Next Directory – When oh when will you deliver stuff?

This is perhaps a personal plea and I really shouldn’t abuse my position by posting this here.. but I will anyway. :)

Regular readers of this insane blog may recall that we purchased a TV from Next. Now, on a daily basis Next are fine. You can walk in the shop, buy some clothes, buy some household items, then walk out. Job done. The problem I have with them however is the delivery company that the “Next Directory” use. We all know Next Directory by now, they have a big glossy magazine filled with clothes, furniture and other items for your home. However, they’ve pretty much cocked everything up that we’ve asked them to do.

We’ve had numerous problems with them. Even something as simple as signing up to the Next Directory is difficult. You register, you get a confirmation and then you get one whacking great book which contains everything you can buy. To order you then go online and enter your account number.. which.. errr.. you don’t have.

So you call them up, but they can’t give you your account number because – despite passing all of their questions with flying colours – it’s “data protection”. You have to wait another week for a letter to arrive with your account number on. Yay.. Couldn’t they send that via email ? Err.. no, it takes them a week to reply to anything.

It all started when we opened a Next Wedding list with them before we got married. For some obscure reason it opened two lists. No matter what we did we couldn’t remove the extra one and our guests were getting confused, so we rang them to have one removed. They promised they’d pass it on to the “relevant data team”, but it never happened. We’ve still got two lists to this day. Humpphh… :(

Items on the wedding lists seemed to be priced higher than in the regular Next Directory, yet no additional service was offered for the price. No wrapping was offered, delivery to our reception venue was not possible, delivery to our home was not possible, products arrived broken or late plus products were showing as “out of stock” quite often. So, given all the stress we gave up and asked guests to get us Next vouchers instead.

After the wedding – about mid-July – we decided to spend the vouchers. We’d found a table and chairs we wanted plus a TV, so we put an order in and.. we’re still waiting. I can’t believe it’s taking this long to deliver one TV and one table. We placed the order a month ago, but we have to sit around and wait for a magic phone call to let us know when they’re available to deliver the items. So far they’ve called us once, but we won’t be available on the specific day they want to deliver – in two weeks time!

After reading several bad reviews targetting their delivery system I’m getting more worried by the day. They’re asking us to wait another two weeks. That’s a month and a half for the stuff to arrive. It would’ve been quicker for me to walk to their depot, put the TV and table in a shopping trolley, then walked all the way home. It’s annoying to have to wait for them to be available. Surely it should be the other way around ? We’re paying them to deliver it, so surely their courier should be fighting to find a time slot which is agreeable to us not them?

Don’t get me wrong, it appears that most of the small items are delivered fine. Clothes, small boxes etc seem OK, but I’m tired of having to wait for some courier to grace us with his presence. I can just imagine the discussion at their delivery depot. Perhaps the manager comes down from his office and has a chat with the driver…

“Hiya mate, could you do this TV delivery today?”

“Nah, sorry – I’m washing my hair, plus I’ve got to cut my toe-nails. It’ll be another couple of days yet.”

Then what happens the next day? Does the same thing happen again??

“Morning! Are you going to do this table and TV delivery today?”

“Oooo.. now, if only I wasn’t reading this book I’d be able to fit that in, but sorry.. no I can’t.”

Come on guys! Your customer support team never reply to emails, your phone team just say, “Wait for the delivery company to call you” and meanwhile our TV and furniture is slowly going out of fashion… Humpphh :( :( :(