26 April 2010 (Monday) - Stuff

I read the news this morning over breakfast. I know I shouldn’t. Sometimes I wonder if I am really the only sane one in a mad world (and that’s a scary thought!). Take today’s news for example. Apropos of nothing, one of the greatest minds of the age, Professor Stephen Hawking has announced that he thinks that intelligent aliens have exhausted the natural resources of their own world, and are on their way to Earth in enormous spaceships to take ours. Has anyone told the Professor that “V” is a program on the Syfy channel, and is make-believe?

And then another genius professor has discovered that the sun goes through phases of more intense and less intense activity. And the phases of less intense activity correspond with our getting harsher winters. What can I say? Dur!!!!! Isn’t that patently obvious?

I had got a service booked on the car I’ve just sold. So I phoned the garage to check that they’d cancelled it, and to speak to them about my service account. Each month I’ve been paying fifteen quid into an account to help meet the costs of having the car serviced. Seeing I’m getting a new car I’ll need to have the account transferred to the new car. After all, I’ve been paying into this thing for two years and haven’t touched that money yet. It would be a nice little amount to put towards future services. Or so I thought.

It’s not that simple. These things never are. The service deal wasn’t with the garage. It was with some third party that the garage was dealing with two years ago. Whilst the garage can get money out of them to pay for services, they were pretty sure the funds would not be transferable to another car. It would be easier all round if I cancelled the service plan, got my money back and started a new one. Or so I was told. The garage suggested I contacted my bank to ensure the direct debit was stopped, and they said they would get onto this third party to get me a refund. They warned me there would be an admin fee. I phoned this third party myself to find the admin fee is forty quid. Forty quid!!!

I won’t be taking out a service deal with the new car. I shall just stick fifteen quid aside each month and I will have the interest and admin fees for myself.