P
p496hav
Hi all
Found this forum whilst looking to change scam provider, due to the sheer hell NIC have put me through since they mixed one of my assessment addresses with someone else's. (Get in touch if you did take an inspector to a flat in Regal Ct, Chelmsford- How did they treat you?). Was particularly taken by an "NIC rant" thread and will be adding to that or starting my own.
I had a pleasant ,successful assessment in Sept, shortly followed by a standard appointment request for Oct. Surely some mistake? Phoned, waited.........gave up. I e-mailed. Never ever got a reply. Week or two later get the "Assessment OUTCOME OVERTURNED" letter. OMG! - Hang on, they're talking about failing to notify an address I've never been to ,much less taken them to. Phew, a quick phone call and this will be sorted. At least now I have a direct line to my "administrator" Mauron (name changed to protect the guilty). Sadly, rather than just apologising, she went on the attack. "Where did you take him?".... "No that second address doesn't appear on my screen, that's the problem". At this point, without access to my records of the reference no., I'm beginning to doubt my sanity- my mums flat? used for assessment? not notified?... Eventually, "Oh! I do have a no.98 at that postcode, but the address line is wrong." No It's not, I've used the first address line, your system would only accept the second one- either will work. Now I kid you not, I am Quoting :-"Are you sure there aren't two no. 98s at that postcode? Totally! "Well in that case I will pass this new information on to the appeals panel and you will have to await the outcome of their decision."
Having committed no crime ,I was not prepared to let that go, and as Mauron was obviously unfit to run a bath, let alone a cps, I demanded to speak to her superior. Instantly her manner changed- It would all be sorted and she would write to confirm.
She never did, but my wife took an apologetic call from the assessor ,so until the second assessor turned up, I assumed it was sorted. I was on site miles away, but "she who is never wrong" explained and sent him away. I was mentally exhausted so chose to ignore it and let Mauron stew in her own juice- I expected her to get a right rocket for wasting half a day of assessors time. I waited the month that they allow us to get our paperwork sorted and moved on.
But no! Christmas came and went .End of Jan I got the "EVIDENCE OUTSTANDING" letter. That was a whole page of unintelligible legal nonsense without one word of the alleged crime, demanding that I provide proof of my compliance with the un-described, followed with threats of fines for reassessment, but if I had a problem I could phone Mauron- oh joy!
Enough rant! I'll do another post on the hours of wasted phone calls I spent on that one . Suffice to say I let her of the hook (in one call I asked twelve times to be put through to Geraldine, her supervisor) She repaid my kindness by reducing my assessment interval from 16 months to 10. Did me a favour, I was able to claw back the DD and vote with my feet.
So on to Stroma. I've not been able to find out much about them. Are any of you members? I feel they're a bit new to the game, but that might be a good thing, as the NIc long since got more concerned with stickers and H+S bull than wiring. As I'm purely domestic, my customers don't know or care about NIC's cachet (or even part P), so at £300 I'm prepared to give it a go. They answer the phone and e-mails well. Like all beaurocrats they assume we're all IT savvy and sitting at the screen 24/7. They want a lot of docs scanned and e-mailed (but before they take your money) so that's OK, once you have worked out your scanner and attaching and stuff. So thinking I'd ticked all the boxs, I sent off the money, only to presented with another 8 page form.I did me best,but about 6 questions such as
left me standing, so I put a ??? and asked for advice.
They didn't reply to that ,but set my assessment date for 30/10. I'll update you then.
Found this forum whilst looking to change scam provider, due to the sheer hell NIC have put me through since they mixed one of my assessment addresses with someone else's. (Get in touch if you did take an inspector to a flat in Regal Ct, Chelmsford- How did they treat you?). Was particularly taken by an "NIC rant" thread and will be adding to that or starting my own.
I had a pleasant ,successful assessment in Sept, shortly followed by a standard appointment request for Oct. Surely some mistake? Phoned, waited.........gave up. I e-mailed. Never ever got a reply. Week or two later get the "Assessment OUTCOME OVERTURNED" letter. OMG! - Hang on, they're talking about failing to notify an address I've never been to ,much less taken them to. Phew, a quick phone call and this will be sorted. At least now I have a direct line to my "administrator" Mauron (name changed to protect the guilty). Sadly, rather than just apologising, she went on the attack. "Where did you take him?".... "No that second address doesn't appear on my screen, that's the problem". At this point, without access to my records of the reference no., I'm beginning to doubt my sanity- my mums flat? used for assessment? not notified?... Eventually, "Oh! I do have a no.98 at that postcode, but the address line is wrong." No It's not, I've used the first address line, your system would only accept the second one- either will work. Now I kid you not, I am Quoting :-"Are you sure there aren't two no. 98s at that postcode? Totally! "Well in that case I will pass this new information on to the appeals panel and you will have to await the outcome of their decision."
Having committed no crime ,I was not prepared to let that go, and as Mauron was obviously unfit to run a bath, let alone a cps, I demanded to speak to her superior. Instantly her manner changed- It would all be sorted and she would write to confirm.
She never did, but my wife took an apologetic call from the assessor ,so until the second assessor turned up, I assumed it was sorted. I was on site miles away, but "she who is never wrong" explained and sent him away. I was mentally exhausted so chose to ignore it and let Mauron stew in her own juice- I expected her to get a right rocket for wasting half a day of assessors time. I waited the month that they allow us to get our paperwork sorted and moved on.
But no! Christmas came and went .End of Jan I got the "EVIDENCE OUTSTANDING" letter. That was a whole page of unintelligible legal nonsense without one word of the alleged crime, demanding that I provide proof of my compliance with the un-described, followed with threats of fines for reassessment, but if I had a problem I could phone Mauron- oh joy!
Enough rant! I'll do another post on the hours of wasted phone calls I spent on that one . Suffice to say I let her of the hook (in one call I asked twelve times to be put through to Geraldine, her supervisor) She repaid my kindness by reducing my assessment interval from 16 months to 10. Did me a favour, I was able to claw back the DD and vote with my feet.
So on to Stroma. I've not been able to find out much about them. Are any of you members? I feel they're a bit new to the game, but that might be a good thing, as the NIc long since got more concerned with stickers and H+S bull than wiring. As I'm purely domestic, my customers don't know or care about NIC's cachet (or even part P), so at £300 I'm prepared to give it a go. They answer the phone and e-mails well. Like all beaurocrats they assume we're all IT savvy and sitting at the screen 24/7. They want a lot of docs scanned and e-mailed (but before they take your money) so that's OK, once you have worked out your scanner and attaching and stuff. So thinking I'd ticked all the boxs, I sent off the money, only to presented with another 8 page form.I did me best,but about 6 questions such as
Please provide a copy of your procedure in relation to record keeping and how it meets the requirements of the CPS Standard(s) reference in Section 2.0. |
They didn't reply to that ,but set my assessment date for 30/10. I'll update you then.