University Challenged
Ok, so it's council stupidity, not corporate, but it's certainly in the spirit of this QOTW...

Back in the 1990s, when I started university, my grant cheque was late turning up in the first term. Given my LEA was the London Borough of Lambeth, that was hardly a surprise. They weren't exactly famed for their efficiency. But as days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, there was still no sign of it and I was starting to get a little worried, although whenever I rang them they insisted it had been sent out to my university.

Someone suggested I go to the assistant dean of students to get her to take it up on my behalf. Again, with the phone on speaker so I could hear what was being said, they insisted to her that it had been sent out. We were getting nowhere. Then she had the bright idea of asking them to confirm the address they had sent it to.

After the sound of some papers being shuffled, they were back with the answer: 'University of Wales College of Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Wales..." Upon being challenged as to why they'd sent it to Aberystwyth when I was, in fact, in Cardiff as they well knew, there was a pause, followed by: "Er... isn't Cardiff in Aberystwyth...?"

The cheque was still late every term for the next four years, but at least it eventually arrived in the correct part of Wales instead of somewhere else 73 miles away. Never found out why Aberystwyth sat on the cheque instead of sending it back to Lambeth or on to Cardiff either.
(Capo, Thu 23 Feb 2012, 22:51, Reply)