Incompetence of the highest order

{begin random rant}
I live in a council flat (the rent's cheap, location great, why the hell not?) Last year they put in new windows, superb we all thought, who wouldn't want new windows?

Then came the winter and we all started to notice something wasn't quite right. I had the thermostat at 32 degrees centigrade and still my flat was freezing. After closer inspection, there were the most enormous gaps underneath the window sills, some of which were large enough for me to put my hand through. No wonder it was costing me £80 a month in gas! (it wasn't helped by the fact that the woman who 'lives' in the flat below is pulling some sort of DHSS scam and doesn't actually live there and so her flat is never heated).

I got straight on the phone to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. They basically told me to go away. It wasn't an emergency and due to the 'recession' they were undertaking no 'non-essential' repairs until April. How the hell is a foot-deep gap beneath windows in almost every room in the middle of a freezing winter not an emergency?

Anyway, I complained but it didn't do any good. Eventually, I went to the council offices were I was told that there had been so many complaints about the windows that the executive would be going around every flat to fix them. Finally! It was Spring when it wasn't needed, but still, at least they were going to fix them.

Last week, I arrived home from my day job to find a letter saying they'd called to fix my windows (some people who live in council flats actually do fucking work you know!) and that I should ring to arrange a new call-out. It would take them around two hours to fix when they were here.

Before I got a chance to ring, there was a knock on my door on Thursday "We're here to fix your windows" WTF. I told them it wasn't convenient (I was working and you can't just land at someones door, demanding to get in with no prior arrangement) but they wouldn't take no for an answer. Literally. Everytime I said no, they argued back. In they came, around the windows they went, used what can only be described as the most foul-smelling filler I have ever come across and were gone in ten minutes leaving me to tidy up. And endure the smell for around 36 hours.

But at least it was done.

Then, this morning, Saturday, 9.30am, there was a knock at the door. My g/f was sitting in the living room, having spent most of the night being sick as she started chemo yesterday. It was the window guys again. Apparently they had some complaints that people were still getting drafts. I told them, again, it was convenient. They argued back again. I kept saying they couldn't come in and they kept insisting. It took me shouting at them that I had someone who had just started chemo sitting in the house and it REALLY wasn't convenient before they would fuck off.

Seriously, how hard is it to get a job right the first time round? Or the second? How can you expect to arrive at someones door, unannounced at 9.30 on a Saturday morning and expect that you can just waltz in, go round the whole house, disturbing everyone in it? I am furious that I had to argue to stop three men just walking into my house because it suited them to fix their fuck up. What about when it suited me over the whole bloody winter when I was freezing?

No wonder my bloody rent is so cheap!

{end rant}