That's the thing, he was my manager at the old place, and there were 5 of us there. He left, one of the others took over then had a mental breakdown, I left to go back to uni, and the other 2 guys quit shortly after. Bearing in mind the fact no-one there now would have the faintest idea who I am and so be unable to provide the character/personal reference bit required, or probably even find the paperwork relevant to when I was there - it was very much a "you wanna work Saturday? Turn up around 10ish, work through til 8" sort of system, so not much official went down, you just put the hours you did on the paysheet, manager signed, and that was it, you got the money - so I gave them the contact details of my old manager.
They sent him the stuff in the post. He never got it. A week passed. They said "we're still waiting." I apologised and said there must have been a problem with the mail system or I copied the address down wrong or something.
So I got his e-mail address. They sent the stuff. He never got it. I put it down to maybe a filter on his work's e-mail being responsible. So now I've given them his mobile number.
Now, they're starting to get annoyed - he might be made up for all they know (though why I'd make up 3 months work in a leisure centre, I dont know) - and also, they referee is starting to get annoyed, because I've had to keep contacting him to get things extra contact details, and to check up whether he got this batch of stuff or has heard from them or not. Accordingly, he'll likely give me a shit reference now - I would, if I were him. I'm just nervous because a similar job went up recently where a woman I know went for a very similar job, got it, references went through, they were fine, then they withdrew the job offer because of the current economic climate - after all the process, they decided they couldnt afford it after all. So I dont want it to drag out or get them pissed off just in case.
UPDATE: I've just got an e-mail from HR saying my references are fine and a start date is being worked out. Considering I spoke to me referee a couple of hours ago and he'd received nothing, I have no idea how suddenly they have it. Maybe they rang him and that was all they were bothered about? Or they just thought "sod it, we'll just skip it." Either way, PHEW.