h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Speaking of banks and the fabulous range of services they provide........

Does anyone know a way of sending money from the UK to Australia quickly, conveniently and at minimum expense?

We've been ripped off by our bank and by the service the post office offers.

We don't want to launder money - just to send some out to Sydney for our daughter to live on while she's at university.

When I was looking to do something like this about 6 months ago, I came about this lot https://www.moneybookers.com . I did not use them in the end (the reason for transfering the cash went away), but I liked the fact that you could set up a person-to-person transfer really easily.

A traditional method was Western Union http://www.westernunion.com/info/osCompareMoneyMessage.asp who have offices all over the world and you can send money online, paying with your credit card.

There are other companies offering similar services online, but these guys are established.

Hope this helps

Teuchter, buy me a return ticket from the UK and I'll take it out to her for you

Seriously though, I think most international transfers are a bit of a rip off. Dunno about wiring money though, if you still can. International money orders?

International money orders are expensive, from what I've heard. A friend of mine has ordered lots of items on ebay, and on one occasion dealt with someone from the UK who would only accept an international money order...

Ok, just asked her and she said that you can't get an international money order at a bank - it's called a bank draft and is set up in a special way to be drawn on a special account they have in that country. Those cost about $20-$25.

You can get international money orders for *some* countries at a post office, but not all countries.

Western union has money transfer services available online and by telephone (it's a dot com), the price to transfer it seems to depend on the origin and destination.

guys for the info - and sorry for hi-jacking the thread. Worst and weirdest's been one of the most entertaining threads for a while!

>bookmark<
go away for two days, and miss all the fun

On a slightly different tack...

I am a squeaky wheel ("No... you don't say! I'd never have guessed!") and I tend to complain about really bad service. Well, complain isn't really the word. I speak to the manager when I think something has gone amiss or to pass along my comments about staff that go above and beyond. Rarely has it been a complaint (Glaring exception one McDonalds visit... but I digress) as such.

On occasion I have had to bring to the manager's attention a foreign object in my food.

As a result, I tend to be given a LOT of free meal vouchers. If I am offered a replacement meal but have been able to eat what I got, I usually refuse. If I wasn't able to eat it and whatever I have complained about hasn't rendered me incapable of eating, I will accept the meal. However, if I am offered coupons I keep them.

I never use the coupons myself. However, they make excellent donations to panhandlers. That way, I don't feel I am supporting someone's habit and they can get a hot meal when they need it. Otherwise, they can trade it to someone else who might need the hot meal.

If the panhandler is legitimately needing money for a meal, or will later on, they are appreciative. If they wanted the money for something else, they will get pissed off, but that has only happened once or twice.

At Christmas, I usually buy a bunch of the meal coupons and keep them in my bag for panhandlers.

(a bus ticket )

Queegle

(a length of loo roll, isn't hayfever fabulous?)

I DO hope that wasn't USED. Mudhooks gets out the germicide just in case....

I much prefer ir when people use paper currency (preferably Canadian) as bookmarks.

Which reminds me. At one point there was some prankster who was doing very professional cartoons and putting them in the books in our store. My ex came across a Christmas-themed one, a la Playboy cartoons in a history book.

(handy post-it)

Bah, we're running out of stories.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I had a customer at the bar the other day who was surprised at how cheap our drinks were Obviously a complete weirdo!

Queegle

Well, we had a bloke come up to the counter the other and ask in a very loud, arrogant voice "How come y'all don't have Jerry Jeff Walker?"

Well fer cryin' out loud - we're a shop! If we ain't got any it's because someone bought it all b*****kbrain

Ok, so we have to go through this rigmarole every now and again - most people get it, some just can't get their head around the notion -

We're a *used* cd store. We have a lot of very obscure stuff, we have a lot of hard to find stuff, we even have a very good selection of popular stuff, but there are some artists whose cd's we rarely have in stock because a) people don't sell them unless they're absolutely desperate and b) on the rare occasions that we do have a copy of something by Tom Waits, Bjork, The Smiths, Delbert McLinton, The White Stripes, Charlie Parker, The Beatles, Jimmy Dale Gilmour, Don Walser, etc, they fly out the door on wings.

