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Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Drama Queen


March 12- Today has been the first day where I have felt poorly in quite a while. I know that may sound strange, given I have just had major surgery but it’s true. So, I’ve had a tummy upset for over 24 hours and this morning I soiled myself in front of my son. I legged it to the toilet and after this, my son and my best friend have done nothing but take the piss out of me all day. I then contacted my GP about feeling unwell and he told me to stop taking the anti-biotics as they are likely to have caused the stomach upset. He was not aware of how long it had been since the operation and had received no documentation from the hospital. I agreed to forward the letter the hospital gave to me for his attention. I also recalled that when the hospital discharged me, the letter they gave to me was addressed to a completely different GP and I recalled questioning them, about this. At which point they amended the letter with my correct GP details. I informed my GP of this and how incompetent Princess Margaret hospital administration was given I had already provided them with my GP details twice, verbally and in writing. He empathized and agreed to obtain my medical information from my consultant.  Some 2 hours later I receive a text message from my consultants PA apologizing for having to re-arrange my appointment, but due to re-arrangements of the clinic she asked if I could see the consultant the following day at another hospital. Now I’m really annoyed because I’ve not had a shower for 2 weeks and he was going to take the dressings off which would allow me to shower tomorrow. I decided to call his office and be assertive. I informed them that I was not prepared to change the appointment and also I was not prepared to argue the issue with my insurers who would only pay 60% of the costs of being seen at a hospital that was not Princess Margaret. So, no I asked to be seen at Princess Margaret. My consultants PA was not available and I was informed she would get back to me. Shortly after, my consultant called me and apologised for the confusion and confirmed he would still like to see me tomorrow. I informed him of the lack of information that my GP had received and he said he had informed my GP of the outcome of the surgery and with other information but he would check if this was sent. He confirmed I should stop the anti-biotics as they would have caused the stomach upset. He also reminded me to register with a national health GP as the whole process is likely to last 18 months to 2 years. Great it’s now gone from 1 year to 2 years, WTF. Can I have a cig?
Amongst all this I have a flat viewing booked that now needs to be re-arranged. Not to mention the fact I had one of my worst and best weeks of my life last week. Could this get any more emotional!!
I ring my daughter for some sympathy and when I tell her that I had an accident this morning she tells her house mate and they are cracking up with laughter. Seriously was anyone going to take this shit seriously, it was all pants I find myself saying and my daughter just laughs, ‘exactly mum’. What can I say but laugh. I tell her this better not go any further and she says she wouldn’t tell anyone else. I wasn’t concerned about anyone else because her house mate would tell everyone, who then said she had made a doodle of it and posted it on Instagram. This is not why we have children!!
Having said that, I woke up this morning to such a beautiful message from my daughter, she called me a superstar. I would say the superstar in these circumstances was the managing director of Ticket.dk. So, my daughter had booked her flight to Australia through this company and when she informed them of my condition they were very unsympathetic, they refused to give her a refund and she was getting stressed. Because of this I did some research into the company and the CEO of the company. On Sunday morning, I sent the CEO an e-mail in the following terms:

Dear Katarina

I write to you following international women’s day and to another female who has clearly achieved a great deal in receiving an award of young managing director of the year.

I write on behalf of my daughter who lives and works in Copenhagen. She booked a flight to Australia in January through ticket.dk. We were due to visit my son in Australia in March, however shortly after booking flights I was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy on 27 February 2018. Unfortunately, I still have some cancerous cells and will need to undergo chemotherapy in the next 5-6 weeks. I booked flights in the UK through another travel agency and my daughter booked flights through ticket.dk. The diagnosis came only 2 weeks or so after we had booked the flights. Neither myself nor my daughter had taken out insurance as this was our next step but were consumed with the news of the cancer. I am in the process of recovering a refund from my travel agency in relation to my flight. 

Because of the diagnosis my daughter has had to travel to the UK several times to assist me as I live on my own and will continue to do so in the next year whilst I undergo chemotherapy. 

Due to time constraints, stress and the fact my daughter was having to travel to the UK several times as well maintain her job in Copenhagen she did not have time to contact the travel agency until last week. The flight was booked through Ticket.dk and with Qatar airlines. Qatar airlines confirmed to my daughter that they would not have an issue with authorizing a refund however the request would have to be made via the travel agency. She spoke to an adviser at Ticket.dk who was extremely rude and unsympathetic to the situation and insisted that no refund was available as my daughter had not taken the ticket guarantee. As you can appreciate this has been a very stressful situation for us as a family not to mention the fact that I have had to inform my daughter that at some point in her life she is likely to suffer with breast cancer. 

I understand your cancelation policy states ‘In case you have to cancel your trip and have not signed cancellation protection, we will of course try to help you get back as much as possible of the travel price at an administration fee. If you have signed a cancellation policy, you can cancel your trip according to the current cancellation policy.’

I attach the e-mail below that my daughter received from your company. Whilst the e-mail does state that the company can refund some of the taxes and fees, there is no mention of whether the company will be refunding any amount to my daughter. 

I am appealing to you as one professional women to another and as a mother to consider this situation and if possible assist my daughter in recovering some of her money back, if not all. 

I have been writing a blog regarding my journey through this cancer and the frustrations I have had to face with various situations that have occurred and the responses of employees of different companies, which has surprisingly been accessed by several hundred individuals. Not to mention the additional stress this has placed on us as a family. The site is called www.coulditbecancer.co.uk should you have any friends or family that may be experiencing similar life changes.

I would like to thank you in advance for your kind assistance in this matter and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Harjit Gill
Solicitor

Within 1.5 hours this lady had responded to me and within 24 hours we were told the company would refund a substantial amount of the cost of the flight back to my daughter. Now how impressive is that! The CEO of this company is called Katarina Petrini and what an amazing woman to acknowledge my plea and respond so promptly and efficiently. That is why this lady has done so well for herself and she should be proud of who she is as a woman.
Then there are people in this world who cannot see beyond the end of their own nose. I was in House of Fraser in Guildford the other day. I saw a top in Coast and it was reduced by 20% due to a fault. The fault would increase over time and the top was still quite dear but it was nice. There were 2 young women at the till and I asked if the top could be reduced any further. One said they did not work for Coast but that she would try and locate a Coast manager. When she left the other one whose name was Silvia, turned to me and said, ‘we cannot reduce it any more than 20%’. When the other one returned to inform me there was no Coast manager, I asked her if her colleague owned Coast, but the joke went over their heads. I decided to buy the top and Silvia asks me if I have a recognition card, I say no not knowing what one is. I buy the top and move on to buying a jacket from another department, where the young lady also asks me if I have a recognition card. Only this time she informs me that she can give me a card after taking some details and I would get 20% of every purchase. I thank her and explain that I had just bought a top from another department and they did not tell me about this promotion, she advises me to return to that department, which I do. I proceed to explain to Silvia what had just happened and that she did not tell me that I would get 20% off and that she could give me a card today. She then contacts her manager and proceeds to explain the situation omitting parts of the truth. She then explains that she would have to refund the top and then charge it again. While she is doing this, she turns to me and says the promotion is all over the store. At which point I proceed to tell her that I have just had surgery for breast cancer 10 days ago and that I have other things on my mind than to pay attention to promotions. I also proceed to tell her how poor her customer service was. She could not look at me. I was so upset that I could not sign the return receipt because my hand was shaking so much. The whole ordeal lasted around 40 minutes and all I wanted was to buy a nice top to wear to a dance on Saturday night. Not that difficult, you would have thought. I am now beginning to believe I must be a drama queen because drama just seems to follow me around and if I don’t laugh I would cry all the time.



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