Very annoyed with the Cotswold Company

itm

We've never bought from them before, and probably won't again - see below the text of a complaint I sent to them yesterday re. a £300 coffee table which we ordered about 6 weeks ago. What sort of company sends an articulated lorry to deliver a coffee table to an address in London? :mad:

"For the second time in a month I have taken annual leave to accept delivery of this order - a coffee table. When the first item was delivered it was damaged - something which presumably should have been identified as a matter of quality control before it left your premises.
Delivery of a replacement was arranged for today, and we were told to expect a morning delivery. When nothing had been delivered by 12:30 we phoned to ask what was happening, and were then told to expect an afternoon delivery. At about 3pm we were telephoned by the courier to say that they had been unable to navigate their vehicle via the route suggested by their satellite navigation system, as their truck was too large. They asked if we could come and collect the coffee table from them (about 2 miles away)! We politely pointed out that this was not practical, not bothering to mention the obvious issue of having paid £25 for delivery and therefore being entitled to "delivery".
We gave them detailed directions via an alternate route, avoiding unusually narrow streets, although why it should have been necessary for a customer to provide directions to a professional courier company is quite frankly beyond me. Would it have been sensible to have had a map of the area to hand? We also pointed out that our street is regularly served by full-sized furniture removal trucks, and that we had ourselves taken delivery of an extra large leather sofa the previous week. How could there possibly be a problem with a coffee table?
15 minutes later they phoned again, saying that they had got within approximately 150 yards of my property, but were unable to turn into the nearby street. They asked again if I would be able to collect the item. We asked why they would be unable to carry the table the remaining distance. They said that it was "too heavy". Clearly they did not consider it too heavy for me to collect it from them, however.
I asked the obvious question of whether they had brought a trolley to assist with the delivery, given the weight of the item. They had not.
We then telephoned your company to seek resolution but none was offered, and the courier departed without delivering the item.
Apart from the obvious questions raised above, I must ask:
- why did the courier set out to deliver to an address in a London Borough in a vehicle which was incapable of navigating London streets?
- given the size of their vehicle, the weight of the coffee table, and the likelihood of such navigational problems, why did they not have access to a trolley to assist with deliveries to difficult locations?
- given that we had already taken delivery of one of these items from you a month ago, how could you have sent a delivery vehicle which was inappropriate for a location which you should already have been familiar with?
Having now wasted my last two days of annual leave, and still not being in possession of an undamaged coffee table, I expect a redelivery to be organised for an evening or weekend, at our convenience. Since we are away for the next two weekends an evening would be preferable. Please can you advise when this will be possible. Given the inconvenience we have experienced, and the loss of annual holiday, I believe that some form of gesture of goodwill would also be appropriate. I will leave this for your consideration.
This is our first experience of the Cotswold Company, and needless to say it is hard to imagine a desire for a second. We would appreciate resolution of this matter with a minimum of further delay."

Wig

Better placed in Vent board. & If I was the cotswold co. I would cancel the order rather than attempt another delivery.

itm

There would still be the issue of collecting or disposing of the damaged one, which was left with us. It's extremely heavy and doesn't fit into our little hatchback.

Sorry I hadn't noticed the Vent forum - is it possible to move this message?

domestic_goddess

I sympathise with your problems as it seems ridiculous but i do have to add that I have been nothing but impressed with the service i have recieved from this company. They delivered something to me and it was faulty - a shame but it happens. I e mailed them and within half an hour they e mailed me telling ,e to keep the faulty item and they would send me a new one straight away. I redieved the second item within two days. and although the original one was faulty (ie. I wouldn't have paid full price for it.), it was still able to be used. You have had a bad experience but it is a one off i think with them. I use them regularly

Wig

itm wrote:

There would still be the issue of collecting or disposing of the damaged one, which was left with us. It's extremely heavy and doesn't fit into our little hatchback.

Sorry I hadn't noticed the Vent forum - is it possible to move this message?

No only the people with the keys can move posts, don't worry about it, if it moves fine if not forget it unless you want it moved in which case PM Nile and ask.

That delivery company has to win "stupid courier of the year" award.

Well seeing as there is a table to be collected, then a re-delivery would make sense I suppose, lets hope they use a 7.5 ton truck next time.

tagz

Hi

Did the same company deliver the first damaged coffee table? If so how come they can't do so again?

Hope they sort this out for you soon.

Nile

Hello itm

I'll move your thread to the 'The (Consumer) Vent Board' where it should get more views and responses.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

skintchick

Nile wrote:

Hello itm

I'll move your thread to the 'The (Consumer) Vent Board' where it should get more views and responses.
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Or kill it off completely!!!

smcaul

itm wrote:

We gave them detailed directions via an alternate route, avoiding unusually narrow streets, although why it should have been necessary for a customer to provide directions to a professional courier company is quite frankly beyond me. Would it have been sensible to have had a map of the area to hand? We also pointed out that our street is regularly served by full-sized furniture removal trucks, and that we had ourselves taken delivery of an extra large leather sofa the previous week. How could there possibly be a problem with a coffee table?

Whilst I sympathise with your problems the part I have quoted above I would just like to take issue with. It is sometimes very good practise to ask customers the best way to their homes as they have a much better knowledge of the local area. Alot of drivers now use satnav and it is on the whole very good, but can throw you some googlies now and then, it is far easier to carry one satnav rather then hundreds of maps, and whilst we are on the subject of maps can you please show me the maps you have that tell you how wide the roads are? cos none of mine do!! it is very difficult to judge how to get to a residential road until you are actually there, and don't forget trucks also have low bridges to avoid etc. I used to do alot of class 1 (artic) work in London, some of it delivering to small shops and also some doing removal work with containers on the back, trying to get to some houses is impossible, yet it looks perfectly accessible on the map - cut the couriers some slack, they at least tried to get there - as a side point did you make them aware on your original order that access was restricted?

itm

Well, let's put it this way - no other courier or furniture delivery company has ever had trouble delivering large items to our house before (in 10 years) - our street and surrounding roads comfortably accommodate the largest of furniture removal vans. If this company chooses to send an articluated lorry to deliver to London postal addresses then surely they should make it their job to be aware of suitable access routes?

itm

Plus of course they'd delivered the same item 4 weeks earlier, so had actually been there before....