Deliveries.

I love getting them, I hate waiting for them. What I hate the most about waiting for them is the eon long time slots you often get. At least this time we were told it could either be delivered between 8am to 12pm or 12pm to 5pm. So we choose the morning slot. Really, this isn’t so bad, a 4 hour time slot isn’t totally unreasonable. Or maybe it is and I’m just thankful it’s not the 8am to 8pm range you get with some deliveries.

The whole delivery schedule is automated, can’t they give you a better idea when it’s coming? If you choose a delivery day a week in advance, can’t they call you a day or two before the delivery and let you know approximately when it will arrive? Surely by then they know what will be on the truck and could have planned a delivery route by then? I’m not asking to know the minute it will arrive, I know what traffic can be like. But you would think they could do better than a twelve hour period.

I’d really like to be able to pay them in the same way. I call up and negotiate the price and agree to buy. Then when they ask me for a credit card number I tell them this:

“I can arrange to give you my credit card number either Thursday next week or the following Monday, I’m afraid those are the only two days available…. Thursday? Ok, I can either call you between 8am and 12pm or between 12pm and 5pm. Would you like the morning call or the afternoon call? Afternoon? Ok, I’ll pay between 12pm and 5pm on Thursday then. So if you could arrange for someone to take the whole afternoon off work and make sure they are there for my call, that would be great. If no one answers or the line is busy then I’m afraid we’ll have to arrange for another day for me to pay. You’ll have to call me and you won’t have much of an idea where to reach me, nor have any idea when I will be able to pay you.”