System Failure

This last year has been a revelation in many ways.

Currently I am waiting for 8 outstanding complaints, some escalated to formal, to be resolved.

• An Amazon seller sold me a supposedly new plinth heater which didn't work.It has a bent casing, broken fan & rusty screws. I didn't know he was an individual seller not a bona fide trader. He admits he bought it for himself & then decided he didn't want it. He hasn't sent a refund label & isn't responding. Getting Amazon to do something about it has been very difficult & wasted huge amounts of time.
• Thames Water got my bills wrong for my rental & the house I've bought. They also tried to debit my account for a monthly payment of £23,537.00 which resulted in my bank sending me 4 warning texts about being overdrawn. It's not resolved & almost caused me to have a heart attack!
• I notified Oxford City Council that I was moving out of the rental & into my house. They have sent me a notification for the coming year council tax for the rental & my own house tax still isn't right.
• The company who supplied my side door haven't done the inside the colour I ordered. I have no keys or trickle vents for the windows, which were delayed by months.
• Another glazing supplier has put some wrong fittings in & used rusty screws. The front door which I ordered months ago still hasn't arrived.
• The gutters & dreainpipes, supposedly matching the metal cladding on my extension, are the wrong colour. The drainpipes actually go on top of the cladding, so it is really obvious.
• My mobile supplier seems to be unable to get me reliable mobile reception in my house or outside it. I live in a city with no tall buildings around me.
• I am still waiting for delivery of fittings for my wardrobes which were ordered before Christmas.

Why are big companies, the building trade & utilities, so broken? Is it really simply the result of a devastating financial crash, Brexit & Covid resulting in a broken supply chain & huge staffing issues? I am really beginning to wonder. I do understand the underlying transport, raw materials & staffing problems. But organisations have had years to adapt & re-organise. The fundamental problem seems to be communication in the 21st century, which has the most effective communications ever. There is also an underlying staff training & skills problem, which hasn't been resolved.

The other revelation is that I have coped with all of this & more. I have taken each problem & eventually found a way to resolve it. But it has taken a massive toll on my time, energy, health & finances. 

My point in Blogging about this is that it shouldn't happen. No system is perfect, but people have a right to expect that when problems arise they will be dealt with speedily & efficiently. I can't tell you how utterly fed up with phone menus, irritatingly repetetive music & messages telling me to hold every 12 seconds I am. It is like Chinese water torture - it can literally drive you mad.

 

You just have to remember that the person you ultimately speak to is hardly ever the one who is responsible for the problem. 

 

Upheaval & Disruption

 I am living in a state of chaos with my builders. My house is permanently in a mess & dusty. This is not what any sane person would choose to do. I have been at the end of my tether. For example when I couldn’t cook a meal because neither the hob or oven worked. Or because my landline wasn’t live & there has been a mobile transmitter problem since February which means I have no mobile in my house or outside. Add to that it took 20 days to get my wifi working. Project managing this work means I need good communications.

Then there is the completely random way trades people arrive to work or not. They are all working on other jobs simultaneously with mine. The scheduling & organisation of work seems disorganised & unplanned. New fittings aren’t properly protected so are damaged. Builders rubbish is everywhere in the house & garden instead of being disposed of or stored in a yard when not needed. Individual trades people clear up properly at the end of the day, but not everyone.

On top of that the number of faulty or damaged goods is unbelievable. It isn’t just a broken supply chain. The side door & the bifold doors are the wrong colour. The fittings on the sash windows are wrong & have been put on with rusty screws. 

Actually living here is an eye opener. I can see how messy it all is. There is no organisation. Individual trades people are very good at their job, but there is no overall planning & organisation. To a great extent that must have contributed to the massive cost & time overruns, stress & sleepless nights.

I just want it finished & to be able to live a normal life. I have been patient & understood the constraints. But I have had enough. I am competent, but I really don’t have the physical or mental capacity anymore to    be able to do this for much longer.

Moving Again

In theory I should be in my new house. In practice I have been staying with my daughter for the last week & it looks as if I'll be there for another week.

I moved out of my rental on the 4th, which was relatively fine. But when I got to my house I discovered that all the rooms were still filthy & full of builders stuff. There wasn't enough space to put the contents of the 3 bed rental. The bifold doors which had been promised on the 5th weren't there. Neither were the fittings for the wardrobes also promised for the Wednesday.

The builders were working with the team doing the cladding for the extension, because there had been a mix up over who was doing the battening & boarding under the metal cladding & the bifold doors finally arrived 6 months after they had been ordered & paid for. Unfortunately they are not all cream for some reason that I haven't yet discovered! 

The decorator developed a serious health problem at the weekend so was unable to work. The carpenter couldn't work for almost 2 weeks & then got Flu. Most of the remaining work inside is down to them.

So space had to be hurriedly cleared before the removers arrived & then I lost the will to live trying to decide where everything could go in the limited space available. The dust was so bad it affected my breathing. In the end once the removers had gone I was utterly exhausted & had to leave.

