!

And there’s a house in a nearby street all decked out in lights, too.

Dash to freedom

C was about to finish her 14 days quarantine in a Sydney hotel when the COVID-19 scare resumed, with state premiers talking about restrictions, permits and even quarantine for travellers from the Sydney area.   Just what the rules were going to be was unclear; there was mention of permits, but at that stage there was no means of obtaining one on any of the relevant websites.    But as she was just finishing 14 days quarantine, the thought – even if only a remote possibility – of another quarantine period did not appeal to C.   And on top of this the airline was sending text messages about changing her flight (the original flight was cancelled, in spite of the demand – go figure), scheduled for the day after she was due to leave quarantine.

Uncertain times and vague rules call for decisive action, and C was up to the task.   A rental car was booked (not cheap!), and within 15 minutes of exiting quarantine (the only time when she was out-&-about in Sydney, and then in an Uber), she was at the depot, getting ready to get out of NSW.   

She crossed the border at Wodonga at 11.45 pm, before the restrictions supposedly kicked in at midnight – although she reports that there were no visible signs of anything about to happen at that time.   Perhaps in hindsight, she had a little more time, but we’ve certainly seen since then that things can change very quickly.

After a night’s accommodation “safely” on the Victorian side and a more leisurely trip than the previous day down the highway, she was with us the next afternoon.  One of the first tasks?   Catching up with the laundry!

A fairly dramatic conclusion to a memorable-for-the-wrong reasons trip back from the US.

Travel Vouchers

If you’re going to give away travel vouchers on a “first come, first served” basis, you’d expect your IT system would be able to handle the rush?   Not so in the case of the Victorian Government, as The Age pointed out.  The ABC had a similar report.

Yes, I attempted to obtain a travel voucher.   My experience was just as the media reports state:   initially there was no “Apply now” button;  later, there was a message that it had been disabled because of the “high demand”.   Later still in the day, the button was there, but only after I’d gone through the entire process did I receive a message “Program is capped at 40,000 vouchers for Round One”.  I assumed is government jargon  telling me that all the vouchers had gone, but the TV news told me that there were some left.  So I had a few more attempts, and, yes, eventually got an acknowledgement that I had been registered.   This was followed up a day or so later with an email saying that more details would be sent “soon”.

So, an OK outcome – although it looks like there will be a few more steps to follow before we actually get the rebate!

But the process all seems to have been a bit of a lottery as to who gets through the obviously inadequate system. 

It would save everyone’s time (and their employers’!) if the powers-that-be officially accepted it was a lottery, and gave a window of, say, 48 hours for registration and then randomly distributed vouchers among those who registered in that time frame. This would remove the urgency element and hence spread the load.  

I suppose the main issue would be to prevent multiple registrations, but this could be minimised by linking each registration to a phone number and eliminating duplicates. 

On line surveys

We bought a new appliance, but before it was even delivered, we got the “client satisfaction” survey – starting with the inevitable “would you recommend us to a friend?” (the one-liner used to obtain the “net promoter score” – seen as all important in at least some quarters).    I don’t like surveys at the best of times, but it’s ridiculous for the computerised survey to arrive even before the appliance did.

One part of me was tempted to respond negatively, for this reason.  However, on reflection, I’m allowing the matter to pass.  Perhaps that my inertia will itself somehow be reflected in the statistics?

In the meantime, the appliance was in fact delivered, as scheduled, and all seems to be OK with it.

 

Flying to Australia

We’ve all seen the reports in the media about Australians “stranded” overseas, unable to get a flight back to Australia.  And yes, some of these people are in countries from which it is indeed difficult to take flights.  However, in other cases, the problem seems self-inflicted:  they left Australian supposedly knowing that there might be issues, but “hoping for the best”.

In relation to the USA, at least flights are available.   As I’ve mentioned, C returned from the USA early in December.    In hindsight, good fortune was with her: she was watching the availability of flights for the time she wished to travel, and noticed that the prices were rapidly increasing.  This prompted her to book her flight, paying a fare that in “normal” times would be regarded as high, but which in hindsight was far less than what it could have been.    And she was able to travel within a day or so of her desired date – a few days after her semester finished.

I’ve now revisited the availability of fights from the US to Australia, spending a few minutes on the internet seeing what might be available.  The situation is now much worse than when C booked.  There is the occasional fare available on odd days a couple of months ahead, but generally speaking, unless you’re prepared to pay the fully flexible business class fare (which is mega-bucks but is quite readily available!), there’s hardly anything else around, even on “indirect” routes.

I also had a quick look at flights from Britain, which is nearly as bad, although on just a few dates it seemed that “discount” business class fares were still available – not cheap, but not quite in the eye-watering category.

Of course, it’s not the fault of the airlines. The demand for flights far exceeds the number of quarantine spaces that are available.

FOOTNOTE – I did a little more trawling on the internet after preparing this post, and found that sometimes there’s availability on flights at quite short notice, at more “reasonable” fares.   So a person overseas having trouble returning to Australia should be keeping a watchful eye on the airlines’ websites

A blast from the past

My primary education was decades ago. It was at a smallish private school, and I still remember a couple of excellent teachers we had. My secondary education was at a larger, well-known school.

Since leaving, I’ve had very little contact with the first school, although at one time they did manage to track me down. I don’t recall how this came about, but it must have required some detective work. Be that as it may, they have an email address for me, and I receive occasional emails from them.

Recently there was one such email.  The school was taking on itself the task of informing everyone that they had contact details for in the “school community” (parents, past-students and “friends”) that, in the decade after I had left, there had been a part time PE teacher (who was named), who had recently been convicted of child-sex offences, committed after he had ceased to have any connection with the school.

Did I need to know this?  There was no suggestion that my path had ever crossed with those of the offender, nor that he had done anything wrong while he was connected to the school.   

I suppose the school wishes to be seen as completely open, and it’s probably easier for them to send the email to everyone in their data base than try and be selective.   I do wonder, however, if they went above and beyond normal practice.  I don’t mean to be unreasonable, but there was a whiff of “over-sensitivity” about it.

Eating outdoors

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really enjoy eating on footpaths. Even less, eating on the street itself.   But the Council, in its wisdom, has appropriated parking spots to serve as extended eating areas, and in fact they seem to attract reasonable numbers.  Is it the novelty value?  

Yes, the space is a couple of parking spots.  But just the same, the effect has been to make life a lot more congested for cars.   There have been a few grumbles about this.