Ordered a playpen from Amazon a few weeks ago. It took 3 attempts to actually get one; first one went missing during the handover between Amazon & the courier (DPD) 
, second one was broken (DPD again) and the third one was ok, but the box was open on delivery (DPD yet again). This meant 3 days where DP couldn't do any work outside of home (self employed).
When arranging return of the broken playpen, Amazon originally said to return via normal post - HTF are we supposed to carry a 16kg+ metre square box to the local post office which is surrounded by road works so you can't get anywhere near it by car? Plus, I doubt we could even fit it in our car in the first place. So, after complaining to Amazon, they said a City Link courier could be arranged to collect it.
I've had to wait a couple of weeks before arranging the courier because I had this week booked off work and DP was p*ssed off enough from having to to wait in for 3 days before. Arranged the collection for today and planned the rest of my week around this (have had/got appointments & errands to do).
Tried calling the City Link this morning as the slot was an all day one (9-5.30) - the person on the phone said they could not narrow it down any more than that. Have been periodically checking the tracking during the day, and when I checked at 3.10pm, it said that they'd tried to collect at 2.35pm. Well, certainly not from my house!
Called the couriers back, and they said that he'd called, there was no answer and they'd have to re-arrange for another day. I refused this and asked why didn't they use my telephone number which I was told was needed for the consignment - apparently the drivers don't have work phones and are not expected to use their personal phones to call customers. Fair enough, but why have the bloody telephone number in the first place then? I then requested the number of the local depot to speak to them.
Called the local depot who said the same thing about the no work phone/not using personal phones, but added that the driver didn't have any cards to notify of the missed collection. Told the girl that the having no cards was irrelevant as the driver can't have knocked on my door in the first place! Managed to arrange for the driver to come back today and told them that I understand that our street is a bit weird (couple of 1a, 1b, etc) and which colour door the driver should come to.
...
City Link Driver has just come back half an hour after speaking to the depot. Despite telling the depot the details of our house, I (just) heard the driver knocking at next door (good thing I hadn't turned the TV volume back up after phoning). Driver was nice & apologetic, but what a palaver just to order a non-broken playpen!
...
AIBU in thinking that it shouldn't be this hard to order something, get it delivered in one piece & to return an unsuitable/broken product? The whole thing has allowed DP to (justifiably, I think) rant about the state of the service industry and that people in the UK just seem to accept crap service as a matter of course instead of complaining and insisting on a better standard. I work in Financial Services and I see the crap people will put up with regarding their money (not from me- I'm usually trying to fix the cockups!), and it seems endemic that people will not stand up for at least decent service!