I took the whole day off. The whole day off that I wasn’t getting paid for because I didn’t have vacation days to use. At 8 a.m., the phone rang.
“This is Home Depot, calling to let you know delivery will be between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.”
“Okay, thanks, I will be here.”
1 p.m. comes and goes. I wait, and wait. I keep myself busy doing household chores — laundry, dusting, vacuuming. Soon, it’s 4:45 p.m., and still no one has come. Finally, the phone rings again.
“Hi, this the the Home Depot delivery people. We wanted to let you know we’re not coming to deliver your refrigerator today. The road has snow on it.”
Ok, now I’m pissed. After giving up a day of paid work, waiting all day. I’m mad.
“I don’t understand, why aren’t you coming? Why didn’t you call sooner?”
This is where it gets crazy. Yes, there were some patches of snow on the road, but nothing serious. The road was completely passable. I find out from the voice on the other end of the phone that they had made a delivery on the road that intersects with mine, less than 1/2 mile away.
They have no answers for me, only excuses. And that they can’t find the house, and that there is no cell service, and there is snow on the road, etc. etc. etc.
Calling Home Depot customer service doesn’t help either. The lady on the other end of the line is sympathetic, but can’t provide solutions.
So began our struggle to get an appliance delivered to our home in Nederland. You’d never guess that despite the rural feel to our home’s setting off a dirt road, we in fact only live 12 miles from Boulder, Colorado — a city of more than 100,000 people.
This is not unique. Getting things delivered that the average person takes for granted takes on a whole new perspective living in a rural mountain town. Frequently, there is a huge delivery surcharge of a couple of hundred dollars. We often have to wait because they only make a delivery to “rural” areas once every two weeks. Often, people get completely lost. Because despite your best efforts to tell them they shouldn’t use their GPS and/or Smart Phone to get directions, they do it anyway. And then end up lost on a road in the woods. And sometimes, you just can’t get it delivered at all, no matter what.
In our case, we finally got the refrigerator delivered, after cajoling the local Home Depot store to just delivery it using a pick-up truck, and yes, we agreed to unload and move it in the house. This after four weeks of back and forth, and aborted attempts, and two days of lost pay waiting for an appliance that never came.
We’re expecting a new sofa from Pottery Barn next week. It’s anybody’s guess whether our couch will show up or disappear into the abyss of lost deliveries in Nederland.
