Inconvenient Annoyances

I just learned that ASDA.com doesn't keep your store location preferences in your account, so if you don't select the store (and it doesn't prompt you to do it!), it makes your click & collect order available to the location nearest your registered home address, not the one you used last time.  So instead of being able to pick up our groceries from the Asda right near my husband's work in Swansea, he has had to drive into Llanelli during rush hour to get our order.  He's not happy, and I'm not happy because he's not happy. He thinks it's my fault for selecting the wrong store.  I never made a selection.

Oh, no - I can't wait! I spent 3 months there 6 years ago, and have been wanting to go back ever since . Give me 25-30 degrees over 5-10 degrees any time.

Are you there yet? How is it? 

Are you there yet? How is it? 

I'm here - arrived yesterday afternoon, but couldn't get online until just now.

I've spent an evening playing cards with the RAF officers in the mess bar last night and I worked a day shift today (the plane I arrived on was flying out). It's nice to be back in the heat again - minimum last night was 24.5 C and max so far today has been 29.9C.

I'm here - arrived yesterday afternoon, but couldn't get online until just now.

I've spent an evening playing cards with the RAF officers in the mess bar last night and I worked a day shift today (the plane I arrived on was flying out). It's nice to be back in the heat again - minimum last night was 24.5 C and max so far today has been 29.9C.

Yippee!

And I’m sitting in a park in the wind freezing my tail off.  Those temperatures sound AMAZING!

I'm here - arrived yesterday afternoon, but couldn't get online until just now.

I've spent an evening playing cards with the RAF officers in the mess bar last night and I worked a day shift today (the plane I arrived on was flying out). It's nice to be back in the heat again - minimum last night was 24.5 C and max so far today has been 29.9C.

Hope you won!  . Enjoy!

Enjoy! Glad you're where you want to be!

Ah, the washer/dryer saga. It continues.

I set the alarm for 7:30 to be sure I'd be up if they phoned at 8:00 as they did last week so I would not miss the call if I had to run up the hallway to the phone in four rings. It's now 10:30 and I've not had a phone call from the repair service to tell me when they were coming to replace the washer with a washer/dryer. We had cleared our calendar for today to accommodate them coming to replace it. (We had plans, now moved to tomorrow.) If it's not done today, you can color me even more annoyed, as that will be three days I will have wasted on this.

In preparing for their visit last night, I tidied up the kitchen, rolled up the room-sized bamboo rug that I keep over the freezing tile floor, and opened up the cabinet under the sink to move the soap and laundry stuff so they would have easy access to the drains. To find my stack of clean dish towels soaking wet on the shelf under the plumbing, and a large plastic container in which I store my canning jar lid rims with well over an inch of water in the bottom of it. (It was kept on the bottom shelf, the towels were above it.) Also soaked was an entire roll of paper kitchen toweling. I've thrown the paper away, drained the water out of the container, blotted up what was sitting on the shelf, am drying out the canning lids (hoping they haven't rusted) and have put a dehumidifyer tub in there. It smells of damp and a bit mildewy, so hopefully that will help. I don't know if any or how much water may have seeped into the space below the cabinets.

In investigating, it looks as if during the installation of the washing machine, a connection hose was stuck onto the drain pipe without securing it. It was literally just sitting, wobbling, on the drain stem. There is a similar connection on another hose that appears to have plastic ties snugging it in place. It just looks like they didn't bother with that for what I assume is the leaking connection. The washer has only been run twice - once by the installers, and once with the load of laundry I was subsequently unable to dry when I realized there was no dryer involved. The washer has only been run twice - once by the installers, and once with the load of laundry I was subsequently unable to dry when I realized there was no dryer involved. I'm no plumber, but it does look like they completely neglected to secure it.

I took photos of everything and sent them to the letting agent last night. Including the wonky door on the cabinet. Since we'll be moving by the end of the summer, if our plans hold, they may have some problems with future prospective tenants seeing that and being put off by it.  It does look pretty janky.

Haven't heard a thing from him, yet, either.

This is soo, sooo typical. 

I just learned that ASDA.com doesn't keep your store location preferences in your account, so if you don't select the store (and it doesn't prompt you to do it!), it makes your click & collect order available to the location nearest your registered home address, not the one you used last time.  So instead of being able to pick up our groceries from the Asda right near my husband's work in Swansea, he has had to drive into Llanelli during rush hour to get our order.  He's not happy, and I'm not happy because he's not happy. He thinks it's my fault for selecting the wrong store.  I never made a selection.

