Panel heater panic!!

Well not quite as the title suggests. Those who view us in España will probably be familiar with the wall panel heaters, that are widely advertised here as a cheap method of heating and to be fair in my opinion work really well as background heat.

We bought one from Leroy Merlin (similar to B&Q or Homebase) in Jerez last October which initially worked fine but after about six weeks the on/off switch went bing, bang, bosh, small explosion and then fell apart. So slightly annoyed at the thought of another 100 mile round trip, although knowing that the unit was guaranteed for two years, we took it back to the shop. No quibble, it was replaced immediately.

Off we trek home, refit the unit and settle down for hopefully a warm winter.

In February, the switch starts to play up again and rather than take it off the wall we place some sellotape over it to try and keep it stable and switch the unit on and off by the mains plug. However, recently we have felt uncomfortable about leaving the unit on while we were out of the house in case the same thing happens as before. So today commonsense prevailed. We got up early and we took it back to Jerez.
Arriving at Leroy's about 10.30, we went to the returns desk to be informed that there were no exchange units available.....hopefully not a sign of stock shortage due to returns!! However, if we were willing to go to the San Fernando branch it would be happily exchanged, no problemo. You can't miss it, right next to Media Markt. How far is it we ask. Not sure in kilometres we are told but should only take fifteen minutes in the car. With a "mucho gracias, hasta luego" and armed with a hand drawn map from the customer advisor, off we go to San Fernando.

Turning left out of the car park, we look for signs saying Puerta de Santa Maria and Sanlucar, heading towards Cadiz. Several roundabouts later we pass the hospital as shown on the map and start heading out of Jerez in what we believe to be the right direction. After about 20 minutes we start seeing signs for San Fernando. Heading into the town, we start to have doubts that as to whether we are in the right area so we stop at a garage to ask directions. Si, si, turn around and take the Autovia (Motorway) towards Cadiz and look for the Poligorno (Industrial Estate) and you will see Leroy Merlin on your right. "Mucho gracias"and off we go again.

It is now about 45 minutes after leaving Jerez, which is only about 18 kms from Cadiz, but armed with firm instructions we head onto the Autovia towards Cadiz. After 10 minutes, lo and behold there it is, right next to Media Markt as we were originally told.

Slightly the worse for wear, we go into the shop and again there is a no quibble exchange. So armed with our new heater we get back into the car and head for the hills back on the Autovia towards Malaga and Sevilla.

After about twenty minutes driving, the area is starting to look familiar and yes, over to our right is the Jerez branch of Leroy Merlin.

We realised immediately what we had done. After leaving the shop in Jerez we had turned left instead of right as instructed. The moral of this sad tale......learn Spanish and listen!!. We are trying.

A footnote to Dave & Heather......thanks for your recent best wishes. The pictures of the house are really great. Hope all is going well now and that the business takes off. You deserve it.