Saw a posting currently doing the rounds of ?Homebase are bastards?. Well they are not as bad as either PC World, or the VAT office.
Been going into PC world to buy the odd thing for my small company now and again, and every time you pay, its like the third degree. The monkeys on the tills ask if its for a business (?yes?) and then they want every piece of information you can supply for their database including; Company name, company address, your name, your email address, your phone number, your mobile number, your home address, etc etc. When I objected to giving my mobile and email address (enough spam thank you), they INSIST (in big letters) that you must give this information to get a VAT receipt ? without, they wont give you one.
So I speak to the manager, and hey says ?it?s the law? (which we all know is bollox, and I tell him so). He again says without the information ? no vat receipt. So I tell him my email address is ? snipped-for-privacy@crap.com? and my mobile is ?07780 1234567? ? at which poi nt he looks at me and says ?Do you want a VAT receipt or not??. At this point, I walked out.
I drop PC World and the VAT Office an email, giving the above details. 3 weeks later, an letter comes from the VAT office confirming that its not the law as PC World state, they (PCW) have to by law provide the vat receipt without personal information being given out, that they (VAT) treat matters like this very seriously, however, its not the job of the VAT Office to tell PC World this, police matters like this or prosecute. Not heard a thing from PC World other than a reply to say that they have received my email and if I would like to work from them, heres a URL with exciting job opportunities (Working as a Till Monkey, forcing the public to give you their life story).
And that, ladies and Gents, is why both PC World and the VAT Office are so crap.