Cycle of despair

This the tale of a man and his washing machine.

Our Hotpoint finally broke down a few weeks ago (it had been limping for months, after the wife maimed it by putting a belt buckle in a hotwash). Deciding that it would cost almost as much to repair as to buy a new one, we opted to get a washer dryer (to prevent tiny flat resembling chinese laundry and smelling of damp towel).

But how does an eco-warrior go about recycling his washing machine? He doesn't want it to be buried in a landfill site, when someone with a bit of know-how and a spare drum could get another 10 years use out of it.

After hours of searching, and ringing various housing projects in Hackney (yes, it may think it's trendy because it has bars with exclamation marks in the title, but it still needs Ealing's cast-off washing machines), it seems the only thing to do is to get Ealing Council Waste Management to come and collect it (for which they charge twenty quid!) and recycle any bits of it that are recyclable. With a sigh, the eco-warrior gives in.

Then, he happens upon Sainsbury's kitchen appliances, who are selling the item he wants at a very competitive price, AND, for a tenner, they'll collect and recycle the knackered old machine.

After several days, Sainsbury's ring to say the machine we've ordered won't be in stock for five weeks (so why does your website say 3-10 working days you anuses?). So we order a less good version of the same machine, which, they assure us, can be delivered within a week.

This is good, as by now we've already been without a washing machine for a month.

Delivery date arranged for week hence; wife takes day off work.

On the morning of the delivery date, we get a phonecall saying "we ARE sorry for ANY inconvenience, but there IS a problem WITH the stock. we WILL call next week TO arrange a NEW delivery time".

It's now week 7 with no washing machine, which means this evening I will spend yet another 3 hours running between the pub and the launderette, wrestling robust matrons for the next free tumble dryer. How the other half live.

The saga continues...