peterbirks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
peterbirks) wrote2010-10-05 02:04 pm
peterbirks) wrote2010-10-05 02:04 pm
Woo hoo, a spare half-hour
It gets a bit wearying when your whole day from when you wake up to when you go to sleep is "allocated" to doing stuff that has to be done. That was 17 hours yesterday and looks like 15 hours today. What happened to the days when I could just flop in front of the TV and chill out for a few hours? Or even (blind pleasures!) read a book?
But I scraped together a blank half-hour (blame a quiet news day), so that allowed me to put together my letter of complaint to DynoRod and its various parents. I reprint it here:
Complaints Department
DynoRod
Sutherland House,
Maple Road,
Surbiton,
Surrey KT6 4BJ
cc: British Gas Complaints Management Team
PO Box 4084
Worthing
BN11
cc: Mr S Laidlaw
CEO
Centrica plc
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 5GD
Dear sir:
I wish to complain about the performance of DynoRod franchise operation Response Solutions, which over the past month has performed with a quite staggering degree of incompetence.
My problem began on Monday August 23 when the downstairs flat of 4 Lewisham Hill, SE13 7EJ suffered a back-up of sewerage. Thames Water were called and they sent round someone from MTS Cleansing, who (incorrectly, as it turned out) asserted that it was a private sewer. I live in Flat 2 of 4 Lewisham Hill, while tenants of mine live in Flat 1.
Because we had been told that the pipes were private, despite the blockage being underneath number 2 Lewisham Hill, my lettings agency management team called in DynoRod. On Thursday August 26 a van arrived. The people did not have the right equipment (despite clear explanations beforehand of the nature of the problem). Delay of 90 minutes while another van was called. About 50% of the backed-up sewerage was cleared.
The people said that it was probably a collapsed/broken pipe and that I should let them handle the insurance for me. They also said that there was no point arguing with Thames Water, because I would never win. Both of these statements turned out to be bad/wrong.
They also said that a cameraman could come round to establish precisely where the problem lay.
On September 3 the CCTV man arrived. He said that the drain was blocked again. He pushed a hose up the pipe from the front of number 2, and got it stuck. He asked if he could borrow a hacksaw to saw it off. I would have thought that a company like this might run to a hacksaw in their van, but apparently not.
A second van arrived at 12.30pm. Neither of them could remove the jammed hose. Another man said that the pipe definitely appeared to be totally broken and that the floor of number 2 would definitely have to come up. Obviously this was causing me a great deal of worry and distress.
He said that people would return on September 6 to remove hose and to unblock drain again.
On September 6 the cameraman and the unblocking people arrived and attacked the pipe from the front and the back. They did not remove the jammed hose. They said that they would need to get a vacuum tanker, costing £600 a day, to suck out everything.
By this time I had made contact with the owner of the company that manages the four flats in number 2 Lewisham Hill. On Monday September 13 he arrived and displayed a competence completely absent from the performance from the Response Solutions team. He did a thorough survey, and showed me film of the camera going up in both directions. First this proved quite emphatically that it was a joint sewer and that under sectrion 24 of the 1937 Act, it was the responsibility of Thames Water – something that none of the DynoRod representatives chose to tell me.
Secondly he expressed disbelief that a company should get a hose stuck up a pipe and then walk away from it. As he pointed out, this hose is itself now causing a blockage. He said that I would have to get Response Solutions around to remove that hose, and that all that would be required was a "tirfor winch".
On September 14th I phoned Response Solutions to ask when someone was likely to be coming round to remove the hose that they had jammed up the pipe. I spoke to Ashley. Explained situation and she said that I would be charged for the CCTV, and that someone would come round to remove the stuck hose. She would also notify insurer that case was not in progress. I left various contact numbers.
No-one got back to me. No-one came to remove the hose.
On September 23 I phoned Response Solutions again. I spoke to Sally. She claimed that people had been trying to get hold of me.
