Moving Targets
Posted: January 7th, 2019, 6:23 pm
My washing machine just died. It was an ultra-cheapo Candy when I bought it back in March 2005[1], so I can't complain too loudly about its service.
Buying a new one was a different story, as it seems all the websites have become more painful and more coy about essential information - like availability! Argos, Currys and AO all sent my blood pressure skyrocketing as I tried to navigate, and (for example) discarded a would-be purchase when it told me two bloomin' weeks.
Remembering my current machine was a tight squeeze to install when I moved here, I measured its width. A couple of mm short of the "standard" 60. So I went for an Indesit that ticks all my regular boxes and is specced at 59.5cm width: less potential for logistic disaster than buying an unseen 60cm box. Surely nothing out of the ordinary for a white goods supplier?
Delivery back in 2005 was wonderful: Argos turned up promptly and efficiently first thing the morning after I placed my order[2]. This time it first suggested next day delivery was available, but that then morphed through various iterations into "we'll call you within two days to arrange delivery within a week".
I've been an Argos fan ever since that dream service over several orders in 2005. That's changing
[1] When I moved from a furnished to an unfurnished flat, so had a lot of stuff to buy.
[2] A similar order with Comet vanished into chaos, so after three or four days I cancelled it all and placed an equivalent order with Argos. That too turned up promptly the morning after, which was just as well as I'd been living without fridge/freezer in the new flat.
Buying a new one was a different story, as it seems all the websites have become more painful and more coy about essential information - like availability! Argos, Currys and AO all sent my blood pressure skyrocketing as I tried to navigate, and (for example) discarded a would-be purchase when it told me two bloomin' weeks.
Remembering my current machine was a tight squeeze to install when I moved here, I measured its width. A couple of mm short of the "standard" 60. So I went for an Indesit that ticks all my regular boxes and is specced at 59.5cm width: less potential for logistic disaster than buying an unseen 60cm box. Surely nothing out of the ordinary for a white goods supplier?
Delivery back in 2005 was wonderful: Argos turned up promptly and efficiently first thing the morning after I placed my order[2]. This time it first suggested next day delivery was available, but that then morphed through various iterations into "we'll call you within two days to arrange delivery within a week".
I've been an Argos fan ever since that dream service over several orders in 2005. That's changing
[1] When I moved from a furnished to an unfurnished flat, so had a lot of stuff to buy.
[2] A similar order with Comet vanished into chaos, so after three or four days I cancelled it all and placed an equivalent order with Argos. That too turned up promptly the morning after, which was just as well as I'd been living without fridge/freezer in the new flat.