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Around a year earlier, Del had been rushed to hospital as he had stomach pains. At hospital, they found that he had cancer and began running tests. A week later he was told it was terminal and we were stunned. I know exactly where I was when we got the phone call. Ian and I were in the immigration office getting my visa stamped on my brand new passport.

When I first came to the philippines, Del and Tam were the first people I met.

After staying in hotels for a few weeks and after Ian was taken to hospital due to a stroke, I decided I would stay in the Philippines and began looking for an apartment. Del and Tam knew of a condo in the block next to them. Within a few days, I was moving in with the few bags I had.

I saw Del and Tam almost every day and they were my first friends here in the Philippines. We ate, went jogging and drank together. We got on great and they were always there for me as I was for them.

Del and Tam ran an event management company and Ian was regularly hired as the host. I offered to help with their events and regularly found myself at these huge events helping out on the technical side.

When Del and Tam took their annual business holiday, they invited me, which was very kind of them. It was the first trip I had taken to the beach in the Philippines and I came back home looking like a lobster. The sand was so hot, it burned my feet as soon as I stepped on it, even when I had flipflops on the sand would still spill onto my feet and burn them. The water was crystal clear and the warmest I have ever experienced. The seas around the Philippines are usually around 30c! Ian and I went diving for shells, most of which we still have today.

My condo was not as it seemed and the landlords ripped us off, charging for utility bills when we had been told that they were included in the rent, which was already extortionate. I moved out so that I could be closer to Ian and our kids.

After moving, I only saw Del and Tam a few times and we began to lose touch due to countless reasons and circumstances. Del and Tam were working hard as were Ian and I. Time took its toll, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and before we knew it, a year had passed.

Today is Dels wake and I wanted to write this post as a sort of farewell. Some things never die such as memories, friendship and love. I have thought about you every day Del and I will continue to do so until I meet my maker.

To quote Ralph Steadman “You left us with a blueprint old fellow, take it up with the gods, send word”.

I have been spending my time working in the house. Whenever I left the house, I was soaked with sweat within seconds.

For the first time in almost a year, I got the sun cream out and slapped some on.

At times, it was so hot, I had to quit working and go to the bedroom where I could angle the Air Conditioning unit to spray cold air at me.

This morning I took a shower and my head and face were tingling and itchy. I didn’t think much of it.

We headed out for a meeting with ABS CBN. As we walked through the corridors, Gerald Anderson was having photos taken and was about to do an interview. He greeted us, shaking my hand. “Great to see you again” I told him as headed down the corridor to our meeting. “You look red” Gerald shouted. “We must have caught the sun” we replied.

After the meeting, we were on our way out of the building, but Gerald was having an interview in the doorway. We were ushered out of the side of the doorway so that we did not interrupt the interview. Gerald stopped what he was doing (taking part in the interview), kissed Ian goodbye and shook my hand. “Take care bro” Gerald said. “Thanks a lot, you too” I replied.

Traffic had been bad all day. We got a cab to Robinsons mall so that we could get a plane ticket from Cebu Pacific for our trip to Cebu tomorrow (another story entirely).

On the way home, I wiped my chest with a towel and it stung. My chest had red blotches as if it were sunburned. However, I had not taken my shirt off over the past few days. I had no idea what it was.

It was only when I got home and Ian mentioned how red I looked, all over my face and back that it suddenly dawned on me. I have heatstroke. God damnit!

As I write this, it has started raining. The first time since the beginning of March!

Finally, the curtains are ballooning with the cool air flooding in through the open windows. In the distance, thunder rumbles like a huge machine heading our way pent on total destruction.

This brings with it two problems. Firstly, the rain could get into the cables and cab box (which it always seems to do) and my phone and/or internet would go dead. Secondly, the lightening could strike a power line, resulting in a blackout meaning no PC and even worse, no Air Conditioning!

I will hastily finish this post so that it can go live before anything happens and also because I need to run into my yard to unplug the washing machine extension cable so that it does not short out in the rain.

Take care everyone, will post more about Cebu as soon as I can, so make sure you check back.

Cebu Pacific are cheap, but they do what they can to ensure your journey is enjoyable and as comfortable as possible. While some of their prices are not the cheapest, they do offer more quality than some.

Philippines Airline are probably one of the best in my opinion. Their customer service is second to none, they do all they can to look after their customers and even bend rules when reserving tickets so that we can get the tickets we want with short notice and without having to turn up too early at the airport. They have their own airport in Manila that exclusively deals with Philippine Airline flights. The airport is clean, well looked after and comfortable.

