IMS_Blog

The ring was chosen by Jan and I looking at them on the internet (otherwise we’d never actually manage to get organised enough) and came from H Samuel. I ordered on the Sunday morning, taking advantage of free next day delivery. Order confirmation email received, that meant I expected to receive the package Tuesday.

Around lunchtime the following day (Monday) I received a “security call” from H Samuel’s, which basically asked me a load of questions to which I could barely remember the answers. I must have satisfied them enough that I really am me though as the helpful woman finally declared she was “releasing the order” (or something like that). At quarter past five that evening I received an email confirming the order had been despatched.

I told Jan that I was expecting a delivery which needed signed for (I didn’t tell her what, but she was to work it out quickly enough). So she diligently waited in Tuesday. Nothing appeared. Thinking to give the delivery process the benefit of the doubt I reasoned that as the despatch confirmation didn’t come until gone five Monday, then next day would count as Wednesday (hardly as advertised but I’m reasonable).

Wednesday of course also came and went without sign of a delivery, leaving me to phone H Samuel’s helpline on Thursday morning (usefully their helpline is open until five, which means you could still in theory receive a delivery after it’s closed). The guy on the help line left me on hold while he phoned the delivery firm. Apparently the delivery firm claimed to have attempted delivery at half seven Tuesday morning. There are several problems with this:

1. Janet and I aren’t that heavy sleepers—Janet in particular was almost certainly awake at that time. The door buzzer is loud, the bedroom window (on the ground floor by the main building door) was open.
2. A 07:30 delivery time clearly contradicts the times stated on H Samuel’s website (between 08:00–18:00). If we hadn’t have been in, we would have been justified by our not yet expecting a delivery.
3. There was no card. No sign at all, in fact, that any attempt at a delivery had been made. Neither the delivery firm nor H Samuel seemed concerned at this lack of delivery of a rushed next day item requiring a signature (I presume H Samuel didn’t know until I informed them but that does make one wonder how eagerly they’re therefore tracking delivery to their customer)

The helpline guy assured me that a redelivery would be made Friday, between 09:00–17:00 (yet another set of delivery times, contradicting H Samuel’s and the supposed 07:30 original; I confess I got a bit upset at that through my frustration). Much to our surprise the item in question did arrive on the Friday afternoon, delivered, I’m assured, by some relative of the Stig. Delivery Stig wouldn’t hand it over until Janet had scrambled to find something with my name and address on mind.

So there we have it, a tale of poor service in the delivery industry. Except there’s one final little sting. The following Monday I received a letter from the delivery company, dated the 8th August (i.e. the day I’d complained to H Samuel, who had contacted them and apparently galvanised them into action). It told me they had a delivery they hadn’t been able to complete and I might like to rearrange delivery! So my moral is, if someone is using Secure Mail Services for deliveries, be a little wary!