Bust

No, I haven't gone and got one.

I am referring, of course, to companies who supply me with goods and then deliberately go bust in order to get out of having to actually repair their shoddy handywork.

Last year, when I found my grill wasn't working, I attempted to contact the oven manufacturer, Arrow, only to discover that they'd gone into liquidation. After much searching, I finally managed to track down one man on eBay who had a stock of Arrow grill parts (why?! But I'm immensely grateful) and got the part, which my dad duly fitted and now I have a working grill. Hurrah.

For the past few weeks* the lock/handle on the window in the kitchen has been broken and I've had to wedge my knife sharpener behind it in order to secure it against burglars (who know knife sharpeners could be so useful?) I have put off getting it repaired because, well, because I didn't know who I should call about it to be honest. I mean, it wouldn't be an electrician, not a plumber, not a carpenter - so who? A window cleaner?

Today I decided I really needed to get it sorted if I'm going to rent the flat out so I look through the paperwork the previous owners had left me and found that the windows had been fitted in 2001 and had a 10 year guarantee! Excellent! Only it was with Bryco and the bloody bastards went bust in 2004, as I discovered when I tried to call, then google, them. Anyway, what I managed to do was find out the manufacturer of the lock mechanism (logo on the underside of the lock - would have had to hang out of the window (first floor) to see it but instead had the bright idea of getting my camera and taking a picture of it so I could read it), then looked up the manufacturer on the old interpipe**. I not only found the parts in question, I also learnt what they were called. Very important when trying to talk to repair men (because conversations that go "you know the bit that looks like a very thin pencil, that fits inside the other bit, the bit shaped like a piece of macaroni, that's not going in properly" tend to lead to comedic-type misunderstandings I find). Incidentally, the handle is called an Espag Handle and the lock is a shootbolt. Obviously. Now I can converse about window mechanisms with the best of them.

So then I call the manufacturer and they give me a list of local stockists, one of whom I call and she says someone is in my area and can be with me in half an hour. Cue some frantic cleaning of said window area, including using a toothbrush to remove the many years accumulated gunk from the lock. Half an hour later, two burly gentlemen turn up, take the handle - sorry, the Espag - off, fiddle around, put it back on and all is fixed. We then have a discussion about the handles themselves, decide they're rubbish and since I wasn't ever given a key for them either, decided to get them all replaced for what I consider a fairly reasonable sum (less than three figures anyway) so I'll be all properly secure again. They'll be back next week with the parts...unless they go bust in the meantime, that is.

*okay, months
** my favourite new word for the internet