A Too Good Delivery System Causes Problems
This may seem a rather cntroversial title for a post, as most would envisage, that any delivery from a mail order site can’t be too good.
On Thursday, I ordered a new television from John Lewis. Incidentally, I had wanted to order it a few weeks ago, but they didn’t have the model I wanted in stock, so I asked them to e-mail me when it arrived in stock. That e-mail arrived on the Thursday and I ordered it there and then.
In the ordering process, I could have got it delivered on a specific day or morning for a charge, but let’s face it as I’d waited a few weeks, I thought that to wait for the normal five days wiouldn’t be a problem.
I then got an e-mail on the Saturday saying that John Lewis had dispatched it and giving me a link to the delivery company. On checking with them, I found it was going to be delivered on the Saturday. So as I reasoned that van drivers stop work at midday on Saturday (Don’t they?), I decided to stay in and wait. Even though the web ste clearly stated that if I wasn’t in, I could arrange a redelivery on line.
I almost gave up, as I wanted to get my paper and some shopping. But the parcel turned up just before one!
In other words they got the parcel on the day they said they would, but I wouldn’t have minded waiting a few days. But then when did you get a five day delivery in forty-eight hours?
Actually, we might be back to the ASAP scheduling problem, I highlighted in the post on NHS waiting times. Take say the problem of ordering goods, just before you go away for a holiday. You might like to delay them until after you return. With John Lewis you can specify a delivery date, but perhaps you might like to specify a not before date, or say a day of the week.
I think we’ll see increasingly sophisticated on-line delivery systems and that will be better for the consumer and more efficient. and hence more profitable, for the shops and the delivery companies.
The Anonymous Widower 