Santa cancels due to wrong kind of snow

Everybody knows the RAC Control Centre on the M6. Impressive? It was designed to be. BDP, the Architects, were briefed:

  • provide office and training facilities to house worlds most advanced rescue communication system
  • visibly emphasise RAC Rescue control is on hand 24 hours a day
Of course, most of it is given over to people trying to sell you insurance, (RAC was bought out by AVIVA) but that does not matter. It looks the business. The reality is that this sort of operation is mostly run by underpaid, very stupid people. I did a temp job at the AA many years ago and the people who were processing the data were barely literate and could not tell the difference between Kennington and Kensington. One operator next to me had three goes at that one and gave up, imputting the wrong one. Could have been crucial, and of course the next time the poor unfortunate resident of Kennington called, he would no doubt have been informed that the address he gave was incorrect and therfore outwith his recovery plan.

But this is not about the RAC, who I know are capable of fixing a Mondeo, but not a windscreen wiper on a Lancia Fulviasport.

This is about the dire experience of the non-delivery of the post, Amazon, Marks and Spencer and the rest.

I will put it bluntly; they have given up. My order for wine from M&S is now 9 days beyond the delivery by date. My Amazon orders were delivered to Gourock, for delivery by the Royal Mail 8 days ago. Christmas presents to my nearest and dearest are in a pile, 94 miles away and have been for over a bloody week. My wine is in Droitwich.

All over the UK, underpaid very stupid people are not bright enough to cope with three days of bad weather. Utterly dependent on "systems" they are now serially fucked. Their systems did not allow for weather. Their systems do not allow for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Consequently they have no idea where my parcels are. And really, they don't care.

5 comments:

Rebel Saint said...

Me too. Just had an email from Amazon basically saying "We have no idea where they are. Want a refund?".

Though to be fair, this is the 1st time they've let me down in over 6 years.

The letter I posted to my wife from Inverness, 1st class, 2 weeks ago, still hasn't arrived. I should have just brought it with me ... it only took me 2 days to get back home!

Jim Baxter said...

Last week I escorted Mrs Jim to Queen St. station only to find nearly all trains cancelled and about 400 people waiting for the one she wanted. She decided to go home. First though we had a coffee. Sitting next to us was a face I knew who had also it seemed had not been able to travel. I 'overheard' him say, 'They can't organise anything in this country'. Who was he? Henry McLeish, former Labour Scottish First Minister. I suppose he should know.

Twig said...

During the last lot of snow one of my customers called to chase a delivery that hadn't turned up, so we called the carrier to be told by some drongo that it would be impossible to get through to our customers premises because of the snow and ice, and that the delivery would be postponed until after the weekend, agw.

We informed the customer only to be told that he had received six deliveries from other carriers that very day.

Armed with this information we escalated the problem to our carriers commercial manager and hey presto the impossible suddenly became possible.

Competition works.

Ed P said...

I reckon you're just pissed off because you left it too late to order. Me too - I'm waiting for stuff promised a week ago. Maybe we should stop the pointless and expensive mutual present-giving? How about donating all those pounds to some worthy cause next year and not wasting them on "hideous tie, so kindly meant" stuff.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

Twig, indeed, competition works. There is a lack of will power, that is certain and as your story shows, somebody can make things happen.

Ed, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect items ordered at the beginning of December to have arrived by now. As for gifts, they are for my children. I don't give gifts to anyone else and I do it because I think about them and love them. They don't get anything expensive, just little things that I hope will let them know I think about them.

Jim, Glasgow seems particularly suseptible to the weather, but I am glad the former First Minister got a taste of reality.

Rebel Saint. I had no idea you could email Amazon, so I did some investigating and yes you can. Not that it will do any good.