Sorted.

Extremely pleased with myself.
Odious little man (Steve from Accounts) rang again from VISION PUBLICATION GROUP (see last post) and asked me again for the money I so called 'owed'. I had, in the time since our last dear little phone call, contacted Trading Standards, and a very kind solicitor from the Federation of Small Businesses. Between the two of these phone calls, I managed to get a letter together to send to Vision. This letter was unsent but ready to go, when Steve (see above) called.
I hit him with it.
Gave him What For.
Told him about the business forums I had found on the internet, where at least 30 other people had experienced the same thing FROM THE SAME COMPANY!
Told him about contacting Trading Standards and the FSB legal department.
Told him that unless he provided concrete evidence that I HAD confirmed the invoice, that I would be contacting the police for harassment.
I was on a roll, my voice no longer quiet and uncertain, but booming and confident and DETERMINED that the bullying should stop.
Steve from Accounts told me that I should talk to Andy from Accounts.
And rang off. Fast.
Next day we got a call from Vision saying that the invoice had been cancelled.
Ridiculous, eh? Like a bully in the playground who just needs someone to stand up to him.
Anyway, I did.
And will NOT be getting into the same situation ever again.
Do you know what? I actually asked to listen to the recording of the so called confirmation phone call. I sounded so damned NICE and NORMAL, if a little bewildered by the assumption that I had agreed to an advert. I could hear my voice saying, 'Actually I need to talk to my colleague,' and 'This sounds good in theory but in practice...' etc. All interrupted. All ignored. And all to the background of the children at my pre-school playing...
Makes me steam with rage that people take advantage like that.
And so, while I will always remain polite, I will never again fall into that trap.
It just goes to show how the very worst of mankind use the nice people out there for their gain.
But not this time.

GO AWAY!

Aren't pushy people on the phone just the pits?
Was rung up last week by odious little man who demanded money from us for an invoice supposedly confirmed, by phone, a month or so before. The invoice was for an advert, with money going towards a charity. We had already done one advert in the summer, and were SO not up for yet another one. I explained to him, very nicely, that we were a tiny little pre-school, and not really up for forking out another £600 when we needed every penny for the children. I was sure that he understood, blah, blah,blah.
He didn't.
At all.
He started to get rather unpleasant, and told me that there was a 'recording of the confirmation', and invited me to listen to it.
Which I did.
And could hear myself, (cor, I didn't 'alf sound posh and all) saying Yes to this, and Yes to that, and then explaining that I would be delighted to give the money but not now... and then being talked over by the voice at the other end, before the phone call abruptly ended, and I was left with a £600 bill.
But...!
But...!!
And all of this happening because I am polite to a pushy, aggressive sales person last October.
Believe me, it's hard enough telling these people to naff off when sitting quietly at one's desk, surrounded by paper work and Stuff. But to be surrounded by 20 small children, at our pre-school, one holding my hand, the other needing their nose wiped, it becomes almost impossible to give one's full attention to a full spate of sales technique at the other end of the phone. I kind of zoned out when the pushy sales lady (who rang right in the middle of a morning session at our pre-school) went on and on about how kind we were, and what she wanted, and how she was going to go about doing things for us. But I put the phone down knowing that I hadn't committed to anything. Phew!
Only to get another phone call some time later saying that they were so delighted that I would like another advert (costing £600) and how would I like to pay.
Stutter!
What?!
I was totally taken aback by their engineering of the conversation to make it sound like I HAD confirmed.
The very dull end to this very dull tale is that I am now in the process of trying to prove that I did NOT commit to yet another advert in some poxy publication and that we will NOT be paying out £600 for an advert we don't want.
It is taking up hours of my time, and I am getting more and more annoyed as each phone call, email, letter goes on.
I now have Trading Standards on the case, plus the Federation of Small Businesses.
Feels like bullying. It really does.
Cross your fingers for me, folks.