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No one could have predicted it, but my fix for the boiler (of pressing restart) was only temporary. This morning it conked out again and this time a restart was not going to do it. We were without heating and the only hot water we had left was in the tank.
I had worked out from the error code that moisture had got into the unit and damaged the fan and as this is a brand new unit, only the manufacturer could send someone along. I rang them and was told that the earliest that they could come out was Tuesday. I told them that I had a newborn baby in the house and so they rang up another department, but came back to tell me that Tuesday was still the earliest appointment. The house was already chilling to a frightening level and I couldn’t really see us getting through one night of this, let alone four. They said there was nothing they could do. I said that there must be, but they were insistent. I mentioned that I had 200,000 Twitter followers and that they might want to ask again, but the guy on the phone was having none of it.
So I tweeted about it. Which is something everyone should do if they think they are getting shitty service. Perhaps having as many followers as I do gives you a bit more traction, but I am not sure. I think most companies are pretty desperate to avoid negative comment on social media. Whilst something is between you and them on the phone they can tell you what they like, but if there’s any danger of the word spreading to thousands of potential customers then they will be a bit more proactive.
I only did this because of the kids. I’ve had boilers break down before and patiently waited my turn - in one case for several weeks as I waited for a new one. But the kids are both ill this week and my only other option was to take the whole family to a hotel.
The firm came right back to me and said they would look into it.
In the mean time another firm we were trying to buy an expensive cooker from, were telling us that we’d have to arrange the disposal of the broken cooker in our kitchen. They insisted it was their policy and couldn’t be changed. “Even at the cost of losing a sale?†I queried. They said they’d see what they could do. This time I made no comment on social media, but I was being uncharacteristically bombastic and standing up for myself. They got back to me to say that they would make an exception this time. As they bloody should every time. Though I admire their arrogance. That’s product confidence right there.
But after yesterday’s emasculation of not being able to do adult meccano, it felt good to be successfully fighting the power in return for some power.
And finally the boiler people got back to me to say that they could send someone tomorrow. Which gave us one night of discomfort, but meant we could still wash our kids and survive by sitting in front of the wood burner. It was still a tough night. Hats off to all our ancestors (and let’s face it descendants) who somehow survived long winters of being frozen to the bones. I had a duvet and still struggled. It was toughest for Ernie, but we risked crushing him to death and put him in bed with us.
And fuck, how lucky are we to have a house that is usually fairly warm - never mind out ancestors and the descendants we’re screwing with global warming and nuclear winter, some people have to sleep out in this stuff.
The privilege of being able to fairly successfully complain about stuff is the least of all my many privileges. A night of snuggling up with my family for warmth isn’t that bad at thing. But come on. Four nights would have been unacceptable.
And there's a Christmas bonus RHLSTP for you (though it's the last one of 2017). We have released the podcast with Richard Osman a little bit early.