AirPhil Express are fuckers and that is being overly nice about them. Their customer service is complete shit and their agents will avoid direct questions, refuse to provide information and even talk over you. Their website is broken and shows fatal errors. Their aeroplanes are poorly cleaned between short flights and when I was on the plane I found a half eaten meal in the seat pocket in front of me, the floor is filthy and some of the plane fixtures are broken.

We recently flew from Manila to Iloilo, both the outbound and return flights were early flights, taking off within a few hours of the sun rising. The outbound flight was nice. I had asked for the seat next to the main emergency exit. I do this on every flight for two reasons. Firstly and most importantly, I want to be next to the exit so that if the plane needs to crash, I can rip the exit open and get everyone out. Sitting in this seat requires you to agree that you will be responsible for the safety of the other passengers by being the person who opens the emergency exit and deploying the slide. I happily agree to do this so that I know that the passengers will be safe should the plane crash land. The second reason for wanting these seats is the leg room.

On our return flight, we again requested these seats, but they told us that the flight was fully booked, so if I wanted these seats I would need to pay 200 pesos per person. While that is not a lot of money, it angered me that they wanted me to pay so that I could be the nominated person who would be responsible for the passengers safety should the plane crash land. “So if the plane crashes, will I get my 200 pesos back” I asked. “no” was their reply. “Why do I have to pay you to sit in this seat when I have already paid for a seat and I am willing to take on extra responsibility in ensuring the passengers safety” I asked. The agent simply shrugged his shoulders.

I think it is perfectly reasonable for me to get the benefit of extra leg room in exchange for agreeing to man the exit should the plane crash, but out of principle, I will point blank refuse to pay for these seats.

It goes to show that AirPhil Express are so focused on money that they do not care for the safety of their passengers. I will never fly with them again and would not be surprised in the slightest if I saw one of their planes crash on the news due to poor maintenance.

My suggestion: book with Philippine Airlines, you will not regret it.

Saturday, February 5th, 05:30am

We got up and got ready to leave for our 08:30am flight with Cebu Pacific from Manila Terminal 3 airport to Tuguegarao airport. My back was pretty bad, so I took longer to get ready than we expected and we left the house late. By this time, the rest of the team was already at the airport waiting for us to arrive. When we got in a taxi and were most of the way to the airport, I realised that I had forgot my camera battery charger. It was too late to go back, so I would just have to save my battery power as much as I could as I was also taking photos of the groups at both events.
Arriving at Manila Terminal 3 airport, we checked in and went to our assigned gate to grab a coffee and have a cigarette before we were called to board the plane. In Manila, you have 3 main airports which are called “terminal 1″, “terminal 2″ and “terminal 3″. Most travellers confuse these for terminals of a single airport, but in reality they are entirely separate airports.

We were called to board the plane and boarded the bus to take us to the aeroplane which was an Airbus A319/A320. I personally hate Airbus planes and would much rather fly on a Boeing any day. I have never been on an Airbus where the tannoy system did not crackle and cut out.

Tuguegarao
Landing at Tuguegarao after flying for an hour and forty five minutes, we disembarked the plane onto the taxiway and walked to the airport terminal to collect our luggage.

From Tuguegarao airport, we got a trike into the centre of town so that we could board the people carrier to Isabela. The trike driver had his son with him sat infront of him on the motorbike. Ian and I were in the side-car while Dawnde and RR were sat on the back of the motorbike.

On the way to the centre of town we passed some goats tied up on the side of the road. Goat is commonly used for meat and milk in the Philippines. The smallest of these goats had something wrong with one of its legs, but who knows what the animals look like when you buy the pre cut and cleaned meat from the supermarket right? I noticed in the provinces, there are not many, if any, shops selling pre made food for you to cook at home. Everything is made fresh and many eateries line the streets serving burgers, sisig, pansit and loads of other local foods.

We arrived at the centre of town where a whole row of people carriers were waiting to take people all over the area. We were immediately swarmed by people trying to sell us doughnuts, drinks and other local food. We found the people carrier going to Isabele and I squeezed myself into the back seat and I mean SQUEEZED. Even so, we still had to pay for two seats for me because we could only get 2 other people in the back with me when normally you would have been able to get 3.

The people carrier sped along the roads as soon as it got out of Tuguegarao. The roads follow the shape of the valley and in some areas they are in a terrible state with areas of the road washed away in floods. Some roads we used were just gravel while others were at angles so steep that I thought the vehicle was only a few degrees away from tipping over, although in reality, it was probably not even close.

