Wednesday 14th October 2009

You wouldn’t think that getting a quote for cavity wall insulation could be so difficult. This is something that the government wants us to do as it will help them meet their energy efficiency targets. They want it so much that they give you grants to do it. So my Mistress filled in their on line information service and asked for someone to come and give us a quote.

Now the Government target would be met more easily if the next stage in the process didn’t let them down. The people they passed our details on to made an appointment for an engineer to visit. On the day, the engineer rang to say he was in the village. My Mistress went to the other house to wait for him and he didn’t turn up. She couldn’t get hold of him and by the time he could have called at every house in our village if he was lost, she gave up and came home again. She rang the company. They made another appointment. They rang my Mistress. They cancelled the appointment. They made a new appointment for last Monday morning. At lunchtime, my Mistress rang to see where they were. They said they weren’t going to make it. How difficult can it be to come and give a quote to someone who actually wants to buy your service? My Mistress has now gone to another company entirely and they say that within the next two weeks, they will contact us to make an appointment. This sounds awfully familiar to me! I’ve got visions of it being the same person they are planning to send and give us a quote, which really would be a bit of a disaster.

I’m guessing the Government target is unlikely to be met anytime soon.