Thursday 5 November 1998.  1:14 PM

Public Works call to Repair Door on a days notice?

Oh boy does life get interesting.

I sent the only quotation anyone would give us for the door repairs to the Police last week.  On Monday I got a fax from the Manager of the local area command asking me to contact him.  No idea why he spent all that typing time asking me to "phone him" when he could have put the details in the fax.  Seems Police don't like sending written documents to people.  Hmmm.

Anyway, he asked me to get him a quote, which I actually provided as contained in my letter. 

This morning I get a phone call from a private contractor for the NSW Dept of Public Works wanting to come out and "fix" the door today.

HEY?  Get what?

I spend three days trying to get quotes and now they (Govt) can suddenly fix it.   Um, this isn't on.

I called David Mathias (Manger Area Command) and said this was not acceptable.   Indicated that if they wanted to send someone around, fine, they can pay my fee for supervision, $300 an hour is my normal fee. (ISPs know this. )  I also indicated that if they did it this way, that's fine by me, but they will also have to pay the contractor I'd had a quote from for his travel time and quotation time and for my time for the three days of ringing around.

I asked why suddenly they can get a contractor to come out on a days notice after one and a half months.  Mathias said "at the time we were unable to get anyone to do the job."

He also said "We've done the wrong thing by you for taking so long."  To which I replied I totally agreed and can't understand why a private contractor can suddenly do the work, when previously I was told by the Inspector they couldn't get anyone to do it.

In the end he agreed to let my contractor do the job.  3 days of my time at $300 an hour is a lot more than the repairs cost.  I think it was a good decision on his behalf.

<sigh>  Is it no wonder people in today's society get walked all over.   You really need to be able to think quick and have all your facts in front of you.   You also need to know a lot about a lot.

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