HAIR RAISING DELIVERIES

Furniture and domestic appliance orders seem to take a lifetime to materialise. You wait, and wait, very patiently. You keep your fingers crossed for when the order does eventually appear that everything will be alright.

In the past I have had deliveries that have not matched the order I made; they've been turned round and I have had to wait and wait till the next scheduled delivery of replacement goods.  Even then, they have not been satisfactory.  It makes you want to tear your hair out. 

I ordered a particular make of freezer some years ago from the only supplier I could find, who was based in England.  They knew I lived in Scotland. The process of the delivery of the freezer was given to me in fine detail, down to the advice that the delivery people would unpack it, place the freezer in situ and balance it, then check everything was working.  They, (the delivery people) were, I was told, always instructed to do this and take the packaging away; it was part of the service.

A Van arrived that was only just tall enough for the freezer to stand in.  One elderly man, the driver, could not take the freezer out of the van on his own. There was not even a drop ramp at the rear to lower the goods. When the sales company was contacted, you could hear they were horrified. Their delivery contractors had sub-contracted the job to couriers who usually delivered packages and medium-sized parcels.  

I phoned a farmer neighbour and he sent a burly farm labourer to help out.  He knew a thing or two about how to do it, and he instructed the van driver.  Bless his heart, the farm labourer unpacked the freezer, got the van driver to assist him to put it in place, then the labourer balanced it.  

It was no surprise to hear that the van driver knew nothing about removing the packaging, not only did he not know anything, he was not going to take it, anyway.  "No problem", said the saviour of the hour, "I'll take it away for you, I'd be glad of the polystyrene to keep the foxes away from my own lambs on the croft". 

This week has felt like moving house to make way for replacement furniture. The delivery was completed by the company's own people and, they did know what they were doing.  Their care and skill was impressive.  We were relieved.........until adjusting door hinges to align the doors on a unit, one door fell off.  Looking at the gouges where those hinges had been unceremoniously shoved in, 

and the sliver of packing wood to try to hide the damage, 

the failure was hardly surprising. (you can see the marks of the screw in the packing piece).  Why oh why did it have to happen at our house!  Now we wait for a resolution.