Louisiana wrote: I do have some lovely and reliable people who have been doing work on my home, but these are all individuals who are running their own specialist show. As soon as there is a corporate involved, of any size, things fall apart. Daft systems are implemented. Common sense flies out of the window. Nobody seems able to do anything. Everyone passes the buck. Incompetence reigns, scripts are adhered to closely by seeming automate, and I am invariably left stressed out and somewhat poorer, having done not an iota of real work for hours. This is my idea of hell. Were it not for my cheery self-employed workmen, I would be going out of my tiny mind. Snip< This is where I can tell you that the services you describe are the fallout of the corporate machine at it's worst, most of the systems that you have encountered today are automated to reduce costs by removing the Human element and stream line service and reduce costs which are ultimatly passed on to the consumer, and if you are aware that a service provider is cheaper than every where else then they must have cut corners to trim the fat, otherwise how could they offer their services at such knock down prices, no disrespect but in the modern market place full of competition how are they going to make money? by removing the cost of having a Human answer the phone. This is just a small example of how a company would reduce costs to offer competativly priced services and win customers. It is after all a business, to my mind an all too common problem, we crave value and service but somethings gotta give.