Category: Commentary

Never, never, never use Home Delivery Network!

My previous post was incorrect. I said in that post that Nick’s birthday present had arrived late. It hadn’t: because it still hasn’t arrived! It’s sitting in the local depot of Home Delivery Network, and has been since the 8th. (it was something …

My previous post was incorrect.

I said in that post that Nick’s birthday present had arrived late. It hadn’t: because it still hasn’t arrived! It’s sitting in the local depot of Home Delivery Network, and has been since the 8th. (it was something different that was delivered: something ordered later the same day)

This was supposedly a next day delivery, but when I spoke to somebody at the local depot just now they said it wasn’t even near being delivered due to a backlog of parcels in the depot.

What sort of company is it that fails in such a massive way?

Oh, and shame on Amazon for committing to using them. The damage to Amazon’s credibility in my eyes is enormous.

A not so satisfying retail experience thanks to Amazon Prime

I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon. Books, e-books, music (cheaper than iTunes) and other sundry stuff. So far I’ve resisted the offers to sign up to Amazon Prime, but I relented on Monday. I ordered a book and opted-in to Amazon Prime and its promi…

I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon. Books, e-books, music (cheaper than iTunes) and other sundry stuff. So far I’ve resisted the offers to sign up to Amazon Prime, but I relented on Monday.

I ordered a book and opted-in to Amazon Prime and its promise to deliver next day. Next day was important in this case because the item was a present.

Unfortunately, the item only arrived just now: a day late. It turns out that Amazon Prime is delivered using Home Delivery Network: another one of the many couriers around and about.

In theory, I should have been able to track the delivery on the HDNL website, but the only status I ever got off it was “In Transit”. Turned out that this was literally true as White Van Man delivered it!

I’ve opted-out of Prime. I’d rather pay for Royal Mail delivery. I have a higher trust in Royal Mail delivering to schedule and at least I know that if they can’t deliver, I only need to pop into town to pick the parcel up from the depot.

Another Tesco rip-off

Varina has just come back from shopping with yet another rip-off tale from the St Neots Tesco store. She was looking at Turkey prices ( even though we have already ordered ours – go figure).

Anyway, she noticed that a certain range of turkeys was on special offer: half price. The small print showed that this offer only applied to turkeys in a certain range of weights.

Well, what do you know; even though the space below was full, none of the turkeys was in the weight range that qualified for the special price.

How may people will get caught be this rip-off?

Incidentally, she challenged a member of staff who responded that they would look into it. Yeah, right!

Is it so hard to make decent coffee?

Why is so difficult for the English to make decent coffee?
I ask after a particularly poor example served up to Varina and me in a Shrewsbury coffee house.
Is it poor quality control, excessive cost control, ignorance, or a general inattention to customer service? I don’t know, but I do know that I rarely go back for more!