*AFF* - you'll like this one.....

[loopydoo]

Well, my first call to DIO since they changed their name from DE tro make people think they were better than crap.

I called the number the website said for 'Housing Services' 0800 169 6322 and the lady on the end of the line said

"good morning, what is the service number please".
I said "pardon?"
She said:

"what is the service number?"

I said:
"what service number"

She says:
"is your husband in the forces?"

I click on to what she's on about and reply:
"yes, that's right, my husband is in the forces.

She says:
"what is his service number?"

I said:
"I don't know, it's his service number".
She said:
"oh, most wives know their husbands service number"

I said:
"I'm not most wives and I'm not in the army"

She said:

"so what is the name of your house?"

I said:
"My house doesn't have a name"

I'm almost choking on my porridge at this point

Basically, she then told me she was housing allocations but she'd see if there was someone to help with my query.

She went off to find someone to whom to report my flooded bolier room (I don't need MHS because it's an ongoing problem). I need a land drainage surveyor.

But blimey - what a palava!!!
It was so simple when you clicked 2 for Thetford and it went through to an office where the people (whilst eatibng their lunch down the phone) vaguely knew what you were on about!!!

So cannot wait to live back in civvie street where stuff gets done.......because I get it done and don't have to rely on DIO (whoever they are!!!)

Heeheee - a friend just told me her version of what DIO stands for......

'Disaster In Operations'........exactly.

That made me laugh! And also made me realise how grateful I am that we now live in our own house....

forgot to say, that first she said "what is your service number or was I calling on behalf of my husband!

I thought "no, I'm quite grown up enough to call you on my own about the flooded boiler room"!

loopy you need to come live in my house the DIO office is opposite me so I just walk over and demand, with the MHS contractor in tow as even he doesn't know where are drains go to Don't expect them to do anything though, we've had cameras, surveyors, drainage experts galore and were just told not to use one of our toilets as nobody knows where the drain for it is so every time it blocks (which was a weekly occurrence before we stopped using it) they have to take the toilet out and pump it out rather than flushing it through

Blimey Pimms - nightmare! Did you have sewage everywhere then?

not really it overflows, we call them they come and pump it out, the nice little man, who comes out so regularly that I know how he takes his tea, has spent hours flushing water down the toilet once clear to see where it comes out but we can never find where it goes. The last time he came he said he thinks it goes into the sink away drain that is always overflowing

We have pools of water on our drive as the drain there doesn't work, but as it is not coming in the house we have been told to deal with it they can't do anything.

The drains on this estate are notorious for collapsing etc, it something to do with it being mothballed then reused is the only excuse they have!!! I am slightly concerned that the other toilet (that had the collapsed drain and they just plumbed it into another drain) has big cracks in the wall, which is nothing to do with the collapsed drain underneath it

I was asked the same the first time I called the HIC many years ago. The woman was in total disbelief I didn't know DH's service number but as we'd always previously lived in our own home I had no need to. She said " oh you can tell you're not an army wife as they ALWAYS know service numbers" as if I was some sort of lesser being. I replied that I was a person in my own right, able to deal with things without relying on my husband which was just as well as he was once more deployed at sea for 6 months. She then spent 5 mins insisting that our newly built quarters didn't exist!! Glad to see things have improved and grateful to on e again be back in our own home.

Lol I don't have a clue what my husbands service number is... How naughty are we

Reminds me of when we left UK from Brize for an overseas posting.

My ticket said 'WO XXXX' I said to DH you're not a Warrant Officer.

I was then informed it stood for 'Wife Of'!!!