Plumbase, or plumb-no-good?

I need a monobloc mixer tap for a kitchen sink in a house I'm renovating. Mustn't cost too much; mustn't look too cheap.

B&Q have one, for £45, which seems a bit steep; except that they haven't any stock in the East Ipswich branch. So I drive over to West Ipswich B&Q and they haven't any either.

OK, let's go to a plumber's merchant. Plumbase are on the Ransome's Industrial Estate, near Sainsburys. I go in there at 12:30.

Joy! There is a pile of just what I want on the side, at £26+VAT. That'll do fine. There's no-one on the desk, and two people waiting, but no doubt someone will come back in a moment. I expect slow service in a plumbers' merchant; it's the reason why the DIY's took so much trade from them.

I wait. And I wait. And I wait.

Eventually some dozy herbert comes back. He ignores me, and stands in front a terminal and starts tapping away. And carries on, ignoring all the people in the shop.

Some minutes later, another blank-faced herbert very slowly appears, and slowly hands over some goods to the man at the front of the queue. Then he slowly walks off again. And doesn't come back.

More time passes. I've been stood here holding a monobloc mixer -- a heavy item -- for nearly 10 minutes now. Smiles are long gone. I want to get on.

Blank-face finally comes back. He lethargically starts talking to number two in the queue, who is dressed in overalls and starts reciting a long list to him, evidently in no hurry. Meanwhile Dozy is still tap-tapping away, slow but continuous.

I suddenly realise that I am the only person in this shop whose time is not being paid by someone else. They're wasting time, because they're being paid for it. The staff don't give a damn if they sell anything or not.

At that, I feel disgust, put the mixer back where I found it and walk out. Not a word is spoken. It's as if I was never there. But I'm glad to get out. Why should I give money to people who treat me with such contempt? Any business should just have paused for a second to take my money and let me go. These people? Useless.

I had a bad experience some years ago at this same joint. I needed a bit for a toilet, and brought up the old bit. They didn't have it. But the guy on the desk put on a face which I have since learned to call "the faithless look", and offered me an item which he said "might" work. I declined, acting on instinct. Later I found that it certainly would have been useless; and that he must have known this. But hey, I was a punter, and he didn't give a damn. But he was willing to swindle me, and, to do so, blocked out of his mind that I was a fellow human being whose money was not so great as to waste it. Thus the faithless look, as he mentally dehumanised me.

We all feel sorry for people at the bottom of the job heap who can't find work. But then you get an experience like this, and you realise that some of them are overdue a period of unemployment.

Avoid Plumbase. They're time-wasters.