Friday, May 18th, 2012
Nathan Goldberg finds that you can rail and fight the officious and idiotic and win.
LET THE following two examples suffice on how to see off jobsworths with your own counter insurgency. I arrive at the wrong hotel. There are good reasons for this. I ask if they have a room being from the same company. They make inquiries but no luck.
Enter the bruiser
Rather than pay £30 for a taxi, I ask if I can sit quietly in the foyer so I can take a much cheaper journey by early train. The answer is yes. A few minutes later a bruiser arrives to say I have to leave.
The foyer is well lit and is busy with late night revellers. I say his colleague has said I could which his colleague denies.
Day in court
I say I’m not leaving. He says he’ll make me. I say good luck with that. He thinks better of it.
The upshot is I do leave after police charge me so I can have my day in court. The hotel has dropped complaint and I have received compensation.
Identify crisis
Next, I arrive at a bank to get some money having mislaid my credit card. I come with plenty of identity.
Enter plod
Although it includes a name and photograph of me they say they can’t give me more that £20. I say it’s ridiculous and they ask me to leave. I tell them to fuck off.
What’s all this then?
Enter plod. Outcome I don’t get my day in court, but I get a lot more than £20.
So next time you’re in the right, let them call the police, it can work a treat.
Nathan Goldberg, wowdewow publisher, is to officious and petty-fogging bureaucracy what Rumpelstiltskin is to weaving.
Should we meet the capricious, officious, pernicious and malicious with the judicious or tell ‘em to fuck off? Have your say in Readers Comments.
Here’s something capricious…
wowdewow is always looking for new bloggers. If you want to blog on the above or anything else, please feel free to write to the editor, nathan@wowdewow.com, and he’ll be only too pleased to send you blogging guidelines.
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Tags: banks, bureaucratic, capricious, credit cards, day in court, hotels, identification, late night revellers, malicious, officious, pernicious, petty-fogging, plod, Rumpelstiltskin, the customer is always wrong, the police, When to call the police
