Green Woodpecker
I just spent a day ordering furniture online, then cancelling it again.The first was a two-seater settee and armchair. I had wanted an ottoman to put with the settee to act as a footstool. It was going to be a nice matching set. Unfortunately, although you can order the chair and settee for delivery on a specified day, the ottoman comes with a note “Delivered on X, or earlier.” This is clearly no good if you aren’t actually living in the new place. It’s not, to be honest, much good if you are living in it either, as it’s a bit vague and is effectively putting you under house arrest.
Even the two pieces that I did order come with a very vague delivery window – from 07.00 to 18.00 on the specified day. We will have to set off from Nottingham around 5 am to get to Peterborough on time. I expect we will then spend all day waiting.
Grantham Gingerbread
However, it’s an academic point, as the online order form filled in the delivery address for me, using my billing address, and I had ordered delivery to the wrong address before I realised. You can’t change the delivery address after ordering in case of fraud. So I had to cancel it. What a palaver! Anyway, it’s done now.
Unfortunately, I was so flustered when I ordered a new microwave and freezer that I didn’t notice the autofill option had put my current postcode on the end of my new address. Nor did I realise, after specifying a certain day, that they were having trouble with their system and may not be able to deliver on that day. They only tell you that after you pay. Same again – couldn’t alter the details even though it was a small point, so had to go through the rigmarole of cancellation. The difference between the two companies is that I will have a refund in 3-5 days for the furniture, whereas the refund on the electrical good is likely to be two weeks. Two weeks of them using my money – not a bad racket. However, where I reordered the furniture immediately, I will be waiting until I get the refund for the electrical goods, and may reorder them from another company. It will be good if I can reflect my view of their service by voting with my wallet.
Gingerbread Men
Did I say I reordered the furniture? Well, after doing that I noticed that the confirmation shows delivery as being a different day to the one I specified. Worse than that, it’s a day when we are doing something and can’t be in Peterborough. It seems the actual day will be the one I requested, though they didn’t seem overly concerned they were showing two different dates.
It may seem like we are buying a lot of new stuff, but the old furniture was second hand when we got it twenty tears ago and needs recovering, which will probably cost as much as buying new. I will recycle it. The old freezer is shabby, broken and inefficient, so we could soldier on, but I decided enough was enough. The microwave broke a few years ago – we have been waiting to move before buying another. They new one will be a combination oven with air fryer so it will be more efficient and more healthy. It’s not that we’ve suddenly become big consumers, just an admission we have spent the last few years living frugally, and in some cases, inconveniently.
New scone recipe with home made microwave blackberry jam
Pictures from November 2016. many of those books have now gone. The biscuits have all gone.
What a muddle! But those biscuits look so good, and as I am reading this blog before breakfast, just seeing those pictures reminds me how hungry I am.
When do you plan on moving? You might have mentioned it, but if so, I have forgotten.
Probably November. Plans are a little flexible at the moment. Or, the muddle is incompletely planned, to put it another way.
Not long, not long!
Seems like ages but in three months, as I look back, it will seem to have been no time at all. Or is that a visit to Narnia I am thinking of?
I share your pain. I had to stop and start again today when ordering rail tickets. The systems are not very forgiving.
I hope that you get the new dwelling fitted up exactly as you would like by the time that you move.
It will be a great improvement. Even the imperfections will be a step up from the imperfections we now have. 🙂
I avoid shopping online but my children seem to do everything that way and scoff at the old man.
Ditto. Mine think I’m a dinosaur because I pay cash or card, and sometimes cheque, even now. They wave a phone or a watch at the machine. I am dumbfounded.
Yes, I really hate that waving idea. It’s so easy to give your money away to someone else.
They say that research shows the brain reacts with pain to handing over cash, or keying a number into a machine, but contactless payment shows no disturbance to the pain centres of the brain – that’s why retailers love it.
Ooow. That sound too distopian for me. That is terrible.
After you said dystopian I saw a mental picture of Big Brother saying “Buy one, get one free.”
I am allergic to shopping on line – and I am not even moving house
🙂 I think I’m developing teh same allergy. And it used to seem so simple.
It won’t be long before the move is complete, and you and Julia will getting all set up to your liking. Almost there, Simon! 🙂
Some days it seems like a lifetime away. 🙂