Renovation - IV

Today we were going to move back into the body of our house.

The key word in that sentence is "were".
Upon arriving home after the two and a half hour car journey with Mr O's step-father and my father, Mr O is not amused to find that the body of the house is not in a fit state to move furniture in, let alone us and a baby.
The painting was not completed, the wardrobes had not been fitted out, the bathroom wasn't finished, one of the light fittings hadn't been moved, some of the workmanship left a bit to be desired and the place was generally a dusty great mess.

This was not the state of affairs we were expecting, and it turns out to have been a good decision not to have gone up with the baby today, but to have enlisted family assistance with furniture moving instead. Otherwise I would have been a very, very cranky client. As it was I was less than impressed with the huge waste of everyone's time today.

The builder was supposed to have everything ready for us to move in last weekend, but that turned out to be impossible due to the hardening time for the re-polished floors. Today is 6 days after the last coat was applied, with day 7 being the final curing day. We spoke with the builder about moving in today when we saw him in Auckland last Thursday and he didn't say a word about things being unlikely to be finished.

We agreed to move out for a couple of weeks, maybe three to allow the builders full and unfettered access to the interior of the house. In return for this we expected the interior part of the work to be shortened by a week or slightly more. It has now been six weeks. I want to return to my own home. I do not wish to continue to be a house guest with my parents. I think they have been extremely generous and understanding, and insist that we haven't worn out our welcome. However, six weeks is over my limit of friendly stays, and it is well past time that we were out of their hair.

For anyone out there who works in customer service please take heed of the following advice:

Don't just say "Yes" to every request the customer makes. It really p*sses us off when what you say doesn't match what you do. Only say "Yes" if you know that it is a 100% guarantee that it will be a "Yes". And, if you discover that it isn't going to be a "Yes", then for the sake of everyone's time and efforts, make a simple telephone call and say the "Yes" has turned into a "No" because of [insert reason]. Otherwise your "Yes" should remain a "Yes", even if you have to break your own back to ensure it is. That is the essence of good customer service.

That, unfortunately, is my bleat for today.

Oh, and the builder is suggesting that all these little bits and pieces will be completed by the end of the weekend, so we will be 100% able to move in on Monday.

Hah. I'll believe that when I see it with my own two eyes.