Thursday, March 26, 2009

"Need to vent . . . "



Oh Lord,

Those of you in the design business (or anyone who has ever ordered anything that was not readily available from a showroom floor) know that certain things are never actually true.

"We mailed your samples yesterday."  most likely means that the aforementioned 'we' is on the way to the post office right then.

"Back-order should take about 10 - 12 weeks."  more likely 14 - 18 weeks.

"It'll be there by Friday."  yeah, right.

So here's the back-story:  The custom ottoman that I ordered for a new, and wonderful, client about 7 weeks ago, was going to be ready for delivery in 4 weeks.  (this already looks bad, doesn't it?), it was picked up by the delivery service only to discover that they had made the wrong ottoman and needed to start over.   Custom carving, custom stain, custom, custom, custom . . . and would be ready in two weeks.

The new (second) ottoman was completed last Thursday and ready for pick-up with delivery this week.  It was picked-up on Tuesday from LA and on its happy way up the west coast for delivery in SF today.

When I called this morning to confirm delivery time, I was informed that it was actually being picked-up in LA right then, whilst I was on the phone, and they couldn't confirm delivery time until next week. 

I just wish someone (anyone!) had told me what was actually going on.  I would have happily, really, flown to LA yesterday, rented a small truck, zipped over to Disneyland for a few hours (Matterhorn, Pirates, Indiana Jones), swung by and picked-up the ottoman, drove to SF, and delivered it last night . . . but no.  I'm spending my day trying to accomplish what seems like the easiest of tasks - having a delivery service - deliver something. 

Whew.  just needed to scream for a moment.  lol.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Thursday.