So far bad day

It doesn't help the day get off to a good start when the building site starts work - illegally and noisily - at quarter past seven. Especially when one has slept with one's windows open. Being that the weather forecast is for hot and sticky nights.

I emailed the Property Developers a letter on 1 June. They have not even acknowledged receipt. I have emailed again with a notification that if they do not provide a substantive response on Monday I shall take the matter further. I'm debating whether to approach the South London Press, who always appreciate pre-written stories or to go straight to the national media. Or other action...

The letter is in the extended entry.

And then I get cold-called. I'm usually cautious in answering the phone, but we are expecting calls, nd the caller-display didn't show up.

It was extremely difficult to understand what the cold-caller was saying. She was calling from France, and, I think, reading from a script that was probably phonetically written out. I demanded to know why she was calling my number, I had opted into theTelephone Preference Service, and how dare she disturb the privacy of my home. I demanded to know the name of the company and I really could not understand what she was saying. I asked her to spell it out, and she said "I don't understand you!" As I explained that I wanted a name so I could write and complain, she started to spout the script of 'thank you and goodbye and sorry to have disturbed you.' I asked her how dare she do that when she hadn't answered my question, could I speak with someone who spoke English. "Of course Madam," she said ingratiatingly and a few moments later the line went dead. As far as I could gather they are a French property company who want to invite me and my husband to an exhibition in our area.

What connects the two of course is greed and utter disregard for people's homelife. Greed, greed, greed. Of course we all want to earn a living, and money makes the world go round. Thankfully, I am a believer in karma, and I believe that all these people will get their come-uppance at some time. But some of us have values that are wider than sheer greed.

But the other thing that puzzles me is why cold-calling companies use people who have difficulty communicating with the target. It's happened before. Some company in Croydon called me and the caller had such a heavy West African accent that I had to keep asking her to repeat herself. I would hazard a guess that I am more familiar with heavy West African accents than most people. I can't see how it can be an effective sales technique to spew unintelligible stuff at a potential customer.

A part of me feels a bit guilty at being so angry at the caller this morning, she's only doing a job and so on. But ultimately, we do have to take responsibility for our jobs, however menial. Genuine call-centre staff are different. If they contact you they immediately identify which organisation they are from, often check that it's convenient to call and one suspects that they have been trained that most people do not like cold-calls but are prepared to talk to organisations with which they have an existing relationship.

I am the owner-occupier of the cottage immediately behind 30 Streatham Place and am sick of how my home-life has been ruined by the inconsiderate nature of the building works. I have contacted Stuart Fanti on a number of occasions and although he has always been perfectly civil and polite, he has just produced warm words obviously designed to get rid of someone he feels is too stupid to be taken seriously.

He assured me that there would be no noise once the ‘structure’ was erected and the ‘brick’ work begun. The work with concrete breezeblocks and the thin veneer of bricks has been going on since at least April with the constant noise of electrical equipment loud enough to prevent us having a conversation in the garden, and loud enough to cover radio or CD player even with the windows closed. Fanti gave me assurances on 4 May – 4 weeks ago – that that noise would stop by the end of the month, but surprise surprise a new month has begun and the noise continues. From eight o’clock in the morning until well into the evening, and from half past seven until mid-afternoon on Saturdays with just a few minutes pause now and again. In addition we get the shouting of the builders, again audible with the windows shut.

Last week I was visited by the new manager from Como full of warm words and promises to let us know what is happening, and promises to drop his contact details through the door, but yet again another empty promise. Just a threat that in an unspecified week in June there will be a week of noise of the scaffolding coming down, also deliveries passing close to our door.

We do hope that at some time between now and September the weather will be sufficiently summer-like to sit out in the garden or to have the windows open in the house. The thought of it fills me with misery.

All I ever get in response to my complaints is that ‘we have a job to get on with’. Well, we have a life to get on with. Your building work is making our house dirty, and barely habitable, and our plants are failing to thrive – my partner has put in a lot of time, money and effort in getting the garden pleasant. I feel unable to have anyone visit during the day, including Saturdays and I am too embarrassed to invite my brother, sister-in-law and baby nephew to visit us from Yorkshire.

Not once has your company approached us to let us know what is happening or to suggest ways in which they can make amends for the havoc this has wrought on our lives. We just get arrogant, complacent warm-words of contempt from Fanti. You are just interested in making a profit without any consideration of the effect you have on your neighbours. Clearly the concepts of being good neighbours and considerate builders, let alone of corporate responsibility, are quite alien to your company.

I look forward to hearing your response, including an offer of what you will do to compensate for a year of misery, upset, inconvenience, noise and dirt. I hope sincerely that it will not be a derisory offer. Otherwise I shall to examine my options to take this matter further.

Comments

[Faye]

Sounds like a crap day. And then you get a phone call from the only person in the country who didn't realise that the England match started at 2pm and you would be watching it!

[xoggoth]

I am in the TPS too and it hasn't totally ended calls although it's much better.

The noise sounds like something your council should be dealing with. They are often relucant to do anything, but I find getting the local councillor involved does wonders.

PS Always try any communications business like.
PPS Is Streatham Place in Streatham? I used to live there!

[Gert]

No, it's in Brixton, but you would never guess from their publicity, which skates over the whole Brixton thing except for the Tube Station.

You see, if you use Brixton in the publicity, people immediately think "Black Area", and Macniven and Cameron have demonstrated that as well as being liars they are also fundamentally racist - for example, their 'Artists' Impression' of the site is airbrushed with 'people', all of them not only white but distinctly Anglo-Saxon, just in case anyone should mistake them for Portuguese or Latin-American, let alone black or Asian.

Ironic really, considering that most of the pimps, prostitutes, crack-dealers and muggers that proliferate the area near to 30 Streatham Place...that is Thirty Streatham Place...are white.

And ironic considering that they are using labourerers clearly not from EU countries. I wonder if they have Work Permits...I would imagine that they are paying less than the minimum wage. It's like Apartheid - Macniven and Cameron, the developers for 30 Streatham Place are happy to have dark-skinned people building the shonky office block but don't want any ethnic minority types actually living in their 'luxury (sic) apartments'

[Blue Witch]

TPS doesn't/can't cover companies calling from outside the UK. Hence why they do it.

Good luck with getting compensation from the builders - but I think you'll be very lucky, and is there legislation that covers it? Unless there are local by-laws, or terms were imposed when planning permission was granted...