Rusty Raven

Reminds me of when I accidentally overdosed on caffeine. Nausea, agitation, heart palpitations. I was feeling really unwell and was just about to go to the doctor when I realised I’d been drinking way too much coffee (just because it was winter and I wanted to keep warm!). I went out and got a teapot and some peppermint tea, knitted myself a tea cosy, and all was well thereafter.

It’s amazing how easy it is to miss when little things turn into big things.

He is doing well, but I don’t think he feels he can complain as Miss Meow had all her teeth removed just before his were done. She is also doing well and the lack of teeth hasn’t really caused any issues for her.

Good luck.

I promised to give someone a set of mixing bowls I had in the garage, then had to spend half an hour trying to find the darn things. I was just about to give up when I saw them in a completely different place than where I had been looking. I really need to get in there and do a proper tidy.

Mr Woof sends his commiserations. He had to have 16 teeth removed a few years ago and spent the next week with a cone on his head and totally out of it due to a Fentanyl patch. He’s hoping your dog’s problems are not as severe, but wants to reasure him that even if it is things will work out ok.

At least I think that’s what he’s saying, it might actually be “are we walking today or should I go back to bed?” My canine translation skills are not always perfect.

Something a little… refined please. Preferably a touch oily.

Oh great. The refinery in Corio is on fire, that’s just what we need right now.

WOW

Application for a new credit card is underway. They are very thorough in the vetting process, I’ve had to send in bank statements and pay slips, they are not just throwing credit around based on a score. I think this is a good thing, it’s a mutual bank so if the application is accepted I technically become a shareholder and definitely want them to be careful with my money.

It was a credit card. Also Coles brand. It was the credit card company that refused to accept the initial refund, and they can’t give me any explanation as to why. I have already closed that credit card. They also had some dodginess happen where they didn’t make my scheduled rent payment this month for no reason I could see, so I was already a bit unhappy with them, this was just the final straw.

Yeah, I had a refund for eggs a few weeks ago that I couldn’t find any record of actually having received. I tried emailing about it and they basically said they didn’t know anything about it, try again tomorrow. The live chat is supposed to be available during business hours but wasn’t there today.

I’ve tended to persist with them because they have cheaper delivery, but it’s not worth it if they don’t deliver.

That was my next step, but the process for following that up is also not very straightforward. Especially as I have no idea whether the actual problem was with the bank or the supermarket.

After many days of back and forth between myself, Coles supermarket and Coles credit cards a long saga of missing groceries followed by missing refund money has been concluded. I have now closed my Coles credit card and once I have spent my credit at Coles supermarket fully intend to never spend another cent in their stores ever again. Which is a dramatic change given they have been the supermarket I have gone to almost exclusively for decades.

I can say I’ve never experienced such terrible customer service before, beating even the OPSM debacle of 2009. The groceries were delivered to the wrong address. A full refund was eventually promised (but nothing ever communicated to me, I always had to follow them up through this whole saga to get any information). The refund was eventually processed a few days later, but never showed at the bank. The supermarket claimed they sent it and it was declined, the bank agreed it had been declined but couldn’t say why. The supermarket refused to do anything else, both the bank and supermarket said it was the other’s responsibility. Within the bank customer service said it was the security centre’s responsibility, the security centre said it was nothing to do with them and to contact customer service.

Throughout all of this online chat communication was only available intermittently. The app directed me to send a text message, which received an auto reply with the store opening hours. Via email I was just told there was nothing they could do and I had to follow it up with the bank. I was eventually able to speak to someone on the phone and argued enough to get them to process a credit to my account so at least I haven’t completely lost the money, even if I would have preferred the cash back. As a downside it looks like I have to spend the whole lot in one transaction online which is a bit annoying, but once that is spent I can happily never go to Coles again. I think I’ll do click and collect instead of delivery for this one though.

On behalf of Ballarat I apologise. We just have so much cold to go around up here, it’s hard to stop it from getting out.

That would be great - I’d have my security camera live streaming so I could replay highlights over and over.

Yes! I’d be very happy never to taste mint again.

At one point when I was growing I had some fruit flavoured toothpaste which was much nicer, I don’t know why mint has to be the standard.

It’s hard to tell. Miss Meow may have increased from 97% of the day to 98%.

I’m feeling a bit ucky myself today. Called in sick and went back to sleep for a bit.

The nice thing about calling in sick on a day I expected to work is that all my meals are already prepped. As an extra bonus if I need it I have all those jars of chicken soup I made a few weeks ago ready to go.

A big bowl of chicken soup please.

I’m out at the slightest hint of dodgy. I’d rather over react and miss out on a few items that might have been legit than walk into a bad situation.

Sellers being reluctant to hand over an address in advance is one of my major red flags - I want to be able to check where I am going and let someone else know too. I’ve had sellers do this whole run around where they won’t give you the street number until you say you are in the street. I’ve no idea how they think that’s going to protect them from dodgy buyers, but I’m not following breadcrumbs to walk into a stranger’s house. If people are not upfront I just don’t deal with them.

People who are very pushy about wanting you to move off the sales platform and phone/text are also a red flag for me. Your phone number is important personal data that it’s better to avoid giving out unnecesarily. Especially if you have Pay id linked to it, because then you are also giving out your real name.