Delivery, Installation, and Service

Why is it so hard to give people a reasonable time estimate for arrival when making a house call? Like many people, my job keeps me AWAY from my house during the day. It is most certainly not convenient for me (the paying customer) to be sitting around my home waiting for service. I can't imagine that it would be so difficult to provide a narrow window of estimated arrival time, so I must assume that those providing the service just don't care.

Earlier this week I bought a sofa and paid to have it delivered to my home. The furniture store said that it would be delivered "some time on Friday" and that they would call on Thursday with a time slot. When they called on Thursday, they informed me the delivery truck would arrive between 10am and 3pm. What kind of time slot is that, 5 hours?!? They do the runs from 10am to 3pm every day. Why did they even bother to call me on Thursday? They could have told me the same thing when I bought the stupid sofa. When I explained that I refuse to sit at home all afternoon (I've got a job), they tell me that the truck crew will call me in the morning with a better estimate, and that I will probably be the first stop.

When I don't hear from the truck crew in the morning, I head into work (20-30 minute drive). Around 10:30am I get a call from the furniture store telling me the truck is outside my house, why am I not there? I explain to them that they forgot to call me. Now that I have heard from them, I can be there in 20-30 minutes. They decided that they will do another run and come back between 11:30-12:30. OK, great. I go home at 11:30 and wait around an hour. When they don't show up by 12:30 I call the store and explain I will be leaving for work soon if they don't show up. The store has no way to contact the truck. Great system they have...their drivers can't afford a cell phone? Where do the huge delivery charges go? Fortunately (for them), they show up 10 minutes later, just before I get into my car to drive away. They then have the nerve to grumble and complain that they had to make two trips to my house. I can't say I feel sorry for them. It seems ironic that they would complain about my wasting their time after they were so willing to waste mine.

That really butters my muffin.