Friday, 21 June 2024
The vicar had a funeral that day and so he left early. I did a google search for the number for HMRC – it wasn’t in the letter! I guess they don’t want people to ring.
I found a number and rang that number to be told by a machine on the outset that the wait the day before was forty five minutes! I was all prepared for it. I put the phone on speaker mode and poached two eggs for my breakfast. After a leisurely breakfast, I did the washing up and tidied the kitchen. Then I sat on my computer to read my fellow bloggers! When I checked the telephone, it said I had been on hold for 45 minutes.
Just after an hour on the phone, somebody finally answered! Hallejulah! It was a very helpful lady with a Scottish accent. Unfortunately she couldn’t help me. She couldn’t access my record. She wanted to know if I or the vicar worked for the government and the answer was no. She gave me another number to ring. I told her that all I wanted to do was to pay the bill. She was very sympathetic and assured me that if I rang the other number, the call will be answered very quickly as it was a “special” line.
Anyway, I rang the other number and the call was answered in three rings!!!! I told my story to the young chap on the line and again he was very helpful. He offered to take the payment from me. Another Hallejulah!!! He asked for my postcode and realised that the letter had the wrong postcode. After I had made the payment, I wanted to know why they had missed out on the reference and that was when he dropped what I thought was a bomb! He said that it was because of the vicar’s occupation. According to him, if you work for the church you are treated differently and that is why only certain people could access our records! The reason why they couldn’t access mine was because I am married to him! After I rang off, I did feel special for 2 minutes!!
Secret Diary Of A Church of England Vicar's Wife 