Sorted

Following my results, this morning I received an official letter from UCAS informing me that I have been accepted for the changed course, and would I please accept or decline the offer? Checking the course code, it turned out to be an offer for the three-year Comp Sci course as opposed to the four-year one that I had asked for.

Sigh. The rest of my day went like this:

1. Phoned the Physics admissions tutor who I'd spoken to two weeks ago.
2. Left message on his voicemail asking him to call me back.
3. Phonecall was returned within ten minutes, I explained the situation and he said, "Ah, whoops, that was possibly my fault for not passing on the message properly." He gave me the name and number of the Comp Sci admissions tutor who I should talk to.
4. I phoned the number, which rang and rang. A recorded message came on saying, "This is the message centre. Please key in the number of a mailbox or hold on."
5. I held on.
6. After half a minute of silence, another recorded message came on, saying, "This is the exchange. Please wait whilst your call is transferred."
7. I waited.
8. Another phone started ringing and ringing, and was eventually answered by a Real Live Person. I asked to speak to the relevant person, and she said, "Hold on, I'll just put you through."
9. I held on, and a third (presumably) different phone started ringing. And ringing.
10. After about three minutes of ringing it stopped, and a recorded message came on saying, "This is the message centre. Please key in the number of a mailbox or hold on."
11. 'This is interesting,' I thought. I held on.
12. After half a minute of silence, another recorded message came on, saying, "This is the exchange. Please wait whilst your call is transferred."
13. I waited.
14. Another phone started ringing, and was eventually answered by a different Real Live Person. I decided to play the odds, and again asked to speak to the admissions tutor.
15. "Just hold on a moment, please," came the reply, and so I held on.
16. Once again, a ringing phone. After a few minutes I heard (with mounting incredulity) a recorded message saying, "This is the message centre. Please key in the number of a mailbox or hold on."
17. 'This is very impressive,' I thought, and held on.
18. After half a minute of silence, another recorded message came on, saying, "This is the exchange. Please wait whilst your call is transferred."
19. I waited.
20. Eventually, a ringing phone was picked up by a third RLP. I was severely tempted to stay on for as long as I could and see whether it would just go around indefinitely, but this time when I asked for the admissions tutor, I was told, "He doesn't seem to be answering that number. Would you like me to give you the direct number?"
21. I tried the direct number. The phone was answered by someone else, and I once again asked for the person I wanted to speak to.
22. I was transferred, and the phone rang for five minutes solidly before the woman picked it up again, and said, "Who was it you wanted?"
23. Mounting irritation. I reminded her of the name.
24. "Oh, sorry, he's not in today. What did you want to talk to him about?"
25. I briefly explained, and she said, "Have you tried our admissions hotline?" [The general number that a lot of students will have been calling today and yesterday in order to try and negotiate an offer on the basis of the grades they'd achieved.]
26. I called the admissions hotline, and spent about five minutes explaining my situation to the woman who answered. She said she would put me through to the general Computer Science admissions number, and put me on hold for another five minutes.
27. As a nice surprise, the next person I spoke to knew all about my problem. She asked for my UCAS application number, and went away from the phone for a couple of minutes to try and locate my file.
28. When she came back she explained that things were rather hectic in the office, and it would take a little while to find my file. Could she phone me back in five or ten minutes?
29. Three and a half hours later, the phone rang.
30. I was told that the admissions tutor was quite agreeable to my being offered a place on the four-year course, and I would receive a confirmation letter from UCAS once they had been notified by the university.
31. As an afterthought, the phone call ten minutes later explained that due to the fool-proof UCAS computer system, the university can't change my course again having already done it once, unless I accept the three-year course first. Then it can be changed, and I'll get another confirmation letter with an offer for the four-year course.

Barring further screwups, though, it's sorted now. Thank goodness for that.