After an hour and forty minutes, we arrived at Isabela Town Hall right next to the basketball court where the Chooks to go event was due to be held in a few hours. We got a trike over to the Queen Jennifer Hotel where the production staff were staying so that we could leave our bags behind and only take what we needed to the event. Before leaving the Queen Jennifer Hotel, we went to the hotel restaurant and grabbed a bite to eat. Ian ordered the local special pancit. We ordered a beer, a rum and coke, pancit for Ian), cheeseburger & fries (for me) and a packet of cigarettes. The bill was 290 pesos which is £4.15. We were highly surprised at how cheap it was. We paid for the meal, leaving a nice tip and headed out to get a trike to the Chooks to go event in the basketball court.

As I was outside the basketball court having a cigarette, I saw a huge moth on the wall and snapped a few pics of it.

These are a few photos of Ian on stage at the event.

After the event had finished at 6pm, we called the driver of the people carrier so that he could pick us up from close to the hotel to go to Tuguegarao. By this point, I had found a shop and bought 6 cans of beer to drink on the way to Tuguegarao. Yey! Ian asked if we could hire the driver tomorrow morning to go to Callao caves and he agreed to do it for 1200 pesos (£17) for the 4 hours we would need him. This would be a very easy job for him as he would be joining us in the caves and anywhere else we went and it would also be ideal for us because Rolly (the driver) was from Tuguegarao and seemed to know everyone.

An hour and forty minutes later, we were in Tuguegarao and the diver kindly offered to find a hotel for us. The first hotel that we went to was fully booked, but luckily the second hotel had rooms available. Our room was awful. Tape over the plugs, water stains on the ceiling and no seat on the toilet. While toilet seats are not normal in the provinces, the other rooms did not have taped plugs and sockets or water stains on the ceiling.

We went out to get some food and found a small restaurant where the staff were all smiles. We sat down and ordered our food. The staff recognised Ian from TV which happens a lot when we are out. After a while, most of us became uneasy that the staff were so happy. We later found out that almost everyone in Tuguegarao seems happy and they are very welcoming. We finished our food and went back to the hotel to get some sleep as it was already almost midnight.

Sunday, February 6th, 08:00am

We got up and got ready to go downstairs and meet Rolly (the driver) at 9am. A quick shower and we hurried downstairs to find that he was already there ready and waiting for us.

Coffee and an armed military policeman
First port of call for me was COFFEE! We asked the driver to stop at a food stall that we could get coffee from and before long, we found one. We got out of the people carrier and I saw a policeman at the stall who I had seen earlier screaming at traffic. He was now sat at the food stall drinking coffee and occasionally getting up to scream at traffic that was trying to park or blocking traffic.

Now, before I tell you what happened, I have to tell you where I am coming from. In the UK, the police are not armed, nor are any security guards. In Spain where my main experience abroad has been does not have many guns. The Spanish police only have pistols. So, as you can understand, when I came to the Philippines I was shocked to see police and security guards with pistols, shotguns and assault rifles. I find it unnerving at times when I come face to face with police, security or anyone else with serious weaponry such as assault rifles especially when the provincial police are dressed in camouflage and are an arm of the military.

When I had not been in the Philippines for long, we went to an event in the provinces and I was acting as I did when I was in Spain, greeting all the police politely as I walked past them. One of the people in the team warned me to avoid eye contact with them as they have been known to arrest someone they think has money, pin a fake charge on them and ask for money to be set free with no charges. In other words, extortion.

So, as you can imagine, when I walked up to this food stall to get my morning coffee and had to stand right next to the armed military policeman in camouflage who was sat at the food stall, I was nervous as hell. The policeman looked at me immediately and I smiled. He put out his hand and I shook it. “Hello” he said. “Hello po, it’s good to meet you sir” I said. He started asking Ian what we were doing and where we were going, not in any nasty way, but out of genuine interest. Ian told him that we were heading to see the Callao caves. The food stall staff handed us our coffees and the policeman wished us a nice day and we were off back in the people carrier. I was not sure what to think. The policeman seemed genuine, but you can never be too sure and I am always on my guard.

The fishing field
As we drove through Tuguegarao, we saw a group of men in a small field throwing fishing nets around. My immediate instinct was to think “what the hell”. Rolly (the driver) shouted out his window, asking what they were doing. They told him that the field irrigation led from and to the river and they had seen fish in this field, so they had closed off the irrigation and were in the process of cornering and catching the fish.

