Currys (Shop)

CURRIES - ELECTRICAL STORE: DELIVERY IS THE PITS - their staff are rude, ignorant, and lack courtesy, compassion and clearly aren’t fit for purpose

In February 2009 my husband and I purchased a large fridge freezer, washing machine and cooker from Curries in Merthyr Tydfil, spending a considerable amount of money with them. The fridge freezer itself cost us only a few pennies short of £600.00. Delivery was finally arranged and the delivery people duly arrived during the day, on 28th March.

The delivery driver offloaded the washing machine and the cooker - no problem [apart from the odd grunts and growns - but you grow to expect that these days] - then our merry delivery man blithely announced completely out of the blue that he could not get our fridge freezer through our front door.

“So how are you going to get it in” I asked, all innocent and agog.

“You’ll have to take the front window out” he replied.

“Oh - and how am I going to do that” I replied.

To which he answered “Get somebody in and you will have to pay him”.

“Don’t be so bloody rediculous” I replied [with my husband and our various builders all listening in, totally stunned at the man's stupid comments.

"Why can't it come through the door" I asked.

To which our merry delivery man stated "because these doors aren't made wide enough".

"So you have measured our door, have you?"

"No" replied our delivery man.

"Then what makes you think it won't fit" [by now there was much merriment from all my builders listening in].

“Because these doors just aren’t wide enough” retorted the delivery man.

My poor husband could contain himself no longer.
“But our front door has been widened for wheelchair access and is much wider than the other front doors in the street” he told the delivery man in exasperation.

Much grunting and groaning and other male noises were now going on beyond the wall.

“Well it won’t go through there” delivery man said pointing to the gap between staircase and door [which was in the process of being detached, with its frame, by the builder].

“There is sufficient room if you wait two minutes for the builder to finish wrenching off the door jar”.

“Oh, we can’t wait for that” delivery man then blustered.

“Well” said my builder “if you had said what you wanted when you first came in instead of making it all so difficult for everybody, that door jar would have been removed before you had even brought in the washing machine”.

“Come to that” said I “the door from the hall into the lounge is also exceptionally wide - again, widened for wheelchair access. So has the door between the lounge and the dining room, the dining room and the kitchen and the kitchen and the lobby where the fridge freezer is going to stand. What’s more, it is all in a straight line. If you had said when you first arrived, we could have made a wide enough path by moving the stored items for you to bring that through there”.

“I’m not waiting…”

And so it went on.

In the end, our friendly delivery man blustered his way out to his van having stated quite categorically that he had no intention of making the delivery of the fridge freezer. On his way out he did leave the telephone number of the Distribution Centre for me to “make further arrangements”.

When I rang the Distribution Centre the poor blustering delivery driver had only told the Distribution Centre about the bannister alongside the stairs - making absolutely no mention of the widened string of doorways through which he could have carried the fridge freezer if he so wished.

In the end, my husband and I had to drive all the way over to Merthyr Tydfil, wasting more time, effort and money, to cancel the order because the delivery driver in his infinite wisdom decided to play God, and refuse to deliver the fridge freezer we had paid nearly £600.00 for.

While in the shop my husband and I eventually chose another fridge freezer and were assured we would have no further trouble with delivery, given a refund on the difference and assured delivery would be straightforward and no problem, to take place on Wednesday, 1st April during the daytime.

My husband and I were stupid enough to believe the people in the Curries Store on Swansea Retail Park.

However, I received a phone call this evening from some young madam who could use a lesson in manners telling me that my delivery slot had been decided [by a machine, no less] and they would deliver my new fridge freezer between 6pm and 10pm on Wednesday night.

There was no apologetic “Sorry if this is incovenient” etc. It was given to me as a fait accompli - the time slots are given out at random by a computer and, basically, if you don’t like it you either lump it, arrange another day [when you could still end up with an evening slot] or cancel the item.

The attitude was “It’s up to you”. But, you can only cancel if you return to Merthyr Tydfil, to the store where you purchased the item.

When I mentioned that we were always in bed long before 10pm as my husband was ill, had terminal cancer and was not fit enough to have his evenings disturbed with the palaver of a delivery that could [and probably would] be 10pm at night, I was told “Well, there’s nothing I can do about that. That’s your time slot”.

Well, Curries? Have you ever heard about a recession and about better stores than you going to the wall?

Does Curries Distribution Centre honestly believe that people who pay in excess of £500 for an item [and, in our case, we paid over £2,000 with all the products we recently bought from Curries.

The baseline is, Curries, it's a buyers' market these days and customer service is the biggest [and, probably, only] in-word that could possibly get you through this recession.

Now Curries - over to you.

I have a fridge freezer that I expect to be delivered.

I have categorically stated that I will not entertain the idea of an evening delivery under any circumstances.

I have explained the reason for that - I hope that ignorant young girl who rang me and told me that “It wasn’t her problem” comes to experience a similar situation first-hand so that she understands that cancer might not, one day, be ‘her problem’. A but a bit of compassion and consideration might go a considerably long way to helping.

The only way people like that are capable of understanding is if the dreaded “C” word happens to them. That will then make it their problem.

Curries Distribution Centre staff - you disgust me.

I hope and pray that, when redundancies come around [as they sure will from the information I have been collecting] then the staff at your centre who make customers’ lives a misery with their short-sighted and uncaring approach, will be the first ones to go.

People like the ones I have described above don’t deserve to have a job [certainly not ones dealing with people, anyway] and, if you really can’t be bothered to even make the slightest attempt at courtesy, good manners, and compassion, then the sooner you are made redundant the better.

Maybe, of course, you really don’t want to work - and, if that’s the case, move over and make a space for the many people who would give their eye teeth for the chance of a job.

You are clearly not fit for purpose!