After sitting in a warehouse near Prague Airport for several days, awaiting customs clearance, yesterday, courtesy of UPS, a parcel containing three copies of my ‘Collection of Life Stories’ was delivered to me at my home. Yesterday evening, I posted this photo on Facebook and was rather overwhelmed by the number of ‘likes’ and ‘loves’ it received with several people saying that they wanted copies of the book. Therefore I decided that a blog post of explanation was called for.
For my 70th birthday in February 2022, my daughter Christa gifted me a one year subscription to Storyworth. What this has meant is that once a week on a Monday, I have received an emailed question about my life to which I had to reply. Each of my emailed replies were then collated by Storyworth and also forwarded to Christa. At the end of the year, Storyworth then promise to produce a hardback book of all of my answers, together with any photos I submitted.
Fortunately, Storyworth grant you a three-month grace period at the end of your subscription when you can go back and edit, change or correct what you have previously submitted, before the final book is produced. I took full advantage of that period of time which is why copies of my book have only just arrived.
Whilst the book is officially a gift for me, in writing my answers, I very much had Christa in mind, together with Phillip, her brother/my son. Phillip was aware of the gift and early on had expressed a desire to also read the end result.
Many of the questions were about my childhood, my parents, my education and early career, all of which happened before either of them came into this world. Neither of my children ever knew their paternal grandparents as my father died when I was eighteen and my mother when I was twenty-eight. Christa was born just before my twenty-ninth birthday and Phillip nearly four years later.
That is why three weeks ago, I ordered, and paid for 😉 , two additional copies of the completed book, so that I, and both my children, each have one. Whilst I believe it is possible to order further copies, they will be quite expensive. Additionally, coming from the USA, customs duty also applies. I had to pay CZK 349 / GBP 12.80 to get my three copies released. However, if anyone is really interested in having a copy, please message me.
I have to say that I’m very pleased with the end result. So far, I’ve only spotted two typos 🙁 That, despite proofreading my text in advance of going to print! And I hope Christa and Phillip will enjoy reading their copies too.
As I wrote at the end of my previous post, K & K, (as in K & K renovace nemovitostí Decín), besides renovating my study-bedroom, have also done work in other parts of the house. This is the promised further blog post describing and illustrating their work.
The ground floor of the house has only three main rooms – my study-bedroom, a kitchen and adjacent small shower room, (completely refurbished in January 2018), and a sitting-dining room.
The sitting-dining room, along with the adjacent entrance lobby, is the newest part of the house. As a result, there was no need to do anything to the walls, other than painting them white to lose the previous ugly dark orange. Likewise, there was no real problem laying a wood laminate floor matching my study bedroom, as the floor is solid, level concrete. One very nice touch was Karel junior, completely dismantling all the power sockets and light switches, thoroughly washing all the parts, before reinstalling them. Now they are as white as the newly painted walls!
A couple of before and after photos to show what has been done. The before photo dates from early May 2017, after the previous owners had moved out, but before I moved in.
The tiling on the floor of the shower room is the only part of the refurbishment work, carried out by Elefant in January 2018, with which I have had a problem. Only a few months after the floor was laid, a couple of tiles became loose and uneven. The Elefant tiler returned and relaid them. But in the time since then, a number of tiles have once again become loose with a couple of them cracking.
When I showed the problem to Karel junior and Richard when they came to assess all the work I wanted doing, they said the best thing to do would be to completely take up the floor and relay it with new tiles. So that is what Ivan, Richard’s Ukrainian colleague, did back on Saturday 8th April. Below are two more before and after photos.
A few more have slowly worked loose since then. Whilst Karel junior and Richard said that their ideal solution would be to completely strip all the steps and start again, they agreed to re-affix all the loose tiles for the time being. They assured me that it would now be fine for this summer but couldn’t guarantee regarding next winter. Here are the steps following Richard’s repair work.
K & K together managed to eventually remove it and replace it with this shiny new one which works perfectly and makes watering pots and flower beds much easier.
Finally for this post, the double-glazed window in the toilet, which was fitted back in November 2017, now has a wooden windowsill and attractive surround 🙂
I have now lived in my retirement home in Stará Oleška for six years. During that time the only major work I’ve had done to the interior of the house was the refurbishment of the kitchen and adjoining shower room in January 2018 when, for three weeks, I was living in the middle of a building site.
At that time, I did ask Elefant, the firm that installed my new kitchen and shower, if they would be interested in carrying out further work on the house. But they were booked up for several months ahead and also were really only interested in work that involved kitchens and bathrooms, installing units and fittings that they themselves sell out of their showroom in Decín.
Over the past five years since then, I’ve had work done in the garden and to the outside of the house, such as the completion of the lean-to. But nothing further has been done inside for two main reasons. Firstly, I’ve struggled to find a person or business, capable and interested in doing the various things I’ve wanted doing. Secondly, I’ve been dreading the prospect of again having to live in the middle of a building site whilst any work was done.