An hour and a half later I was phoned back by Dan who said that a tirfor winch would not work and that the hose was not their responsibility, because it had found its wazy up a disused pipe that had not been properly capped off.
I asked how he could know a tirfor winch would not work if he didn't try.
He then said the marvellous "I know that the current situation isn't ideal..."
I refused to back down, asserting that if A DynoRod franchisee comes round to clear a blockage, stuffs a hose up the pipe to create a bigger blockage, saws off the end and then goes away, then whether you are technically responsible or not, you are going to look fairly silly when the matter was made public.
He said that he would speak to people at DynoRod on the matter.
My final conversation with DynoRod was on September 30, when I spoke to Matt. He said that Dan was not in the office, but would phone me back. Matt then phoned me back a few minutes later to say that Dan would not be in the office until the following day, but that he would definitely phone me then.
Dan finally phoned back on the morning of October 1, when I was in a meeting. He said that he would phone back later with details of the complaints procedure.
He did not call back later.
The entire procedure (now six weeks long, with no sign of resolution) has caused me untold stress and lost time. I am informing DynoRod of this because I do not think Response Solutions should be a franchisee, given the way it has acted here. I require that the hose jammed up the pipe underneath 2 Lewisham Hill be removed as soon as possible, preferably by a competent team not from Response Solutions. I also require redress for the time and stress that I have been caused, currently at something like 40 man-hours, of which a good 25 can be ascribed to the (mis)actions of Response Solutions.
Yours sincerely
Peter Birks
Editor: Informa's Insurance News 24
informa insurance
Lloyd's List Group
But I scraped together a blank half-hour (blame a quiet news day), so that allowed me to put together my letter of complaint to DynoRod and its various parents. I reprint it here:
Complaints Department
DynoRod
Sutherland House,
Maple Road,
Surbiton,
Surrey KT6 4BJ
cc: British Gas Complaints Management Team
PO Box 4084
Worthing
BN11
cc: Mr S Laidlaw
CEO
Centrica plc
Millstream
Maidenhead Road
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 5GD
Dear sir:
I wish to complain about the performance of DynoRod franchise operation Response Solutions, which over the past month has performed with a quite staggering degree of incompetence.
My problem began on Monday August 23 when the downstairs flat of 4 Lewisham Hill, SE13 7EJ suffered a back-up of sewerage. Thames Water were called and they sent round someone from MTS Cleansing, who (incorrectly, as it turned out) asserted that it was a private sewer. I live in Flat 2 of 4 Lewisham Hill, while tenants of mine live in Flat 1.
Because we had been told that the pipes were private, despite the blockage being underneath number 2 Lewisham Hill, my lettings agency management team called in DynoRod. On Thursday August 26 a van arrived. The people did not have the right equipment (despite clear explanations beforehand of the nature of the problem). Delay of 90 minutes while another van was called. About 50% of the backed-up sewerage was cleared.
The people said that it was probably a collapsed/broken pipe and that I should let them handle the insurance for me. They also said that there was no point arguing with Thames Water, because I would never win. Both of these statements turned out to be bad/wrong.
They also said that a cameraman could come round to establish precisely where the problem lay.
On September 3 the CCTV man arrived. He said that the drain was blocked again. He pushed a hose up the pipe from the front of number 2, and got it stuck. He asked if he could borrow a hacksaw to saw it off. I would have thought that a company like this might run to a hacksaw in their van, but apparently not.
A second van arrived at 12.30pm. Neither of them could remove the jammed hose. Another man said that the pipe definitely appeared to be totally broken and that the floor of number 2 would definitely have to come up. Obviously this was causing me a great deal of worry and distress.
He said that people would return on September 6 to remove hose and to unblock drain again.
On September 6 the cameraman and the unblocking people arrived and attacked the pipe from the front and the back. They did not remove the jammed hose. They said that they would need to get a vacuum tanker, costing £600 a day, to suck out everything.
