4noreason

Way back in May (the 14th to be accurate) we ordered a shiny new wardrobe from Additions (who have sence rebranded themselves to “Very”). So, with clothes in piles all over the bedroom we sat back and egerly waited for our delivery. Two weeks passed and our delivery arrived. I felt quite sorry for the poor delivery drivers who, because of the rather thin road we live on and the rather large delivery truck they were driving had to lug the 3 rather heavy boxes from the end of the street to our house.

Assembly day had arrived! Rather than just diving in to putting our new wardrobe together we decided (my partner decided) it would be wise to make sure we had all of the required parts. I bowed down to her superior organisational skills and agreed that this would be probably be wise, so we spent the next hour unpacking the 267 parts and putting all of the parts in small piles organised by type. After counting, recounting, checking all of the boxes, checking all of the boxes again, making sure we hadn’t inadvertantly taken them downstairs and put them in the fridge (where quite a few of our belongings end up) it was quite clear that we were missing 4 parts M and 2 parts P. Bugger.

So, the next day I phoned their help desk to explain our plight. The first thing I was greeted with is an automated telephone system “Are you calling to place an order, just say yes or no”. No. “Ok, I can also help you make a payment, return your order or find out the status of your order…..so just say Make a payment, return your order, order status or help me with something else.” Help me with something else. “Ok, I can get you account information, order you a catalogue….blah blah….or if you need to speak to someone just say advisor”. Advisor. “Ok, can you give me your account number”. 19747032. “So that’s 1 9 7 4 7 0 3 2 is that right?” Yes. “And for security can you give me your date of birth”, 2nd August 19??. “Thank you”. You’re welcome. Ring ring. So, I finally got through to a lovely advisor who, after I’d explained what had happened and that we were missing 4 parts M and 2 parts P, appologised profusely and told us that someone would be in contact or they’d just send the parts out. All good I thought. We’ve waited 2 weeks surrounded by our piles of clothes, a couple more won’t hurt even though our clothes were now joined by 265 wardrobe parts.

6 days go by so I decided to give them another call to see whats happening. No…Help me with something else…Advisor…19747032…Yes…2nd August 19??…Hi. Again, they were very sorry and someone would be in contact shortly. Ok no problem – I’m quite a patient person.

2 days pass and we recieve a letter which states…

“Dear Mr Smith,
Thank you for contacting us to request HNGE.
I’m pleased to tell you that I have now arranged for the 6 to be sent to you. You should recieve them within the next 7 days”
Blah blah…”

Strange we thought, but ok, this is starting to get a little silly but at least we have a date for the missing parts now.

4 days later we come home to find a parcel waiting for us. Hurray – we can finally put our new wardrobe together after about a month of having to tread carefully around the bedroom so as not to knock the piles of clothes over or step on any of the numerous piles of wardrobe parts. It seems though that the person on missing parts duty that day was having a bad day, because rather than the required 4 parts M and 2 parts P, they had packed 6 parts ?.

No…Help me with something else…Advisor…19747032…Yes…2nd August 19??…Hi. We’re very sorry (I’m starting to understand why they’ve rebranded as “Very” now), they’ll send the correct parts out in 7 days, and no they don’t understand the letter either. As I said, I’m quite a patient person so I bite my tongue when I’m asked to repeat the parts that we’re missing and try not to say M for Mighty, P for Pissed off.

12 days pass. No…Help me with something else…Advisor…19747032…Yes…2nd August 19??…(I’m getting quite good at this now so I don’t have to wait until all of the options have been read out which does save some time). Hi. They’re very sorry, I shouldn’t have been told that the parts will be with us in 7 days, they’ll actually be with us in 21 days. 21 days!

The next day we recieve a letter which reads:
“Dear Mr Smith,
Thank you for your communication regarding the letter
The letter that states 6 should actually state parts will be with you.
Blah blah…”

Well at least the first letter is a lot clearer now!

NO…HELP ME WITH SOMETHING ELSE…ADVISOR…YES…2ND AUGUST 19??. HI. The very well trained person on the phone tells me they’ll chase the parts for us, again.

The next day we come home to find another parcel. We’ve been here before so our hopes where not high, and suprise suprise, another bad day in the missing parts department. This time though we recieved 7 parts ?. We’re starting to stock pile these parts (whatever they are now) and are considering opening a small business selling just these – somebody must be short of them after all.

NO…HELP ME WITH SOMETHING ELSE…ADVISOR…YES…2ND AUGUST 19??. HI. …

To cut an already long story short, its been 5 weeks since the second delivery of part?. I’ve called another 7 times since then each time to be told that someone would be in contact and each time to be let down. I was hoping to recieve some more of part ? so that we can expand our enterprise and maybe look at an international presence.

The latest is that the missing parts department have emailed the supplier. I had to phone again to find that out though.

You have a week “Very”. Otherwise you can come and collect the 265 parts and no – I’m not taking a day off work to wait around for you.

Yours sincerely,
A VERY annoyed customer.

Update: Read part 2