2nd longest bridge in Philippines
Our first location was the Buntun Bridge which is the second longest bridge in the Philippines. Bridges make nice photos due to the linear structures. I got a few photos of the bridge and some of the view including the sign in the hills for Solana. Is it just me, or does it look like “SOLANA_”? What’s the deal with the underscore? Please leave a comment if you have any idea.

Rolly offered to stop in the middle of the bridge so we could get more photos and I loved the idea. However, I thought there would be a space to pull over, but there was not. We jumped out of the people carrier and got a few photos before traffic backed up behind our parked vehicle. A truck was overtaking and as he drove past he blasted the horn. Both Ian and myself assumed this was because he was pissed off at the traffic, just like they do in Manila. However, when he drove past our vehicle he slowed down and leaned out of his window. We fully expected to hear abuse, but instead he shouted “hello, take a photo of me”, stepping on the gas and driving away.

Under the Buntun bridge
We stopped at the end of the bridge and parked up. Ian and I hopped out and walked down the road which led down the side of the bridge and onto the rice fields below. There were a few herons in one of the fields, some wooden hand made houses under the bridge and children playing. Amongst the garbage under the bridge, a hen and her chicks were walking along a stream. A farmer in the distance walked across his field. The children playing under the bridge recognised Ian from TV.

Tickle me
We came across the Makahiya which is a common weed here in the Philippines, but is also being sold for $20 in the USA and elsewhere. When you touch the plants leaves, they close (see video).

We walked back to the vehicle and headed on to the Callao caves. On our travels we regularly see vehicles with people on top of them, even when we are back home in Manila. This is something that I had never seen until I came to the Philippines.

Corn and knives made from train tracks
Passing a stall on the side of the road next to a corn field selling corn, we stopped to get some for Ian and Rolly. I was still looking for more COFFEE! In the field next to the stall were two buffalo’s. I have never seen a buffalo up close before and just had to get a couple of photos of them. The stall next to the corn stall was selling knives made from train tracks that will last a lifetime. I almost bought some just for the novelty of having knives made from train tracks.

As we got back into our vehicle we saw a Calesa (horse drawn cart) and a buffalo pulling a cart.

As we entered Pina Blanca, they had a huge sign welcoming travellers and celebrating the Callao caves.

Before carrying onto the caves, we decided to stop next to the bridge and take a short walk to the Cagayan river.

I saw a young woman on a bamboo raft travelling down river. I grabbed my camera and lined up a shot. As I took a few photos, I tried to time it so that I would get capture her putting the bamboo ore into the water, making a splash. As I clicked my camera and the lcd screen went blank for a fraction of a second to take the photo. When the screen came back on, I was shocked to see that she was no longer on the raft. I watched closely to make sure she got back on the raft. When checking my camera later, I found that I had caught the very second that she fell off the raft.

The riverbank was filled with colourful stones, shells and volcanic sand. We gathered some of the sand and put it in a plastic bag for our vase at home where we add an inch of sand from every location we visit.

There were a few people at the rivers edge, some were fishing and some were washing clothes. Two young women were washing clothes in a still pool of water which gave a lovely reflection and I got a few photos of them. I love photos like this that tell a story.

As we walked back to the vehicle, I spotted a toad trying to hide under the grass.

The steps were a little tricky, I had to tip toe up them as only my toes fitted on the steps.

A road with a view
As we got closer to the Callao caves, we had a lovely view of the valley and stopped to get a few photos. Some areas are so unlike anything I have ever seen in person. I have been to hot countries before, but until I came to the Philippines, I had never seen such a tropical environment.

Bridge washed away
As we got to the bridge, we found that it had been washed away in a flood. But a local had made a bridge of his own using a sunken boat and random planks of wood. I got out of the vehicle so that I could cross the bridge and take a video of our vehicle crossing. The local who built the bridge was charging 100 pesos to cross it and come back again. Rolly is a great driver.

Crossing the Pena Blanca river
Arriving at the Cave Resort (a small hotel) on the Pena Blanca riverside, we walked down to the edge of the river as we needed to cross it. Here we found a guy in a boat, it was 20 pesos per person to get across the river and back. We jumped on the boat and headed across the river. The view was fantastic.

Callao caves
As we got off the boat and walked up the stairs, we found the welcome sign for the caves and the stall where we needed to buy our entrance tickets. A nice volunteer guide called James introduced himself and we walked towards the caves as Ian quizzed him on the background and details of the caves for the article she will write for our travel website DiscoverPH.com.

