This week has proved to be a trial of patience as our letting agency has decided that NOW is the time to begin repairs on our flat.  When they became aware we were moving, they took a sudden interest in addressing a number of the issues we brought to their attention previously, some from when we moved in TWO YEARS AGO.  Suddenly, our phones are ringing every morning with some contractor or maintenance man asking for an appointment to be made, as Leaders letting agency has told them they need to fix something in our flat.

Yesterday morning Mark called me and told me to be up and dressed as someone was coming around to check something in the flat , despite insistence it wasn’t a good time.  Let me ask you: have YOU ever stood in the doorway, having a contraction, while trying to carry on a conversation with a maintenance man about damp?  No. No you have not.  It’s not pleasant, by the way.  But at the end of the day, it’s not the maintenance man’s fault, and being rude to him would prove nothing.  So last night I emailed Leaders letting agency.  I don’t believe I was over the top rude, but I did make it clear that, chances were, we would still be here when the baby arrived and I was not going to work a newborn’s schedule around noisy and intrusive maintenance.

What really burns me about the situation is we gave them a long list of things that would need attending to when we first moved in August 2008. In fact, it was a list produced AT THEIR REQUEST.  Nothing ever came of anything that we listed for them.  Then, every 3 months or so when they come around to inspect the property, we brought up our concerns again and again, most of which were never addressed.  Now that they know they have to con someone else into renting the flat shortly, they have a bug up their collective asses to finally do something about the issues we outlined almost two years ago.

To this, I say no.

This seems to be a huge problem with a lot of businesses in the UK: sheer lack of customer service.  From what I hear from other people, they too are not happy with their letting agencies and the service they’ve received as well.  It’s almost as if certain industries got together and decided to just suck equally instead of actually trying to get renters / clients via good service.  And that’s where Leaders is: they don’t need to be the best, they just need to suck less than the worst in the industry.  Such an attitude towards people who throw hundreds of pounds a month at you for a service is piss poor, to say the least.

Posted Life in the UK |