If you want something done, TWEET!

Seriously, I want to pass on a very useful piece of advice: 

“If you want something done, tweet about it!”

Back in November, some nuts and bolts on Roch’s recliner chair worked themselves loose and rolled onto the floor.  The mechanism of the chair was unaffected but the loss of the bolt made the whole structure pretty unstable, so we called Medequip. Sometime around 12^th – 17^th November, they sent somebody to carry out repairs. The repair man put the nuts and bolts back in place but explained that he didn’t have the proper tools or fixative to do a permanent job. He promised to ‘put the paperwork through’ and send someone else to carry out a permanent repair job. 

Weeks passed and eventually, the nuts and bolts worked themselves loose again and rolled across the floor, hotly pursued by our cat. I spoke again to someone from Medequip and also emailed our OT, and Medequip sent a second guy out to do the repairs I think around 17^th December. When I asked him if he had the fixative and the correct tools for the job he was puzzled and told me nobody had mentioned this to him. So once again, a temporary job was done and he explained that his colleague had most likely not put the correct paperwork through. He told me that the nuts and bolts would eventually work themselves loose again…well, we knew that. He said we needed a specialist engineer.

Well, we got through Christmas before the nuts and bolts worked themselves loose again and this time I emailed our OT to say that if the next person from Medequip arrived without the means to carry out a permanent repair I wasn’t even going to let him in! I should mention that calls had been made to Medequip on at least two occasions where vague, puzzled voices informed us that there was nothing on the system about further repairs.

Anyway, at this point, in mid-January, our OT forwarded me an email she had sent to Medequip explaining how cross I was and their response assured her that if they hadn’t been out already, they would be out the next day. Well, they hadn’t been out already and we stayed in all day next day, but nobody arrived. 

That email exchange took place on 14^th January. By 27^th we had heard nothing, so I took to Twitter. 

@MedequipUK still waiting for your guys to fix riser/recliner for my husband who has #MND. 2 months on after 2 visits. Not good enough. H&S

I had an apology and response on the same day from @MedequipUK and within two days a pleasant and capable young engineer arrived and fixed the recliner properly. Now when we lower Roch into the chair using the hoist, it no longer rocks precariously and is perfectly stable.

So the moral of the story is, if you want something done, TWEET!