Not a post moaning about the mindless quality of overhyped TV programmes.
More a moan about having no telly.
It went on Monday morning. Tried turning the Sky+ box off and on again. Tried resetting the settings. Phoned Sky; when I said I'd tried turning it off and on again, she sighed. She gave me a special reset to do and that didn't work, so she declared that we needed an engineer to visit. She then explained that the engineers will not carry cash or cheques, for safety, so the visit would have to be paid up front. On one level this is understandable and logical, and I don't have any particular objection to making a Switch payment over the phone.
Yet, there is something about it that seems to be a bit low-rent about it "You are peasants!" Sky declares. As an accountant, I can see the logic of demanding payment up front for a call-out, much more sensible than chasing debtors.
The only thing is that I - and I assume all Sky customers - have a Direct Debit arrangement with them, and each month they take an amount never less than forty pounds from my bank account, and often a great deal more if we PPV. Although there is no logical reason to object to paying up front for the callout, I don't like the whiff of allegations of peasantry about it.
I was told the engineer would come on Wednesday and would phone early in the morning to give a time. I gave them Jimmy's mobile number and said to contact him and he would let them in. We later decided that if the time was to be before eleven I would wait in; if later Jimmy would be available.
I suspect that we are relatively unusual. The nature of my work, where presenteeism isn't required, and the local culture allows for flexibility and makes me in charge of my diary, combined with the fact that he works locally and is busiest before eleven means that we can be flexible. But even so, it's not a free ride - if I am late in, I have to take a half day's leave, or make it up later. I did bring some work home, but I doubted that it would occupy me for more than an hour or two. And if he leaves the business early he has to depend on employees.
On Wednesday at 8 am, the Sky engineer phoned to say he would be in attendance between 5pm and 8pm. Actually, he phoned the home phone. Not the number that I had given to the call centre. I am not an early bird, and live close to work, so that's an okay time to call me. But a great many people leave for work well before 8.
I got to thinking. Is this really an acceptable way of conducting business? A great many people would have been forced to switch shifts or take annual leave to be in for the engineer. I might, on a different day, have had to rearrange meetings, perhaps having to delay them for two weeks. Imagine if your standard hours are 8-4 and you had switched shifts, only to find that the engineer was due long after normal getting home time. Many people don't get paid if they don't work. My soundbite reaction ready for blogging was "Do they think that every house a housewife sitting round all day waiting for the engineer?"
But that soundbite doesn't work, either. People who don't go out to work have different commitments and time demands. The parent of a small child has to be at the school gates or Nursery at a specific time. They might have made unnecessary arrangements for a friend or Grandma to substitute. Retired people often lead busy lives with commitments to voluntary work or Adult Education, or grandchild minding.
I appreciate that it is difficult to allocate exact time slots, but 'all day' is really not good enough.
Jimmy was in when the engineer came. Apparently the box is fine, so there must be a problem with the dish. However, he was not going to climb ladders in the dark. Which is fair enough. So Jimmy rearranged for him to come today, a day I don't work. I wondered if the reception problem might be affected by having a dirty great big crane right outside my house (I must photograph it). By chance, the crane driver was in the cafe yesterday, and he said that cranes can interfere with satellite reception, but only when they move, and that would be a loss of reception for a few moments, not a continuous loss of service. And anyway, I would think the block of flats that face down my private drive would be more affected than me, because of the angles and relative positions.
You may have gathered that I got somewhat sloshed last night. Indeed, I am having trouble remembering how I got home. I remember getting the bus on Millbank; I remember realising it had got to Vauxhall. I remember noticing that the pavement outside Brixton Tube was covered with sand, not a sight one sees every day (gritting after the snow flurry?). And I remember finding a particular piece of post when I got home. But I have no recollection of the Tube journey, the second bus journey, the walk up the road. The last being particularly a matter of concern. One of the names that kept getting cited at last night's quiz had impressed upon me in a meeting the importance of people retaining some fear of crime - what I call being street-wise - in order to stay safe. But I must have floated home on a fluffy alcohol-induced cloud of oblivion to all the bogeymen lurking in the shadows cast by the bumper-to-bumper parked cars, blissfully unaware of the potential threats to the hundreds of pounds worth of geeky gadgets in my handbag or to my virtue.
In short, I sort of woke up to the alarm this morning with a hangover and drifted back to sleep. Only to be woken again by the answerphone going into overdrive. In a state of panic I descended the stairs, and played the messages. It was Tom Baker personally calling me. Or rather, Sky had sent two text messages to the home phone saying what time the engineer will call today. So that's alright. Well, it might be. It had better be bloody fixed for the weekend, otherwise telly is out. We can't even watch that which is captured on the hard disc - what's that about? I will jolly pissed off if I miss the live Welsh Dutchman tomorrow night on S4C.
Still, listening to Messiah is a wonderful cure for a hangover...
