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So, following on from the last entry on the subject, Russells emailed ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atreic with more details of the appliance insurance. atreic 'phoned them up, and they said they'd send someone round today between 8 and 6. She pointed out this was utterly unreasonable, as we both have jobs and can't just sit at home all day, so it was agreed that the engineer would call atreic's mobile an hour before he was going to turn up.
At about eleven this morning, the phone went at home. It was the landlord's mother(!), who was confused as to why the engineer has just phoned her up. I explained what was going on, and told her to tell them to callatreic's mobile, as we'd told them once already. I gave her atreic's mobile number for this purpose. Shortly afterwards, the landlord's mother phone's atreic to tell her all of this. atreic then phones him and gives him her number (which he has already, suprise, suprise). Mid-afternoon, she's not heard anything, so calls him, but fails to get any useful reception, and then is cut off, only to get answerphone thereafter. atreic then calls the call center to be told that the engineer has recorded a "I called, but they were out", and that they can't send us anyone again until the 20th, well over a fortnight after the dratted thing failed in the first place. To cap it all, our "Property Manager" at Russells is on holiday until Monday.
I am furious. I am utterly sick and tired of being fucked around by these useless muppets. Tommorow morning, Russells are going to get an exceedingly stroppy email from me demanding Something Be Done. It's not my fault if they didn't know about the stupid appliance insurers, it's not my fault if said insurers can't pass on instructions to their engineers, and I'm sick of not having a working washing machine. I'm meant to be renting a furnished property, for crying out loud!
[Edited in light ofatreic's comment
atreic with more details of the appliance insurance. atreic 'phoned them up, and they said they'd send someone round today between 8 and 6. She pointed out this was utterly unreasonable, as we both have jobs and can't just sit at home all day, so it was agreed that the engineer would call atreic's mobile an hour before he was going to turn up.At about eleven this morning, the phone went at home. It was the landlord's mother(!), who was confused as to why the engineer has just phoned her up. I explained what was going on, and told her to tell them to call
atreic's mobile, as we'd told them once already. I gave her atreic's mobile number for this purpose. Shortly afterwards, the landlord's mother phone's atreic to tell her all of this. atreic then phones him and gives him her number (which he has already, suprise, suprise). Mid-afternoon, she's not heard anything, so calls him, but fails to get any useful reception, and then is cut off, only to get answerphone thereafter. atreic then calls the call center to be told that the engineer has recorded a "I called, but they were out", and that they can't send us anyone again until the 20th, well over a fortnight after the dratted thing failed in the first place. To cap it all, our "Property Manager" at Russells is on holiday until Monday.I am furious. I am utterly sick and tired of being fucked around by these useless muppets. Tommorow morning, Russells are going to get an exceedingly stroppy email from me demanding Something Be Done. It's not my fault if they didn't know about the stupid appliance insurers, it's not my fault if said insurers can't pass on instructions to their engineers, and I'm sick of not having a working washing machine. I'm meant to be renting a furnished property, for crying out loud!
[Edited in light of
atreic's comment
angry
(no subject)
No no no no no no no.
You phone me to say "Huh? The landlords mother just phoned here"
While I'm on the phone to you, the phone gets a second call, so I hang up curtly with you, expecting it to be the washing machine man.
Instead, it's the landlords mother, who starts very politely with "you don't know who I am but..."
She explains that the guy has phoned her instead, and gives me his number, which I write on the back of my christmas shopping list.
So then I phone up the washing machine guy (I think, this is all getting a bit hazy) and he says "What time?" or words to that effect, and I say "Look, I really don't mind so long as you do what you said you'd do and phone us the hour before" and he says "Oh, it'll have to be the afternoon now", and I say "yes, that's fine, whatever, just phone me", and he says "You'd better give me your number", so I give him my number and he says "Oh, I've got that number already." Well, doh!
Then mid afternoon (3.30 ish?) I get a bit worried I haven't heard from him, so phone him. Someone does answer, but the reception at his end is atrocious and we spend two minutes shouting hello at each other before the phone cuts off. I try to phone him twice more and get his answerphone each time, leave him a message saying "It's getting late, what happened?" and then I phoned the central washing machine repair centre.
(no subject)
How long is reasonable? My gut reaction is "unknown engineer getting time" + "1 day", but I don't know. It's definitely a wet spaghetti situation: your only ability is to push them, who just dither, and try to push the landlord, who tries to push the appliance insurance, etc.
I'm thinking about getting someone out yourself and trying to pass the bill on. But I don't know if it would stick -- the house isn't actually unlivable, and landlord and russel's are going to bounce the responsibility between them.
Any experts?
(no subject)
That was what I was going to suggest. If you want to have one last shot at preserving some kind of amicable relations with them, you could offer to get somebody in yourself & send them the bill, "to make things easier".
(Worst case scenario: you pay for the repairs yourself. How much is it worth to you to have a working washing machine?)
Oh, and write to them snail-mail (rather than emailing), recorded delivery. That way it's harder for them to deny they ever got the letter if/when things go foom. :-/
(no subject)
However, Russels can't pay to have it fixed / get a new one unless the landlady consents, and the landlady won't consent because she wants it repaired under her policy (which is probably void anyway, because she hasn't told them she's not living in the house, and they get more and more confused every time I tell them I'm not Mrs O'Keefe I'm her tenent). And her people are the muppets I've been dealing with today.
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Unfortunately, some time between then and the summer, the landlady forgot to renew the boiler insurance, and the boiler developed another fault. There ensued a seven-week saga as we tried to get an engineer from the boiler people, the landlady tried to renew the insurance, the insurance people told us they were waiting for her cheque, that the cheque had arrived but was stuck in the postroom, and finally that the job wouldn't be covered by the insurance after all because too much time had elapsed since it had run out. Thankfully the weather was mild and the shower heats its own water, so it didn't matter too much that the boiler only came on when it felt like it.