I arrived at Heathrow airport with no contact from the company arranging my accommodation so I called them once on the ground and they told me to come to their office. I did and was then told my accommodation had been "given away". They found me a last minute alternative which was on the highest end of their average expected rent scale and was not cleaned and full of broken furniture and junk. I spent the first night sleeping on a couch with my jacket as a pillow.
The next day I sat and waited hrs for the landlord to arrive, who had promised to get me new furniture, linen and remove the couch that was jammed up against the bed leaving less than a square metre standing space. When he never arrived I called him and he said he didn't have time today to fix anything. I called the accommodation company and told them this was not good enough and to fix it, eventually the landlord turned up with no new furniture, made me move the lounge out and told me he had no time so I would need to go buy pillows, a blanket and linen myself. I then discovered I was sharing the house with not four as I had been told, but 8 other housemates, with one bathroom to share which had a broken window and broken shower head.
Most of the housemates were lovely but there was one couple who were extremely selfish and rude. They consistently had 2 hr long dinner parties in the kitchen next to my room between 1 and 3 in the morning! They flat out refused to keep it down or move elsewhere even though they knew they kept me awake. I even heard them having sex in the kitchen one night!!
I also found out that my bedroom was not actually a bedroom but the living room with a wall that was one sheet of gyprock put up a week before I arrived, hence I heard every possible sound made in the house and had to take sleeping pills to get any rest. My light switch wasn't even in my room it was out in the hallway.
My landlord also turns out to be part of the London mafia and a complete psycho who forced me to stay an extra month in the shit hole of a house and refuses to give my 500 pound deposit back....still working on that one.
On the job front, Sodexo, the company hiring me for the Olympics seemed to have just disappeared! All phone numbers went dead after 1 ring, no-one returned emails and when I went to their office, no-one would see me! I was in the UK for 2 weeks before the Olympics and I didn't find out about my job until the day of the Opening Ceremony!! Talk about cutting it fine! Without going into too much detail, from here on in everything about the company was totally unorganised. I worked part of the time at the Olympics as a supervisor and have yet to be paid the correct rate. I was promised a supervisor role in the Aquatics area for Paralympics but then never received it and was moved to Seafood and Champagne. Luckily I managed to get a supervisor role there after some staff no showed. I have not been paid correctly for that either!
On the up side, I did manage to get into the stadium and the swimming for a short time and see parts of some events including an Aussie winning silver for running in the Paralympics. Saw part of the closing ceremony for the Paralympics and touched 2 bronze medals and one of the torches from the flame. I also went to the athletes parade after the Olympics in Trafalgar Square and danced in the street to The Pet Shop Boys playing live from the Palace.
So my start has been a little rocky to say the least and when I spoke to one of my best friends, Lisa, and broke down in tears she immediately jumped into action making calls and researching to do what she could to help me. She contacted her old boss from a conference centre here in Covent garden and I am now working there in their cafe. Lisa you are an angel!! I love you! I am really enjoying it so far and the people are lovely, plus I still get my weekend off so once I get back on track with finances I can actually explore London!
I have also managed to find another share house for a lot cheaper and have moved away from my crazy landlord! Things are looking up!!
I did contact the company I booked through with my complaints about how I was "looked after" and pretty much got "Welcome to London". So if anyone was thinking of coming here through an agency, have nothing to do with The London Pub Company, Sodexo or Jumpstart. They are bullshit!
So far my London experience has been pretty crap but I never give up and I'm feeling positive about things turning around. Bring it on!!
No comments:
Post a Comment