Just over a year ago, I had to have work done to the outside of my house after strong winds blew numerous tiles / asphalt shingles off my roof. As described in that post to which I link, my roof was re-tiled and repaired by K & K renovace nemovitostí Decín, a father and son team, both of whom are called Karel, hence K & K. Karel junior promotes and advertises the business using social media, especially Facebook. Videos and photos of their work on my roofs have appeared several times 😉
More recently, Karel junior has been advertising that he is taking on more people with different trades, so that they can undertake a wider range of projects than just roofs, downpipes and gutters. So in mid-February I contacted him, asking if he would visit so that I could discuss with him, the work I wanted doing.
Two visits followed, the first with K & K together, the second with Karel junior and his bricklayer Richard. Following those visits, Karel Junior gave me an approximate price for labour to which the cost of materials would need to be added. During the second visit, they indicated that they would be able to start work in about two weeks time which gave me a provisional start date of 27th March.
After hearing nothing for several days, on Palm Sunday 2nd April, Karel junior messaged me. He apologised for the delay but said he had been waiting for Richard and his Ukrainian colleague Ivan, to be available as their work, particularly on the walls of my study-bedroom, had to be done first before he and his father could do anything. Could they start work on Holy Saturday 8th April? Despite this meaning that celebrating Easter wasn’t going to be possible, I felt that having waited so long for a start date, I couldn’t say, ‘No’.
My study-bedroom was the room requiring the greatest amount of work and is the oldest part of the house. In particular, the wall at the back of the alcove in the centre of this photograph, was extremely thin. In the top right-hand corner of the alcove, where you can see that a small amount of plaster is missing, it was nearly possible to put my finger right through it!
The photograph, taken in May 2017 just before I moved in, also partially illustrates another issue I wanted solving. The limited electrical fittings within the room were all fitted external to the walls, rather than being within the walls. The two power sockets were also halfway up the wall, rather than being near floor level. There was an identical fitting on the pillar on the opposite side of the room.
On Saturday 8th April, Richard rapidly got to work building a new insulating wall filling the alcove, as you can clearly see in this photo. He also removed the old electrical wiring and power sockets. The new wiring now goes down behind the new wall and comes out near the bottom where Richard carved a hole in the pillar for two new power sockets.
What this photo also illustrates is the amount of mess this work inevitably created. Yes, that is my bed, covered with a couple of old sheets to try and keep it reasonably clean. And having nowhere else, that is where I had to sleep each night!
In the opposite corner, Richard carved a channel in the existing wall to both reposition the main light switch and to create four new power sockets, adjacent to where my desk is normally located. Up until now I’ve had an extension cord with three sockets at the end, plugged into a socket halfway up a wall pillar across the room, in order to plug in my laptop, printer and desk light. I have lived in constant fear of tripping over that extension cord and sending a whole load of expensive equipment flying across the floor.
And by the end of Thursday in Easter week, K&K had prepared all the walls and completely decorated the whole room despite no work being done on the Wednesday as Karel junior got serious toothache and had to seek emergency dental treatment 🙁
With the room being decorated white, it showed up just how dirty everything else was 😉 This photo shows the difference when a small section of wood beamed ceiling was cleaned. So I accepted Karel junior’s offer of my study-bedroom, kitchen and shower room all being given a thorough clean on Friday 14th by himself and a young lady called Simona. The transformation was wonderful 🙂
On Saturday 15th April, as well as giving all the walls a second coat of paint, K&K commenced the final part of renovating my study-bedroom – laying a new wood laminate floor. Unfortunately, progress was not as quick as they had hoped, because of the unevenness of the floor which became clear once all of the disintegrating linoleum covering it had been removed. One half is solid but covered with three different varieties of tiles. The other half is constructed of wooden boards, several of which needed to be more firmly screwed down.
This photo was taken at the end of work on Saturday 15th April. It shows the nature of the underlying floor with two of the three varieties of tile on the left and wooden boards on the right. It also shows the foam underlay on which the wood laminate flooring was being installed. And finally, my bed was back where it belongs.
K&K completed laying the new floor on Monday 17th April. So, a month short of six years from when I moved into the house, I finally now have the study-bedroom in the state I have always envisaged, except for bookshelves which is another topic. And K&K have also done work in other parts of the house but that needs another blog post as this one is already long enough 🙂
Late in the evening on Tuesday 11th April, I logged in online to my HSBC Sterling bank account, to discover that the age of miracles is not quite yet past. Nearly four months to the day since I had first requested it, earlier that day, the balance of my closed and frozen Barclays Bank account had finally been transferred. And, in a lot less than fifteen working days since the transfer was promised!
Since that day, I have pondered whether it was worth compiling yet another letter, pointing out to Barclays their series of failures and seeking some compensation for the costs I have incurred. Or deciding whether I should leave things and just be thankful that I finally once more have access to my money.
Yesterday afternoon, whilst sitting in my bedroom at a conference venue in Beatenberg, Switzerland, where I had arrived a few hours earlier, my phone rang. The female caller was from Barclays Bank complaints department and asked to speak with Mr Yates. I assured that she was speaking to him and I then answered a few security questions.
