Punctual tradesmen leave Bahdobian residents fuming

A recent outbreak of punctuality amongst Bahdobian based tradesmen has left many residents angry and out of pocket. Overwhelmed with complaints about appointments being kept and efficient service being provided, the Herald took a detailed look at the phenomenon.

Denzil Doonican, a British expat and resident Beachfront District, contacted this newspaper to complain after the AC repairmen he had booked turned up on time, fixed the problem in question and charged a reasonable amount for the service they provided.

'When my villa's AC stopped working at 4pm last Sunday afternoon, I immediately called my usual handymen,' he related. 'Naturally they said that they'd come around at eight on Monday morning. With temperatures in the villa reaching 40C, I booked myself into a hotel for three nights, fully expecting the guys to turn up randomly on Wednesday or Thursday after my calling them and screaming down the phone sometime on the Tuesday afternoon. Imagine my irritation when they called me at five to eight on Monday morning to say they were outside my villa as promised. I left my hotel to meet them and by nine they'd fixed the problem, handed me a legible invoice and left. Their punctuality and professionalism allowed me to move back to the villa that morning, which meant I had to forfeit my deposit on the hotel room I'd booked.'

Mr Doonican's final comments were damning. 'I'm furious,' he added. 'These guys turned up on time and did exactly what they were supposed to, ruining my plans for the week and leaving me considerably out of pocket.'

When her washing machine broke down three weeks ago, Mrs FG, an Indian expatriate, called the local distributor. 'My washing machine was still under warranty, so I called the number on the documents that came with it. The man on the phone took my details and said he'd send someone around the next morning at eight o'clock. He told me that something very simple had broken, that it happened all the time and that thanks to some common sense and good planning they had plenty of the parts in question in stock. Naturally, I immediately asked my husband to go out to the nearest white goods shop and purchase a replacement washing machine, as I couldn't wait 6 months for a common part to be shipped from Germany to Bahdobian.'

Mrs FG's presence of mind turned out to be expensive, however. 'My husband returned from work that evening with a brand new model. He and a friend then spent the whole evening removing the old one and driving it to the local dump. Imagine my rage, therefore, when the washing machine repairman turned up at 8 the next morning, spare part in hand, as promised. Thanks to their honesty and efficiency I ended throwing away a perfectly repairable piece of equipment and wasting a fortune buying a new one, all for no good reason. Why couldn't they have strung me along with vague promises for 6 months or so and then simply pretended they had no record of my original request, just as they've always done in the past?'

Gerhard Arschbacken from Germany wasn't overly distressed when the water heater in his Al Barsha villa began leaking on a Saturday morning. 'I've been living here for years,' he related humourlessly. 'Every time there's a problem, be it plumbing, electrical, AC related, structural, or metaphysical, the same man comes around with a small screwdriver, fails to fix the problem, but claims he has. Over the years we've become good friends. For the last 12 months, once he has come over at a random and inconvenient time, I've driven him to the tool shop, purchased the necessary equipment and shown him how to fix the problem myself. It's become a ritual that we both enjoy.'

On this occasion, however, Herr Arschbacken was in for a shock.

'At eight o'clock on Sunday morning, as promised, a qualified plumber appeared at my doorstep. He and his adequately stocked toolbox proceeded to my bathroom, replaced a dessicated rubber seal and left. I had to uncancel all the meetings I had cancelled at work for the following three days, which made me look unprofessional, plus I missed out on the bonding experience of the trip together to the tool shop. What was wrong with the way things were done before? It's change for change's sake and I don't like it!'

Irishman David O'Malley told us the shocking story of his recent furniture delivery. After ordering an oddly decorated wardrobe from a local shop and asking for it to be delivered the following morning at eight o'clock, David duly printed out five maps detailing the location of his apartment and left them at the shop for them to be given to the delivery van driver. He also crossed his fingers, hoping he wouldn't have anything too important to do at work that week when the delivery man called him unexpectedly from the wrong end of town without a clue where he was going.

David's expectations were not met. Instead of a week of frustration, unnecessary time taken off work and repeated descriptions of his location being given down the phone to multiple different people, his new wardrobe was delivered and fitted the following morning at 8 o'clock, as promised. David summed up his experience using words that cannot be published in a family newspaper.

Following phone calls to various handymen, delivery services and men with screwdrivers, this newspaper seems to have discovered the root cause of what has been annoying so many residents.

Mr Babu Ram, a tradesman based in Satwa, explained the situation as follows. 'Since long we have been following a simple system. When customer rings up to ask for our services, we would tell him we would be there are 8 o'clock the next morning. We would then simply carry on doing whatever we were doing, which would usually be what whoever shouted at us the most loudly wanted us to do. Eventually, after three or four days, people would either give up or scream so loudly at us that we'd drop what we were doing and proceed randomly to where we thought the customer was located, studiously ignoring the detailed directions written down on a piece of paper at the office.'

Recently, however, Mr Ram's life has been made hell. 'Our managers recently availed a training course. They now make us use things like calendars, tell us to set customer's expectations, stop saying 'yes' and 'no problem' to any request, write down locations properly, call ahead if we are going to be late and so on. All this has completely thrown us and our customers. As you mention, people are not happy. I myself am planning to switch back to darting around inefficiently from job to job once again, small screwdriver in hand, regardless of the task I need to carry out,' he grinned. 'I will also reinstate my random approach to charging customers and go back to scribbling randomly on any receipts I provide. Customers love that and everyone knows where he stands.'

Many residents are hoping Mr BR's sensible approach to service levels will be taken back up across the city and life can return to normal. Time will tell - and the Herald will carry regular reports updating our readers of any changes.