Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

I feel annoyed. Those lovely flats beside Merton Abbey Mills that we viewed? Well the corner one we were hoping for became available on Thursday, as did another one that Paul, our friendly estate agent, assured us was one of the nicest ones on their books. He claims we'll have difficulty choosing which one we want to live in.

Unfortunately, I spoke to Paul on Thursday evening, just before he left for his holidays, so he initially said we'd have to view them on Tuesday. I wasn't too keen on this as I felt the flats would be snatched from under our very noses by that point, so I got him to promise we'd be top of the list of potential viewers, and also to try to arrange an earlier viewing. So he promised he'd speak to everyone in the office to stake our claim on the flats, and that he would email me right away with details of when we could view the flats.

But he didn't email, so first thing on Friday morning I phoned the estate agents. The other lettings guy wasn't in yet, but I was assured that he'd be in in about 10 minutes and would ring me back straight away. I didn't get phoned back until lunchtime, and I missed the call because I was in a noisy restaurant. So I phoned back again, and was told he'd be back in about ten minutes and would ring back straight away. But he didn't.

So this morning Andy and I went to visit the estate agents in person, only to find that this chap (who seems to be a bit of a wally) had no idea who we were and has arranged for three other people to view those flats on Monday. And we can't view them today because the tenants need 24 hours notice. So we're viewing them on Monday evening, but there's a distinct possibility that they'll already have been snapped up.

Well, maybe it'll be okay. Not many people go to a viewing with chequebook and ID in hand, ready to sign a contract (fools!). But I'm still very worried and rather annoyed about how difficult they're making all this.

Whilst I'm on the topic of people promising to phone back, I phoned Endsleigh to change my insurance details Friday week ago at 9am. They didn't phone back until about 2:30, and I couldn't finish the conversation because we were just arriving in London. So I tried to phone again later but got tired of being on hold for about ten minutes. Same on Saturday. On Monday I managed to speak to someone in motor alterations which was pretty darn useless, so he said he'd get someone to ring me back. Which still hasn't happened. I'm not that bothered though: he tells me that as long as I've been promised a call-back, my stuff is still insured despite my details being incorrect, since it's not my fault the amendments haven't been made. So I'm just going to sit and wait for that call.

And HSBC. I went to the Kingston branch on Tuesday to try to get a letter proving they won't give me a refund for my Wrapit purchase. It took about 45 minutes to get across to the chap what I was trying to do (he hadn't heard of Wrapit despite it being a big HSBC issue), and eventually he told me he'd have to speak to someone else who wasn't available, and that they'd ring me back to let me know when I could come and pick up the letter. Guess what? They haven't phoned back.

So I've decided that I'm going to set up my own estate agents, bank and insurance company, and I'm going to make a fortune because I'll keep my promises, and people will be so astounded by the high quality of customer service this brings that they'll come in droves. I feel quite frustrated.