Conversation

When I first moved here, I had a few odd jobs that needed doing and I found a company, “Buxton Handyman”, and a couple of guys turned up a few days later and sorted them out.

I’ve used them a few times over the years, and was aware that they were growing and able to take on bigger jobs, so in the last couple of years I’ve had them do my living room re-model (remember that hideous stone fireplace? shudder) and redecorate my hallways. Getting on for £20k of work. They recently rebranded as BHM Group.

I had some conifers come down in a storm recently, leaving my oil tank very visible, and then Iran happened and I decided I needed to do something about that. Bought a nice metal trellis, dropped their admin person an email asking for them to get it booked in urgently, acknowledgment and ballpark quote then crickets for a couple of weeks until I sent them a slightly sniffy email, which got me a date three weeks away.

So today I put a message on the village WhatsApp, and a nice young man has just been round to have a look. He’ll do it on Saturday, and his “if it takes a lot longer than I expect” price is a fifth of the ballpark quote from my usual people.

I’ll probably still use BHM Group for big jobs, but the small stuff is evidently not worth the effort any more. Shame, they’re nice lads.