Oh, jeez. That would be totally annoying!

The Battle of the Washer/Dryer, continued...

So I was told to expect a call no later than Monday morning to let me know when they were coming with the replacement. I had also sent to the landlord photos of the cabinet issue, and the bit about the bad connection under the sink, etc. for his information about the quality of the work that had been done so far. In addition to the machine being the wrong one. 

So I got up at 7:30 yesterday (Monday) to sit near the phone. By noon no phone call had come in. I sent an email to the vendor, cc the landlord, as I didn't have a direct phone number for the vendor. Said we hadn't heard anything, so we assumed the unit had not arrived to them and would not be delivered that day. And that we were going out and I do not carry a cell phone, so if they need to call please do so and leave a message on the answering machine as to when they would be coming - what day and time. There would be no way to reach me while I was out, but I was fine with any day and time this week. Just let me know what it was going to be.

I got a passive-aggressive email response from the vendor saying that the reason I didn't hear from them was that the unit had not arrived. It had to come from England and had not arrived in their warehouse. It is their practice to not phone to make appointments until they have the unit in-hand. They went on at some length explaining that.

WTF? Ok, so like I don't really care. The sole purpose of my message to them was to let them know that I do not carry a cell phone, that we were going out for the afternoon, and that they could just leave a message to let us know when they were coming, if they needed to. 

So I responded back that it was fine, but that, once again, if they needed to reach us to just phone and leave a message. And that if they needed me to call them back to be sure to leave a phone number. I would get back in touch when we got back in.

So we went out, had a cup of tea and did some errands. We were out about four hours. Came back to three missed phone calls. One was from a colleague of the letting agents, who left a rather garbled message with an unclear phone number (but we did sort it out). Phoned him back, but he was away from the office. Found an email arrived from the letting agent saying he was in meetings all day so he was delegating the info on the leak and the cabinet to his minion. Letting Agent Minion said in his phone message that he was sending the email and photos on to the vendor and that it would be all sorted out in the next few days. In my original message to the letting agent, the one with the photos attached, I asked him what they wanted to do about the non-aligned cabinet doors. Said it didn't bother me excessively, but that they might have problems with the next tenant or showing the place.  That issue wasn't addressed in the minion's email or voicemail. Left a message for Minion with the person who answered his phone. Was told to expect him to phone this morning, first thing. (It's now 10:30am, no phone call.)

One message was from the vendor's person, asking to give them a call. No phone number left on the machine. The third was a hang-up. As we get virtually no phone calls, I assume this was also from the vendor or one of his employees.

SO, once again I emailed the vendor and let them know that I do not carry a cell phone, that we were back in the flat for a bit and had  received a message from them, but that there was no "call-back" number left, although they requested a call back. (Jeezus!) And that we were going out again shortly to run another errand. So a half-hour later they called back. The Daughter took the call. The message was that they would phone THIS morning to let me know when to expect the installers. (sigh).

So I set my alarm for 7:30 again. (I stay up very late most nights, so that allowed me a good four hours' of sleep. Again.) At 8:30 they phoned to say they'll be here this afternoon. Whoopie. (notice the lack of enthusiasm there). I think the guy who phoned this morning was the guy who couldn't get the door to fit properly because the machine was too big (depth-wise) for the allocated space.

I still have no idea what the letting agent/landlord wants to do about the quality of the workmanship if it's not up to snuff. But I'm to the point of not caring. I've notified them of what went on. It's supposed to be fixed today. If they "fix" it badly, I'll let the landlord know and it's on them. We're leaving in a few months and I've already wasted too much of my time on this nonsense.

At this point, I just want to be able to do my freaking laundry. Without further faff.

The Daughter says that she has seen statistics that something like one in five people in this country have some degree of fetal alcohol syndrome. I used to laugh at her, saying it couldn't be true.

And on....

I received a call this morning to expect the workmen between 12 and 3. They arrived at 11:30, leaving my daughter to scramble to the back of the flat to get dressed (she'd been in the shower) before they got up the stairs. They have pulled the "old" washer out. Unfortunately, the unit they lugged up to the flat is identical to the one they just removed. A washing machine. Actually, the precise same model.

