Dear oh dear!

Dear Dear

It isn’t often that I have to place clients in a queue before I can make an appointment with them but it happened on Tuesday for the first time in a long time. I have been inundated with callers asking me to do work for them which is fine as long as I can space them out and give myself a break in between. It isn’t often that I have to return to a job because something has gone wrong either, in fact that almost never happens but when it does it is usually due to a defective fitting and totally out of my control. Last Friday, if my readers will remember, I replaced a faulty outside light for an old lady as no-one else seemingly wanted to do it. I received a call late on Sunday evening telling me that the light had ceased working properly so on Monday morning I returned to check it out. I reset it and tested it in daytime mode before returning it again to nighttime mode for normal use. On Tuesday evening however I was informed that the light was not working as it should or even at all! This meant that I would have to exchange it for another free of charge as I had purchased it personally. Had my client bought the light fitting I would be entitled payment to replace it as I cannot be expected to know if the light would work or not. One could argue that I could insist on payment to replace the light that I had purchased too but it doesn’t work like that does it? Besides which it does nothing for my reputation if I don’t waive the fee in such circumstances. Fortunately the old lady lives less than a mile from me so it isn’t a problem, though I will have to take the light down first then take it back to my supplier to replace it, when I can find the time of course! It is Tuesday evening as I write this post having spent the morning attempting an adjustment on that light, returning home only to get another call from the next town to do a job there. Later on in the afternoon E and I drove nowhere in particular to dine out only to find ourselves ending up somewhere we hadn’t intended to visit. It was so late in the afternoon that we were grateful to find anywhere to eat and when we did we found ourselves the only two in the dining rooms. I had missed breakfast too, part intentionally and partly because I had to see to that light fitting as early as I could and didn’t subsequently have the time afterwards! It meant I was rather hungry by the time we actually received our meals at the table.

Update: I managed to find time to remove the light fitting on Wednesday and exchange it. I fitted the replacement on Thursday morning. Friday morning I got another call to tell me the second light wasn’t working! I couldn’t believe it! Naturally I went there and carried out the prescribed test once again but this time I discovered that when the control was set fully to the night setting it ceased to work. I backed the control off the maximum and found it then worked. Now to me that is a manufacturing and design error. If I get the opportunity I will tell them so. E had to pay a quick visit to her mum early in the evening so she took me along with her and along the way we went to the apartments where I had fitted the light and I discovered the light was working perfectly. I wanted to make sure.

Shirley Anne