Despite having the solemn promise about the replacement shed-panel delivery this afternoon, I just didn't trust them. Would you? Just letting things happen was getting me nowhere - I knew that I would have to make things happen. I'm good at that.
I called in unannounced at about 11a.m. and went straight to the back yard of the store to see what had happened to the replacement panel... it wasn't on the trolley... it wasn't in the goods-out area... it wasn't in the main store... it was back where we had found it on Thursday, buried under the rest of the bits of the other flat-packed 7x7. Somebody had been playing silly-buggers.
Back at the Customer Services desk I found the assistant that I had helped to sort out the panel on Thursday. He was genuinely shocked when I told him that the panel-swap had not taken place on Friday, and was gobsmacked when I showed him where said panel had ended up. He was apologetic to me, and we sorted the panel again.
I made it absolutely plain to him, and to everybody else within earshot at the tills and Customer Services desk, that I had had more than enough of this crap, and that the shit would fly fast and far very soon if I didn't get proper Customer Service. I even threatened to decorate the front of their building in a similar manner to the way that "Romanes eunt domus" was painted onto the walls of the Governor's Palace in Monty Python's Life of Brian. They thought that I was joking, but I wasn't.
He phoned the delivery contractors to find out when they would be arriving to do their pick-up - they would be there in about 20 minutes. We carried the panel to the goods-out area where I made him put a big instruction label on the panel, then I just stood there and waited - there was no way that I was going to leave until I had actually witnessed both the loading of the goods and the instruction of the driver.
After a few more minutes the van arrived and I watched the loading and the instruction - eventually I was happy enough to leave them to it, after I'd told them all about my shit/fan/impact prediction. I thanked the assistant and then went home to wait.
And an hour or so later, it was delivered. No ceremony, no recrimination, no hassle, just a bit of friendly banter and leg-pulling.
So here's a big thanks to Ben, the one assistant that had the balls to seize the horns of his dilemma, wrestle the beast to the ground and then stand triumphantly above it in his hour of victory.
Nice one, Ben!
