Wayward boxes
We rely a lot on deliveries up here in the wilds.
The stuff we want isn’t usually available locally so deliveries make sense. A garage piled to the rafters with empty cardboard boxes is testament to this.
This time of year things get a little hectic. Herself has the perfect excuse to go online shopping and I haven’t the heart [or the courage] to stop her. Likewise I have a few things I need so I have a couple of orders in also.
Now delivery of parcels takes one of two methods. If it is sent by post, the postman just shoves a note through the door saying I can collect my parcel in Skobieville [lazy fucking bastard that he is]. If it’s sent by courier it just gets dumped over the gate or shoved in with the bins, though sometimes it’s left on the car for the world to see [and rob].
I have a large parcel ordered. I got the conformation from the shop and a tracking number from the couriers. Grand. This is normal. I put the tracking number in the courier’s website and watched it being shunted around the country. Two days ago the status changed to “Your parcel has been picked up by the courier and is on it’s way to its destination“. The excitement was almost too much to bear. Two days is a bit long though? Maybe they are coming to Wicklow from Dublin via Donegal and Cork [i.e. the Scenic Route]?
This morning I got a very excited email from the courier company – “Great News – Your parcel has been delivered to the address below.“. It gave my address. Oh the excitement! My heart was pounding in anticipation. I rushed out to the front.
Nothing.
I searched around the back of the car and behind the bins. Nada. I peered up the trees and wandered around behind the garage and the porch. Rien.
I went back in and checked their website. According to that, it’s still on its journey around The Atlantic Way.
I searched their site for a phone number. Nothing doing there. I tried for an email address. Fat chance. I have noticed this in various companies of late; in the interest of good customer relations they make it almost impossible to contact them. The courier site only offered one of those irritating “chat” boxes [doubtless routed to a village in India]. I put in a rather curt message and the response came back – “We’ll be in touch with you”. *sigh*.
So now I’m waiting for a box and an email.
UPDATE [Saturday]
The parcels have arrived [apparently two separate orders were combined into one delivery].
In spite of being correctly addressed along with the correct postcode they were delivered to the wrong address. Fortunately the recipients were of a higher literary standard than the delivery driver and brought the parcels around to us in person last night.
I still haven’t received an email though……
Amazon drops amount to about 150 a day, and as most of the droppers don’t speak English – or Irish – we never know if we’re actually going to get what we ordered…
So far, we’ve been OK, but last year, they even took a photo of the drop – in the rain – of our parcel which had been delivered next door! Luckily it survived!
In other words, as long as the paycheck doesn’t bounce; I will leave the box wherever I damn well please.
And that, apparently, is exactly what they did. I have updated the main post above.
Keep the complaint going. I’m making it my mission in life to make them spend as much dealing with complains as they would spend on decent customer service and I do that by raising a complain for everything and taking it as far as I can. Both with the delivery company and, if I have used Amazon, amazon as well. If Amazons gets enough complaints it has the power to do something. especially if I claim non delivery and get a refund from Amazon. Always much better when a third party gets involved.
I’m not holding my breath though.
I sent them a message at the time. I’m still awaiting a reply!
This is why my wife and I will do our own shopping even if we have to barge our way into the store in our powered wheel chairs. Not that we’ve been reduced to that state as of yet. Might be kind of fun though when that time arrives. I’d do all my traveling about in reverse so that irritating reverse beeping would constantly go off.
That plus the fact that we don’t really have store to door delivery over here. At least not in our neck of the woods.