To be fair, the plumber did come by the day after the request went in, while I was at work. But when I rang to arrange a time I could be home to meet him, I was told "He can't come today. We'll call you when we know when he'll be available."

And a week later, when they still hadn't called, I rang again, and it was "You don't appear to be on our waiting list. Tell us again what the problem was?"

But at least after that it was fixed pretty promptly.


If the horrified reaction is more about the prospect of being without hot water for a week, I should mention it was made bearable by having local friends who didn't mind me dropping by to borrow their shower from time to time. (Of course, if that had been otherwise I might have been more persistent and the problem might have been fixed sooner.)