Friday, 6 February 2009

Is it me?

I am worried! It appears that I am turning into Victor Meldrew. It has been happening to me for years but recently the transformation has accelerated and it can only be a matter of days before I am to be seen standing on the front doorstep, shouting 'I don't believe it' at the top of my voice.
The events of yesterday only hastened this change. Leaving the snowball event to one side, we were waiting for a couple of spare parts for our central heating system to be delivered. They had been delivered the day before, but of course we were out at the time and the parcel had been taken back to the depot. I called round to the depot later in the day to collect it but was informed that "..it hadn't come back yet.." How the postman in the office knew this without checking or even looking at the card remains a mystery, but I arranged for them to re-deliver it the following morning.
By early afternoon the parcel still hadn't arrived so, leaving Malcolm at home in case it did, I again went to the depot to see what was happening. I arrived to witness another couple of people arguing with the postman about why they had managed to get to work in the snow but not one of the postal delivery men had managed it!
Eventually they left, fuming and still without their post so I tried my luck. I explained the situation and asked if my parcel was still at the depot. The postman looked me in the eye and immediately lied to me saying "..it is on the van.." and "..it will be delivered as arranged.." After I pointed out that as the yard was still full of post vans that had obviously not been moved all day and asked him to check anyway, he reluctantly did so. He returned two minutes later with my parcel which I signed for and then left.

Getting home with the parcel I opened it, only to find that neither of the two parts were correct. So I phoned the company and spoke to what sounded like a teenage idiot who obviously would have rather been playing in the snow. After explaining that I had ordered the parts on-line from the original part numbers as printed in the actual manuals which came with the heating system, he informed me that "..we don't use those numbers.." I am not a great fan of being treated like some kind of pond-life, so the inference that it was all my fault and I should have known that this particular company uses some completely arbitrary system for labeling their parts, didn't go down too well. Eventually the idiot on the phone gave me a returns authorisation code and asked me to return the parts for a refund - which "..will take up to 30 days to process as they are very busy at this time of year.." Frankly, if none of their part numbers bare any resemblance to the actual part numbers, I am not surprised that their returns office is so busy.
So here we are, still without the spare parts needed for our heating system (which by the way, is working with a little persuasion), having spent money to send back the spare parts which I didn't order and waiting a month for our money back. Can nobody get anything right any more?

OK, end of rant!

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