(no subject)
Gosh!
I've had to make a lot of calls to various British institutions regarding my university applications, some of them having been quite tedious. But all of them were a walk in the park compared to my phone call to the TOEFL-headquarters (which are in America, by the way).
After an endless number of "Press the star button to have this information repeated"-menus, I was finally allowed to talk to a real person. I had to explain my problem to her three times before she understood that, no, the code I'm looking for is NOT on the TOEFL-website. And, YES, I did check. Several times. I also had to spell Bolton for her. I was going to say, "Just like Boston with an L instead of an S", but I decided to be more co-operative (maybe I should have said, "Just like Notlob backwards.")
Anyways, when she finally did understand my problem, she was going to navigate me through the website and help me register for the test, which makes absolutely no sense, because if I hadn't registered already, I surely wouldn't be worried about filling in codes in the forms they sent you AFTER having registered. I told her that I was taking the test tomorrow. She was surprised and didn't know what to do, so she put me on hold for a very long time (for the second time even - the first time was when she was checking the code list of which I'd already told her that it didn't have the one I was looking for) which I used to spitefully munch sweets. After a tremendous waste of phone bill, I was told that the code I needed could be added if I paid 29 dollars. I saw absolutely no reason why I should be the one to pay that money, just because I happened to be the one to point out the missing code, but if I didn't pay, I wouldn't be able to go to Bolton, so I consented.
However, my Dad is working and my Mum is busy saving the world in some far-away country, so I didn't have a credit card at hand. I told the executive that I'd just call my Dad to get his credit card number and then call back. Which is exactly what I did. So, once again I had to fight myself through the menus, only this time I was so angry that I tended to mutter, "I hate you."
I got a different executive this time and she told me that I could sort this out at the testing center tomorrow and wouldn't have to pay. Yay for that!
Boo for beuraucracy and boo for Americans! Sorry to all the nice Americans I know, but... I can't think of a nice way to end this sentence.
I've had to make a lot of calls to various British institutions regarding my university applications, some of them having been quite tedious. But all of them were a walk in the park compared to my phone call to the TOEFL-headquarters (which are in America, by the way).
After an endless number of "Press the star button to have this information repeated"-menus, I was finally allowed to talk to a real person. I had to explain my problem to her three times before she understood that, no, the code I'm looking for is NOT on the TOEFL-website. And, YES, I did check. Several times. I also had to spell Bolton for her. I was going to say, "Just like Boston with an L instead of an S", but I decided to be more co-operative (maybe I should have said, "Just like Notlob backwards.")
Anyways, when she finally did understand my problem, she was going to navigate me through the website and help me register for the test, which makes absolutely no sense, because if I hadn't registered already, I surely wouldn't be worried about filling in codes in the forms they sent you AFTER having registered. I told her that I was taking the test tomorrow. She was surprised and didn't know what to do, so she put me on hold for a very long time (for the second time even - the first time was when she was checking the code list of which I'd already told her that it didn't have the one I was looking for) which I used to spitefully munch sweets. After a tremendous waste of phone bill, I was told that the code I needed could be added if I paid 29 dollars. I saw absolutely no reason why I should be the one to pay that money, just because I happened to be the one to point out the missing code, but if I didn't pay, I wouldn't be able to go to Bolton, so I consented.
However, my Dad is working and my Mum is busy saving the world in some far-away country, so I didn't have a credit card at hand. I told the executive that I'd just call my Dad to get his credit card number and then call back. Which is exactly what I did. So, once again I had to fight myself through the menus, only this time I was so angry that I tended to mutter, "I hate you."
I got a different executive this time and she told me that I could sort this out at the testing center tomorrow and wouldn't have to pay. Yay for that!
Boo for beuraucracy and boo for Americans! Sorry to all the nice Americans I know, but... I can't think of a nice way to end this sentence.