To expect a delivery driver to deliver in to the house.

[RedCountryRoads]

So I'm having some furniture delivered on Monday. The delivery driver isn't "insured" to bring the furniture in to the house. Not even the bedroom, just inside away from the elements so will be leaving it on a pallet for me to do with what I wish.
I don't even know if the pallet will be dumped on the roadside or it will make it to the drive.

Not the end of the world to me normally as I would happily rip the pallet apart and shift each bit of furniture separately but I'm 39 weeks pregnant and this is the Nursery furniture that I've been waiting 3 months for so don't really want to be lugging heavy things.

My family don't live close to help me and I've just moved so I don't know the neighbours to ask for help.
The company said they are happy to deliver on a Saturday so my DH can be there for a £100 charge which they reduced to £50 when I got a bit upset.

So AIBU to expect that a delivery driver should deliver in to the house? Especially as it is a baby company so should expect a pregnant woman to be waiting for the delivery.

In my experience, you normally pay extra to have it delivered inside.

Someone probably searched for deliveries and the zombie popped up first, as they often don't show in date order.
Why aren't threads archived after e.g. 3 years?
One of the many things wrong with this site.

This just reminded me of something , when things just got done. My daughter is 46 now, but when she was about 15, I wanted a heavy old piano, taken away, out of my daughters large bedroom.

The local fire station were having an auction to raise money for some causes in the town, so I donated the old piano. So wowee, two hunky good looking firemen arrived to get the piano downstairs. I have never laughed so much.

They had to lift the piano around a little bend just out of the bedroom, and then down the stairs, a bit of a tight fit there.

They had some tea and chocolate biscuits after all their efferts.and then humped the piano into their van, (not in a fire engine!) A good time was had by all, and a funny memory of unproblomatic times.

It is very annoying.

I bought a huge freezer from AO and as I didn't pay for installation* they wouldn't bring it in further than the hall way although another 12 inches would have got it up the awkward step into the kitchen.

There was no way I could move it on my own so there it stayed until I could get a strong friend to help me. I was left wishing I had paid the extra £35 for a few more feet of delivery.

*no point. It was plug in only and you're not supposed to do that for a couple of hours anyway.

They have the pallet trolleys which will get it through the gate etc and the tail lift toget it off the back of the wagon. If they lifted it into the house it would need to be done manually. Householders are just lifting one lot of stuff while the delivery person is delivering several things so all the impact is o one person. Its not a job that would be conducive to good back health. I think that is probably why.

Having complained in my previous post about a delivery of tiles that were on a mini electric forklift truck, and the driver refused just to drive his truck 20 feet up to the garage (he was happy to block the entrance of my drive), today I had another delivery.

Could not have been more different. This delivery man volunteered, and indeed insisted, in carrying boxes of tiles by hand to where I wanted them.

Actually, I did not let him do this entirely on his own: we did it together. He carried two boxes at a time, and I managed just one at a time.

Good teamwork.

Made me feel good about humanity again

@Wabbitty

Don't name and shame - read your small print! We have been looking at ordering some furniture and have always made a point of asking whether the delivery charges include "to the room of our choosing" (and then when they say yes to that we make sure they realise there are stairs involved!)

Excellent points.

Really, a witch hunt isn't on. It's up to the buyer to ascertain delivery details before ordering.

I am afraid “pallet delivery” is now quite common. We have had stuff dumped on the pavement several times as there is gravel on the drive and they cant deliver on to that. They should however make it clear when you order that is what you are getting. If you are very lucky you might persuade them to get it to a porch/garage, but usually it is one driver and very large packages so they just deliver it on to the pavement using the lorry tailgate lift.

At my office I ordered some of those desks that can change height. We paid a fee to have them delivered and assembled. It was a circus! They kept postponing the delivery. They had acknowledged that as we close the office at four, they would have to arrive no later than four so we wouldn't have to do overtime. Regardless: one day more than two months later than the desks were supposed to have been delivered the guard from the entrance called me on my mobile at almost five because the delivery service was at the gate. When infomed that I would NOT be returning to spend several hours ar the office they asked if they couldn't just assemble the furniture at the local post office. Why they thought either we or the post office would agree to that we'll never known

@Brettbrains

Having complained in my previous post about a delivery of tiles that were on a mini electric forklift truck, and the driver refused just to drive his truck 20 feet up to the garage (he was happy to block the entrance of my drive), today I had another delivery.

Could not have been more different. This delivery man volunteered, and indeed insisted, in carrying boxes of tiles by hand to where I wanted them.

Actually, I did not let him do this entirely on his own: we did it together. He carried two boxes at a time, and I managed just one at a time.

Good teamwork.

Made me feel good about humanity again

Problem is that he almost certainly won't get sick pay if he trips and injures himself whilst 'going the extra mile' and doing things outside of his job description and on premises where the company insurance doesn't cover him. Many companies will actually fire employees that injure themselves on this way as it puts the company at risk of legal action/compensatory claim.

People just don't understand how it works in today's fast paced world.

When I worked at Palletways they wanted drivers to do 15 deliveries followed by several collections on the way back. This was all within a 10.5 hour shift where you had a lunch break and also had to often get the forklift driver to rearrange the load before leaving. If you didn't use a military mindset you'd be doing 13 hours every day and many new drivers did until they wised up.

You couldn't really spend more than 5-10 mins at one drop, and in my several days out with drivers it quickly became apparent that many people had no idea of the rush and seemed to think the driver had come out solely for them.

A common situation was the "oh, can you just wait a minute while I unwrap it and you can then take the pallet away too". Of course, we couldn't do this as there was already very little space to manoeuvre in the back of the truck until you got 3-4 pallets off and you also needed to keep room for collections after your deliveries.

I’ve had various experience with furniture delivery - amazing where things were brought upstairs, put together and packaging removed, to the other with just a pallet left at the start of our drive just off the sidewalk, some just inside the front door. Usually there are options on making the order to choose enhanced delivery or notification that it is kerbside only. I’d strongly advise upgrading your delivery option if you can to one where you’re not heft to carry, or cover from the elements, any of the furniture

@KrispyKremeDream

People just don't understand how it works in today's fast paced world.

When I worked at Palletways they wanted drivers to do 15 deliveries followed by several collections on the way back. This was all within a 10.5 hour shift where you had a lunch break and also had to often get the forklift driver to rearrange the load before leaving. If you didn't use a military mindset you'd be doing 13 hours every day and many new drivers did until they wised up.

You couldn't really spend more than 5-10 mins at one drop, and in my several days out with drivers it quickly became apparent that many people had no idea of the rush and seemed to think the driver had come out solely for them.

A common situation was the "oh, can you just wait a minute while I unwrap it and you can then take the pallet away too". Of course, we couldn't do this as there was already very little space to manoeuvre in the back of the truck until you got 3-4 pallets off and you also needed to keep room for collections after your deliveries.

In that case companies need to be listening to their customers.

For many of us it seems that the "way it works" is only for the benefit of the company not the consumers who keep them in business.

I will not be buying the next big appliance from AO which is a shame for them as I've used them a lot in the past. I'm sure they won't notice or care but if enough unhappy customers shop elsewhere they'll have to adapt or join the ever increasing number of companies who fail due to not giving their customers what they want.

Delivery details are usually shown on their websites, so you don't have to guess nor assume. If people want delivery into their homes, then they need to choose firms who offer that service and maybe pay extra.