Patience or stupidity?

I'm holding my breath. The problem with the drainage beneath the house has been ongoing for over a year now. My "regular" plumber, who is more elusive than a pork pie at a Jewish wedding, continually breaks promises to turn up. Having finally lost patience, I spoke to another plumber who said that he will arrive tomorrow, at 8.00 am, and fix the problem. Needless to say, I'm extremely curious as to whether he shows or not. You may ask why I haven't called another plumber before? Am I just very patient or just very stupid? The answer probably lies somewhere between the two, but I will admit to being very loyal. However, it does epitomise some of the frustration that many expats feel with French artisans. It appears to me that plumbers (particularly good ones) are as difficult to find in the UK as they are here in France.

Talking about my frustration with French customer service, and what set me off mentioning all this, is the difficulty I'm having in trying to buy a new monitor from a large web based computer company. The order was first placed on 14th January and at the time of writing it has still not arrived. The list of their excuses would rival those of Bill Clinton's to Hillary. But persevere I will, because a) I want the screen and b) the longer it goes on, the more determined I become to crack their non existent customer service. Watch this space.