Don't these people want my money?
Heartened by the response to yesterday's cry in the wilderness, I'm moved to try and blog more often but moan a bit less. Given my nature, this may prove difficult, but I'll try. At the risk of getting off to a bad start, I'm going to return to the subject of building houses.
Now, those of you who are as persistent and bloody-minded as me, and therefore have stuck with this conversation for long enough, will know that I am trying to build a house. So far I've (more or less) secured a plot, I've thrashed out a design that should fall into my projected budget (or at least orbit within its sphere of influence), I've had professional plans drawn up and I've submitted those plans to the relevant authorities. I now have to wait anything up to three months for a response from them (you mustn't rush these things), which gives me plenty of time to get quotes in for the building work.
Or so you would think.
There's something in the air in Ceredigion. Or perhaps it's the water? Maybe it's just the result of being at the end of the line - travel west along the A44 and you can't go any further than Aberystwyth without falling into the sea. You don't pass through Ceredigion on the way to anywhere else, it's the place people end up in when they've nowhere else to go. Whatever the reason, the good people of this county just can't be arsed.
I phoned a window supplier yesterday. My house has a lot of windows in it, this could be good work for him, but he told me on the phone that it would take six weeks to get me a quote. Not to make and deliver the windows, just to quote me a price for them.
The company specialising in groundworks and foundations on whose answering machine I left a message, took three days to phone back, then told me that they would phone again 'sometime in the next three or four weeks', to arrange to meet on site and discuss my needs. Frankly if that's their attitude to giving me a quote, then how likely are they to turn up and do the job on time?
But I'm trying not to moan. And it's not all bad. I've got a site meeting on Saturday with another groundworks engineer and a nice lady from a local window manufacturers is coming to see me this morning, so there are a few people out there who genuinely want to make a living.
I just wonder how the rest manage.
Now, those of you who are as persistent and bloody-minded as me, and therefore have stuck with this conversation for long enough, will know that I am trying to build a house. So far I've (more or less) secured a plot, I've thrashed out a design that should fall into my projected budget (or at least orbit within its sphere of influence), I've had professional plans drawn up and I've submitted those plans to the relevant authorities. I now have to wait anything up to three months for a response from them (you mustn't rush these things), which gives me plenty of time to get quotes in for the building work.
Or so you would think.
There's something in the air in Ceredigion. Or perhaps it's the water? Maybe it's just the result of being at the end of the line - travel west along the A44 and you can't go any further than Aberystwyth without falling into the sea. You don't pass through Ceredigion on the way to anywhere else, it's the place people end up in when they've nowhere else to go. Whatever the reason, the good people of this county just can't be arsed.
I phoned a window supplier yesterday. My house has a lot of windows in it, this could be good work for him, but he told me on the phone that it would take six weeks to get me a quote. Not to make and deliver the windows, just to quote me a price for them.
The company specialising in groundworks and foundations on whose answering machine I left a message, took three days to phone back, then told me that they would phone again 'sometime in the next three or four weeks', to arrange to meet on site and discuss my needs. Frankly if that's their attitude to giving me a quote, then how likely are they to turn up and do the job on time?
But I'm trying not to moan. And it's not all bad. I've got a site meeting on Saturday with another groundworks engineer and a nice lady from a local window manufacturers is coming to see me this morning, so there are a few people out there who genuinely want to make a living.
I just wonder how the rest manage.
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