Screwfix screw-up

[Roland Perry]

I ordered something last Thursday, which was on 24-48hr deliver to my local shop. Nothing wrong with that.

Except it hadn't arrived by Saturday and the staff (because I was there to pick something else up) stonewalled me.

Fast forward to Monday, when again I'm there to pick up something else they have in stock.

My Thursday order has disappeared into a black hole.

The staff say it's the fault of Parcelforce (who they claim deliver all these warehouse->store things, rather than having their own internal transport).

Even more bizarre, they say they can't alert me to the delay because their phones have been out for several days.

So which phone told me I could pick up this morning's in-stock orders?

My question is mainly this: has anyone else ever had an apologetic SMS from Screwfix (a shop whose phones hadn't been out-for-days) saying the

24-48hr delivery schedule has been missed?

Anyway they've now refunded and re-issued the order (from their shop having no phone access) with this comforting disclaimer:

While we try our hardest to get your products to you in time and in perfect condition, we suggest that you don't schedule any installation work until a few days after the expected delivery date, just in case you need to resolve any technical questions or order additional fittings if necessary.

No mention, however, of "Or ParcelFarce has f***ed up yet again".

[Andy Burns]

That's true, I've had next-day click & collect items which had a parcelforce label addressed to

"The Manager, Screwfix, XYZ Town"

I was surprised they didn't piggy-back the customer orders on their regular (daily? they seem to have plenty of lorries) stock replenishment runs.

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail]>, at 12:17:43 on Mon, 2 Nov

2020, Andy Burns [e-mail] remarked:

My main question was, however, if the Parcelforce delivery was late, how many customers have seen a message from the store saying "sorry, we've missed the 48hr delivery window".

[Adam Funk]

I haven't noticed that with Screwfix, but I've placed orders with Superdrug with a choice of home delivery for a fee or collect from a store free of charge --- where they've handed me a Parcelforced box along the lines above.

[pinnerite]

My two Penn'th.

I ordered an electric sander and two rolls of sandpaper for collection from the Harrow branch. So that is three items on the "deliveey" note. After driving five miles, queueing and finally presenting my emailed advice, the guy behind the counter procured two items, plonked them on the counter and looked at me as though I was barmy for not congratulating him and rush out, skipping and singing his praises.

I pointed to the items and counted "ONE, TWO". He was speechless and uttered that famous British expression when confronted with such incredibly unheard of events, "Sorry mate, shall I order them again".

So an overall 20 miles to get a roll of sandpaper!. Brilliant sander though. £15 fantastic value. Paid for itself in a couple of days.

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail]>, at 12:17:43 on Mon, 2 Nov

2020, Andy Burns [e-mail] remarked:

As far as I can tell this changed during the first lockdown, before which they were very reliable at getting "next day" orders delivered to the stores using their own transport.

I can only hazard a guess that staff shortages (or even order-shortages) reduced their own-transport deliveries to less frequent than daily.

Now sat on the edge of my chair awaiting an SMS to confirm that the re-order they did in-store at 11:30am on Monday really does turn out to be "available to collect from 12 noon Weds"[1], according to the chitty they printed out.

FWIW the different online order I placed at 8am on Monday still hasn't turned up.

[1] I'm kind of assuming that that 12-noon is what they tell everyone, rather than being 48.5hrs after the specific order was placed.

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail], at 10:21:21 on Wed, 4 Nov 2020, Roland Perry [e-mail]> remarked:

Both notifications arrived at 12:30