It seems that erosion has effected this area heavily with tree roots showing at the edge of the steel incline on our way up the 154 steps to the caves.

As we walked up the steps, there was a fantastic view. The steps were totally wonky, but most of them seem to have been here for at least 50 years.

Climbing the final steps, we saw the entrance to the cave. The first area is huge as you can see from the first photo. Walking into the next chamber of the cave, is a church right there in the cavern. There were many skylights allowing shafts of light to shine through as well as plants to grow within the cave. The caves are huge with many rock formations. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to go all the way to the back of the last chamber which is massive, but we stood at the entrance and could see most of it. We needed to get back to Tuguegarao for the Chooks to go event.

As we left the cave, we were told that it was found by Teddy Roosevelt who funnily enough was also the first vandal to scribble his name on the wall. Well done!

As we got to the foot of the steps, we had our photo taken with James, the volunteer guide and Ian also wanted a photo of me with the youngest guide there, a 13 year old boy who had to stand on his tip toes just to put his hand on my shoulder.

Back to the riverside for the trip back over the river to our waiting vehicle.

As we arrived on the other side of the river, I noticed a large old tree that looked like some kind of monster with coiled, thrashing tentacle like roots spreading in random directions breaking rocks into sand.

A bitch was also on the beach with her puppies, one was more inquisitive than the others and was sniffing around the sand and rocks, standing still and watching people on the riverside.

Jumping in the vechicle, we headed back to Tuguegarao. As we arrived at the home made bridge, I saw a buffalo in the river.

The weather seemed to be closing in and some of the mountainous areas were touching the clouds.

Arriving back at the Crown Hotel, we went to their restaurant and ordered lemon chicken with rice for me and sisig for Ian. The lemon chicken was nice, but the sisig was too creamy with too many onions.

After eating, we went to our room to get ready to go to the Chooks to go event. As we left the hotel and walked towards the sports hall, we both laughed at a banner advertising the “Big Boys Meatshop” which I thought sounded like a male whore house.

As we crossed the road to the sports hall, I got a lovely photo of a Calesa crossing the road.

Once we were in the sports hall, I sat down with the production crew and started transferring some of my photos. As the sun began to set, it sent shafts of light streaming to the floor. a few children were kicking a bottle around the floor and I was very happy with the photos I got of them. Ian and I then went to the corner of the sports hall to get some photos of Ian for her portfolio. The effect of the light and the surroundings made for some fantastic photos of Ian and the sports hall.

As the event began, some military police turned up to provide protection. There were three in all, one had a pistol, one had a shotgun and one had an assault rifle with a rucksack. It was a little unnerving. After all, I was the only white guy in town as far as I knew and I still didn’t know what the rest of the police were like there. I heard one of the police shouting at me, I turned around and it was the policeman from this morning at the food stall when I was getting traffic. I got up and walked over to the railing where he was. “Hello po, it’s great to see you again sir” I said shaking his hand. He gripped my hand, shaking it and smiling. “Hello, good to see you” he replied. I know at that point everyone was starring at me wondering who this white guy is who seems to know the local policeman. After that, I felt a lot more comfortable around the police at the event.

The event went very well and Ian really worked the crowd as she could talk about the local attractions and tell them that Tuguegarao is a really great place. You simply wouldn’t get this with another host as they simply wouldn’t have done the research or have the experience of the local area. The crowd loved it and cheered more than others I have seen at other events.

The event ended and we packed up and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Monday, February 7th, 08:00am

We got up and slowly got ready to leave at midday. Leaving the hotel, we got a trike to the airport, checked in and grabbed a drink. After a while, our flight was called and we headed inside the airport. The airport only has a daily total of 3 flights from 3 different airlines. The security staff at the airport were very nice, talking and joking with us. The people in Tuguegarao have been very friendly and made both myself and Ian want to move there if only we could.

Our plane landed and prepared for the return trip. Within 30 minutes, we were walking onto the plane. An hour and forty minutes later, we were back in Manila with the warm sun on our backs and smog in our face. Welcome home!

All the groups were fantastic and it is so sad to only be allowed one group per elimination to get through. Many of the groups had great moves and a lot of potential. If anyone wants more footage, please let me know as I have a little bit of every group as well as extras that I can send to you or make another video.

Thanks for watching, please remember to like or dislike the video on YouTube, like and share this post on Facebook, or even leave a comment on this post.

