Spent the morning waiting for the dishwasher repair man (an E3 problem on a Belling IDW604, since you ask). He turned up at 12.30, quickly established what the problem was, but said he didn’t have the right part. “We’re waiting for a new shipment. They’re on a boat.”
Deep breath. No problem.
In the 10 minutes he was at the house he did manage to tell me:
- In last week’s icy weather, a colleague in Gainsborough got of his van, slipped, banged his head and died. Lincolnshire emergency services took him to the morgue, but forget to tell his next of kin. His wife rang the office the following morning saying she couldn’t hold of him. Work had to ring round to find out what happened. “That wouldn’t happen to me,” says DRM, “my kids ring me at 5 asking what’s for tea.”
- DRM did get stuck in the snow in Scotland, though. It took him 10 hours to drive the 12 miles from Hamilton Services to his hotel. Kids made their own tea.
- He missed 27 appointments, but only had two complaints. “And one of those was from a guy whose wine cooler was broken. He said it wasn’t getting to –8. I said ‘stick it outside’.”
- Back in the North West, it took him 90 minutes to get from Bolton to Glossop, arriving at 4pm. Once there he couldn’t access the customer’s housing estate due to snow and ice. He rang the customer: “‘I could have told you that this morning’, she says to me.” Much rolling of eyes.
- From next Monday, company Christmas policy is cookers and washing machine repairs only – dishwashers and wine coolers will have to wait.
He’ll be round again on Jan 4 to finish the job. Santa, bring me Marigolds.
BART 