By this time I had made contact with the owner of the company that manages the four flats in number 2 Lewisham Hill. On Monday September 13 he arrived and displayed a competence completely absent from the performance from the Response Solutions team. He did a thorough survey, and showed me film of the camera going up in both directions. First this proved quite emphatically that it was a joint sewer and that under sectrion 24 of the 1937 Act, it was the responsibility of Thames Water – something that none of the DynoRod representatives chose to tell me.
Secondly he expressed disbelief that a company should get a hose stuck up a pipe and then walk away from it. As he pointed out, this hose is itself now causing a blockage. He said that I would have to get Response Solutions around to remove that hose, and that all that would be required was a "tirfor winch".
On September 14th I phoned Response Solutions to ask when someone was likely to be coming round to remove the hose that they had jammed up the pipe. I spoke to Ashley. Explained situation and she said that I would be charged for the CCTV, and that someone would come round to remove the stuck hose. She would also notify insurer that case was not in progress. I left various contact numbers.
No-one got back to me. No-one came to remove the hose.
On September 23 I phoned Response Solutions again. I spoke to Sally. She claimed that people had been trying to get hold of me.
An hour and a half later I was phoned back by Dan who said that a tirfor winch would not work and that the hose was not their responsibility, because it had found its wazy up a disused pipe that had not been properly capped off.
I asked how he could know a tirfor winch would not work if he didn't try.
He then said the marvellous "I know that the current situation isn't ideal..."
I refused to back down, asserting that if A DynoRod franchisee comes round to clear a blockage, stuffs a hose up the pipe to create a bigger blockage, saws off the end and then goes away, then whether you are technically responsible or not, you are going to look fairly silly when the matter was made public.
He said that he would speak to people at DynoRod on the matter.
My final conversation with DynoRod was on September 30, when I spoke to Matt. He said that Dan was not in the office, but would phone me back. Matt then phoned me back a few minutes later to say that Dan would not be in the office until the following day, but that he would definitely phone me then.
Dan finally phoned back on the morning of October 1, when I was in a meeting. He said that he would phone back later with details of the complaints procedure.
He did not call back later.
The entire procedure (now six weeks long, with no sign of resolution) has caused me untold stress and lost time. I am informing DynoRod of this because I do not think Response Solutions should be a franchisee, given the way it has acted here. I require that the hose jammed up the pipe underneath 2 Lewisham Hill be removed as soon as possible, preferably by a competent team not from Response Solutions. I also require redress for the time and stress that I have been caused, currently at something like 40 man-hours, of which a good 25 can be ascribed to the (mis)actions of Response Solutions.
Yours sincerely
Peter Birks
Editor: Informa's Insurance News 24
informa insurance
Lloyd's List Group
no subject
I could come out with yer standard Brummie grumblings about basic incompetence, and what do you expect when Thatcher trashed the entire concept of blue-collar expertise, but I'm not going to, because I spotted an Oscar Wilde moment.
A hack-saw. "A hack-saw? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest)" Best quoted in the tones of Dame Edith Evans or Tim Brooke-Taylor, of course.
I love those signs that White Van Men have, these days: "No tools left in van overnight." Well, yes. In the interests of a modern, just-in-time, economy, the logical solution is to extend this to "I have no tools whatsoever."
I noticed this last year, when an entirely blameless and frankly very low-paid labourer asked me if I had a jubilee clip. (Simple request; simple reason. I could give him access to a water tap, and he had a hose, but the latter wouldn't fit onto the former.)
"Haven't you got one in the van?" I stupidly asked.
"Arr," he said in fine Worcestershire patois, "Them doesn't trust us with things like thart."
I'm serious. Engineering in this country (and I don't care whether you're fucking qualified or have a certificate or anything: I only care if you can manage to carry your own hack-saw around with you) is dead. All that's left is insuring for the problem in the first place, and accounting for why it wasn't solved in the second place.
