Ding ding ding – Round 1 goes to Shackles in the blue corner!

Today I was on the opposite end of a complaint call … geez it felt good! haha.  By 2.40pm Mr Councilman still hadn’t phoned me back, and I had to leave home to head to work before 3pm, so I called them back … the operator tried reaching Mr C, only to apparently have him start screaming at her and saying he’d told me he’d call me back.  My response was that I would no longer be on the home number, could you please give him my work number, but that wasn’t an option as apparently after abusing her, he’d hung up, and he was on the road.  No problem, I said, in that case can you give me HIS direct number and I’ll call HIM, and if he wants to start abusing me he’s picked the wrong customer.  I think she was a bit scared of the repercussions, but she gave his mobile number to me quite happily in fact and asked if I could just not call him straightaway.  I was happy to agree, and when I hadn’t heard from him by 4.30pm, I called his mobile … and the fun began!

He was confused why I was calling from work and no longer on my home number … um, because I’m starting my night shift now, as I told you this morning on the phone.  Oh, and what time are you getting home?  Just after 1am, I reply, would likely be the earliest.  Oh … and where are you going to park?  Well, Mr C that is the precise reason why I called this morning … and I must apologise because I must have accidentally slipped into speaking in Swahili, as you obviously didn’t understand a word of what I said to you this morning … I honestly thought it was English, but I must have been mistaken … my sincere apologies, what a terrible oversight!

Anyway, after a rather lengthy discussion we confirmed that what I was requesting was to have the option to park on the medium strip without getting towed or receiving a ticket from their parking officers … oh, he says, that’s not really my area, so I can’t help you … at this point the fuse on the Shackles time-bomb is having the match brought up to it, ready to commence burning …  Well, perhaps, Mr C you could have told me that when I first spoke to you this morning at 10.30am – we have now wasted an entire day, I am at work, and I have no further avenues to go to tonight to have this resolved.  Quite frankly that’s appalling!  I reiterate I’m not happy that I’m dragged out of bed by one of your workers, with no advance notice, to be told I have to move my car out into the street, and having to possibly walk up to 3 blocks in the wee small hours of the morning as a single female – my personal safety is being put at risk, and it’s up to you to give me an alternative, seeing as you’ve removed my private parking area with no warning.  When he argued a bit, I said it was fine, I was more than happy for them to provide me with a taxi to and from work so I could travel home in safety – I dunno why, but he said that wasn’t an option 😉

I then said, so give me an alternative solution … his answer was that if they let me park on the median strip, they’d start getting complaint calls from people that I’m parking there.  My response, in actual fact you’re receiving a complaint call right now from a customer, and you should be dealing with it, I don’t give a damn about future people complaining!  Eventually he said he’d have to check a few things out, and he’d give me a call back …

When he called back an hour later, he had the gall to say to me he’d checked and there was no record of works being done out here, as if I was imagining things.  Can you see that fuse moving fast along the wire now?  Oh yeah, someone just poured kerosene on the flame to speed things up … Rightio, Mr C, if you like I can bring you in bl**dy photos of the imaginary road works – I most definitely didn’t imagine the great big pile of rubble now sitting in the car park of our property, along with the cordoning off tape, and the driveway all dug up, not to mention the signposts out in the street saying “road works in side road” … quite frankly, Mr C, now you’re getting downright bl**dy ridiculous!! 

Luckily he eventually realised he’d met his match for the evening, and fixed the situation by finally asking what my car rego/make/model etc was and said I could park on the median strip for tonight only, and we’d have to reassess the situation tomorrow … thank you Mr C, it’s much appreciated.  And if I don’t get approval for the next two nights, expect the “look” in person, ‘cos I’m coming down to visit!!!

I have to say I’m usually a pretty even-tempered person, but when I lose my rag, I seriously lose it!!  And I normally have a valid reason for losing my temper.  I couldn’t believe it when he implied that there no works being done … bureaucratic moron!!

Phew … vent over and done with!!  Now for Mr C’s sake he’d better hope that I don’t have a ticket or, especially, that my car hasn’t been towed in the morning … 😉

And on that note, I think I’m off to bed 😉