I am fuming. I was mad before but thanks to a customer service moron I am now fuming. Even the fact that I am spending the day playing with my friends puppy has not helped remove my grrr factor.
Yesterday I ordered a shower screen for my new bathroom from a company who I am undecided as to whether or not to name and shame – I might let you decide that! I put through the order, ticked the compulsory ‘terms and conditions’ box and congratulated myself as I thought I had ticked something else off my ‘to-do’ list.
Then I received their confirmation email which said.
“It is part of the driver’s contract that you have 15 minutes to fully check your order before signing, we recommend that 2 able bodied persons are available to receive the delivery and carry the goods inside.”
This annoyed me. Can a company dictate that an able bodied person must sign for a parcel?
This meant that I would be unable to have the parcel delivered to my parents house as there was no way that my mum could cope carrying and checking this parcel. I rang the company to change the delivery address to my work address and was told that I had to “put my request into an email and include the reason for changing the delivery address”. Which I did and I included my objections to the ‘able bodied’ statement in the email.
I had 4 missed calls within the time it took me to make a cup of coffee (I know because I was actually away from my phone making a cup of coffee) and then I got a voice mail saying I had to call them to discuss my comments in my email BEFORE they would change the delivery address on my order.
So I made the call. This is when I really felt my temperature rise. I asked to speak to the gentleman who had left me the voicemail and he started the conversation by saying “Thank you for calling me back. I am miffed with the comments you put in your email and would like to discuss them with you.” WTF?….. It was the miffed part that really annoyed me.
So I calmly explained that I was having to change the delivery address for my parcel because his company was not willing to deliver to my disabled mother. I think that’s when he lost it. He kept telling me that the statement had been used for 8 years and I was the only person to complain, to which I pointed out I had only just come across his company and had complained within 24 hours of receiving the email. He said that wasn’t the point and repeated his ‘8 years’ point to which I pointed out had I ordered this shower screen from him 8 years ago I would have complained then.
He then went on to change his mind as to exactly where my shower screen would be delivered. We started off with it being a small parcel and so it not have been a problem, then said my mother would have to climb onto the back of the truck and get the parcel off the truck, down the drive and into the house all by herself.
He then suggested I find two able bodied people who could sit at home and wait for the parcel to be delivered. I asked who. I pointed out that I work full time, my father works full time, my next door neighbours (who he suggested I should ask) work full time and that I have no other family in the area. His response “he didn’t know… but surely there had to be someone.”
I said that if he was willing to deliver on an evening or a weekend then I could guarantee two able bodied people would be in to carry it from wherever the parcel was being dumped (he still hadn’t decided!) but he refused to do that. He did say that I wasn’t to worry though as if she couldn’t ‘handle’ the parcel herself it would just stay on the truck and be re-delivered at a later date. Woo hoo, oh no wait a minute the only person who will be in at a later date is my mother!!!!
I pointed out to him that I had an Uncle who was in a wheel chair and in a similar position and I asked if they would deliver to him. Guess what – No, not without two able bodied people there to do the heavy lifting.
At one point he did question how, if my mother couldn’t cart the screen from the top of the road, would she ever get it upstairs to install (at that point I may have wanted to hit him!)
He did think he had won when he asked me why I ticked the ‘terms and condition’ box. But I pointed out that no-one ever reads them and asked how I would have proceeded with my order without agreeing to the terms and conditions – he didn’t really answer that!
However, all was not lost as he reassured me that I was the only person to raise this in 8 years and as he had disabled family members I was making a big deal out of nothing.
So what do you think? Am I over reacting?
In the spirit of total honest I haven’t yet cancelled the delivery of the shower screen. It sounds awful but it is the only one I have seen that I have liked and it had a MASSIVE discount on it. I will never use this company again, but with sorting everything for the house I don’t have time to argue with them over this. However there is a yet. I am so outraged by this that I am massively tempted to tell them where I would like two able bodied individuals to stick their shower screen!
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