The meeting of October 28th was awful. Stress was unbearable. Now emotions were rising out of control as I had not taken anti-anxiety pills for several weeks. I succumbed to a secret swig of brandy at one point because I couldn't contain my despair, fear, frustration, sense of injustices, annoyance, plus a level of feeling rejected and abandoned by the lawyer, the expert independent assessor but more so by the electrician and the rep from THERMOR. It appeared to me and others that they had no CARE or APPRECIATION of my difficulties endured in the last year.
The invoice for this 2 hour plus meeting was absorbed by the electrician. I dread to think how much he was charged
BUT GOOD... it is my only satisfaction from this SAGA.
The electrician who never deemed it 'entrepeuneurial' to look after his client deigned to come 35 minutes early. I wonder what he was hiding from!
On the day of the meeting I'd just finished the domestic cleaning for the morning and was about to have a much needed coffee. He'd arrived early. He insisted the meeting was at ten but I showed him the letter as he
waited by the gate. He wanted to come and measure the room. OK. It
wasn't in my interests to be unpleasant! He looked rough and unshaven. His mobile phone screen was smashed.
I let them pass my roadside gate.
From previous other electricians who had been invited to look at the machine I knew that the room was only just at its lower limit and the machine did not have sufficient ventilation. How odd that this is the first thing the elctrician wished to do as if he knew what the problem was!
The rep started to ask questions whilst he measured in what appeared to be frantic behaviour. I thought they'd purposefully arrived early to disturb me. She was aghast when I'd said I'd not had hot water for two months... clearly, she did not know the story! THIS shocked me. After 6 weeks of waiting since speaking with Protection Juridique insurance for which I'd paid monthly for five years why hadn't the lawyer communicated with the manufacturer?
Then these two asked for the electricity fuse to be switched on. Immediately the chauffeau thermodynamique blew the general electricity in the whole house. AT WHICH I asked them to leave to return in 25 minutes at the correct hour because I thought the independent expert should be present. Why should I have to tell the story twice? YES, he also did not seem to know the story. Why did it appear that Protection Juridique had not told him. i felt that I was being judged.
My point with P. J. insurance / legal support was that the electrician was neglectful and had not done what he said he would, i.e. return after May with information as to what was wrong. He had not CARED! I was bringing a case against him for that as well as that for course I needed hot water but now I had lost all confidence with this machine AND the electrician AND Thermor who I had contacted by email and spoken with on the telephone and each time they said I must call in the original installer. I had tried since October 2014 when the machine made large growling sounds in addition to the hum!
During the meeting the electrician phoned a frigoriste. I now know that although he installed this water heater he is not a qualified frigoriste! It took him over an hour to prevent the machine disconnecting electricity in the whole house!
Eventually, desperate to find a solution to end the SAGA and have hot water, I agreed under severe pressure to sign an agreement that I would pay 420 euros for the mains d'oeuvre /
replacement of a compressor which was dead (oh if only I were!!!!!!)
and the electrician and manufacturer agreed to pay 828 euros for the
compressor. M y rising stress and tearfulness was unhelpful. It is always uncontrollable. There was no sympathy for my mental and emotional dis - ease as the independent technician spoke sharply to me and told me to stop crying. Believe me in situations like this the panic and anxiety arises and I revert to being like a child. I hate it!
So I signed. Breaths of relief could be heard from all.
THEN, the independent expert said I had to keep the doors open between the kitchen and the laundry room because the machine needed ventilation. They had not agreed what to do about that! I was even more upset and exasperated. They don't have to live with this situation which necessitates hearing the noise of 55 to 58 decibels (we recorded the sound level on an APP on a friend's smartphone)... plus having all hot air in other rooms being sucked into the laundry room to feed the machine!!!!!!!!
THEN they went away. I was exhausted.
Once calm and in discussion with others I realise that my anxiety and indecision comes and goes continually because it seems ludicrous to spend 420 euros with other ongoing issues, when for 1000 euros I could employ an different electrician to instal a chauffeau electrique in the same place. That is a normal ballon / tank.
People had said to me: "Cut your losses and replace it with NEW."
As I'd had two estimates from two large companies quoting the same I chose one!
