And it continues
Today I decided to wait eagerly at home for the exciting delivery of my new drum kit, which I had been told was arriving at 1ish. This has meant that I've been working in the front room, jumping at any sound, being petrified when something is put through our letterbox and having a minor heart attack every time I hear a car door slam outside…
Anyhow, I thought I'd better try to stop all this jumpiness as it wasn't really going to help me get a good grade in groups tomorrow, so I decided to call UPS at 3 to check the progress of my kit.
"Hello"
"Hi"
"What's your order number? And how can I help you?"
"It's blahblahblah. I'm just wanting to know the expected time for delivery of my package today."
"One second, I'll just check… It says here your package was delivered at 11.45 this morning to someone called Sam."
"... what …"
"Yeah, definitely, it was delivered to a block called Sam, he signed the slip at 11.45"
"... what …"
"One second I'll just call the dispatch people"
[Nice, relaxing jazz music plays, just about stopping me from going into the foetal position, rocking slowly and crying. At this point I also check all over the house to make sure I definitely hadn't signed for the kit]
"Hello again"
"... hello …"
"The item has been returned to the sender"
Right, so with a new lead and feeling slightly better for thinking that I hadn't signed for the drum kit myself, I called soundcontrol where I had bought the kit from where I learnt of the problems they'd been having…
Firstly, when sending the kit down to Southampton from the Birmingham branch that had it in stock they only sent 2 of the 3 boxes. This meant that, to save time the Birmingham branch decided to send the 3rd one to me directly (the package I missed yesterday). This would have been fine, except that the people up in Birmingham had also sold the brain of the kit, the module that produces all of the sounds, but had forgotten about it so were about to send me lots of lovely pads that I could hit to my hearts content, but nothing to make any sounds… Anyhow, so the lovely Southampton people then asked for UPS to return the 3rd package to them (where it was signed for by an assistant named Sam) which they will keep now until the new brain arrives tomorrow.
So it should arrive on Friday.
Theoretically.
Hrm…
19 Apr 2006 15:24
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Matt Shields
Don't you love music shops and their ineptitude? I had loads of problems with my bass (though at least it was all in one box!).
Ordered in November, the original estimate was 2 weeks, this soon gets extended to a month. Fair enough, I think, as it is being ordered from the Fender factory in America. Then they say "ooh, bit close to Christmas now – be with you soon after". In January they had difficulty remembering the order, with me having to remind them of the colour (!) and other details before they "found" it. Despite ordering it online, it seemed as if their computer printed out orders on post-its which they then stuck up all over their shop. They said they would phone me back at least twice without doing so, so I had to keep phoning them, always talking to someone who didn't know what I was on about though it didn't seem to make a differenceeven if I had talked to them before.
Finally they say it's been shipped from the US, but that it has to go through the Netherlands to be checked over, then sent to their shop in Blackburn before being forwarded to me. "10 days maximum". To their credit, it did arrive less than a fortnight later. But that was over two months after the orginal order!
The worst thing was that I wasn't kept informed of the order's progress either by email or phone. And when I phoned up to see what was going on, they didn't exactly set my mind at ease with their vagueness and general incompetence!
However, do not worry Sam, your kit will come. And with my bass and Joe's keyboard, plus a healthy supply of 50p coins, we will form a rhythm section the like of which the Midlands area has never seen.
19 Apr 2006, 17:30
Oh dear – hope that it turns up soon! Perhaps you should only buy from shops that don't employ people named Sam in the future?
19 Apr 2006, 23:06
Definitely a good plan from Mr Lloyd there.
Keep praying, my son, your drum kit will come.
(hopefully)
xx
19 Apr 2006, 23:14
You can't make this stuff up!
Still, it does mean a sweeter smell of victory when it all comes together, and imagine if it all arrives just as you get home from your last exam as well..
20 Apr 2006, 10:56
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