One of the things I like about blogging is the fact that I can put the silliest little slips of whimsy on here. Of course, I ensure that I always try and write balanced posts, or if my strong headed opinions insist on being heard, at least to ensure that I have researched them thoroughly in order to substantiate anything I write.

The advantage of writing a blog over journalism is of course, that if I want to hold an uncompromising view, then I can publish it, and as the cliche has it, be damned. Although of course I have no boss, no advertisers to answer to. So my only responsibility is to my readers, and even that is just to write what I think and feel, and if it sparks a lively debate, then all the better.

So I don’t think it is possible to abuse a blog. And this being the case, I am going to write this entry on an Estate Agency called Bentley and Bond or, for the purposes of this getting picked up more on google, Bentley & Bond, who recently mistreated me very badly. I would warn you strongly not to use them.

Here is their story, in the form of a letter I wrote them:

The Managers Bentley and Bond Estate Agents 97 Lauriston Road Victoria Park E9 7HJ

1 August 2005

Dear Tony, Nathan

I am writing to you with great concern at the handling of the offer which I put on xxxAddress. As you will be aware, I put in an offer of £227 000 which the vendor accepted, and on May 3rd I visited your offices to pay a reservation fee of £1000, for which I received a Reservation form, which stated explicitly that ‘the above mentioned property is reserved to the above mentioned purchaser’.

In the following 6 weeks I liaised with your office regularly to ensure that the offer was still in place, and was reassured that it was.

On 22nd June I phoned prior to departing on holiday to confirm that the owners were still happy with the offer. I was told by Tony that they were on holiday, and were happy to wait. I explained that I had still not had an offer on my property, and that I was concerned that I didn’t want to mess the vendors around.

On my return on 4th July I called because I saw on the website that it said ’sold stc’, and was told by Tony that this referred to my offer.

On 25th July, having tried to phone the office, with no reply at all on the phones for a week or more, I called the vendors’ solicitor who informed me that the property had been sold. They also confirmed that 1) they had never been notified of my offer, and 2) the purchaser was a different person to the one who had had an offer in on the property which had fallen through prior to my making an offer. I called and left a message at your offices.

On 26th July I called again and spoke to Russ, the mortgage broker. I left a message with him, stressing my grave concern and that I had looked into seeking legal advice on the matter. The call was not returned. I called later, and spoke very briefly to Nathan, who said he would call me straight back as he was with clients. The call was not returned.

On 27th July I called and spoke to Nathan who told me he had left a message (this was not true) on my work phone, and that a message had been left when the property was sold (of which I can also find no trace anywhere). He also lied to me and told me that the property had been sold to the person who had initially put an offer in. I knew this to not be the case due to my conversation with the vendors’ solicitor on July 25th. I agreed that I would accept the money back plus interest despite the fact that I was aware that they had been acting in breach of contract by marketing the property. He agreed to mail a cheque that day to my work address.

On 28th July, the cheque had not arrived. I phoned and spoke to Nathan who said that he needed Tony to sign the cheque and it would be sent out on Friday.

It is now Monday and I am not in receipt of the cheque.

I would like to inform you that I have spoken to my solicitor who advised that I put in writing my demand for my reservation fee to be returned to me at xxxAddress. This should include interest on the sum at a rate of 5% which is the savings account interest rate. I will not seek any damages despite the fact that you broke the contract and marketed the property. Failure to receive this by the end of the week will mean that I seek legal action against yourselves, and I should inform you that I have all documentation, including email correspondence between Roland Thurston and myself, the reservation form, and a note of all phone conversations between myself and your offices.

I look forward to a satisfactory conclusion of this sorry matter.

Recidivist

I called every day, sometimes several times a day after sending this letter until the Thursday, and finally received the cheque (with no interest) on Friday. Bentley and Bond clearly flouted the law, and to anyone who happens across this posting from a search engine, I warn you not to use them.

It’s been a lovely weekend watching the cricket, and cursing Jupiter the god of rain, for conspiring with the Australians yesterday…

Drunk has added a bit to Jerry Hall’s maxim that to keep a man, you must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom, and suggested that perhaps the ideal woman would also be a mute in the tv room. Apparently I get bored and ask questions to which I already know the answer.

So this afternoon, trying to find a hole in his encyclopaedic cricket trivia knowledge, I asked what the lowest ever single innings test match score was. He didn’t know! So we googled it, and after a bit of foraging, found out that it was 26 (he had hazarded 24) made by New Zealand at home against England in 1955. He also didn’t know the highest, although he thought it was 936. Again, I trawled the web, and took another 20 or so minutes to find out that it was Sri Lanka against India in Colombo in 1997/8, a score of 952. Unfortunately, as India had taken two days over their first innings, the end result was a draw.

The site we found this snippet on, although underwhelming in its presentation, has several useless facts guaranteed to delight cricket nerds, although it is slightly less than reverant about the whole concept of game facts. Still, the page we found ourselves on is worth a visit, if just for the name…

You know, it just struck me that I handed in my resignation two weeks and four days ago, and my head of marketing, who sits about 4 metres away from me, and is my head of department, has not said a word to me in that time. Today everyone was watching their mini scoreboards to see what was going on in the cricket, and as I was listening to it online, which is obviously quicker with the news, I shouted out that Vaughan was out. My boss asked how many for, and when I told him 166, he blanked me, turned to someone else and said ‘what was Vaughan out for?’ There are a couple of really kind, warm people there who I will miss, but, listening to the cricket, playing online scrabble and phoning Drunk at his hospital bed aside, I really cannot wait to leave.

I know it’s way down on my blog because I couldn’t work out how to put it on my sidebar, so I am re-promoting my countdown timer to here. And will put it in each post from now til out.

I promise that my blog will soon return to serious matters instead of just Big Brother news. But I had to say that I may have had my faith in the British Public restored following the news that Craig has been voted out.

I am very much looking forward to spending a night on the sofa. From 8pm onwards, the twin joys of Big Brother and the much hyped Lost will intertwine their way through the Channel 4 schedules. Followed by a Nip/Tuck double. I have told Drunk that I can’t stay long at the hospital tonight, and Grumpy that he will have to get his birthday present some other time.

I will report tomorrow on whether my brain has atrophied…