Devil is in the Details

The book that was ordered via Amazon has finally been delivered. The “Home Delivery Network” saga previously written now has a twist.

Checking online, I find that the package has a strangely shortened trail:

Date	Depot	Action	Reason
06/04/2009 19:26:23	Aberdeen Depot	Unable to Deliver	Held
08/04/2009 06:33:36	Aberdeen Depot	Unable to Deliver	Held
08/04/2009 09:03:23	Aberdeen Depot	Loaded onto vehicle

The company’s own Parcel History Enquiry Report – kindly taped to the package has a strangely differing tale, and mentions a Saturday 4/4/09 07:36 attempted deliver, and a “card left with customer”. This from a company that doesn’t deliver on a Saturday, and had also been told to re-deliver on the Monday afternoon … and I received no card, and was up and about at that time, as I would shortly be leaving to collect another delivery from Parcel Force.

The Call Card Information System also taped to the packet notes on 2/4/09  “pls redeliver prcel on mon 06/03/09 thanks”. So, no mention of afternoon (I’ll ignore the wrong month, as that’s an easy mistake to make).

The reply from the depot is “will locate and re deliver”. I receive another failed delivery card on the 3rd, and phone the call centre. This triggers a caps lock “PLEASE REDLVER ON MONDAY. THANKS” once more, no mention of afternoon despite being re-assured. The strange reply from the depot seems to indicate that they hadn’t removed my packet from the delivery rota for the 3rd “if fails will re deliver”.

And then on the 6th of April (Monday) the call centre sends to the depot “parcel supposed to be out today but not leave depot, cust very angry please ensure parcel is ofd 8/4”.

Amazon’s tracking system does not show a Saturday redelivery attempt. I was also informed that they would not re-deliver on the Saturday for Amazon. Here’s my tracking report:

Date	Phoned	Reason	Action
02/04/2009 Thursday	Call Centre	1st Card left	Do not redeliver until Monday afternoon
03/04/2009 Friday	Call Centre	2nd Card left	Why did you try to re-deliver today? Do not redeliver until Monday afternoon
04/04/2009 Saturday	NA	NA	HDN now say they left me a card on Saturday morning.
06/04/2009 Monday	Call Centre	No delivery	In all Monday. No delivery. HDN can’t redeliver on Tuesday as too late in day now. HDN will redeliver on Wednesday
06/04/2009 Monday	Amazon/Blog	Pi55ed off with HDN	Wrote up blog article and posted it to Amazon. Gayathri P wrote to apologise.
08/04/2009 Wednesday	NA	Packet delivered	Wrote up blog article to wrap up this behind-the-scenes look at what happens when deliveries are screwed up.

And the book? It looks beautiful. I aim to spend a day just watching the whole tv series and immerse myself in the book, stealing ideas and triggering new projects. A definite rainy-day task.

Without stories, we have nothing. Even before the book gets here, it has triggered phone calls and emails. Life is too short to care that a delivery company screws up once, and I hope it is only once. Sadly, most people seem to have their own horror stories, and it is a shame that many relate to Internet shopping. As the industry matures, I hope that the delivery system matures with it. I’m already planning to walk up town next time instead of using the convenience of online shopping. Life is too short to fight through this type of convenience on a weekly basis.