Things which hack me off #2
Bad geography!
I just went to the bank to try and sort out some holiday currency. I was aware it was a slightly complicated order, because I needed a large amount of Euros as well as some smaller amounts of Hungarian Forints and Slovak Koruna. I didn’t, however, think that such a proposition should be beyond the capability of Lloyds TSB.
The girl working at the counter would benefit from a few lessons in Geography. Fair enough, I don’t expect her to know the currency of Hungary, but after I’ve told her that it’s forints, I don’t expect to be contradicted and told that actually it’s Euros. Erm, no. It isn’t. Really.
Were that not bad enough, she then refused to believe me when I said I required Slovakian currency too 
“You mean Slovenian?”
“No, not Slovenian, Slovakian please.”
Cue confused expression on face of bank assistant.
“I think we only do Slovenian”.
“I’m sure that’s not the case.
To another assistant…
“Mel, this lady wants Slovakian money is it okay if I give her Slovenian?”
After response…
“I’ve spoken to my colleague and Slovakia and Slovenia are the same. So was it £20 of Slovenian you said you wanted?”
Christ only knows what sort of currency I’m going to end up with. Probably Czech, after I started trying to explain that Slovakia used to part of Czechoslovakia (”Ooh, I’ve been to Prague on a hen night. It’s dead nice, there!”) and that Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia.
What is it with people?! So, they both start with “Slov”, but even so. It winds me up no end when people get confused between Switzerland and Sweden too 
The worst, however, is probably those who are unable to tell the difference between Austria and Australia. One Austrian company has even cashed in on this, creating a range of T Shirts with the slogan, “There are no kangaroos in Austria”.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Next thing you’ll be telling me that they don’t speak Dutch in Denmark!
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Sigh. This is the kinda thing I’m complaining about. How many times have I been through this with you?! In Holland they speak Hollandaise, in Denmark they speak Norwegian, and in Norway they speak Viking. Clearly
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Time for a rant thread, no?
Oh, you forgot
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I think I feel all ranted out
They reckon it’ll be ready for collection tomorrow though, so I may well start one after lunch if it transpires they totally mucked it up!
July 5th, 2008 at 11:54 am
The unbelievable happened yesterday - I went to the bank to collect my order, and they’d actually got it entirely correct
July 18th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
It’s obviously not just an isolated incident.
Last year, I tried to find out about flights to Berlin, the capital of Germany, as I wanted to go to a little town in the East for research.
As reported on my blog at the time, I got given details of flights to Brussels instead by the travel agent. Yes. Brussels and Berlin got mixed up.
http://saiminu.blogspot.com/2007/06/uneducated-travel-agents.html
In the end I booked our trip myself online and flew to Prague in the next country over, Czechia, and booked train tickets myself online; we (my beloved and I) got the train over the border into Germany to the town we wanted and laughed at the folly of the travel agent.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I think the moral is never use a travel agent