My lovely cleaners went to the house yesterday afternoon & did an amazing job. So today I've been able to unpack 6 boxes with kitchen stuff & bring my computer to my daughters so that I can access all my files etc. I've been able to do a bit on my phone & iPad, but didn't have all my passwords for everything. My life is on my computer. It's how I communicate for everything.

I don't know if the transfer of utilities & council tax has gone through. I do know I got a letter from Thames Water saying that my monthly direct debit would be £26,537.00 - No that isn't a typo! Thames Water have also overcharged me at the rental & at my house. 

I have tried to be understanding & patient over the last 10 months given the circumstances with Brexit & then Covid. In terms of the supply chain I don't blame the suppliers of things like windows & doors. It's the fabricators who just don't fulfil the contract. The suppliers are between a rock & a hard place, between the customer & the fabricators. In my case I actually think I am due compensation for the unacceptable delays & mistakes. 

The outcome is hugely increased costs & delays, much disappointment & frustration, & finally utter annoyance that so many people just don't communicate effectively & do their job. British workmen have had a bad reputation for a long time in comparison with the Germans & Scandinavians for example. But currently the system is not working at all.

This is not the time to be renovating a house & building an extension!

 

Mine has been so far outside my comfort zone I've forgotten where that is!

Good & Evil - Truth & Lies - Ukraine matters

We live in an age when it is difficult to differentiate between the basic tenets of our humanity & our society. Almost universal instant communications mean that we know more about what is happening than ever before. But when politicians are self serving, power & wealth grabbing & utterly unscrupulous what we can't always be sure of is what is true & what is propaganda.

Each individual has the capacity to be good or evil within themselves. Each of us can be truthful or deceitful. It is a choice we all have to make, regularly. Both in our daily ordinary lives & in the huge global questions. That choice is always important, even more so now as we watch, in chilling detail, what Putin is doing in Ukraine. We cannot say we don't know.

The choice is important for the future of world order. Each of us has a responsibility to make the right choice, even if it means that we individually pay a high price. I have a daughter & grandchildren. The world they have to live in depends on what we chose to do now. Individual morality & action counts & is powerful. Ordinary people should not simply expect politicians to make the important decisions. We each have to make clear what we want them to do.

I want the democratic, free world to do absolutely everything possible to stop Putin from succeeding. Not just mealy mouthed, protectionist, sanctions. If that doesn't happen Putin will win. If Putin wins he won't stop at Ukraine. Other dictators will have a free pass to also do what they want. The world will descend into chaos. Evil will triumph. Truth will be defeated.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-update-9

My daughter & my grandchildren will not be safe. Neither will yours.

International Law & Dictators.

Law should be protection against wrongdoing. Law is only effective if it is enforceable."International Law is the body of legal rules, norms, and standards that apply between sovereign states and other entities that are legally recognized as international actors" - Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832. Modern international law now includes individuals & international organisations. "It is a rapidly developing complex of rules and influential—though not directly binding—principles, practices, and assertions coupled with increasingly sophisticated structures and processes...including human rights" - Britannica.

President Putin & dictators like him do not think law of any sort applies to him. In a way he is right. He appears to act with impunity.  

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/has-vladimir-putin-always-been-corrupt-and-does-it-matter      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin._Corruption  

He is thought to be worth over $200 billion. You don't amass that sort of money as a politician legally. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin 

You have to wonder how dictators justify to themselves the havoc they wreak & the wealth they steal. Their mindset & personality cannot be "normal". That makes dictators very difficult to predict & deal with. Most human beings have a pretty good idea of right from wrong & a societal moral code.

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. Currently made up of 193 member states including the Russian Federation. It is supposed to be the place that "all the world’s nations can gather together, discuss common problems, and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity". "The strong preference for consensus often shapes negotiations on a proposal. A formal objection by a single delegation is sufficient to block consensus, every delegate has that power and many try to use it to extract concessions from other delegations". That, in my view makes the UN a "paper tiger". 

The current situation in Ukraine & other places around the world demands action. Populations have a right to protection against aggressors. Talk is not enough. Financial sanctions will not stop innocent people being maimed & killed. Dictators need to know that retribution for human rights violations will follow.

Understandably the US & Europe don't want to get involved with a dirty war & soldiers coming home in body bags. Although there hasn't been a world war in my lifetime, there have been many serious conflicts. The thing that seems obvious to me is that unless we challenge dictatorships effectively, all we do is store up problems that come back to haunt us in other ways than being actively involved in armed conflict.

 

This Ukrainian situation will affect every country in the world in one way or another. If we allow Ukraine to be occupied by Russia the consequences are unthinkable. It will be yet another example, like Assad in Syria, that gives dictatiors the confidence to do anything they like in future. Safe in the knowledge that democratic countries will " huff & puff, but not blow their house down".

If bullies win, everyone loses.