I called in an electrician recommended by Parisian locals. I call him 'The Man from Montmorillon'. He'd told me that the model is 'un mauvais serie' and he'd seen many of this model dead within a few years of installation - either le compresseur or le cuve is the reason. This was the prototype model and subsequent models were modified by the manufacturer. The rep never said a word at the meeting (well she wouldn't I suppose!). Unfortunately I was not aware of this factor until after the meeting on October 28th....
So because of that I cancelled the frigoriste making a second date into the next week in order to 'buy' myself more time to make a conclusion / decision.
Oh, more troubles!!!!!
The machine cut the electricity in the house again at 8h 20 on November 18th.
Immediately, I contacted MR COLLET the electrician who gives very poor service. I left a message as I had to goo out and he phoned three hours later. Reluctantly, he said he would be there the next morning at 8h BUT never arrived.
I have no qualms in mentioning his name in these days of Trip Advisor and other such exposing of malpractice. It had been set to heat water without using the compressor.
Weirdly,
on November 18th, the machine connected again and the lights went on but the machine did
not heat water as we discovered after 24 hours having used the water for
shower and bath that day. So me and my lady guest had no hot water after that for two weeks, when then I went to UK for two weeks.
So, in a dilemma, I further delayed on the frigoriste replacing the compressor because I was anxious that I had signed an agreement and actually wished to withdraw from that agreement. Although I'd asked by letter and email and tried by phone to ask about my rights.. always I was told that I must have the compressor replaced!!!!!!!!!
Fear took hold.
When the lawyer made a three way phone call with him and I on November 23rd, he accused me of cancelling the frigoriste (TRUE ... when she asked :Is that true?) and he agreed he'd said he would come to my house, then never did (TRUE ... he said when she asked "Is that true?") Again, under pressure of not knowing if I could withdraw or not I agreed to do what she insisted thinking that this was a stupid step to take, because of what the man from Montmorillon had said.
So... I contacted an AVOCAT whose opinion I felt I could follow. He wanted a copy of the agreement I'd signed. I never received it and at that time neither had the Protection Juridique. The avocat commented that in his opinion water heaters were not worth repairing and they should be taken out and a new one installed...
SO THAT IS WHAT I DID...it was the confidence I needed to make a decision.
How did I manage without hot water for two months then two weeks? With great difficulty.
Well... it took up to two hours depending on my activity back and forth to the tap, microwave and kettle to boil water and fill two orange BnQ buckets. Diluting hot with cold, I sat in an empty bath pouring water over me bowl by bowl! HOWEVER, this was
easier than 2012 when I had to do that in the exterior bathroom when outdoors was -26 degrees. The radiator in the outhouse didn't much improve the heat of the room! Ah ... history and the joys of French housing!!!!!!!!!! One has to laugh at the memory!
The artisans working for the 'Man from Montmorillon' imstalled the new water heater on December 14th.
BLISS...
a) there is SILENCE IN THE HOUSE... even my English / Italian friend had said the previous machine was a racket. Poor girl she didn't get a shower or a bath either!!!!!!
b) There is NO COLD AIR IN THE HOUSE.
BUT all is not yet hunky dory as there are two small leaks on each of the hot and cold taps on the tank. I need a new disjoncteur and I need the machine connected to heures creuse and heures plein.
Yet yippppeeeee...enter the 21st century in Western Europe!
How lovely it is:
a) to have a hot bath to keep clean, enable bodily functions, relax and warm muscles and nerves at any time of day.
b) to wash the psyche and produce better morale to appreciate sanity ... a hot fall of shower water cascading onto my head or plunging head and hair under hot water is extremely good to combat dark bouts of depression that seem to beset me.
c wash pots and pans and do the dishes; it isn't such a chore when before I needed to walk back and forth with a kettle of water whilst not having a kitchen in the kitchen room.
d) hand wash clothes is easier.
ALMOST the END OF THE SAGA... all when there is no kitchen appliance or surface in the kitchen........ Will I ever face the fear of how much it costs when I'd lost contact with the price of things.
In the interim, the second roof ridge was repaired; they broke a load of tiles from the roof as they clambered to the ridge on roof ladders in two places. At the same time they repaired the second lucarne. The timber was soft and powdery. So there goes the kitchen funds saved out of pension!
Ah... did I mention the word BLISS???? Must have been an error!
