I get the quirks of living in a new place. In fact, I may even argue that that is just an expected part of living in said new place. Would even venture as far as insisting that the entire point of making such an epic life change is to embrace the change, the nuances and learn from them.
But not when you are trying to get a leaking air conditioner serviced in the middle of an unseasonably warm summer.
On average, it takes three to four touches to get something done in Auckland. That is three or four phone calls, emails and/or texts to organize a service call, make an appointment, get someone in to measure for drapes. These are people I am trying to give my money to. The machine is seriously broken.
A part of it can be attributed to “Island Time” – a phenomenon that occurs on, well, islands where no one is ever in a hurry and the option pool is rather shallow. I have experienced this before on vacation where maybe you wait a little longer for a drink by the pool or for your dinner on the beach, nothing is ever really on time. Difference is on vacation, what is your hurry? You have the sun and the sand and you can sleep in and you aren’t cooking. Bring on the island time – it is actually part of your unwinding. Drinking the daiquiri on this one WHEN on vaca.
Shit don’t fly when you have to get the kids to school and to programs and only have a few very short hours in the day that are actually your own to get anything and everything done. No sand in the toes on an average Thursday.
I have started to make a list at the end of every day of people I need to call who either didn’t respond, didn’t answer their phone at all (this happens in businesses – I wish I was joking), didn’t show up when they were supposed to or neglected to pass on whatever they were meant to pass on (going through this with a travel agent now. “Hello, I would like to give you money to help me plan a holiday that I could probably do online myself but am not familiar with this part of the world so I would like to PAY you for your expertise and experience”…crickets…). And I can hear you all saying “Just call someone else…” The other quirk of living in a city with 1.6 million people is those specialists who service LG Air Conditioners are in the single digits.
I am not saying capitalism rules but how on God’s green earth do any of these businesses survive? How do you get anything done? Maybe because people like me don’t give up.