Any Price Rise is Regrettable

This morning I got this note from the milkman!

So my daily pinta went up by not 1p or 2p but 3 pence a pint two days ago. Couching this news in apologies doesn’t make  it any easier to take!

What justification do they have for such a massive price rise? Are the cows producing less milk? And wouldn’t have been nice to have been notified in advance so that I could make the choice of telling them to take a running jump!

Having milk delivered is so much more convenient and it comes in proper bottles which is better for the environment so I know I will accept it but for them to make this assumption really makes my blood boil!

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Don’t Buy from Argos Direct

I have shopped at Argos stores on many occasions and been satisfied with the service, particularly their Reserve and Collect. Two weeks ago I tried Argos Direct to order stuff for C’s return to the UK and now wish I hadn’t.

The order I made was quite long and but all went according to plan until I got to the checkout. After entering my credit card details I received an error message that the card had not been authorised, so I re-entered the information, thinking I’d messed up with the numbers, but the card was again declined.

I rang Customer Services and was told it was my bank at fault, “they hadn’t authorised the payment quickly enough”.  My next course of action was to try to give the order over the telephone, but after being told that a number of items were out of stock, I abandoned the idea and was assured that as the order had not been completed, I would not be charged. Then I rang my bank who advised me that an authorisation code had been issued to Argos but the amount had not yet been debited from my account.

So back to Customer Services again and was shocked to find that they had the information of my original order. They gave me an order number and itemised to me the goods ready to be processed and my requested date and time for delivery to my friend’s address. None of this had I been made aware of either by e-mail or telephone and had I not contacted them again I might have gone elsewhere to purchase the goods.  I wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO.

The order was to have been delivered on Tuesday between 7am and 1pm but no delivery arrived. At about 1.20pm I rang Customer Services to enquire why there had been no delivery. I was told that the order had been loaded on the van at 8.18am and it would be delivered at the latest by 6pm. I relayed this information to my friends and they very kindly agreed to stay in until it arrived.

By 4.30pm there was still no sign of the delivery so I rang Customer Services again to confirm that the order would be delivered and was told that there had been a ‘problem’ with the order and that it had not in fact been loaded on a delivery van. “I can only apologise” said Customer Services and offered to refund my delivery charge and assured me that the order would be delivered on Friday morning. At 5.30pm, my friend rang to say Argos had arrived!

Alas, that wasn’t the end of it! The following day my friend checked the order and found there were some items missing. I rang Customer Services and was told that according to them, I hadn’t actually ordered four of the five missing items, but the fifth would be delivered on Friday morning before 1pm.

No sign of the delivery by 12.15 on Friday so I rang Customer Services to confirm that the item was going to be delivered and was told that it wasn’t, there had been another ‘problem’. I had the choice of arranging another delivery day (Duh!), cancelling the order or driving to the Argos store in town and picking it up myself.

I first said I would cancel the order and asked what their procedure was for refunding my money. I was told it would just appear in my account, that it was not their practice to send any written confirmation either by e-mail or letter. I didn’t trust anything they said by now so opted to drive to the store and pick up the item personally.

I’m sure you’ve lost the will to live after reading this blog so I’ll finish here by just saying that I got a very telling reaction from the assistant in the store when I explained my item hadn’t been delivered,  “Was that Argos Direct?” she asked and didn’t seem a bit surprised when I answered in the affirmative.