So the three of them have decided they are going to go work on someone's refrigerator, also in this block, and then bring the correct unit up and take the two "wrong" units away. There are a couple of bags of tools and two washing machines in the middle of my kitchen floor as I type.

[Edit:  They have now removed both washers, and their tools, leaving a trail of water across the floor, into the hallway, and out and down the stairs. I can see them out the window, unloading a refrigerator off the truck. The Daughter is literally pacing around, fuming. I've just given up all hope.]

Uh-oh, it's dangerous if they've taken both washing machines away.  You may never see another one again.

They showed back up around 3. I now have a working w/d unit (I hope). There's a two-inch gap at the top of the cabinet door that's supposed to hide it. Because when they put the wrong unit in they cut new holes to fit the hinges into, and now they can't properly attach the hinges to this unit because the wrongly-drilled hole won't anchor screws. Whatever. I took a photo and sent it to the landlord.

The instructions left for this machine make the other one look like a "See Jane Run" book. I've put the manky dish towels in there and set it, I think, for surface-of-the-sun hot water for white cotton fabrics. According to the book it's going to run for 220 minutes. (Holy Frijoles!). We'll see how it goes.

[They left all their spare parts and junk on the floor. I sent a photo of that, too. This is really a new low.]

I'm not going to miss this type of laundry day. I really liked top-loaders and "normal" dryers.

I'm not going to miss this type of laundry day. I really liked top-loaders and "normal" dryers.

I've had genuine breakdowns over laundry here. It took so many years to finally have a house with a washer and dryer and not get sick every time I needed to clean my clothes, and not have to wash multiple times because some jerk put scented fabric conditioner covered clothes next to mine in the commercial dryers. And then I move here and now it takes 2-3 weeks to catch up if I have a bad week and can't do my laundry on the usual day. They do have better washing machines and "normal" dryers (at a much higher cost), but owning/renting a home with enough space for them is another story entirely. *sigh* Glad you at least have that sorted for now!

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Yeah, I'm slowly getting caught up on the laundry.

The Daughter has pointed out that the brand they installed is the same as the one that's been recalled for the fire hazard. I haven't had the nerve to check yet.... 

Seriously, the last place we had in the States had a full-sized top loader, a basic "hot/warm/cold, heavy soil/medium/delicate cycle" machine. And a full size, comparable dryer. And they were lovely. Towels put in the dryer came out completely dry. And I could put more than two towels in the washer at the same time. AND it finished up in about a half-hour, washing. Spending an entire evening washing a pair of jeans, a couple of shirts, some underwear, and a towel, and then having to hang up the mostly-dry-but-not-enough-to-fold towel to air dry on a rack in the middle of the kitchen is just so unappealing. But necessary. Whatever, at least it mostly works.

I also hate having to send blankets to a professional laundry to have done. Which I really need to do. They charge £12 each, and I've got like six that need doing. While my old top-loaded would never have handled them, I did have the laundromat that I could put two each into the triple-loader and run for $4.  I ~really~ miss the laundromat! (I never thought I'd say that.)

Since I'm in "complaining" mode (I'm hangry and my back hurts):

Amazon. Ok, so I ordered two packs of book boxes to start packing up our books. They were about £17 per 15-count pack. They arrived and were perfect for my needs. So I ordered more from another vendor (the first batch came from "Amazon" as the vendor) instead of Amazon as Amazon had jacked the price up to £21 in three days. This new vendor was in the same item description.  The new boxes  arrived. They are NOT the same boxes. They are flimsier, smaller (they fit inside the first batch of boxes, when assembled), they do not have the company's info and barcodes on 'em, and I'm rather annoyed.

I've just sent the vendor the measurements of the boxes and photos.  Yodel dumped them on the doorstep (they were to have been signed for) and left before I was able to answer the door, or I'd have refused the shipment, as you can look at the pack of 'em and see they are smaller.  WTF is it in this country with counterfeit goods and lousy customer service? It's like a constant stream of generic incompetence....

So I've sent a message to the vendor - do they want to arrange to pick them up and refund my money, do they want to measure the boxes they have there and send more after being sure that they are what they're supposed to be, or....?  I am not able to carry 30 packing boxes up the road to the post office to send them back, so it's in their court. I would prefer to not escalate it to Amazon, but will definitely do so. I need a lot of boxes for the books and LP records, and they need to be of the correct size and sturdyness. (Is that a word?) Like what is advertised.