Honourable mention

#1 (**Post Link**) 01-07-11

Up until yesterday, my first ****** of the week for quite a while cut and dried. It was an absolute certainty but then fate intervened and delivered another ****** into my life. However, the previous contender deserves a mention as, in any other week, he would have nailed it.

As some of you know, my bath got broken last week. When I spoke to my buildings and contents provider they gave me the option of having their claims assessor come round, establish that the bath was buggered then write and submit a report. On receipt of the report, the house insurer would agree it then commission a contractor to come round and fix the bath. This process can take several weeks. The other alternative was for me to find a plumber locally to quote for the job and they would pay out directly to me. This, they said, would be much faster in the circumstances. All I needed to do was send them the quote and a couple of snaps of the damage.

Within an hour of them calling me, I had obtained a price for a bath from the people who fitted our bathroom and found a plumber to quote for the job. So far so good.

On Thursday of last week the people who fitted our bathroom went into receivership so there will be no bath coming from them (unless I wait for the liquidation sale and get one for 50p). No matter though, it’s a standard size bath so how hard can it be? Not very was the answer, my local bathroom supplier has a range of suitable baths and can order them and get them the next day.

On Friday, the plumber came. I had already described the job quite accurately to him on the phone highlighting the problems the previous plumber had. He looked at it and established that it was possible to do the job without too much upheaval. It is possible that a few tiles could get broken he said so best to budget for a box. He said he understood the urgency and would provide a written quote later that day. After he went, I found a tile supplier who had something more or less identical so it was all going swimmingly.

Friday passed without a quote turning up. Saturday and Sunday were equally quoteless. On Monday morning I rang him up and he told me his wife had done the quote and would e-mail it to me. Great says I but you haven’t got my e-mail address. He told me he was just in the middle of something and would ring me back and get it shortly. At this point alarm bells started to ring if I’m honest because how long does it take to jot down an e-mail address? Did he ring me back? Did he ****?

I rang him again on Tuesday and got his answering service so I left a message. Did he ring me back? No he did not. It’s now Friday and I haven’t heard a thing from him. I haven’t bothered calling him again because he seems to be a waste of space (lets face it, he had 1st place in this competition in the bag and fumbled it) and if he did appear at my door the temptation would be to drag him to the bathroom and drown him.

What I don’t get is why last week on the phone he was dead keen and was ready to do the job at a few days notice. He came to look and was still dead keen. He reckoned it would be a bit of a fiddle because of the dimensions of the room but he’d done worse. He even described the process to me in such a way that I reckoned I could do it myself. He gave no indication whatsoever that he didn’t fancy it.

If there is so much plumbing work out there that he can pick and choose his jobs, how did he manage to find the time to come and have a look at it at short notice? What really annoys me though is that he has clearly decided he doesn’t want the job but doesn’t appear to have the minerals to ring me up to tell me. I’ve been left to come to that conclusion myself. My bath repair is now delayed by at over a week and I have to find another plumber who isn’t a cretin to do it for me.

bobda · #2 (**Post Link**) 01-07-11

When can we start calling you stinky Keith?

#3 (**Post Link**) 01-07-11

Originally Posted by bobda

When can we start calling you stinky Keith?

When I run out of gaffer tape to fix the hole with!

paintergirl · #4 (**Post Link**) 01-07-11

That's bad

I think you hit the nail on the head though when you said "is there that much plumbing work out there..." Without apprenticeships there are less and less skilled workers out there and the ones that are out there are so busy they can literally pick and choose their jobs. Mr PG actually went on someone's books at Chrimbo because he was swamped with work and found it difficult to say no or let folk down. He was working all hours and making himself badly. Your plumber here seems to be the opposite

Best bet is to ask around and get someone recommended to you.

#5 (**Post Link**) 01-07-11

Originally Posted by paintergirl

That's bad I think you hit the nail on the head though when you said "is there that much plumbing work out there..." Without apprenticeships there are less and less skilled workers out there and the ones that are out there are so busy they can literally pick and choose their jobs. Mr PG actually went on someone's books at Chrimbo because he was swamped with work and found it difficult to say no or let folk down. He was working all hours and making himself badly. Your plumber here seems to be the opposite

Best bet is to ask around and get someone recommended to you.

A plumber who did a bathroom for a friend of mine came round last night and will hopefully send me a quote today or tomorrow. He's a city fan so it should hopefully be OK this time.