The Search Commences

Initial searches using www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au presented some two-dozen houses which meet the following criteria -


3-4BR house in the areas 2146, 2147, 2148, 2763, 2767, 2768 of Western Sydney
$300-400/wk
pets allowed
air conditioning
built-in robes
fencing
a garage


Took a drive-by look at ten of them today, and have appointments to look at five tomorrow. Out of the ten I looked at, only two are decent. And many of the "indecent" ones are absolute hovels! Thankfully many of the places have addresses and you can check them out on maps.google.com before you go out there, but even that pre-inspection (to check out surrounds, too) can't protect against poorly maintained back-yards, etc. 


sigh

Bad News Tuesday

After Mrs_G came home from the prang, there was a knock on the door. It was the owner of the new real estate agency. He’d come to tell us that the owner wants to sell.

In September the previous real-estate agency “told” us that they wanted out of the rental market. Yet somehow, they still have places to rent! I reckon they only wanted to lose the problem owners, as ours appears to be. When something needs to be done, the current owners just faff about like it doesn’t matter. We reckon they’re musicians who are living on the proceeds, which isn’t a bad thing, but the fact that they’re crap means that they put the rent up at every opportunity, as opposed to the previous owners at the previous address who only put the rent up in Jan07, and we moved in in Jul98.

And the sad thing is about the previous address is that the owner wanted to sell that property as well. Took us 5 weeks and 70 property inspections (including looking at places and deciding that they were dumps – this teaches one that, on the Real Estate and Domain sites, if there’s no photo, they don’t want you to see it until you get there, because it’s a piece of shit).

Then there’s the packing, and the unpacking. We still have boxes in the garage from the move. That was in Nov07. And because of the IVF we’re not exactly flush. We have been looking forward to a tree-change, which we had planned to discuss tomorrow. But now is the choice – do we go now, or do we go to another address in Sydney or do we make the change? Problem is, I only have 4 credit points to go in my degree, and three courses of chemo. The uni could be done by distance, which is how I’ve done most of the history component of the degree, and three courses of chemo could be done at any hospital (couldn’t it?).

But as I said, we’re not exactly flush. We do have to move … do we make the big dive, or just a little one … 

Rant 3

Kmart

Living in the country’s largest city has its benefits – many of the smaller (but still so-called capital) cities have stores which close at 1800 and do not open on Sundays, which is probably workable for its citizens, but Western Sydney has two 24hr KMart stores .. I just wouldn’t go to the second one at night … just my personal preference.

But when our microwave died, we agreed that we would need to visit at least the local one to get another. When I eventually found them, there were three models of the home-branded product, and two name-brands. I wanted one of the latter only because the capacity is bigger and the power is higher (our 1991-model Chef microwave, which I picked up for I-can’t-remember-how-much in 1997 is 1100w and at least 30L). Their home-branded stuff was only 900w with max 30L.

So having had experience with not being able to find floor-staff in these stores, I went to the front desk. The girl there (sorry, I didn’t get your name … again with the shame) was super-helpful, and seconded a guy who was at the wrong place at the wrong time (as far as he is concerned) to help me. He took the tickets from the shelf, went out the proverbial back, and came back after a while to let me know that they didn’t have those models in stock.

He then (again with the nameless servants of good) offered to phone the other 24hr store (at Mount Druitt – look it up: the urban myths do it justice) to see if they had any. They didn’t … he then phoned the manager d’ (nameless, faceless, which is more the pity coz he needs to be panned) to find out if he could sell me the floor stock. The response was that they’re “not allowed”. I mean really – that’s the sort of thing a kid would say: “Would you like a cookie?” “We’re not allowed”. 

The pleasant desk girl (the guy had been sent off on a price-check while on hold to said shame-manager) offered to take my details and get the homewares manager to call me on Monday. Thank you but no, not really helpful to a hungry little boy who needs his bottle tonight.

So here’s the question, which I pose to Australian KMart employees [or any Coles Myer employees who might know] – what is the issue with selling floor-stock? I am a customer who wants to buy better-than your home-branded product, and is willing to take the gamble on floor stock provided that I get full factory warranty as well as a bit off the ticketed price. The guy at Dick Smith [a Woolworths company] was happy to sell me a DVD player off the floor for less than the ticketed price, with full warranty! Better still, what is the issue with keeping stock on the floor which is not backed up by stock in storage / out the proverbial back? Yeh things get busy, but at 2030 on a Saturday night surely there are ways of updating your display stock to ensure that it matches with stuff you can move? Couldn’t a “model temporarily out of stock” label be put up, like they do in the supermarkets (again, I cite my Woolworths experience, but I’m sure they do it at Coles as well).

Retail is about service, right? The floor-staff were happy to provide it – maybe Management should come out from behind their ivory desks and work out front in the real world? It works for the Lamborghini drivers of Corporate World …

Rant 2

Busways Blacktown

Have been a member of the City of Blacktown since Kevin07 and have always caught the 743 bus from Blacktown Interchange stand 17, or waited for it as it only runs half-hourly during peak times (hourly otherwise). But I have recently (December / January 11) learned that the T61 Hillsbus service links up with the 718 which becomes the 743 at Kings Langley shops, and on two occasions that has worked nicely.

