The Move

“ The best laid plans of Mice and Men often go a stray. “, from Steinbeck’s novel, “Mice and Men”. Guess I could sum it up with that, but that might leave you hanging out there a bit, wondering, “What the heck, did the Poppadillo mean by that?”,

I guess I would be naive to think, if not utterly unconscious, heedless, unmindful, and oblivious to the fact that within any plan, something is bound go wrong. Well the preparation of the house, and the move in general went well, except for a couple of major glitches, which were out of our control and were dependent on others doing their jobs as promised and on time. Speaking of time, timing is everything, especially when your move is in Holland.

You see when the previous occupants of a house, here in Holland, move, they move everything down to the flooring and up to the light fixtures including the light bulbs and their sockets are removed. I am not kidding, nor do I wish to pull your leg. Well maybe a bit, if the new occupant accepts any are all the above and you being the ‘ leavee ‘ want to y’all can agree that this are that is ok to stay. Anyhow, the new occupants need to schedule the replacement of those things. Now sockets and light fixtures, and such things as that, we have no problem with planning, but with the floor coverings we do. Now with that said, there is something else has become, sort of a Dutch Tradition, so to speak. It goes like this, ‘ If move into a house. you need to rip out the kitchen and baths, and replace everything. ‘, This is including the Kitchen Sink, and along with it all the wall work, and tiling that would accompany the new appliances and toilets. The Netherlands is a Builders Paradise, if ever I saw one.

By the way there are no Three Little Piggie Stick Houses built here, we are talking Concrete, at least a foot thick, which means, the walls need to be covered. So if there is wall paper already, it must be taken off with a steamer, and scrapper. Then one needs to replace the wall paper, or structure paint, or another alternative is to have a ‘Stucador’ (plaster dude), plaster the walls, after they have been scrapped down to the bare concrete, that is no, repeat no bit of dried glue from the old wall paper left.

Plus all the little things one would assume a common place, such as having a new telephone number and setting up the turning off and turning on of utilities, etc. So now you have a picture of how it is when you move in the land of the Dike Boy.

All has gone well. With the move we packed and had movers move our stuff, and we only had one broken bowl. The new kitchen and baths. The walls and ceiling downstairs were plastered and spray painted. Bath and downstairs toilet , were retoileted, and tiled and such, and look very nice. Really the Dutch work really hard and do good work most of the time. But when there are rules and a system in place, their hands seem to be tied. “So, when and where did Murphy’s Law kick-in?”, you ask.

There were two things in where Murphy Law did apply, the placing of the second floor’s carpet, and our means communication.

SECOND FLOOR CARPETING –

Timing, remember some things got come before others. The carpet needs to be in, before the furniture and the fifty million packed boxes are delivered. Well all was scheduled and the day before the movers were to come we were here at the new house, waiting. The carpet and the installers gave us the typical time of arrival, between 9 and 1. These guys reminded me of the cable guys I have had to deal with in my lifetime, and one of the Seinfeld Shows, where crazy Kramer is hiding from the Cable Guy, just to let him know how it feels for not being there on time as promised. Well I was not hiding from these guys but waiting, and waiting. Well at 20 after 1, they show up, and are ready to lay some carpet.

They laid the padding / undercarpeting on the third and second floors first, and then brought in the carpet for the second floor, and that is when things started to get interesting. First off we had ordered a dark blue carpet, I mean a dark navy blue, blue-black if you will, colored carpeting for the second floor. Well it was not blue-black, or navy blue at all it was just blue. The other thing about it that probably would have ticked off the pope too, was that the not as thick and soft as the one we had ordered. Now we are talking about over 3,000 euros worth of carpet here, and the movers coming the next day. Now we could have said, “Alright lay it.”, and then dealt with the differences and color coordinating later. NOT.

We had one of the Carpet Guy’s cut off a piece from the corner of one of the rolls, and off we went to the Carpet Right Store. We went in and to make sure our minds weren’t slipping gears or that our eyeballs were not playing tricks on us with the lighting, we went to the location in the store where we chose the carpet. Comparing the piece we had to the sample it was plain to see that it was not the same. The Salesman came over and we told him what was going on and then he compared the two pieces, and with out a pause, and straight faced, said that it was the same. One word beginning with BULL, came out of my mouth without permission. I pulled up the sample and held the two pieces next to one another and showed him again. No change in attitude with this guy, we are talking total denial here, a brick wall, he had been mind washed and trained well. We asked what we could do, to have it replaced today as we had movers coming the next day. Of course he said, except the carpet as is, or we could order another which would take another few weeks as it had to come out of France. WRONG, Dude. We will have our deposit refunded and not except the carpet, not order any more from the store. He did pale a bit but took the appropriate actions to refund and after we left we found out he called the guys who were to lay the carpet and sent them to another location and job.

We went to another store where we had looked at other carpet, Robol and a young man by the name of Jeremy whom we had talked to before was available and very helpful. We looked through the samples and selected the Navy Blue color we were wanting and made the purchase. Being mid afternoon there was no way we could have it delivered, much less installed as all his men were tided up installing elsewhere with no cancellations. The earliest his installers could lay the carpet was the 25th of April. We made a few calls to ones we knew to put out feelers to find anyone who would be able to perform the job. Jeremy could have the carpet delivered by Saturday. This was Tuesday and moving was Wednesday.

