to think that, in this day and age, it should be possible for ac ourier to give a narrower time slot

[SoupDragon]

...than between 07:30- 17:30.

I mean, really, how difficult can it possibly be?

I am with you Soup

I have taken a day off just for this deleivery! Its too big to be delivered at work.

uurrghh

YAsoNBU - I had this recently. And with no possibility of ringing on the day for an update so trapped in the house all day.

This pisses me off too. No excuse for it!

I had plans for today. It is a lovely springlike day here and I am stuck inside. I daren't even go and hang my washing on the line!

YANBU

One company that used to deliver this way used to email to give an hour slot on the day. It was fab!

Most are crap!

They never come in the morning either, both times recently its been about 3pm. Bloody useless if you have a school run to do (I dont thank goodness)

A Whole Day wasted for 2 minutes at the door.

YABU.

They can't give you an exact time as the driver cannot possibly factor in unforseen events such as stopping off for a bacon McRoll, giving his mrs a lift to the hairdressers, stopping off at the bookies.

Stop being so judgypants etc.

I feel your pain, I normally use parcelforce and the driver is local so tends to come to me first nice and early 7.30amish earliest once was 5.50am!! Luckily ds was tiny then so I was up feeding him anyway. Mothercare deliveries use a company that deliver up to 7pm and after waiting in all bloomin day, kept dd off preschool in case I missed them, gave up and went to SW driver came at 8.55pm!!

Supermarkets manage to give a 2 hour delivery slot don't they so have no idea why couriers can't do the same.

At the time of booking, the couriers dont have any idea what other parcels are going to be on the van, so routes cant be planned in advance.

It would be nice if they could give you a call on the day with a more specific time though.

When my friend moved to Japan he ordered a chair, was given a choice of delivery dates and time slots (like you have on supermarket websites), and then the courier called him an hour in advance to confirm they were still on target for his alloted time.

That said, it has now been 5 years of being told just how perfect the Japanese are in every way compared to us. Yes, yes, yes, they can deliver in a time slot, but do they have parks and open spaces? No.

(I struggled there to think of something we do better...am very pleased I came up with just one thing!)

It was put on the van, 7 miles away, at 7:14 am. I'm sure they must have had a fair idea of the route when they left. It surely can't be beyond the realms of technology to be able to let people know a rough time.

I actually want to cry, it's stuffed up what should be a beautiful day.

Bah!

TBH, I'd settle for being able to choose morning or afternoon. I"m not that picky.

do they really not have parks?

it will come at 5.30pm precisely

Tomorrow I have an estimated delivery time of between 7.30am and 9pm.
So OP YANBU but I can beat you!
Mine's DHL to name and shame.

Tesco always send a text message.

Yes, I"ve had those kind of DHL slots.

This is ShittyLink though so god knows if it will even arrive.

Supermarkets can have smaller time slots as they deliver to a limited area around their location.
A courier depot may have a delivery area covering miles and miles.

some courier firms do give you a time slot now though, can't remember which one delivered a recent order now, but if you leave a mobile number with your order they send you a text with a two hour window for the expected delivery time the night before & if the time changes due to delays en route they send you another. 'Tis fab :)

My original slot was something like 1415-1615 & I got another text at 11am-ish on the day of delivery to say it would now be 1425-1625, due to an earlier delay. Driver arrived at about 1530. :)

I really don't know why more can't do it, the technology is available now.

southeast don't think so, that's why golf courses cost millions to be a member of, because open space is at such a premium. Or am I thinking of Hong Kong? Hmmm, am confused now. Dammit, I don't care, I don't want to live there, they have a silly system of writing. So there! (Getting all defensive of the UK now, even though I can't think of something we do better than Japan)

That's awful, SoupDragon.

Though I do have quite a lot of sympathy with delivery companies. It's a very difficult business, B-to-C logistics.

Ooh I can moan seriously about this one: there's not much else you can do if at the mercy of some courier. I think Citylink (like your alternative name!) and useless parcel services are the worst.

I have taken to phoning the depots first thing (7-ish) and telling them to get the driver to give me an hour's notice/text/email as I need to get back home or he'll have a wasted trip... ie not giving them an option about it!

You can find all sorts of interesting ie local phone numbers for specific depots on Say no to 0870... often websites only give a central 0845 etc which refuses to give you the info you need!

Good luck

Yanbu. Seems ludicrous.

YANBU, OP.

I wasted a day earlier this week waiting in for a delivery that never arrived. The courier website listed it as "delivered" until I called up to complain.

It came the next day...so that was another half day wasted.

Some couriers can give the time slots, which makes this even more annoying. My courier had a website showing that my items had been loaded onto the lorry that morning, but then...nothing. Ridiculous.

I have resolved that if something is not a critical delivery, I'm just going to go about my plans regardless and arrange redelivery/collect from depot if needed.

Hope it arrives soon!

It arrived at 3. Too late to do anything meaningful and I was in a foul mood from having wasted a lovely day.