Our Pellet Oven Gets A Service.

The long wait for the service team to arrive.

Everything gets charged by the hour, I know, even back in the day of yore, but organizing a time to have a service team arrive, is a rather iffy affair. My mandate yesterday: be home from one o'clock.

To be on the safe side, I stayed home most of the day but at about half past two, I phoned to see where he was. We have the misfortune of needing to use a service company from far away ( an hour or rather a 120 euros one way...just for the travelling never mind the actual service ) and I gave him some leeway.

" Don't worry, he shouldn't be much longer. "

Fair enough, he was at our house twenty minutes later.

How often have most of us waited for someone to arrive, either to fix an oven, electric outlet or a washing machine? Isn't our time worth something too? We should charge them a fair amount for time spent waiting. Waiting time is different from loafing time...can't go to the loo, can't have a shower, can't mess up the house ( " goodness, what will the man think ") and can't have a little catnap either.

Everything was very professionally done by the young man and thankfully I had a chair to sit while I paid ( even the service team travel with a credit card machine ). The next helpful info he imparted, had me listening carefully.

" If we need to be called out on a Saturday, the rates are 40% more, on a Sunday or public holiday our rates are double. Just to let you know. "

Not to worry, I'll remember that eternally. The Bobster doesn't know it yet, but should our oven go madly on strike at any of these special times, we will huddle in blankets, thick socks and drink hot toddies until the weekend is over.

As he left, he said something to the effect of: There you go, young lady. which perked me up instantly, for it seemed that he didn't realize that I was a tad bit older than he, or he thought it a good line to use for a gratuity to come his way.

Biggi