Good for nothing, so called professionals

I hate to repeat myself but the standard of professional service in this country is chronic.

'House falls through'

I headed out to the house to watch the surveyor do his thing, expecting the auctioneer to be there with the keys. 4.30pm arrives and nobody about, I ring the auctioneer and she says the surveyor hadn't called back, so I ring him, he's a few minutes away (approaching the parywway) so I ring the auctioneer,get her voicemail and let her know he's close. Then while I'm waiting for her to call back, a car pulls up and the driver asks if I'm alright. Now, I get asked this occasionally but usually the person is looking for a scrap, or I'm looking half-cut. Since, even I'm not usually drunk at 4.30pm in the day (rugby international days excepted), I said, "yeah", the driver then informs me that the house is her sisters and I tell her I'm waiting for a surveyor and the auctioneer. Then the sister tells me that it's off. I was quite surprised, I mean I'm a real mover but even I don't think that a conversation with a car window is going anyway so fast enough for it to be something that was 'on' in order for it to be 'off'. Anyway, she's got a young lad in the front about 10, and buying the house is all the growing up I want to be doing right now.

Then the sister tells me that the solictor had rung the vendor in the morning to say that it was off and so no plans were made for the viewing. As it turns out when the auctioneer is talking to me next that the sister was the one who would have had the keys and would have been letting us in to do the survey. However, since it was 'off' she didn't have any keys. (Or maybe she did and just wasn't playing ball) Also, it seems the vendor is in England, whether for the week or the weekend is unclear at the moment. All this I gather as the sister rings the vendor. The vendor tells the sister she is going to run the auctioneer.

Then the auctioneer rings me and tells me that 'Mary' was supposed to be there with the keys, and it turns out the sister is Mary and I hand the phone to 'sister Mary' after the auctioneer tells me that the vendor has informed her that the solicitor rang her (the vendor) and told her it was 'off' (I'm not sure whether to make comedic comment about the vendor and the auctioneer or the vendor and the solicitor or all three together). And the auctioneer is half way to Dublin at this point. The sister talks with the auctioneer and then hands the phone back to me, but it's off! The phone that is.

About this point the surveyor arrives. I introduce myself and try to bring him up to speed, but I don't really suceed. The rate of knots this thing is unravelling at, I'm not too disappointed with my lack of success.

So, I ring the auctioneer again. She tells me she can't get the solicitor but that the vendor is of the opinion that the whole thing is off and no one is getting into the house today. So, I have to tell the surveryor who is after travelling for 45 minutes to get there for nowt.

It would appear to me that the vendor's solicitor only got around to telling the vendor today about the original sale falling through last week and confused the hell out of everything.

So, what have we learned? Essentially, Ireland's so called professionals are crap.

And these are the ones from professions that cap their numbers. the IEI or Engineers Ireland encourage more engineering places in colleges as when you get more makers more things are made and things improve on balance for people. Yet the 'professions' limit their numbers as if you get more of them they must make more red tape and crap all over everyone's lives.