Power of Attorney - just a Heads Up to say ...

[Andy Kev.]

....
Funeral Directors bills are the only costs that Banks are allowed to pay before Probate.
.....

Bod

Ha ! Never thought I'd be 'grateful' to Covid. Maximum number round the grave. 15 mins max. That's it. Job done. No drinkie-poos and nibbles for all the people that are crawling out of the woodwork wanting a day out. People who MIL loathed and never saw or spoke to.

Never thought I could be shocked but when MIL dies at 3pm and 7.30pm that evening, the FD rings up to discuss the funeral. Well, really..SWMBO hadn't even finished her celebratory glass of fizz. But SWMBO had already planned the funeral. Been in to see the funeral directors months ago. Had the card, the brochure. Knew what the hard sell would be. FD cut off at the knees before she even started... :twisted:

Hey ho. And now we discover that the solicitors who were holding the will have been taken over and that all things such as wills in safe custody have gone to the centralised warehouse aka 'non-safe custody' as they can't find it. You couldn't make it up. It has all the hallmarks of brilliant Richard Curtis film. Now which actor could play my role ? No, don't answer that :lol:

I imagine that a firm of solicitors losing a will has committed a pretty serious breach of trust. Why not contact the body which overseas professional standards in the legal profession (would it be the Law Society)? They would surely be able to advise and maybe even provide you with the ammunition to put a rocket up the solicitors' ar*es.

 

[DrPhill]

We did power of attorney through the government scheme and it was a breeze - a little long-winded but that was for the protection (of my mother in this case).

We found the banks (especially santander) were brilliant, both with the POA and the execution of the will. On their response alone I would recommend them (though this was a specialist department).

All the other banks had specialist departments that were very helpful (HSBC, Yorkshire, Tesco) notable exceptions were Virgin Money (a right royal PITA) and NS&I (unclear, confusing, obstructive).

For those that are facing this task, we got the legal papers for IHT done by Imogen Davidson at UKProbate.org. Brilliantly helpful, clear, patient, and reasonable fixed cost too. (No connection except we were a happy customer).

 

[RogerS]

.....

We found the banks (especially santander) were brilliant, ....

How bizarre is that ! And we were also dealing with their 'specialist' department. Maybe we got the office cleaner !

 

[lurker]

My mum had one of those pay it upfront funeral things with the coop and they were truely wonderful!
So my brother and I let the coop probate service do the paperwork, they were beyond awful

 

[tsb]

My Father in law passed away around 2 months ago and I have to say that the companies we are dealing with are bloody useless, except united ultilities. We have used the 'tell us once service' but still waiting to hear anything. I've come to the conclusion that even though most off the big companies have dedicated bereavement services, they still appear to be shocked that you are ringing to inform them of a death. The end of one call finished with them asking to speak to FIL when he's available

 

[RogerS]

Actually, it's not just this area where muppets abound. Start of this year we got our landline chewed up by a digger and lost everything for several days. So I bought a dongle from a Vodafone shop as a fallback internet connection to the router. Only the muppets didn't do the right computery stuff and the SIM was never activated properly.

Fast forward and umpteen calls to Indian call centres, three separate replacement SIMs being sent, together with confirmatory email of the order number followed by a confirmatory email with the new mobile number (not that that matters). They all went through the security check..."Please can you tell me the number in the text I just sent you ?"....."Um, no...I haven't got the SIM so I cant. Plus it's in a dongle without a screen"...they appreciate the situation and another order placed etc etc etc.

So thinking logically, come to the conclusion that, for some reason, despatch must have a wrong address. Bit of spare time today to follow this up and I get Lexie, the anally-retentive. "What is the number I've just texted you". "I don't know. I haven't got the SIM...explained the history..please can you check with despatch which address they are sending it to". "I've sent you a link"...check it out..it's to open up a fraud case.

"It's not a fraud. Please can you ask despatch which address they are sending it to?". "Have you looked at the link I sent you ?"...I check....fraud department...wanting my passport details my birth certificate, my great-great-great grandmothers' dog licence number...I can see where this is going.

"Why don't I tell you the last thee letters of my postcode and then you ask despatch if this matches their records ?"

"You need to follow that link I sent you and they will sort it out"...

Told Lexie where she and Vodafone could shove their link. Roll on August when my contract ends.

 

[Andy Kev.]

What you've highlighted there is a matter of incompetent management. Somebody has analysed their work and produced a flow chart which they think allows for all eventualities. The poor stiff who you get on the phone is probably not allowed to deviate from the script on pain of death. As also becomes pretty quickly clear, the phone answerers have neither power of decision nor freedom of action. That wouldn't matter if there were some sort of foreman in the room to whom odd cases could be referred and who could make a non-scripted decision but that never seems to be the case.

It can be better than that: I recently had the details of my debit card nicked (phished being the jargon for it). The bank picked up odd activity and contacted me to see if it was legitimate. The bloke on the phone was from the northeast (of England, not Bombay) and so it was easy to establish the necessary rapport with him. He had the authority to take the necessary action and was also good with the security questions i.e. not like a robot.

From the bank's point of view a Geordie is a lot more expensive than a computer wallah in India but guess which one is better placed to get the job done? And that's no disrespect to the Indians (who usually try their best). Their virtue as far as firms are concerned is that they are cheap. The problem is that if your problem falls outside the flow chart, you're rubber ducked because they are not authorised to think and solve problems.

And all because some suited twit in W1 can show that he's saved the firm a couple of quid.

 

[rafezetter]

Not sure if you have prescription disposal programs there (some of them may even tie to third world donations).

You can flush them here, it's not illegal, but many municipalities have prescription disposal programs for old or unused scripts as the sanitary authority says they'd prefer we don't do it. I'd bet the slurry at the bottom of a dump (especially now that they have bladders and don't leak) could:
*ease pain
*fix depression
*lower blood pressure
*quell anxiety
*solve erectile dysfunction

Hopefully, the cleaned wastewater can't do that, too!!

Lol well thats a bloody shame - I could do with all of those in a nice cocktail