Thought I'd sarae this one with you..interesting problem

[The Natural Philosopher]

Scenario.

Over at in-las the other week to make a little step down to the patio (aged legs etc)... "Can you fix our water"

"What's wrong with it" "The hot tap's don't work"

Crawl up in loft with torch. Twin header tanks, both empty although CH one was full. Wiggling ballcocks - nothing.

"When did it happen"

"Oh well they were doing work on the mains, and the water all went off, and then it came back all muddy and brown and full of stuff, the cold water works in the sink, but thats all"

Head scratch time. Tied slamming me hand over the kitchen mixer and back flushing the hearer tank...seemed to be enough pressure..couldn';t understand it at all.

I had just about given up when FIL said 'is it anything to do with this' leading me to a cupboard I had never seen before "I don't know what that is, but it never seems to do anything but it has lots of pipes on it" (he's been in the house for 5 years)

And lo and behold there was a softener..complete with isolation valves and a bypass loop.

"Do you ever fill it up with salt or anything" "No. I didn't know I hasd to"

A quick check of the valves immediately resulted in water rushing through the bypass, although the unit stubbornly resisted any attempts to get water to flow through it.

I left it that way, concluding that the shit that had come down the mains had probably blocked the ion exchange unit beyond anything short of a reverse flushing...of course the hot water STILL didn't work, but the good old Mk1 hand slammed over the kitchen mixer with all taps on soon put the air back where it belonged.

I told him to claim for a plumbers call out fee and a new softener from the water company :-)

[Aidan]

Set it to regenerate and the backwash cycle will shift some of the crud down the drain. Failing that, replace the resin. The resin acts as a filter media. Has it been trying to regenerate, without the brine, for

5 years?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Lord knows what its been doing.

I am not sure how to get it to regenerate even...or even if there is a manual.

I have to say that since they don't seem to have missed its absence, I rather thought it was time to lay the steps, and leave it as it was...

There comes a pint when fixing friends and relatives stuff, where you realise your own sense of perfection and 'everything in good working order' is wasted...they simply want to stumble through life with the minimum of hassle, and besides, I doubt the old boy could lift a bag of salt these days..

Nah. They are delighted. They got their hot water back and it didn't cost em a penny.

[Andy Hall]

Yes, I'm intimately familiar with this scenario.

I recently had a PC saga with my silver surfers. They have become addicted to the internet and get a lot from emails with interest groups, volunteer work for "old people" and so on.

Three failures in a row and battling with Billyware and I was ready to throw in the towel. I was seriously thinking about buying them one of those little Mac biscuit tins. It would have done the job.. Even a ten year old knows Unix (according to Spielberg).

You're right though. I set a very high standard for things working for me and for services and purchases so have a perfectionist view of that. Sometimes I forget that others don't set their horizons as high and are perfectly happy with a lesser outcome.

I do constantly battle with them with their healthcare. They are willing to sit back and do what the doctor says because they don't want to bother him. Realistically, is it the right thing to do to bang the table when the subjects are in their mid to late 80s and happy with their lot in life? I wouldn't accept it for me and am frustrated when others accept second best.

Whether the issue is a water softener or a life threatening health condition, perhaps the issue is being sensitive to what the customer wants. Even if he is a relative....

[Mary Fisher]

Yes - and they're old enhough to make up their own minds and not be told what to do by a patronising whippersnapper.

You might change your outlook when you mature.

Mary

[Peter]

Possibly he might, however, better he and many more of us vent our frustrations before we get to that point of no return, ehh? Mary?

Fascinates me, eg MILaw pays £175 pm after her 25% single discount for her council tax. No street lights, no bus service, station 10 miles away, hospital 15 miles away, roads not taken over by the council, (house is 37 years old) and MIL thinks its all ok. PLEASE dont let me be so accomodating when I'm an old fart (next year?) Some things are just plain wrong and sometimes it just needs saying. Even by immature whippersnappers.

P

[Mary Fisher]

I don't know, I rarely have frustrations, I've learned that there's no point :-)

If you worry you die. If you don't worry you still die. So why worry?

er - the station has nothing to do with council tax ... and presumably she chose to live there or she wouldn't be there. Perhaps she's content not to travel?

