The stupidity of Britain

[Welly]

And I thought you were being a woose

[Captain Jack]

My turn for a story.

Around 4 weeks ago, our communal car park's asphalt developed a leak. I phoned Thames Water (TW) to let them know that the mains pipe is probably gone - they said "Thanks, will get someone out within 3 days to look at it". A week later, no-one showed up and the leak was getting stronger and our water pressure on the 3rd floor flat was getting weaker. Another phone call revealed that no-one actually booked for the engineers to go in and look at it. After apologising profusely, TW promised to send another engineer within 3 days to "look at it".

The next day someone arrived and said; yep, that's a leak, but we can't do anything about it because it's on private land (que?). I went to our landlady, who's overlooking the entire flat and she said that she phoned TW to assess it I said that I already did that and they are saying you have to get a private plumber in to get this done. She said; OK.

Another week later, the water pressure was barely strong enough to trigger the combi-boiler to kick in and still no work has been done. The landlady said that TW need to come out and turn the water off down the street somewhere so that her plumber could replace the blown pipe. "Oh ok - when's that gonna be?"... "Possibly Monday" (it was Wednesday at the time).

The following day someone shows up from H.S. Water (TW's subcontractors), dug up a hole in the street and left. After they left, there was NO water in the flat at all, with the leak still pouring out of the road. Grrr! Phoned TW, was told someone would be out tomorrow to turn the water back on. ?? Back on? But it's on already? Never mind...

Friday comes and goes. TW showed up, faffed around and left. Still no water in the flat but no leak on the road either. Went to the landlady. Was told someone would be out tomorrow (Sat) to replace the pipe. Saturday morning comes. We left the flat at 9am for some shopping and already saw some people gathering around the leak site, with the landlady overseeing the whole thing. "So, will the water be back on today?", I asked. "Yes... maybe". I already lost all hope after 3 weeks of waiting, so I just left it.

Upon our return, we discovered a huge burbling pool of water "leaking" out of TW's hole with not a soul in sight. In our flat - no water. To top it all off, the in-laws from Poland were due to visit us on Wednesday (2 days ago) and they wouldn't even be able to flush the toilet. As we had no shower for 3 days, we decided to check into a hotel near by for a cost of £70 just to get a shower... Only to discover that there was a "function" at a hotel until 1am, which meant blaring music on the floor below us. Grrrrr!

The following day (Sunday), TW came out to fix THEIR leak and the water finally appeared in our taps - albeit at a very low pressure, so only cold water. Still, we managed to do the dishes, flush the toilet and clean the flat before the water was switched off AGAIN on Monday to repair the original leak.

Monday come and goes: leak fixed and water apparently working. But not in our flat! Apparently, there was an air lock or the lime scale stuff is blocking the pipes.

Tuesday: the plumbers show up at our flat and started attempting to clear the air lock by pumping water through a kitchen tap from the flat next to us. 4 hours later, there was still a blockage and we had no water. There was talk of knocking the walls down in an attempt to get to the pipes which they think have a blockage. NO! Grr... Whilst they tried to clear the lock, the boiler made LOUD banging noises and water was flowing out of the overspill pipe outside. Finally, another 3 hours later, some bright spark noticed that the main water pipe's "valve" was closed! He opened it and hey presto! We had water! They reckoned that the main valve somehow managed to close itself when the full water supply was restored on Monday.

Only.... the boiler wasn't kicking in, I suspect because they tried to force water through it the wrong way. Still, after another our, the boiler man finally got the boiler going.

Did this HAVE to take this long? We had no water for 6 days and noone seemed to care and there was never any sense urgency from anyone...

Welcome to Britain, everyone!

[Welly]

You wanna get a claim in for all the trouble. 1 night in the Hotel, and 6 days credit on the rent? plus any meals out, bottled water etc etc you could easily build a £500.00 claim.

[teamster1975]

Good god Alex! Bad case of "Not our problem guvnor"

[Captain Jack]

You wanna get a claim in for all the trouble. 1 night in the Hotel, and 6 days credit on the rent? plus any meals out, bottled water etc etc you could easily build a £500.00 claim.

Who do I claim it all from? Thames Water? The landlady looking after the block? Our landlord we pay the money to? Everyone will blame the problem on everyone else in this case

[Welly]

Suppose so, maybe you should creep round to the block's landlady's place and turn her water off - see how she likes it

[Captain Jack]

Suppose so, maybe you should creep round to the block's landlady's place and turn her water off - see how she likes it

She lives in the same block of flats as we do, so she had just as much water - i.e. none. Which makes it even more bizarre that it all progressed so slowly...