to feel a bit surprised and a little bit peeved that any business stay shut the entire weekend?

[Ormirian]

Removals company.

Finally emptied a load of packing cases and wanted to take them back on saturday. I rang to confirm it was OK and after a long time someone answered. 'We're closed today. The phone gets put through to our home number at weekends'.

Since she clearly didn't want to answer my query it begs the question as to why that happens But why would any business not open at all at the weekend?

Is that a bit odd? Not hugely annoying but slightly irritating and unusual?

YABU

Quite a lot of business stay shut all weekend, bascially anything that is not retail, leisure or utilities is likely to be closed at weekends IME (and utilities offer a more limited service).

D

do you not think people are entitled to days off? I think it is still quite common for buisnesses to close on week end as probaby the trade they would get on these day would not make their time working worth while IYSWIM.

I think you might be a bit U

Yeah I guess so.

Was just a bit taken aback as everywhere seems to be open all the time these days.

I'd say very normal for a business like that to close at the weekend. If it were me though I wouldn't have the calls re directed. I'd have an answer machine with a message giving opening hours.

Shops yes, as they drum a lot of customers (people who have week ends off mainly)

I assume that you work all weekend yourself then? Only then would it be reasonable to expect others to do so. I would rather all shops shut on Sundays. Not for religious reasons, just be nice to have a day where most people don't have to work-apart from when it's absolutely necessary, eg, healthcare.

Businesses have business hours, usually Monday to Friday nine to five. It's not so long since businesses shut for a half-day during the week too.

YABU but I think they don't help themselves by having number re-directed. If they don't want calls at the weekend they should get an answerphone - like a pp suggested,

YABU

My DP is a plumber, has never ever advertised as an out of hours service, yet people think it's ok to ring at any time, any day of the week, even if it isn't an emergency. A call at 10pm on saturday night - "can you come and service my boiler next week?" Erm and this couldn't wait till monday morning because??? Dicks.

I guess people don't generally move house at the weekend, though? Solicitors need to be open to complete on the contract...

Yes yes I get the point!

But just out of interest why do people not move at the weekend? It would have been great if we could have but they didn't do removals then (unless you paid them a lot of wonga!). I just expected the offices to be open - after all that is when a lot of people are free to sort things out for their move.

hammy - I work for a company that supplies the supermarkets so yes we work 7 days a week. I don't usually work the entire weekend but I am often called to sort problems. IME that is the norm which is why i was so surprised.

And DH was a self-employed carpenter about 7 years and he often worked weekends. So did all his friends. It's how you make money.

People dont usually move on the weekend because you need all the solicitors and banks to transfer money etc in order to exchange the keys and these are not usally working at the weekend

HowAnnoying, I might phone my plumber at 10pm at night - but I'd expect to be getting an answering machine so I could leave a message. It's a problem when your home phone is also your business phone but I can see that he needs to be contactable for emergencies . I get round it now by texting him, so he can ignore me till a more appropriate time, but I've still managed to let him know I would like to speak to him.

Anyhooo I took the cases back this morning. When I was supposed to be working

cat64 - yes early evening calls are normal, he often rings people back at that time, but from a personal point of view I think anything past 9pm on a weekday is a bit rude if you know the number is likely to be tradesperson home number. Weekends should only be for emergencies.

We've had a weekend of pointless phonecalls at ridiculous times thats why I had a bit of a rant!!

I'd never call a tradesman late in the evening. That'd be so rude. I don't work in the evening so why should they? If they want to call me back that's fine but they have a right to a home life just as much as me.

YABU. As you say, weekends are times when people are free to sort stuff out. Meaning they have the weekend off. Depending where you are in the country there are removal firms who are open at weekends, they cost much more. So you wither pay more for weekend service or you do what you did and take the boxes back during the week.

If you think that's odd, one of the big baby shops here closes it's website on a Sunday. Yes, the website is shut down from Saturday evening until 9am Monday morning. The company are based in the 'bible-belt' which presumably explains it......

YABU

But serendippy, all the shops stay open. That doesn't mean that everyone who works there has to be there all weekend. It means that there is a shift pattern.

If the shop is open, someone is available/willing to work on a weekend, albeit for a shift rather than necessarily regular hours. If all the staff need/want to spend weekends with their families, travelling, getting drunk, whatever the rest of us love to do on a weekend, the shop will not open. When you apply for a job you are made aware of the working hours expected. In my job I did not expect to work on a weekend, even though it may have benefitted some people.