No point in pleading to me, I have no control over you :-) Takes me all my time to control myself.

But you're saying your mother in law is an old fart? Or a silver surfer, as Andy said?

You won't be as old as Andy's folk next year, will you? Or your MIL?

So say them to the right people, not to this ng. We can't do anythng about it.

If you can't you'll have to accept it and not waste your life ranting :-)

Or, as my 21 year old grandchildren say to their parents, "Chill".

Mary

[Stuart Noble]

Puts you out of step with the rest of the world then. I'm amazed that anything works given that most of it is held together with string.

[Andy Hall]

That's an inappropriate comment when you have no idea of situations beyond your own experience, and you don't.

[Andy Hall]

You would be surprised at what can be achieved if one does not accept second and third best.

Unfortunately, most people are willing to do that, but I'm afraid I'm not - never have and never will do.

I never ask people to do more than they have said that they will do, but it amazes me when they are shocked if they are called to deliver on what they said they would do. Perhaps they didn't expect it - I don't know.

I don't apologise though. If it means that I get what is reasonable to expect (i.e. what has been agreed and/or paid for) then I think the expectation is reasonable. if it further means that those in the position of supplying realise that they can't get away with sloppiness without being found out and others benefit as a result, then that's fine as well.

Actually I don't even mind being out of step with the rest of the world either if it results in it becoming better than it was. I've never considered myself as being part of the herd - doesn't mean better or worse - just an individual - and I don't apologise for that either.

[Mary Fisher]

But does it?

In what ways have you improved it?

Mary

[Andy Hall]

Yes it does, in my view. This does depend on whether one is willing to accept things being worse than they should be - especially, for example if someone says that they will deliver 100% of something and then delivers 50% of it. That doesn't necessarily mean that one has to apportion personal blame to whoever made a certain commitment. They may have been given duff information by a colleague or superior or circumstances beyond their control may have happened. However, it is reasonable to know what went wrong and why and to expect a fix unless it really was a "force majeure" that could not reasonably have been foreseen.

I could sit back and just accept whatever comes along, but I don't. If I think that a situation could easily have been averted or worse still that someone has deliberately lied, then I do think that it's reasonable to expect it to be corrected.

Most organisations delivering goods and services *do* want to know if something is wrong and have the opportunity to fix it, provided that they are in a competitive market. Getting customers is an expensive exercise and it is much less expensive to keep them than to let them slip silently away to the competition. The reason is simple. If I have educated a customer that they want what I have to offer, then that is less cost for a competitor if they choose to buy there. The mobile phone companies go to huge effort on customer retention for this very reason.. The supermarkets do it too for the same reason.

So if by not allowing unreasonable 3rd best to go (whether there is blame or not), I cause a few suppliers of goods and services to do more than they would have done if not challenged, then I think an improvement has been made. I may benefit from that and if others do as well then it will have been worthwhile.

[Mary Fisher]

Hero.

We're all in your debt, obviously.

[Andy Hall]

I do what I can.

[Mary Fisher]

But you haven't said in what concrete ways you've improved the world - or even our lives.

>

[Guy King]

The message from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

He's kept us all enthralled for ages. Surely you appreciate the worth of that.

[Andy Hall]

Umm..

I think I have.

If a few more people begin to realise that when they offer something, people expect them to provide it, that's very worthwhile. Either they will actually do what they say or amend what they say to what they can do.

If a few moe people on the receiving end expect to get what they have agreed/asked/paid for then that is a good thing as well.

I think that that is absolutely fundamental in any form of exchange between people, whether it be a business relationship, a personal one or anything else. It's called honesty.

Unfortunately it has been a British cultural thing for two generations that crappy service is acceptable and that in some way "we should all pull together" This is a complete nonsense and does nobody any good.

It's perfectly possible to raise expectations and standards of delivery. If I can make a small difference to that, then I think it's worth doing.

[Andy Hall]

Glad to be of service..... :-)

[Mary Fisher]

Ah, thanks, how could I forget!

Mary

[meow2222]

I get this all the time and still cant make any sense of it. The weird bit is if I say no we're doing what we signed they blame _me_. People are bizarre.

NT