Milk delivered earlier - is this unacceptable?

[rathertakenaback]

We get milk delivered once a week (only two of us, apart from DD who is here about 2 days a week right now). We don't use a huge amount of milk, so have 4 pints delivered on a Monday morning. In reality this is usually delivered at about midnight on the Sunday, sometimes later.

Yesterday morning (Thursday) I opened the door to find a milk delivery - delivered 4 days early. I rang the company up to query this (it's a medium sized dairy, not a one man set-up), only to be told that they are delivering Monday's milk early so that staff can watch the football!

I'm not a huge football fan myself, but even I've been watching the England matches, so to some extent I get this, but 4 days early?! The milk had also stood outside in quite a warm place until nearly midday as I've booked this week off work, and I actually didn't have a reason to go out until later in the morning. In fact, it's lucky we were here at all as we had planned to go away.

AIBU to think that this is not on? Yes, I know it's only 4 pints of milk, but delivering early to me implies a few hours or one day earlier. They should at least have informed us of the change in delivery day! (But if they had emailed an excuse like that I'd have been on the phone telling them that it's not on!)
They've been a bit flakey before (not leaving milk in the specific place requested with the result that it's been stolen), and after making changes to the delivery because of the football I'm wondering whether to kick them into touch!

Our milkman does both glass bottles and plastic so yes, rinse and returning is still very much a thing! In fact they push the glass bottles much more.

Thursday isn't reasonable for Monday morning, because it'll go out of date by the next Thursday. Sunday morning would have been reasonable. Just get a new company to deliver.

Good grief @RedToothBrush you are irrationally angry. Go get a glad of water, and have a lie down in a dark room before you blow a gasket.

Agree with @Belladonna12and @TheOrigRightsa and a few others, I cba with milk/dairy deliveries because they got too unreliable over the years, (either not delivering the goods at ALL, or not delivering them til 9am when we had gone to work, so the stuff went rank before we got home, rendering it useless!)

And also, we have weeks when we use 4 pints of milk, and other weeks where we use 2 pints only, and weeks where we use 6 pints! It depends how often we have cereal, cappuccino, glasses of milk, and anything made with milk really! So it's untenable for us to have milk deliveries, as we would either run out, or throw loads away. Besides, I walk past a small supermarket on the way home from work, so it's no bother to grab milk on the way home. And the cartons are recycled so I don't see a problem with not having glass bottles!

Go get a glad of water, = go get a glass of water!

Maybe I need to go for a lie down.

I just think people are being massively ungrateful and unrealistic.

The chances are that there is going to be a massive wave of people suddenly needing PCRs on Monday and not turning up for work.

Might as well preempt the problem and look like you give a shit to your employees and rational sensible customers.

@MRex

Thursday isn't reasonable for Monday morning, because it'll go out of date by the next Thursday. Sunday morning would have been reasonable. Just get a new company to deliver.

Good luck with finding an alternative milkman. Loads of places dont have the option.

@FlaminEckVera

On another note, milk that has been frozen - and then thawed out again - is rank. It tastes watery....

Not if you give it a good shake while it's defrosting. That's my semi skimmed anyway, maybe other types don't freeze as well.

@RedToothBrush - our milk supplier is fine thanks. Why can't you see that bringing forward delivery is fine, it's just that 4 days is too much as it won't last the week?

@HomerSimpsonsDonut

First world problems eh

We live in the first world. Very well done for noticing.

And I'm sure you never complain about anything.

@TheOrigRights

Not if you give it a good shake while it's defrosting. That's my semi skimmed anyway, maybe other types don't freeze as well.

Thanks for that! I will try it soon.

great business model.. .I don't care, but people can't complain when they lose clients with a poor attitude like that.

I am guessing you have never run your own business or had your own clients if you believe that being professional means "treating them like children" 😂

@onlyhereforthecake Not chasing your customers up like children isn’t not caring, it’s simply unrealistic to expect them to do so.

They haven’t got the time or resources to be chasing up after grown adults incapable of checking their emails, and why should they?

They were professional and let their customers know in good time with options. OP/her DH didn’t check their emails and so this is on them.

@RedToothBrush

I just think people are being massively ungrateful and unrealistic.

The chances are that there is going to be a massive wave of people suddenly needing PCRs on Monday and not turning up for work.

Might as well preempt the problem and look like you give a shit to your employees and rational sensible customers.

Massively ungrateful for what?

Ungrateful to people who made deliveries keeping society going while the rest of us sat at home having everything we need brought to us. It’s not a difficult concept to get your head round.

I wouldn't be very happy with milk being delivered just after midnight anyway, that's a really long time to be sitting on the doorstep in the summer.

We have a little coolbox the milk is put into, always still cold in the morning when we bring it in. If it was going to be roasting I would add an icepack too.

@RedToothBrush

Obviously.

I agree with Flaming, you do seem irrationally angry.

Milk and More deliver it in glass bottles.

@Blossomtoes

Ungrateful to people who made deliveries keeping society going while the rest of us sat at home having everything we need brought to us. It’s not a difficult concept to get your head round.

Has OP said that she stayed at home having everything brought to her? I would have thought that people getting milk deliveries were more likely to be have been doing it for environmental reasons and/or because someone came to their door hassling them to sign up. That's the only reason anyone I know gets milk delivered and is the only reason I did it for a while. People who were shielding were probably mostly getting food delivered from supermarkets during the pandemic so would have got milk that way.

I couldn't care any less about football and will be working as usual Sunday and Monday. But I think what they did is actually really nice. These are people who worked through the pandemic when so many others got to stay home. And they worked much harder too with the increased demand.

They did let you know, so there was an option to say no but you didn't check - that's on you/your husband.

They're giving hard workers a day off. Just 1 day. For something that's clearly important to them. I wish more managers would occasionally put their staff first.

This makes me want to use the company!

It does seem that normality has resumed and the veneer of caring about key workers has totally gone.

I think its fine as a one off, they sent you an email to let you know, they don't know that your husband will ignore it.

Has OP said that she stayed at home having everything brought to her?

She didn’t need to. We’d all have been up shit creek without a paddle without key workers during lockdown. It hasn’t taken us long to forget, has it?

@Blossomtoes

Has OP said that she stayed at home having everything brought to her?

She didn’t need to. We’d all have been up shit creek without a paddle without key workers during lockdown. It hasn’t taken us long to forget, has it?

OP might be a key worker for all you know.

She might. What difference would that make to the price of fish?

YABU - You were informed of the earlier delivery but your husband chose to ignore it, therefore the dairy have done nothing wrong.

You can't complain that you weren't informed when the dairy used the contact information you provided to inform you, but you didn't check it. That is your problem not theirs.

I don't think the OP is being especially reasonable (but she just seems a bit annoyed which is a fairly proportionate response). I also think it's quite sensible for an employer to mitigate against no-shows they're bound to get on Monday morning. Going on about being grateful to key workers for delivering milk in a pandemic is a bit of a stretch though. They are money making concerns you know. If you want to extend that emotionally blackmailing approach maybe spare a thought for the poor old cows whose milk will be going sour in the teat on Monday morning, they're the real key workers.

@Blossomtoes

She might. What difference would that make to the price of fish?

I'm just not quite sure why everyone should be massively grateful to those who worked during the lockdown even if they worked themselves and even if the key worker was not at increased risk of catching covid (I don't think milk delivery people were particularly). We would all be up "shit crick" if everyone stopped working tomorrow. Why should the fact that there has been a pandemic make any difference?