The major dramas caused by Brexit and covid have, we hope, passed for now, but new challenges and procedures keep popping up. We’ve all noticed favourite brands of cereal, cat food and other products disappearing from shop shelves and never replenished.
Having been out of business during covid, I went to deposit my first cheque in over a year. The bank refused to accept it, and told me that as I hadn’t deposited any cheques for so long, I was no longer allowed to do so, and had to go to a specific branch to ‘update’ my account. It seems bank transfers, withdrawals and general spending are fine, but now to deposit cheques one must update one’s details every three years – supplying up to date passports, utility bills and payslips or social insurance receipts.
My partner recived a letter from his bank stating that as he had not used his sterling account in so long, they were closing it. He asked to convert it to a euro account, and was asked for proof of address – the fact that he’d held an account for two years and gone through all the checks, had an MEU3, and a letter FROM THE BANK addressed to him, was not enough. This is always a challenge as our utility bills are all either in my name or our landlady’s. To gain the MEU3 we got a letter from our local Mukhta confirming we have both lived at our address from multiple years, which has opened many official doors since. We daren’t ever move house.
Post to and from the UK has become a thorny issue. Yesterday a text came through on my phone saying there was a parcel to collect at the post office, and to bring the sales invoice. It didn’t say who the parcel was for or from, so we each tried to remember anything we’d ordered and printed off anything appertaining to the purchases, and both set off for the post office.
Masks on, safe passes shown and scanned, and we were allowed inside to join the queue.
At the front of the queue, I showed the text message, which prompted the lady to announce my name. A small package was tossed onto a table to another colleague, who was dealing with another queue, and I was told to join that queue.
Paul meanwhile went to queue at the SENDING counter for his own adventure.
At the front of my second queue I found myself behind a fence put up to keep a distance from the counter, where behind a perspex screen a lady waved the package about and asked “How much you pay for this?”
“I don’t know”, I replied “I don’t know what it is yet.” She held it still, but still no closer.
I knew my brother in the UK had posted me a phone case, and it looked about the right size, so I said “I think it’s a phone case”
“No, it’s not”. She snapped. How did she know that?
“I don’t know what else it can be” I said, upon which she grabbed some scissors and opened my package, pulling out a rather sweet little fabric case with a dog on it.
“I’ve never seen that before” I said, “it must be a gift”.
She grunted, puts it back in the wrapping, tossed it to a third colleague, and, yep, instructed me to join his queue.
At the front of the third queue, I had to sign a lengthy form, entirely in Greek, but, unlike the people before me, I wasn’t charged anything. Hooray! I was then finally allowed to receive my package, which turned out to be an embroidered fabric sunglasses case, an intended surprise birthday gift from my mother (who had posted it four months previously).
Meanwhile, Paul had joined the queue to post a small present to Mum in the UK. I gave him the addressed envelope and money, but he was told that to send a package to the UK one must now fill out a form online and get a code, then present package and code to the counter. So he had to wait til I’d got through my system, then we went online on my phone.
The website has many teething issues, and it took many attempts to get it to produce a code. When it finally came through, I went to the counter and showed the screen with the code. “It’s too small, please read it to me” the lady said, handing me back the phone, closing the screen as she did so, necessitating starting over again. I won’t say what the gift was, as chances are this will be online long before Mum receives her present!
Who knows what’s next…