The lady then explained that Barclays had now finally completed consideration of my complaint CRYX28K7KH. For the first time during this whole saga, I got a decent apology for all that had happened. She then said that it was proposed to offer me £300.00 in compensation in order to bring my complaint to conclusion. If I still wasn’t satisfied, then I would need to take my case to the Financial Ombudsman.
I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive both the call, and the offer of compensation. As I said in answer to a comment on one of the previous posts on this subject, I think that threatening them with the Financial Ombudsman is what has finally kicked them into action. As I think £300.00 is a decent offer, I have accepted it. Amazingly, it arrived in my HSBC account today, less than twenty-four hours after being offered.
Here endeth this saga! I do assure readers that I do now plan to blog about other things 🙂
The day after I wrote and published my previous post, I compiled another letter to Barclays, Leicester, pointing out to them what I wrote in that last post – that I cannot view their update to my complaint CRYX28K7KH because I have had no access to Barclays Online Banking since 27th August 2022 and that access requires a current debit card which I do not have.
Less than an hour after I returned home from sending that letter by registered post, my phone rang. The call was from a UK phone number unknown to my phone. After a brief message saying that the call might be recorded for quality control or training purposes, a female voice spoke saying it was Barclays Bank calling and could she speak to Mr Yates. There then followed a few security questions asking for my full name, date of birth and my address.
The lady then told me that Barclays had sent me an update to my complaint, ‘As you have probably seen.’ I rather pointedly replied that I had not and could not see it for the reasons outlined in the first paragraph of this post and the latter part of my previous post.
She then explained that Barclays had two reasons for not agreeing to transfer my money to my HSBC account. The first was the one that I had deduced. That the certified bank statement they had received, had the date of 6th September 2022, (the date Barclays unilaterally closed my account), making it more than three months after the date it was certified – 13th December 2022. It was actually sent to me on 14th November 2022 and I had already sent them a photocopy of the letter, with that date, that accompanied the bank statements.
The second reason was that my claim form had an incorrect unique reference number (URN). The correct URN was meant to have been sent to me in a letter sometime in late August, one of several letters they say they have sent which have never arrived. I do wonder if they were ever sent.
She then told me that in order to prove my address, they needed another bank statement or utility bill with my full address, that was less than three months old and had been sent to me through the post. This of course, would need to be certified by a Czech notary and, no doubt, the certification translated by an officially recognised translator. As I had not received the correct URN, they would send it to me again by post, for me to complete a new claim form with the correct URN, and then send it back to them. When I asked about sending the URN by registered post, the reply was, ‘Oh, we don’t do that’.
I responded by firmly pointing out that both mistakes were made by a trained member of Barclays Bank staff. The advisor I dealt with in their 2 High Street, Nottingham branch had stamped the bank statement and I’m fairly sure I showed him the accompanying letter. And the same advisor had found what they were now saying was the incorrect URN and had written it on the claim form. I have a photocopy of the claim form and you can see the different forms of handwriting. I filled out the details, but he filled in the URN.
Basically, she was telling me that I had to go to the trouble and expense of correcting these two mistakes. I very firmly responded that as a Barclays staff member had made the mistakes, it was Barclays responsibility to correct them, not mine! When she didn’t accept my argument, I asked if I could speak to someone more senior. She then promised that she would do so and phone me back the following day.
Therefore on Wednesday 29th March, I kept my mobile phone very close to me, in the expectation of receiving the promise second phone call. It did not materialise. The following day, I had another appointment with my GP in Prague. I was sitting on the train at Decín hl.n., awaiting its departure when my phone rang. It was the same lady from Barclays complaints department. After once more successfully confirming that she was talking the correct person, she told me that she had spoken to someone more senior and that they had agreed to transfer my money as I had requested, three and a half months ago, subject to some further security questions. I had difficulty restraining myself from singing the Hallelujah Chorus down the phone.
The further security questions included, what was the last payment into the account and what was a regular payment into the account? The answer to both was my Church of England pension. She also wanted confirmation of the full details of my HSBC account into which I was requesting payment. Fortunately, I had my HSBC debit card in my wallet with all the details on the back. With the questioning successfully completed, I was promised I would receive a letter in confirmation of all of this and that the money would be transferred within the next fifteen working days.
Whether I will ever receive the promised letter is an open question. During this whole saga, Barclays claim to have sent me at least five different letters but I have only ever received two. The initial letter of 10th February 2022, telling me to close my account or they would do it for me. And the letter of 14th November 2022, enclosing the printed bank statements I had requested. All my letters to them have been received, because I sent them by registered post.
Likewise, why it should take up to fifteen working days to transfer money from one UK bank to another is beyond me. I am tempted to ask whether they do it using a carrier pigeon. But I will be regularly checking my HSBC account online after Easter, to see whether the transfer has finally taken place and that this is the final instalment of the saga. As I said at the beginning of my first post, one more wonderful ‘Benefit of Brexit’.
PS – Despite the date of this post, I assure readers of my blog that this not an April Fool’s joke 😉 And yes – I have actually managed to write and publish two posts only five days apart 🙂