 

 

Upheaval, Disruption & Nietzsche

I'm moving again in 11 days. This will be the 14th place I have lived during my life & the 6th house I have owned. With any luck this will be my final resting place apart from the obvious one!

This move will hopefully be fairly straightforward. Most of my things are in storage & I can choose when I'm ready to have those. There isn't that much to pack in my rental & I can get settled in the new house & wait until it is completely finished inside before cluttering the house with everything. Some builders are quite likely to still be working when I move in. The house is full of mess & dust at the moment so it needs a really good clean.

Synchronising everything is tricky. Although I can get by with a microwave & a kettle upstairs, a kitchen would be really nice. 

 In the same way I can manage with the clothes rail & furniture I have in the rental, but it would be really great if the fitted wardrobes were done. The carpet upstairs can't be fitted until they are anyway.

Given the weather at the moment, heating would be good. I do have a functioning bathroom though.

The point is life doesn't always run smoothly. A certain amount of disruption, uncertainty & tribulation is inevitable. The important thing is how we deal with that, how well we are able to put it into perspective. So I'm not facing the imminent posibility of a war with a neighbouring country, or a life threatening illness or injury. I'm not a refugee or migrant searching for a safe place to call home. I have the basic necessities of life, shelter, food, reasonable health, enough money, family & friends.

I have learned what is important in life & what isn't. I do get frustrated, stressed & even annoyed. But I know that I can face almost anything now & deal with it, because there isn't much that I haven't had to cope with in 77 years. This last 10 months has been very difficult. Renovating my house has been far more of a challenge than I thought, but I think I will be quite pleased with what we have achieved with the wreck of a house that I bought. 

German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said  “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” I couldn't agree more.

Delivery Woes - Ikea

Never, in the whole of my life, have I researched so many products, visited so many showrooms, talked to so many salespeople, ordered so many things & spent so much money. Apart from the actual building materials, everything in my house has been sourced by me. I know more about every product & building process than I ever thought possible. I also know more about the things that can go wrong on a build like this than I could have anticipated. 

Each step forward has been matched by problems. One of the main issues is delivery. Some companies are excellent. They communicate well, they are flexible, they respond positively to the clients difficulties. When a house is uninhabited & the builders are generally only there between 8 - 4 on weekdays, receiving goods can be a nightmare.

Mobile phones are a godsend. Delivery companies should be able to phone, text or email the customer giving notice about delivery slots. Preferably 24 hours in advance & then perhaps 30 minutes before arriving. Taking a photo of the goods at the premises proves delivery. Also taking photos of damaged goods & packaging provides proof for the customer.

Sometimes this all goes completely wrong. Ikea has been a nightmare to deal with. I ordered a lot of Pax wardrobe frames & fittings for 2 bedrooms in December. The products I ordered showed available on the website. So I ordered, paid & got delivery dates. That to me is a contract. Then, often close to delivery, I got emails saying that some products were unavailable & I had been refunded. There is no reliable system for the customer to be notified when these products become available. You just have to keep checking on the website. Your order isn't given any priority & you are in competition with everyone else who might want to buy those items. In fact you might order & pay & go through the whole loop again.

Ikea don't give you information about the time slot until a 6am text on the morning of delivery. My mobile is normally switched off overnight. There may be very little time between the text & arrival. This doesn't work if a house is unoccupied. You can't contact anyone at Ikea. Their whole communication system is not customer friendly or fit for purpose.

I was given the first delivery date after Christmas. In fact they tried to deliver, very early in the morning, just before Christmas day, on a date I hadn't been notified about. So then on the date I did know,  half of the stuff went to my house & half went to Bristol! Why wasn't everything on one van? They told my builders it would arrive the next day. It never arrived. It was all supposed to arrive yesterday. No contact & no delivery!

I found the email of the CEO Europe & complained. He put someone in charge of sorting this mess out. I am still without all of the wardrobe frames & most of  the shelves & some fittings. 3 of the shelves I have got are broken. I've had to pay for delivery more than once. I don't want money. I want everything I ordered & paid for. Ikea seems completely unable to do that. Their system & communication is useless. 

I can't cancel the order. It's too late. I'm committed because I have some items & ordered sliding doors from another company. I move into the house in just over 3 weeks. 

A big international company like Ikea should have better systems in place than this. I'm a fan of the furniture. It's well made. The customer service is abysmal. I understand all of the supply chain problems, but Ikea have had plenty of time to respond to Brexit & Covid & ensure that their website is up to date & communication & delivery is effective.

Ikea says 

"finding solutions to “impossible” challenges is what made us successful". I haven't seen any evidence of that.

"We want to challenge conventions and drive positive changes in our industry and sometimes even in the world. We are restless doers, driven by curiosity, enthusiasm and a desire to create a better world". My dealings with Ikea have wasted huge amounts of time & caused me huge stress & frustration.

"Our vision (is) to create a better everyday life for the many people". Sadly, not for me. It's been a journey of incompetence.