I was at PBTech this Tuesday, they ran out of stock but told me they’d be open online during the lockdown as they are considered an essential service. I wish now I had gone home that night and ordered. Instead I waited until the lockdown started only to find they would only sell to other essential businesses.

Work has taken the same approach, I’ve logged a job with our service desk asking for an Ethernet cable so I can connect my my printer to the home network and print to it from the work laptop. I’m happy to pay for it with my own money. They aren’t interested in supplying items for personal use, which is fair enough.

I misunderstood how tight the rules around the supply chain are and didn’t realise my request was considered not congruent with the government rules.

Yesterday, there was a slight relaxing of the rules. Consequently, PBTech’s website states they’ll sell essential items for remote working (and studying from home) to other than essential businesses soon.

So, I’ll wait until PBTech is ready to sell to me. The cable isn’t urgent.