I recently spent about R80 000 on tiles at Italtile. Their product and service was excellent. One of the products was made specially for us by a subcontractor of theirs. He had to cut up tiles of three different colours and stick the bits onto a backing fabric so that our tiler could lay them in a decorative line around our pool. I specified the colour arrangement as white, dark, grey. The sales consultant wrote it down wrongly but I spotted that and got him to write it again.

Then I made sure that he crossed out his original sequence. The special strips (they’re called listellos) were duly delivered and only a few days later did I see them. They were in the wrong sequence with dark on the outside. The sales consultant could not find his original notes and could only produce his instructions to the sub-contractor. The instructions, which the subcontractor correctly followed were not, I am sure, in accordance with my original requirements, but I have no way of proving this.

I then realised that it would have been such a simple matter to take a photo of his notes with my cellphone camera. There are even Apps that will turn such a photo into a .pdf file (MDScan Lite).

We don’t use our cameras enough especially when it comes to documents. If you think you may need evidence of something later, take a photo.

About 2 months after I first wrote this post, I reversed into another car at Builder’s Warehouse. Both of our cars had very small scratches as a result. I pulled out a business card, wrote “My fault” on it, signed it and gave it to the other driver. Only afterwards did I realise what I had done and what I had not done!

Should you wish to make an appointment, please feel free to visit Derek’s diary and book a time that suits you.