What is it with service people????

We had a removalist coming out this morning to assess our stuff for being shipped to the States. They were due at 9:30am. I rang up at 8:30am to confirm this. I'd gone in to work early, so I could leave at 9:15am and be back by 10:30am or so.

The guy still hadn't arrived by 10am, so I called up and the girl who answered the phone said "Oh he's right here, I'll check with him what happened". WTF??? Why is he there???? Then she comes back and says that he forgot he had a 9:30 appointment (even though I rang earlier to confirm, and asked them to let the guy know that if I wasn't there at 9:30, I wouldn't be far away). She said that he's on his way and he'd be here within the hour. Has Fyshwick suddenly become a suburb of Cooma??? Why will it take an hour if he's on his way??? She promised me she'd get him moving and he might be able to get here within 30 minutes. So it's now 10:40 and he still isn't here.

So there's about 2 1/2 hours wasted out of my day.

While I was waiting I also called up to see where my passport is, as I got an email last Monday saying it was processed and I should receive it within 4-5 working days. Today is the 6th working day, so I thought it was worth checking. Passport office said it had definitely been sent and gave me the Australia Post tracking number for it. So I called them and they said it definitely arrived at the local post office and I should have received a card in our mailbox telling me I can go pick it up. I didn't. So once I discovered I had at least 30 minutes to kill, I popped down to the post office (about a 2 minute drive down the road). Apparently they received it last Tuesday. They've been having troubles with the local postie and he FORGOT to leave a notification card in our box when he couldn't get someone to sign for it.

What is it with people providing a service FORGETTING to do vital parts of their job??? I mean Kent removalists forgot to turn up, and the postie forgot to let us know we had mail.

Grrrrr. 10:46 and still no removalist.

Update: He finally turned up a little after 11, and I finally got back to work just before 12. Someone then asked me where I'd been all morning. Poor bugger copped my full rant....

Update 2: The guy from the removalists was a salesperson kinda guy in full suit and tie. He wasn't a low paid disgruntled employee who doesn't give a stuff. He was well dressed, well spoken and had a nice car. No excuse for someone like that to be so disorganised!