The move went well even though as far as the second floor went, we lived on Cement for a few days. We were lucky that one of our feeler calls born results, and we had two guys, who could install the carpet on Saturday. With a shuffling of furniture, from one room to another, and a couple of newly painted door frames scratched, the Night (dark) Blue Carpet, feels nice under my feet and their toes.

COMMUNICATION (ADSL) –

Mike’s Second Brain, and its two extra 200 Gigabyte LaCie 800 mbps Firewire storage units, as does Marga’s iMac, need away to communicate with the world, pay bills and update sites. Therefore we need the phone line, and its accompanying ADSL connected. Enter the second occurrence of Murphy’s Law.

In early March, Marga requested that our phone and ADSL, connection, which we have via KPN, and its internet provider company Planet NL, be schedule and switched to coincide with our move and new location. KPN replied with letters dated the 17th and 20th of March. one indicating the new phone number and our new address, and the other indicating that the phone and ADSL would be up and running the the 25th the day before the move.

Well after receiving the letter on the 20th I called KPN, by the way is like the major telephone company in the Netherlands. I wanted to verify that the ADSL would be connected the same day as the phone. After a few hours on the phone at 10 euro cents a minute and four service reps, two speaking broken english and two with me speaking broken Dutch, I was told that technicians would be calling us the following Monday to verify that everything would be ready and that all would go smoothly. I gave them Marga’s mobile phone number to insure we would be able to be contacted as I knew we would be busy between the two houses.

Monday, no call.

Tuesday, no call. Tuesday night our phone and internet services were off, at our house in Hilversum, We thought, “OK they are working on the connections, and we should be able to hookup after the moving is all completed the following day at our new address.”

After dealing with Wednesday’s move, we found the phone and plugged it in. No dial tone. Marga located the letters we had received from KPN, notes I had taken the previous Thursday, and called KPN to ask why we had no service.

They indicated they had no information on the work order number, which was quoted on the letter, but did verify that the line should be working. Marga spoke to different Customer Representative at KPN. One even told her the ADSL line would be up by 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and that he would send her flowers. She said that she would accept the flowers if the line and ADSL were working by 4 o’clock.

4 o’clock came and went and still no phone. Marga Called KPN again., asking why we still had no phone. After checking they verified the obvious, … the phone line was not working. They said that it might be awhile as there was being some work done in the area, and that the lines would be down. We said that if that is true, then our neighbors would not have service either, and we knew that our neighbors did as we had heard phones ringing, while we had been working on the house. Besides Zoe and Tommy had moved into house number 2, a couple of weeks earlier and their phone was working. Caught in their own words they stubbled a bit, put us on hold a couple of times and then regrouped saying it was only our house, but they did not know why. Surely they have records of the previous resident and the fact there was an ISDN box in the electric cupboard along with the phone lines and electrical circuit boxes, gas meter, etc. Asking when we would be connected they indicated that it would be a week or so. NOT.

We indicated that they had not met their commitment to have both the phone line and ADSL available as noted on the letters, and the previous phone conversations I had had with them. After another hour of discussing it with different reps and them placing us on hold several times, we were told a technician would be out the next day at 10:00 to make the connections.

Thursday at 10:00, no technician, but of course we were also busy with the delivery the new carpet, which had arrived unexpectedly. I won’t even go there. Anyway around 10:20 or so, the technician rings the bell. He quickly went to work and removed the old ISDN box, and connected the ADSL splitter box I had brought from the other house. Splicing the old line, which the previous KPN Guys had rigged to work, so they did not have to run another line, or that what he said.

I tired the ADSL line, while he was readying to leave, it did not work. He said he could connect the ADSL which was done back at his Amersfoort Telephone Center, and that it would only take 5 minutes to do, but it was not on his work order. Only the phone connection and verification of it working properly, nothing for the ADSL.

Back on the phone again at 10 euro cents a minute and several individuals later, and no managers available to talk to, or should I say the Customer reps were not allowed to let us speak to a manager or give us a phone number to the center here at Amersfoort.

I talked all afternoon and had one rep hang up on me, as he could only take a complaint or give me an address where I could write to. No service, now service at all. Each rep I talked to indicated that there was no way they could expedite the request or that they could even call the center and request the ADSL be connected. Remind you that the technician said it would only take 5 minutes. One of the reps told me that if I had another service provider, XS4ALL they would have me connected the same day, but Planet NL who is a subsidiary company of KPN would only do it for Business clients. Go figure…. as Mike the Poppadillo, just shakes his head.

EPILOGUE –

After getting off the line, and spending over a half a day the previous week, and now two afternoons talking to the robotic, and hand tied Customer Service Representatives, received a letter in the mail from KPN ( sent out the day before ) . It indicated it could take up to four weeks for the ADSL to be connected and this is for 5 minutes worth of work.

Needless to say, I will be back on the phone Monday.

© Texas Tortilla Factory 2006