Excuses, excuses

Following up on an interview request, I rang the company in question to find out if we could arrange anything.

It had been just under a week since I'd heard back from the agency, a new arrival in Dubai (who will remain nameless, for now...). This isn't a vast amount of time, especially as I replied a day or so after the last email - so I'm not complaining.

"I was wondering..." is about as far as I get after introducing myself to the staffer.

Suddenly, a very unapologetic torrent of excuses: "... new office... no printer or scanner... deleted your email... moving office..."

And it's very clear that this is all my fault, for daring to contact the company and ask for an interview, despite the publicly-issued press release and initial positive response.

I'm a journalist - I'm very used to being given the brush-off, with varying degrees of politeness. And I'm always happy to accept something like "I'm really sorry, but we're just setting up and to be honest, the MD's got no free time" as a valid reason for not giving an interview.

But "I deleted your email"? Er, no. That comes under the category of "just not doing your job".

Despite my initial urge to be sarcastic, and then write it off as a bad lot, I've tried again. Further idiocy will result in the company in question being named and shamed.