Service engineers.

[geo0939]

Being recently retired, I've been recruited into helping family members out by waiting in their homes for service engineers to call. Could someone please explain why, if the visit is promised between 0800hrs and 1200hrs its always after 1000hrs.If the appointment is for 1200hrs and 1800hrs it is always after1500hrs.

Is there some strange secret place where they all meet to swap stories and plan strategies? I'm sure there is an answer and I'm dying to hear it, but nothing too serious or boring, please.

[woofgang]

I have been told that many people actually don't want a call that is too early and it must be really annoying to get there at 8.00 and find you customer still in bed or staggering around in jammies. I find that if I say to the call booker that I am up at 6am every morning and would be delighted to be the first call of the day, then I do get seen early.

[woofgang]

sorry, that's probably too serious and boring :-(

[geo0939]

You're right, I didn't intend to get too serious, but these engineers were left in no doubt that they would be welcomed with open arms as early as possible( one was because of total central heating and hot water failure).

[spudqueen]

Having had (until this year) primary school age kids I could guarantee that anyone I was waiting in for (from fixing the washing machine or central heating to delivering a new cooker) would turn up two minutes before I had to go and get the kids from school - everytime!

[grahamfreer]

I am a service eng & start my 1st job @ about 08:40 have lunch around 12:30 & do my last job around 17:00 my route is planned by computer so i have very little input about my day I can assure you that nothing is intended about timed visits

[geo0939]

Grahamfreer, I thought folk might appreciate ,if they read my original question, that expected some light-hearted responses. Possibly you're working too hard to have the time for a little humour, it really is the best medicine.

Best regards

[pegasusbath]

as operations manager of a company which arranges home deliveries and service calls I can tell you that it is very difficult nowadays to work out how long it is going to take to get anywhere. Traffic has increased by 82% since 1980 and in those days it was fairly easy to predict time and distance. nowadays there are so many traffic jams it is untrue. The other thing is that when a service engineer gets to a house it is only then that he knows exactly what the problem is and how long it is going to take to sort. Our people are told to ring the next customer an hour before they are due to arrive which gives the customer sufficient notice to be able to do other things instead of waiting around all day. probably the reason you are getting no humour is that most of us take our job very seriously and still get an earbashing despite doing our best!

[geo0939]

Pegasusbath, That was a very good answer, particularly the statistics. What a pity you are not the operations manager for Scottish Gas, who recently sent four different engineers to the same central heating problem in eight days. The funny thing was that each one blamed the one before for being a total moron. Put yourself in the position of the poor (cold) houseowner, which one do you believe??