Ordered from Stockings Direct yesterday morning, came in the post first thing this morning, just in time for my 3pm this afternoon. Now that’s what I call professional service, I’ll be using them again.

You know the old adage: if you want something done well, you’re better off doing it yourself?

I checked my paypal account when I got home this afternoon and I still hadn’t been refunded my money by Pandora’s Choice. So I gave them a call and lo and behold, there was a human voice on the other end of the line.

Long story short, I spoke to the owner of the site and it seems she had gone away and left the running of the site to a member of staff, who, it seems, may have become a little overwhelmed with the orders. The owner came back, the member of staff is off sick and she has a mountain of work in front her; orders with no notes, emails and phone messages she will have to answer. The owner was very apologetic and understandable of how I felt and offered me 10% off my next order, should I wish to use the site again. I may do, remember I mentioned getting this. She also immediately refunded my account.

I was still a little miffed and I in turn apologised if I sounded short on the phone. Obviously it wasn’t her fault but I hoped she understood where I was coming from. She did take responsibility and said she would’ve felt the same way so that’s good to know.

Methinks she’s going to spend a good few days sorting out the backlog. I’d also imagine she’d be pretty miffed herself at losing money.

The saga with my suspender belt is, would you believe it, still ongoing. After two weeks they still haven’t been delivered to me.

When they hadn’t arrived in time to see Thursday’s client last week, I wrote them a polite email asking when I might expect them. No response.

When they still hadn’t arrived this past Saturday I called their sales line. The call goes straight to voicemail, not even a personal one, an automated one generated by the service provider BT. Remember, this is the number on their website, this is their sales line. I left a message.

When I got in from my volunteer job yesterday I thought at least there’d be some response to either my email or phone call, it being the start of the business week and all that. There was no response to either.

By this time I’m seeing red. I called them again yesterday, again reaching the BT automated voicemail. I left a message letting them know of my displeasure at not only at the suspenders not being delivered within 3-5 working days as I paid for, but that nobody had the time or decency to get back to me.

I then backed it up with an email – I’ve learnt to put everything in writing where I can. I mentioned that as a consumer I wasn’t very happy at their lack of response to a customer query and that if my goods cannot be delivered then I would like my money back. I even bluffed and blustered a bit and said that I was proficient in consumer law and that I was well aware of my rights. Not totally untrue; in my other job I have learnt a little bit about consumer law. For starters they broke their end of our agreement by not being able to deliver goods within the time they promised.

Guess what? Within an hour of my phone call and email I received both a phone call and an email from Pandora’s Choice, telling me that the suspender belt in my size and colour isn’t actually in stock and won’t be for another two weeks!!

To say I was annoyed is putting it mildly. No where on the site did it say they were out of stock. They took the money out of my paypal account and made no mention that they didn’t actually have what I’d just bought.

I’ve written back to them and told them that what they should’ve done was initially notify me that they were out of stock, not charge me until the sussies were actually back in stock like some other websites do and also give me the choice of whether or not I would like to wait a month for them, or go elsewhere. I’ve also told them that I would like my money back in full, including the postage and that if it doesn’t appear in my paypal account within the next 24-48hrs, then I will have no choice but to take things further. I have no problem doing that, as those long time readers of my blog will remember the saga with PC World.

It’s a good thing the weather is hot at the moment and clients don’t mind my not wearing my stockings and sussies. My feet are always pedicured and toes immaculately polished. I do have my pvc ones, but they have a couple of small buckles on the front with a zip, and they aren’t the most comfortable when lying on top of a client (or vice versa) and I’ve had to take them off during a booking.

I’ve seen the same suspenders on a few other sites so I’m off to order some now. Hopefully they’ll be here by the end of the week.

But what a way to run a business!!

(Edit – I’ve found a site called Stockings Direct and ordered my sussies. When I click on my size – 24 and colour – black, it says they have one in stock for immediate dispatch. Watch this space.)

