Piccadilly Circus

Our place this morning was like Piccadilly Circus. Susanna my caregiver arrived. Almost immediately the district respiratory nurse arrived to check our oxygen converter's new position. The new bed Anne had ordered for her self was delivered at the same moment. And Larrie our builder arrived to drill a hole to put the oxygen tubing through and tack it to the skirting boards and to earthquake proof the shifted bookcases.

The bed is an interesting example of a change in attitudes. When Anne bought it the salespeople assured her that it would be delivered and assembled. The man who brought it this morning was a deliverer only. It was his job to bring it on site and do nothing else. Anne had to work hard to persuade him to take the pieces upstairs and then assemble them.

When she rang up the firm to complain she was told firmly that it was now policy to only deliver. When she rang the sales section to complain she was told that most people were happy to arrange and assemble it themselves. If they rang to say they couldn’t couldn’t do it one of the salespeople would come out after hours to do so. So much for service. So much for older people’s independence.