This post from the Aardvark School of Putting Your Mind In Restful Ease.
Fuck me, when I worked across the globe on airline reservations systems, I used to carry my very own, hand-soldered, synchronous RS232 null modem cable around with me.
Hack-saws? Jesus. These people are barely simian.
A Spare 5 Minutes
On a half-way related subject of adding weight to a complaint I was on the phone to a woman in a call centre the other day (Nationwide ?) when she asked for my "title". She foxed me for a second whilst I thought out what she was on about (name, address I can manage) and I hesitantly said "Mister". "Oh", she said " I thought you were going to say Professor". Well I did wonder if it would have helped, but then perhaps Sir or Lord might have been even more helpful. I suppose every now & then in a call centre you get someone halfway famous on the phone. Joe was telling me that a flatmate who works on the check-in for AirFrance came home quite chuffed that he had checked Kylie Minogue onto a flight. Brightened up a dull day for him and no doubt she had packed her own luggage...enough. Cheers mate.
Re: A Spare 5 Minutes
Re: A Spare 5 Minutes
Not you MiltonKeynesman
Re: Not you MiltonKeynesman
Re: Not you MiltonKeynesman
That couple of days included a startling Sunday night in an Edinburgh bar and an even more startling trip from Stirling railway station to the campus, during which time I understood not a single word that the cabbie said.
Rich, you will be pleased to know that I didn't plan to put my "official" title in the letter. I just sent the email to myself at home, and so my work signature was automatically included at the bottom.
PJ
How to complain
First paragraph - nature of problem - hose jammed in pipe
Second paragraph - want I want to happen - I want your pipe removed.
They will not read a longer letter, trust me!
Re: How to complain
But I think you will find that they WILL read it (because it's their job to read these things), and that by adding layer upon layer of fact (rather than 17 pages of random abuse scrawled in green crayon), the point is more forcibly made. This is in a sense a faux "legal" letter. I have to lay out the facts as to why I am making the complaint, and why I believe I am right.
Previous long letter (the one to MTS Cleansing with a cc to Thames Water) has now generated a phone call in response and has also generated action on their part. And it had clearly been read. So, er, I can't trust you on that one, Martin. Sorry.
PJ
Re: How to complain
We had endless trouble sorting out my Mother's Estate. The major part of the problem was down to us writing letters of a reading age far in advance of the minimum wage reader at the target firm.
When we changed to raising one problem at a time in short simple sentences the problems were resolved. It just took a series of short letters rather than one long one.
Re: How to complain
With a letter of complaint I think that it is important to place yourself outside of the crowd. Since "the crowd" tends to be of the type that cannot express a complete problem of indeed think logically, I think that a letter setting out the whole problem is more likely to succeed.
If, however, the problem is of a different kind (one, where, for example, you are actually trying to establish some facts), then a step-by-step procedure can work better.
Part of the past problem arose precisely BECAUSE I tried to separate out the issues. The result was that I wanted one small bit sorted out, and Thames Water sent a man who thought that he was coming about something else.
Your statement "sorting out" seems to indicate to me that you were trying to establish facts, rather than reporting them to the reader.
PJ
Re: How to complain
PJ
Re: How to complain
Birmingham Midshires final statement of my Mother's account didn't match what we thought it was. What followed was a series of phone calls, letters and broken promises that went on for months. Total progress was zero.
But when I went back to a simple 2 paragraph letter (I never phoned again) the money turned up. Then the same tactic for compensation - paid in 10 days. Then the same tactic for an explanation for all the broken promises - more compensation.
Re: How to complain
But there comes a time when you need to ensure that your case gets looked at by someone further up the evolutionary scale. That's the time when you wheel out the 3-page letter, start talking about ombudsmen, print COMPLAINT in bold, 18-point, so that the matter gets sorted out by someone shaking the tree from within. But they have to know that you're someone who should have their situation sorted or the organisation will get into more trouble.
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