Just to prove S**t really does happen!!

[Skull]

Had Thames Water ring the doorbell around 8.30 this evening

Once open the gulleys were clean and clear so everything was replaced and I came back in to watch the Liverpool game.

I would argue they were negligent as they knew there was a blockage ‘somewhere’ and should have got the backlog siphoned away in tankers! Rather than open the floodgates

[mickthemaverick]

I have done exactly that, thanks Skull

[mickthemaverick]

I received this letter from Thames Water this morning. It is national news that the company is in financial trouble yet they permit this sort of 'work standards' from their staff!! For me they should have responded faster to save themselves £20 and how many sheets of paper do they pay for, to send out with three words printed on them as part of the signature. Easy for the letter writing person to reduce the previous page's text by one line to get the whole signature on one sheet surely?

The letter as I received it less my details!!

Enlargement of page 2!!

[Skull]

Well Mick I'm sure that won't cover your inconvenience or effort involved clearing up their mess.

It makes you wonder what would happen if you had been too old and inferm to sort it all out yourself

[mickthemaverick]

You're quite right there Skull but the fact is that I am £215 out of pocket. However the truth is that before the flood had even happened I had decided to refurb the garage this summer anyway, as the old carpet had reached the ends of the road and the wooden makedo storage shelves I had were in need of replacing. So I have decided to save myself further hassle and just enjoy the fact that I now have a lovely clean well organised garage to work in and a pile of spare carpet tiles to replace any that get wrecked in the future!! So I would have spent a couple of hundred sorting it anyway and hence I don't feel too hard done by!!

[myglaren]

A bit late to be of any use for this event but look at your water suppliers website. Ours (Northumbria Water) offer a cheap insurance scheme that seems to cover all probabilities.

[mickthemaverick]

No such thing on Thames Water's website Steve, theoretically we were covered by our home insurance but the total cost of repairs didn't reach the £350 excess on the policy!! Admittedly that was largely because of the amount of work I did myself and sourcing cheap parts.

Purely out of interest I did compile a quote that my company would have given to a customer to repair the garage door and that alone totalled £565 so when you add all the flooring and shelving costs and work it could well have come into the £2-3k bracket. However I would not have been as happy with the result had I not done it myself and thus ensured it was all done correctly!!

[Paul-R]

Easy for the letter writing person to reduce the previous page's text by one line to get the whole signature on one sheet surely?

I see the error in that statement. You assume that a human being had any real input in the writing of that letter. I suspect that a number of boxes were ticked and a letter was then generated without further checking.

[mickthemaverick]

You may well be right there Paul but I would have thought that the software writers may have built in a safeguard to prevent wastage of paper due to a single line. Failing that as it has a name on it that person should take responsibility, if she exists of course!!

[PaulC5]

An email would have been even cheaper to send.