Bastards!

OK, let's get our cards on the table here. Barclays are a bunch of tossers. They have managed, in one incompetent gesture, to undermine our relationship with Mr Builder.

We wrote a cheque for him a couple of weeks ago (as you'll recall, this is the antiquated method we need to use to move large sums of money around "for our own protection") but forgot to move the money into the cheque account to cover the sum. Our mistake, busy lives etc. Found out the cheque had bounced, came clean with Mr Builder, apologised profusely and wrote him another cheque, adding a bit on to cover any costs. This time the money was in the account, so there would be no problem.

Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you?

We got a call from Mr Builder this morning to say the second cheque had bounced. We couldn't believe it. Between apologies, rants about how awful the bank is, and commitments to do something about it immediately, he was heard to mutter that nothing else would be done to the house until the money was in his account.

I called up Barclays to find out what the hell had happened. "Didn't you get the letter?" they asked. I pointed out that we didn't actually live in our house at the moment, so getting post is not the easiest thing. "There's been a technical problem - your signature isn't on record for this account." Would be the same account that I've been signing cheques for against for the past 5 months? The account with the bank I've been with for 15 years? Apparently so.

We headed down to the bank in person to sort it out. OK, they said, our mistake. We'll write you a bankers draft - it will go into your builder's account the same day. We'll just check that, we said. Rachel headed off to HSBC who said that it wouldn't be credited to his account until next thursday! So, we wired the money instead. Well, actually we didn't. Because banks don't do anything on Saturdays. It will have to wait until Monday.

This all comes on the back of a conversation Rachel had with Mr Architect on Friday where we had some straight talk about lack of progress. It would seem all is not well with Mr Builder, and he has overstretched himself. He's got too much work on, people are letting him down and he just can't get the job finished.

Not quite sure what happens now. Prior to today we had the moral high ground when it came to the work and could be indignant about lack of progress. Now we're payment defaulters. Not a great negotiating position for Monday's site meeting.