But on three occasions, two of which I didn’t take the T61 but relied on another Busways T-service and then walked down to James Cook Drive to try to catch the oncoming 743 outside the nursing home. On the first occasion, I missed it by [holds fingers a small distance apart] that much, but was able to get a lift with my bro-in-law who was at ours borrowing a ladder. On the second occasion I missed it by [holds fingers a smaller distance apart] that much but had to leg it coz junior was asleep for a change.  It was the third which has earned this tirade (which was live-to-air on Twitter at the time because there was free Internet at the bus-stop at the time).

The T61 pulls in opposite the shops, and a 743 is at the bus stop. I run across only to learn that he was at the end of his shift and just packing up. Damn. So I check the time-table on the shelter and learn that another is due in 5min. While I’m standing there telling my story to anyone who would listen, the driver offers to drop me along the way – problem is that he was turning right onto Sunny Holt Road which is nowhere near where I had to go. The solution (in hindsight) would have been to take his offer but only as far as the next bus-stop, where there was no Internet, and keep an eye out for the bus.

The reason for that solution is that I was so busy tweeting that the guy just cruised on past. I frantically waved, but to no avail. Expletives followed. I rang the depot to report him – the guy who took the call sounded like an ex-driver and told me another bus would be there in 10 min (the time-table said 20). 10 was fine, but 20 meant that I had saved no time by making this shuffle at all. By waiting for the bus at Blacktown I would have been at home by the time the next bus fronted. As it turned out, the bus I ended up getting was the one I would have got, had I waited. Only this was at the other end of the trip.

So I ask you, tech-savvy bus-drivers who have time to read blogs, what is the deal? Yes, the end of a shift is a great time and the earlier you get to your last stop the earlier you can get back to the depot and head off to your home. But in trying to shorten that trip by not picking up passengers who are quite obviously waiting at the bus-stop for you, is a bastard act. OK maybe that was karma catching up with me for that time I closed the branch doors on a customer (that turned out to be one of the major bullies from school), or the time I let a call ring back to the call queue because I hadn’t turned my phone off before turning my computer off.

Regardless, I hope karma bites your arse and bites it hard! She may be a bitch, but that’s only because she likes lying in wait for that perfect opportunity to get you back a ripper.

Remember that!

pgg 25Jan11

Rant 1

NRMA Insurance Claims

OK, so the wife has a prang: no biggie – shit happens. She gets some details from the chick who ran into her, limps home, and lodges a claim. They ask her to get me to phone them to let them know that it’s OK by me for her to do so. I speak to Kim.

Kim rings me back – the policy is invalid. She checks the vehicle details, which I confirm. She goes away

Kim rings me back again – there is no policy against a car with this rego: only the car we sold in May 2008. My closing words to Kim were “This is the first time I have dealt with your section and I have to say that I am not impressed. I will go home, I will get the policy details, and I will call you tomorrow”. I heard he saying something platitudinous as I pressed the end-button on the mobile.

This morning, I get Monica. She also says there insurance policy is not valid. I ask for her supervisor. She reiterates her stance, as do I. She said the supervisor will ring me back.

I am ticked. I am at work, supposedly doing a job, and so pissed off I would not doubt that I have made some blues. After some time I ring their main number 132132, and get Tracey. (sp? Sorry if it’s the wrong version – I really need to know correct details when pimping someone, as well as panning). She confirmed that my insurance was current and – uh, oh … looks like their records on my comprehensive policy haven’t been updated from the original normal-NSW plates which I transferred in June / July 1998. She fixed that, and went to put me through to Claims again.

I expressed my outright dissatisfaction with her claims section, how they were happy to make me run around instead of checking the details themselves. I work in customer service too, and the very  last thing I do is, when I need information, to call the client. You have records, you have people to contact – get the information you need from them before you harass an already stressed person.

Tracey puts me through to Julie in Claims, and with her introduction tells her of my attitude. Julie looks at all the policies in front of her (to which Kim and Monica also had access). She saw the problem, fixed it, and suggested that I lodge a new claim. OK fine, I said, but I don’t have the claim details as I am at work and I wasn’t involved. She took this to a manager, who was able to fix it so the claim stayed the same with all the correct details and the same claim number. I praised Julie as the best person working in Claims!

Kim, Monica – give up your day jobs, or go and work for Ostrich Insurance where your kind belong! As for your supervisor … well, OK, she rang, but didn’t leave a message on my voice-mail, and didn’t call back when I could take the call. Maybe you should go and work for Happy Joe, too! I would really hate to think how you would treat someone who had not been with your company for many years and had no idea of the workings of customer service!! Would they still be waiting for you to get back to them?!

pgg 25Jan11

Gruessen aus dem Cyberspace

I have so much to say about so many things, I decided that this was better than boring my facebook and twitter followers / friends. Rather than spam them with my opinions, they can come here and choose to be bored!

I have had a couple of dodgy experiences over the last couple of weeks which I would like to have altogether rather than as a random and detached collection of tweets. My experiences as a customer have been lacking, which is not a good experience when one is a customer-service operator.

You will also find footy (AFL) stuff, and, when I feel like it, other detached and random stuff, as well as the occasional German!!

Wilkommen!
pgg