We also sell new cd's, and we try to keep a couple of titles by those artists we don't get in often in stock, but our budget for new cd's is very limited, so we don't always have them.

You'd be surprised how many people get all bent out of shape just because they can't find one cd.

It's a cd!!! Nobody got hurt, nobody died, and your life won't be blighted because you couldn't get one piece of music today

I think is becoming my favourite smiley

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3042539.stm

Yeah, that's right - make doormats of customer service employees.

Now let's have one of those for customers shall we

Here in Canada and the US, Labour Day has deteriorated into "the day that all civil-servants and office people get off and NO ONE in service industries, retail, or restaurants does". As a result, stores, restaurants, etc., are jam-packed with poeple who are "in a rush".... for what seems unclear.

My goal in life is to have Labour Day reserved as a day off for everyone who normally has to toil for people who could just as easily do their shopping on any one of the other weekend days, and the people who normally get the day off having to work in the other folks' places. Let them get a taste of what it is like to get yelled at, not smiled at, "I'm-in-a-hurry" finger-tapped, expected to mind-read, etc., etc., for a change.

My real sore spot is Canada Day.

Most Canadians don't know this, but if Canada Day falls on a Sunday, the holiday will be observed on the following Monday.... Now... when can any Canadian remember EVER having celebrated Canada Day on anything BUT July 1? Never, that is when.

However, call the Department of Labour (or whatever its name is THIS week) or the Ontario Government, and they will tell you... Canada Day will be observed on Monday July 2.

"So why are ALL the celebrations.. The official national ones, the local ones, the Provincial ones... all scheduled for July 1??" I asked.

"Well, you would have to speak to the parties involved...."

"The Official National ones are set for July 1. Are you not the Canadian Government?" I asked... "Because I am asking you why I, as a retail worker, do not get the same day off that all the other Canadians get off so I can celebrate Canada Day."

"Well, Canada Day is Monday July 2 because July 1 falls on a Sunday... It has always been that way."

In fact it hadn't. Because of pressure from business people, the various governments agreed to change the law in 2000 (I believe) so that peons like those of use working retail, food service and other service jobs do not get the same day off as the rest of Canadians.

AND when you talk to anyone in the government about this, it is like you must be a complete moron for not understanding that even though the papers, the television, the official Canadian celebration materials..... etc., etc., call July 1 Canada Day and that is when ALL the celebrations are, Canada Day is not July 1st when it falls on a Sunday....

I finally wrote to both the Prime Minister and the Premier of Ontario. I got no answer from the PM's office and a smarmy letter from the Premier about how the government had done me a favour by making us take the 2nd off while everyone else gets the day of the celebrations off.

Ahem...

Getting a "day off" on July 2nd is not "celebrating" Canada Day!

1251: The Employment Standards Act states that paid public holidays are New Year's Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, New Brunswick Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day. When Canada Day falls on a Sunday, the Monday following shall be observed as a public holiday. All employees who work on a public holiday must be paid time and a half the employee's regular wages for each hour worked that day. Provisions concerning eligibility are outlined in the Act.

http://www.gov.on.ca/LAB/english/news/2002/02-28f.html

National holidays...when I was temping I used to get 20 days annual leave - including all 9 national holidays so if I wanted to be paid for the days when I couldn't work it came out of my annual leave

Now of course I work for a university so get 27 days plus national holidays plus 6 "university days" (2 days at easter and the week between xmas and new yr)...unfortunately I'm so used to having *no* holiday I don't know what to do with it all

I worked at a video store and I ended up having to work Halloween. When a new customer wants to rent a video, we have to put their info in the computer and get them to sign and date a rental agreement. Not hard, right? Well this one guy came in and I entered his info, handed him the agreement, and he signed his name, but when he went to write the date, he wrote November 1st. I said to him that it's Oct 31st and he started mumbling about how 13 was unlucky and I think I heard the word religion in there somewhere. I just had to argue with him. I did it politely but I said stuff like "it's only a date" and "it's not actually the number 13 is it?" and "this is a legal document, you just can't write whatever date you want". Eventually, I got tired of this, rented him his movies, and changed the date after he left.