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I have interviewed many individuals and companies as I wanted to expand my SEO team and needed professionals who could do the work to the same standards as me. Yet, when I interviewed them, it quickly became clear that they were clueless. While I always hesitate to call these people scammers, I find it hard to find a better description for what it is that they are doing. It would be like a salesman selling you a fridge only for you to find out that it’s not a fridge at all, but a cooker. I simply detest anyone who claims they can do something and wants to charge for it when they actually have no idea at all how to do it. They are simply assuming that their client has less of an idea of how it is done and will never know that they are being ripped off.

When I see companies who do this, I can never idly stand by. I have to do something. I have to notify people of the situation.

This happened again yesterday. I saw a press release that claimed to be a PR company who used SEO. I checked the companies details and quickly built up a list of suspect information such as the poor SEO that had been done on their site. It seemed so poor that it was almost as if no SEO had been done at all. I also found out that the business was a “virtual business” with no postal address and the only phone numbers were mobile numbers. The final and most damning fact being that they were not even registered with the government here in the Philippines where their business is based.

After a few hours of research I had a lot of information and published it as a comment on the press release. It quickly attracted a lot of attention and comments came in from users who said that they were impressed with the level of in depth research that I had done on this issue.

Soon after, the business owner commented. He avoided all the issues I had posted and instead decided to simply try and brush it off by saying that as I was technically anonymous I can say whatever I want without consequences. That being true, I also stand by all my research. I am, after all, a professional. However, he is yet to actually reply to the issues that I had listed and the questions that I asked after his comment.

Now, it would seem as if I am going to have to take this issue further. The rest is top secret, but I will post full details as soon as it has been completed. You will be surprised to say the very least. I am sorry that I can not tell you any more, but you will get all the details as soon as I have authorization to release the information. For the time being, I have to keep it to myself.

However, I get one of my patented gut feelings that the business owner will threaten to kill me once he finds out what I will do. I do not just know how to do SEO with great success, I also have awards for clay pigeon shooting, obtaining 100% accuracy using a double barrelled semi automatic shotgun on fast, airborne, moving targets! Time to go gun shopping I think!

For now, this is 5uperman.

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Round One

Nathan answered the phone and told me that he would go and check what information I needed. When he came back he gave me a list of information and I quickly googled for it. When he said that I needed an IBAN, I told him that according to the information online, it is not used much outside Europe. For example, it is not used in the USA, Mexico or all of Asia. Nathan told me I was wrong. By this time, I had found many more websites saying the exact same thing and I asked where Nathan had got his information from. “I am new and am still being trained. I asked my supervisor to make sure I had the right information” Nathan told me.

Fair enough. Nathan had checked with his supervisor (who was in charge of this trainee), so I went away and checked the information I had further.

After a while of checking, I only saw the same info saying that IBAN was not used within Asia, or even outside Europe.

Round Two

I again called Lloyds TSB and talked to Annie. I explained the situation to her and she told me the same thing, that I would need an IBAN to transfer the money. I read her the information that I had and she was very very rude, talking over me and talking louder, telling me that I was wrong. “I have worked here for three years and every transfer needs to have an IBAN” she insisted. “where did you get this information from” I asked. She said she was told this information from the International Transfers Department. “Then I want to speak to them because they’re wrong” I told her. She said that she could transfer me, but added “they will only tell you what I have told you, that you need an IBAN”. After a while she came back to me without transferring me to them and said “I have just talked to the international transfers department and you are right, you do not need an IBAN number. I have been here 3 years and never knew that IBAN was not used outside Europe.” Not once did she say sorry.

Final Notes

So lets get this straight. The following people supplied exactly the same information

• Nathan – Trainee, only been on job a week or so.
• Nathans Supervisor – Supervisor in charge of Nathans team and Nathans Training.
• Annie – Has been with Lloyds TSB for THREE YEARS!

So, quite a spectrum of staff, one who is new and still in training, a supervisor and a member of staff who has been there for three years. All of whom gave me the same false information and all of whom said that their information came from the same department, yet said department provided the correct information as soon as they were contacted.

Surely its not just me that thinks this is less than acceptable for a bank.

And here are a few other stories to tickle your funny bone.

Lloyds TSB Help Fraudsters (another post of mine)

Lloyds TSB refuse 1500 pound loan, then pay out 1200 pounds for a mis-sold insurance policy

Lloyds TSB pay for huge advert cover spread in Metro Paper while the paper contains 4 page spread on Lloyds TSB being bailed out with public money