Wickes Delivery Service

frenchconnection200 · 16 February 2007 at 9:27AM

Getting some timber deilivered from Wickes, they charge £19 for delivery but can only give a delivery time of between 8am-6pm. In these days of technology I really don't believe that they can't give a better approximation of delivery time than that.
Still at least the staff in the store were good, walked out of B and Q due to their complete incompetence.

moonrakerz · 16 February 2007 at 1:15PM

It can be very difficult to give any more accurate times. Until the delivery men turn up to load their lorry for the day in question, they have no idea what they have to deliver and to where. With the huge range of stuff that Wickes supply, it's even more difficult.

Even if the delivery men have a load of just (say) washing machines, they will still only give you am or pm.

If it is a local store it may be worth enquiring as to whether they have a mobile with them and could ring you when they are on the road with a better forecast of a time.

Lyndsay_21 · 16 February 2007 at 6:28PM

my dad is actually a contracted delivery driver for wickes and unfortunatly until he gets there he doesn't know what he's getting so there would be no good someone arranging in store with you for it to be delivered at 3 if realistically it wont be delivered till 5.
I know my dad carries a work mobile so maybe getting them to give you a call to say when its being delivered may be helpful although i'm not sure if a mobile is standard issue or just who my dad works for!!

Whits · 16 February 2007 at 7:49PM

I deliver for Comet and it is our company policy to give customers a call half an hour before delivering.

When you make a purchase, you are given the option of an AM, PM or No Preference delivery. It still amazes me that people moan when you turn up at 5 as they have been waiting in all day. As far as I'm concerned, if you want an early delivery then you should have to pay more or it should just be scrapped altogether.

Sorry, can't help ranting sometimes

mamaden · 16 February 2007 at 7:50PM

Wickes has an account with the company I work for and we do the deliveries for 3 local branches. They normally book with us the day before and we give them a time to the nearest hour if possible, if not then it is AM or PM. Like the previous post says you can always askk the store to contact the drivers, they do with us and we can always give a more accurate time on the day.

kuohu · 16 February 2007 at 8:06PM

frenchconnection200 wrote:

In these days of technology I really don't believe that they can't give a better approximation of delivery time than that.

This part of the original post probably hits the nail on the head. In 'these days of technology' we press a button and get instant responses at our fingertips. Data. Information. I want it and I want it now. Power.

Yet the delivery process is NOT high-tech, it can't teleport the goods direct to your doorstep, and still relies on a truck driver, who him/herself is also relying on suppliers having the goods ready, people loading the truck, traffic conditions, and being able to find your home. (And of course the homes of others on his round).

In the real world, a delivery estimate of either AM or PM on a particular day is about as accurate as it can get (in my humble opinion). Trying to tie things down even tigher, say to an hour when the goods will arrive, is just destined to failure.

So I guess I am saying that I can empathise with the OP but I wonder if sometimes we have expectations that are just too high.

Whits · 17 February 2007 at 8:13PM

kuohu wrote:

This part of the original post probably hits the nail on the head. In 'these days of technology' we press a button and get instant responses at our fingertips. Data. Information. I want it and I want it now. Power.

Yet the delivery process is NOT high-tech and still relies on a truck driver, traffic conditions, and being able to find your home. (And of course the homes of others on his round).

And these are real problems, especially when you get to a customers house to find it's a first floor flat and you're on your own or when you can't get an answer on the phone, turn up at the customers house and find that they weren't even aware you were coming :mad:

frenchconnection200 · 18 February 2007 at 5:38PM

My objection is that they charge £19 and can't give an AM/PM time. I've ordered some things from Ilva and their timescale is 8am till 9pm!!! But at least they take your mobile number and will ring you half an hour before so you can at least take your kids to school at a sedate pace instead of having to drag them at top speed in case the delivery turns up.

Whits please don't accuse me of being a want it now type of person, I have no objection to staying in all morning or afternoon, but if you are paying for a service and consequently someones wages I think some leeway could be given to the customer.

gyzmo · 18 February 2007 at 5:45PM

Mostly unrelated, but i remember working for the RAC a while back. On giving ETAs to drivers, I usually got a load of grief. On explaining that :
1. A job may take longer than predicted
2. There may be traffic jams / queues
3. If I gave you a specific time and he didn't turn up by then you'd moan anyway.

I usually got a 'suppose so' response. Suppose it is similar for delivery drivers. Though if some companies can give a specific timeframe, then why can't others?

Whits · 18 February 2007 at 6:41PM

gyzmo wrote:

Though if some companies can give a specific timeframe, then why can't others?

Because if you have 25 drops to do, it would be very difficult to give accurate times. There's always going to be traffic to contend with.

Surely the only companies that are able to give AM or PM specific times are the ones who don't have a quick turnaround from order to delivery. For example, you go into a shop and order an appliance on a monday, we get it delivered from the regional delivery centre on tuesday and deliver it to you on the wednesday thus making it very difficult to narrow it down to a timeframe.

The only way round this is if the ability to pay extra for AM or PM deliveries was scrapped. Of course, if you were to do that, would you alienate people who can only get a half day off to get their delivery.

Wickes Delivery Service

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