Well, who is Mrs E Foreman?

Following yesterday's blog about how terrible some companies are about dealing with bereavement I thought it was time to name and shame. A friend, who is dealing with these things for a relative said that she is keeping a spreadsheet and rating companies on different aspects of their service, including the inappropriateness of their hold music. This is a spreadsheet I need in my life and was wondering if her experiences would match to ours. Maybe, if we all published our spreadsheets then the companies would develop compassion.

This blog is dedicated to the TV liscensing people.

In theory, this shouldn't have been a difficult one. I went online and updated the details via their website. Nothing had changed except removing one named person. I was relieved because I hadn't even had to speak to someone who couldn't say the word 'dead' or pronounce 'condolences '. Two days later my mum received a letter. Actually, she didn't. They sent a letter to Mrs E Foreman confirming the change of name.

Mum decided that a quick phone call would clear the matter up. A rude gum chewing lad told her that they didn't make mistakes and the conversation ended with some shouting. Mum being egged on by her friend in the kitchen telling her to, "Go girl, you let him have it!"
After calming down and checking that I didn't know Mrs Foreman, naming her as the widow as a bit of a joke she decided to try again the next day.

Again, she was met with a total refusal to accept that a mistake had been made. She explained everything and the person on the other end would say, "could you hold the line a minute while I look into that?" disappear for 5 minutes and then ask all the same questions again. This happened several times before he finally admitted defeat and passed her onto his supervisor. The Supervisor came on the phone.
"Hello, Mrs Foreman. How can I help you today?"
You or I would be banging our heads on the kitchen table by this point but mum remained calm and explained it all again.
"So, who is Mrs Foreman?" asked the supervisor.
"Well, I don't know, do I?" said Mum.
"Does anyone else live in the house?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
Mum looked round for a bit and thought she might have resolved the problem.
"Well, there's the dog but I don't think she answers to the name of Mrs Foreman. Hold on. Let me try. 'Here Mrs Forman!'"
The dog looked quizzically at her.
"No, I'm sorry it's not the dog. Anyway her first name is Sam, so the E wouldn't fit."
"That's puzzling," replied the supervisor employing every one of her skills that she learnt on her 'how to speak to the bereaved' course.
She continued to ask questions that she had answered before. Things like how she paid for the licence and where and how she bought the very first one.
Mum pointed out that was over 50 years ago and that it really didn't matter anyway. They just needed to change the name and for their own purposes find out how such a stupid mistake could have happened.

They are going to look into it and call her back. If you know Mrs Foreman then maybe you could ring them and let them know, although I wonder if they received a note from the computer to change it and fed up with its silicone annonimity has decided to call itself Electronic Foreman.