The Lost Art of Customer Service

Perhaps I praised Home Depot too soon. I was supposed to get a call yesterday to give me my delivery window for today. When I didn't get a call, I got up early this morning to make sure I was up and dressed before anyone could show up, and then I called the delivery service number to check. They had no record of a delivery for me today anywhere in their system and said I need to call the store. Since the store is just down the street and I need to run some errands anyway, I think I may just go to the store in person with my paperwork and see what the deal is because calling a retail store seldom does much good -- you frequently end up on hold or transferred around. I'll be nice, but they may get to see the part of me that Sophie (the heroine of the Fairy Tale series) comes from. It's a little too chilly for the feminine floral dress, though.

I doubt they'll be able to reschedule the delivery for today, and they don't let you pick a window, so that means I can't do it Monday because I have a yoga class starting Monday morning. Unless maybe they let me pick a window after they messed up. There will need to be some groveling, I think.

And … I just got a call. They lost the order in their system. But now they can't deliver until Wednesday. They could have done it Saturday, but I already have Saturday plans and I refuse to rearrange my life according to their incompetence (and probably spend the whole day waiting -- I'd have to cancel my hiking trip, then they'd show up well after the trip would have been over). It's not like I haven't been hand washing dishes for years. I'm still going to give some really low marks on the inevitable "how did we do" customer service survey. See, this is part of why I procrastinated so long. Getting things delivered and installed is such a hassle. That plan I had to put the dishwasher on wheels and ride it down the hill to my house from the Home Depot is starting to sound not quite so crazy.

And here I was, all excited last night about washing my last sinkful of dishes.

Oh well. Now I guess I can go get groceries and maybe get crazy and buy some new hiking boots, since I'm not sure how well my repairs will hold, and I don't want to be four miles from the car when the sole falls off. And then I might actually get some work done.