ARNSIDE

A really frustrating time for our friend Garron over the last week. We have been supporting as best we can from Cumbria and the fact is it is all so unnecessary and the biggest frustration  is the sheer incompetence and non-customer care of Scottish Gas!!

I will explain just a little a bit later.

For today the weather was so beautiful and although feeling tired and not great I wanted to get out.  So hubby and just popped into town.  He wanted to go to the library to sort out a problem he has with his membership and a few things, so I went for a lovely refreshing walk along the prom, through the ornamental gardens and then up to Thyme Out for a spot of Greek lunch.

Whilst I was doing this I took a few photos, and was intrigued that through my zoom lens I could see a tiny silhouette right in the middle of The Bay.  Strange at this time of the year, but I zoomed in further and you can just make out a person in the bottom left picture in the extras.  It appears he must have been the guide as he had a pole  and was obviously checking where the quick sands were.  Surprising as I didn't think they had any cross Bay walks at this time of the year?  Intriguing huh!!

Back to Garron
He had a pig of a week last week, what with issues with his mobile phone eating his money for no reason, then his washing mahine packed in and his kettle went pop.  The worse thing however was that the radiator feed pump for his water pump for his central heating went pop - last Wednesday!!  He has Scottish HomeCare service.  I won't go into all the detail but suffice it to say that huge amounts of trouble getting through to people.   He booked for an engineer to all telling them that he believe it was the capacitor that had gone (he knows about these things).  He didn't hear anything.  He is supposed to have been put on their priority list has he is registered disabled.  He tried contacting them, after great difficulty in getting through the call centre was just downright rude when he asked to speak to a manager.   He was told somebody would call  Saturday.  In the  end he ended up getting 4 calls from the supposed engineer giving various reasons as to why they couldn't get there - one was because there is double yellow lines around his area and he is supposed to have known that he is supposed to supply parking  permit!!! Sunday one refused to park and put it back to the service centre.
Eventually someonecalled yesterday.  Took no heed of what Garron told them it was, gave him a new pump, spent about 40 minutes there then disappeared.  The whole thing went bang again late that afternoon!!!  He called again and was assured someone would call him back urgently - one saying it would be free of charge another saying he would be charged.  No-one called back.  In sheer frustration he wrote to the CEO.  At 9.00 am this morning he got a call to say that someone would be with him today somewhere between 9 and 6.
It is now 3 and someone has just turned up, but they are saying that they may not be able to fix it it may have to go back to the service centre for an electrician to call!!!! This is what he told them nearly a week ago!!!

So basically a registered disable person on blood thinners has had no central heating for nearly a week and so it goes on!!

PHEW - sorry about that but I feel almost as frustrated as he is.

Anyway back to Cumbira - we had a nice lunch,  a chat with the staff and a couple of peoplee we know  and are now back home waiting to hear some positive news from Garron.

Sorry to have had a rant and if you made  it down this far  you deserve a medal - thanks for listening!!  

Do take care and stay safe and DO NOT USE SCOTTISH GAS - THEY ARE RUBBISH (that is me being polite because  I am a lady and old fashioned)!