Same old same old

The central heating guy was supposed to be here at 9am to fix my heating and I took the morning off work so I could be here. Naturally, by 10.30am there's no sign of him so I phone the company.

No, I haven't heard anything and no you are going to phone him on his mobile, find out where he is and phone me back. Because that's the job for which I would be paying you in the unlikely event that your engineer ever turns up. Not my job, dearie, honest.

So, I get a phone call back pretty much straight away. He'll be with you in 10-15 minutes - this would still make him almost 2 hours late. That was 45 minutes ago and so far, no surprise to anyone who's ever had any dealings with repairmen, there's no sign of him.

It's so nice to see that people really don't want my repeat business, isn't it? If my house wasn't so freaking cold I'd tell him to get lost, if he ever gets here...

E.T.A. He finally arrived about 11.30am, was here for less than 10 minutes and scalped me £35 for the pleasure of his company. I'm in the wrong line of work. Though I do have heating now, even if he's got to come back and replace some valve or other.