Weekday deliveries/appointments

maggie1976

I'm fed up with companies only being able to deliver, or give service appointments between 8-1 or 1-6pm Monday to Friday. For goodness sake, surely I'm not the only person who lives in a house where both people work full time?

I can't get an appointment for British Gas to service my central heating boiler because they don't do Saturday appointments. My only option is to keep calling them each time they send me a new weekday appointment and they'll tell me if any of their engineers are prepared to do overtime that weekend.

This week, I had a card through the door telling me that they'd called to service the boiler and I wasn't in. Well no s**t Sherlock, I've told you that numerous times! I'm damned if I'm going to take time off work to wait in for them when they'll probably be late anyway.

What do other people do in this situation?

Maggie.

Mrs_Thrift

I know, it's awful, isn't it? They make me feel as if they've never heard of both people in a household being at work all day!!

As a last case resort I've had to ask my Mum to sit in our house to wait for someone, or left the key with a neighbour. Not exactly ideal. Grrrr.....

VickyA_2

It's frustrating. I had a day off this week and so had my hair cut. If I'd wanted an appointment on a Saturday (when I normally go) I'd have had to wait 4 weeks for an available appointment!

Any parcels that we get delivered are now sent to my boyfriend's workplace. So much easier.

SnowyOwl_2

Yeah, I get this problem too, except I live on my own, so have to take all the time off myself. In the past I've asked if I could be put at the top of the schedule so that I get visited first - it's usually a question of luck that this happens but sometimes this request is actually complied with and I've been able to get to work though just an hour or two late rather than lose a whole half day. On other occasions I have asked if I could spend the day at home and take work home to do rather than use holiday - though this isn't possible for many people of course - but my work place was OK about this option as I was still available via phone. I do quite a lot of temping, so have often had to take unpaid leave to let some workperson or other in.

Generally speaking these appointment systems are unacceptable to everyone. There must be someone in waiting for these people, sometimes all day, and this isn't always convenient, even for people who don't work. Yet another example of a rubbish service we pay for.

maggie1976

Thanks all, glad it's not just me who is frustrated and sick of this!

I have just spoken to British Gas again and told them that I was not expecting an engineer to call, and that I wanted to arrange a Saturday inspection.

She put me on hold and then came back to me to tell me that they do not do boiler inspections at the weekend (?!?!?) but she had obtained 'special permission' from their planning department to do the inspection on a Saturday.

They will contact me direct to arrange this so I'll see what happens now. At least they've changed their tune from the 'wait and see if the engineer will do overtime' one.

I have also started asking for things to be delivered to my work address (did most of my Christmas shopping online this way) because our sorting office is only open from 7am - midday!

VickyA, I had the same problem as you re hair appointments, but what I do now is to make my next appointment as I'm paying for the haircut, for a Saturday 5-6 weeks in advance.

Sigh, I'm feeling a bit less wound up now LOL!

Maggie.

Bossyboots

We had to have our gas meter changed a while ago. I was only working part time then so I could shift time around to suit me. We arranged an appointment between 8.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m and we booked this three weeks in advance. The fella turned up at 12.55 p.m. I told him that I was going out at 1.30 (they had been told this before) and that if he could not finish the job in that time he was not to start. He assured me that he could finish and then commented "It's shame I only just got this job, I've been sitting in my van for 45 minutes waiting for them to tell me where to go to next. I could have been finished by now."!!!

I did complain to British Gas who did actually pay us compensation (about a tenner I think it was) but I was astounded that they had had this guy doing nothing half the morning while I was waiting for him to turn up.

pinkfluffybabe

The other bother is that once you do take a day off or make other work arragements, they either a) cant give you a time and say something vague like between 8am and 6pm or b) turn up as late as possible after you have spent the day sat waiting or c) arrive while you are in the toilet and !!!!!! off before you get a chance to answer the door.

It is really annoying. Its the same with deliveries as well, you ask for things to come at the weekend and they either dont do weekends or they deliver things during the week anyway and leave it on your doorstep for all to see. :mad:

badgermonkey

This is one of the banes of my life, too. Luckily the main post office is on my way home from work so I can pop in to pick stuff up after work, but it's still not ideal, especially if things are posted using some obscure parcel service. I once had a package delivery missed because I was at work. I phoned up to ask them to deliver it to my work address, they tried to deliver it at my home again and left me a really snotty note saying "will not try again". Well, they knew I wasn't going to be there! Luckily the secretary at work was on my side and gave them a piece of her mind when they finally delivered it to work...

As for appointments, it's a nightmare. The BF and I are both teachers - yes, we have long holidays but this also means we really CANNOT just take days off to sit in waiting for people. If we want something repaired or a big thing delivered it has to wait for the summer. Hardly the best way to encourage people to spend money.

WHA

The Viking Direct "courier" always comes far too early in the morning - usually around 7.30 am, which for an office is at least an hour before opening. Viking Direct customer services say that delivery will only be after 9am and signature is required. Had loads of stuff left on the doorstep, including expensive things such as laser printer - luckily nothing stolen. Over winter, a lot of stuff has become rain damaged - Viking initially said that it was impossible for things to be left outside so I insisted that Viking find out who allegedly signs for these - surprise surprise, the van driver signs for them himself and puts a time of after 9am! Did he think no-one would notice?

xbox

Can't find the "smug" smiley!!

Yesterday I left a note on my front door

"I work 15 mins away, please call me on my mobile ***** ****** & I'll come home"

Girlfriend laughed her pants off....guess what, the delivery guys rang me!

(oh this was indesit delivering a fridge/freezer!)

Lucie_2

My latest gripe is with La Redoute. I've tried to order a top 2 or 3 times but they keep sending the wrong size. When you arrange a collection for goods to be returned you can put on a message saying what time would be best to call - great idea in principle, but every time I've tried, the courier comes on a completely different day/time. What's the point in that??