Service with a sharp intake of breath

On Thursday, the washing machine finally breathed its last and my knight in shining armour, aka Keith, sprang onto the internet and, within minutes, had a new one ordered, to be delivered, plumbed in and the old one taken away yesterday. So far so good. Yesterday, I cleared the cupboard under the sink, got everything ready and, give them their due, they arrived as promised.
In fact, all went smoothly until man A looked under the sink and said, in tones of great satisfaction,
"Can't do it!"
"Pardon?" I said.
"Can't do it." There followed a stream of incomprehensible reasons, which, to cut a long story short, boiled down to the fact that a little blue plastic tap had broken off and they weren't allowed to use a wrench, nor to turn the water off at the stop cock.
Man B took his turn at peering under the sink and shook his head gloomily.
"See?" said man A to me triumphantly, "And I haven't even said anything to him!"
The thought crossed my mind to ask which of them was pulling the other's strings, but by great effort of will, I desisted.
When Keith came home, he turned the water off in seconds, with minimal effort and then got on the phone to request that the men return and do what they were contracted to do.
So they are due to return before 12.30 today ...
Watch this space.

12 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Did you order the new washing machine from "Comet"? If so you will never see those two guys again.

By the way, I recently had to fit a new blue tap thingummyjig on the pipe behind our washer. It cost me about £4.50 from "Wickes". With a little silcon tape I ensured there would be no nasty leaks when I manoeuvred the machine back into place. If you wish I will do the same job for you. £50 per hour (estimate two hours to complete job), four hours travelling time, hotel and meal breaks, insurance etc.. Let's call it a nice round £500 (mates' rates). Okay?

Kate said...

How incredibly frustrating and ridiculous! Good luck getting it sorted.

Cro Magnon said...

S'more than me jobsworth luv. Bloody people; drives me nuts. Happy new washing year, Cro xx

Jennytc said...

Sounds like a deal, YP but will you do it cut price if I throw in the remainder of our Christmas cake?

Jennytc said...

Thanks, Katherine. Two different men came yesterday and couldn't understand what the problem had been with the first two. All done and dusted in minutes!

Jennytc said...

Thanks, Cro. You too. :)

Flighty said...

Typical, and so frustrating. Glad to see that the second visit was a different story! Flighty xx

Yorkshire Pudding said...

No

Jennytc said...

Yes, Flighty, the good experience cancelled out the bad. :)

Jennytc said...

Now that's not in the spirit of Christmas, is it, YP? I'm not impressed, you know!

Yorkshire Pudding said...

a) No it's not b) Big Christmas raspberry!

mrsnesbitt said...

I am truly blessed to be married to an engineer! Perhaps I should rent him out!
Happy New Year to you my dear xxxx

Plaster board and dust

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