There’s me thinking for some strange reason that kick-off wasn’t until 6pm, my mum’s just called me asking me if I’d watched the match and how upset she was. I thought she was going doolally. I’ve had to switch over to the news and of course it’s the top headline, not to mention Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal in the first half.

I’m absolutely gutted. That I missed the match and that we lost….to Germany….again!

I’m off to have a good cry.

(At least in the F1 Lewis Hamilton stretches his lead at the top, even though he came in second to Sebastian Vettal….who’s from Germany,lol.)

Nobody wanted to spend the night with me. But’s that’s cool, I’m not taking it personally. It looks like I have a busy next couple of days.

SJ’s made it down, yay! Now if all goes to plan, tomorrow I have a booking in the morning, then in the afternoon I’m off to meet her for lunch.  Then later it’s the Tate Britain for a couple of hours. Then back home to open a bottle of wine and have a slice of bakewell tart and wish myself a happy birthday.

On Saturday I have a booking at 2pm, then afterwards I might drag myself down to Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush, see what’s in the sales. Sunday I think I’ll just crash and watch the footie and Glastonbury. This is all of course, depending on whether or not if I can take the 30deg heat that we’re expecting this weekend.

It’s going to be a good weekend. I hope you all have one too.

Remember I ordered my sussies last week Tuesday. Well, they still haven’t turned up. I have a booking later on this morning for 10.30 and was hoping to have them for this client. I’m hoping he won’t mind that I won’t be wearing stockings and suspenders.

Meanwhile I ordered my bakewell tart last Saturday and it arrived on Tuesday. Figure that one out.

At last in the World Cup England came good today and beat Slovenia 1-0 to progress into the last 16. I missed the bloomin’ goal by Jermaine Defoe in the 22nd minute because I thought kick-off was at 3.30, not 3pm. But I watched the rest of the match mostly with my breath held and my palms were actually sweating. You could just imagine the monumentous exhalation that must’ve spread through the country at around a quarter to five this early evening when the final whistle went. This is more like it. THIS is how England play.

Now, having just watched the Ghana-Germany match tonight, Germany have beat Ghana 1-0 to meet England on Sunday afternoon. More breath-holding and sweaty palms to come.

from anybody wanting to spend a dirty weekend with me next weekend on my birthday. I have the hotel booked gentlemen, you wouldn’t have to pay a penny extra. It’s a lovely hotel in Tower Hill, not far from the Circle Line and Fenchurch St. station. But if nobody takes me up on it, I’ll just have to cancel the room and think of something else to pass the time. With SJ coming now it won’t be too hard trying to keep busy, but I wouldn’t mind paying a visit to Tate Britain to see the Rude Britainnia Exhibition that opened there last week. You’re welcome to join me if you’d rather spend a day with me than an overnight. I’ve had a look at the forecast and it’s supposed to be a glorious day this Friday. The choice is yours gents. I’m holding the reservation until Thursday then I’ll cancel it if I have no takers.

In the meantime I’ve ordered myself a tart from the Bakewell Tart Shop in Bakewell. The original and the best. Hopefully it’ll be delivered in time for Friday.

I spoke to SJ last night and she tells me that she’s managed to get some time off and she’s coming down to London next weekend to spend my birthday with me. And she’s staying the whole weekend too. Woohoo! That means we can get up to all sorts of mischief, just like we used to.

Personally I needed the good news after the dismal display by England last night.

Avi, I was just having a peruse and I read through some of your comments and it seems you did recommend the website Pandora’s Choice to me, the site I ultimately used to order my sussies. Talk about great minds and all that.

I finally ordered a pair of suspenders,  a 6 tier one and I must say it looks a lot sturdier than my other ones, and they lasted me 8yrs. I loved the whole site, even though I’m not really into the retro look, there really is some great stuff on there. I bought these, and I’m toying with the idea of getting this as well. In fact I could go bankrupt going through the site,lol.

I’m just happy to have found  it. It’s been weird not having my sussies on during a booking.