Rogue Trader comes to our house!

Monday started kinda OK with my little blog mobile actually passing the dreaded MOT test with flying colours. Downhill from here on in.
First we were awaiting delivery of a brand new state of the art fridge/freezer, brilliant I thought when I saw the van actually pulling up during the time scale appointed to us.
With a great deal of heaving and puffing the two burly men manhandled the large piece of modern technology into the allotted space. "There you go mate, Ok with that" It was then that I spotted the dent and the missing white paint on the top corner of said white goods.
"Hold on, there's a dent and the paints peeling off" I pointed out.
"No problem, phone John Lewis they will knock a couple of quid off for you" was the response.
In your dreams mate, no way was I paying a large amount of dosh for an already shabby fridge.
I told them to take it away and that I reject the goods as faulty. So two now pretty annoyed men had to manhandle the item back through the house and back to the lorry. This means we have to wait until Friday for a replacement.

In the meantime we had a problem with our back door mechanism, in fact it had jammed shut Friday night and we were unable to open it all. Leaving two cats who could not understand why we would not let them in for the night and who totally refused the invitation to either come in through the window or come around to the front door. Being creatures of habit they thought I had gone bonkers with both those idea's. Blog dog had to go out to the front garden for his ablutions and he also thought he must of done something very wrong to not be allowed his usual free access to the garden.
Saturday morning Hubby Bj started phoning locksmith's who all seemed to be to busy or not answering their '24hour' phone line. Eventually we got a firm to come look. The guy decided it was an unusual lock and he would have to take it away to order a new one and come back on Monday by Midday to fit. He charged us £78 for the pleasure of his company.
Monday Midday, no sign of locksmith or new lock (he had left us with no way of securing our door so we had to go out inrelayss!) After several phone calls we were told each time that the lock was very difficult to obtain and to phone back inan hour.
By 3pm we decided to try and scource the lock ourselves. BJ phoned the Company used by our builders (new house) who had fitted the windows. They told us that no way was it difficult to scource and even if the local suppliers had not got one the actual factory that makes them is only 20 miles away.
What I needed was a part number, so I called the locksmiths office to ask for it, quite reasonably and politely I thought.
I was met with a total tirade from the girl on the phone who said she had already told my Husband that the part was here and just waiting for the locksmith to collect and fit. I argued that most certainly was not what we had been told and that again I needed the part number. I got no-where as she once again launched into averball tirade so much that I had to hold the phone away from my ear for a full two minutes. Eventually she paused for breathe andrealizingg I was not going to win this conversation said I had one more thing to add if she would listen a moment.
She amazingly stayed quiet while I suggested that whatever charm school she had attended, she needed to ask for a refund as it truly had not worked! I did not wait for a reply!
Half an hour later a Manager then called to say they still had not got the part and had ordered the supposed lock that I had been told was waiting for collection, it would now not be in stock until FRIDAY!.

Now this was truly the limit, so I called another locksmith who was horrified at this treatment and asked if the Company was 'reactfast/fast response' unfortunately it was. They are apparently a gang of cowboys who are giving the trade a very bad name in the area and had even been featured on the TVprogram'se 'Rogue traders' Just our luck.
The main thing we needed to do was get our old lock back from them in order to get some-one else in to do the job.
Iimmediatelyy phoned Trading Standards to get legal advice as to what to say and how to approach this 'rogue trader' and set about getting the lock back. I bypassed theverball girlie and got a Manager who truly smirked when I mentioned Trading Standards but he said he would get the lock back to me.
To ensure this happened we called them every 15 minutes until they were truly sick of us. Surprise,surprisee at 5.30pm they called us to say they had located a lock now and were on the way to fit it. I almost suggested it would be very hard to walk with a lock in a certain place!

We took delivery of the old lock told them to keep the new one and got a reputable chap who even had one in stock himself as they are a commonly featured lock in new houses! He charged us a realistic rate and was a real good egg.
So folks if you live in Coventry area and need a good Locksmith call Dave at Dr Lock!

Otherwise had great weekend, brilliant Thai Curry with Rachel who is a fellow Blogger, and her husband. Rob the youngest blog called in for hisfavoritee roast lamb dinner on Sunday. I filled him up with fresh organic veg from theallotmentt and gave him a bag to take home. Poor boy helped us take old fridge and freezer out to garage and got his new sparkling white tank top grubby. We had to bring the fridge back in Monday afternoon after the delivery debacle.