The Delivery Of A Shower-Screen…
(12th February 2021)
A driver turned up at the house at 8.35 am with no prior phone call that he was on his way, whilst I was at the local shop, collecting milk and a newspaper. We have a gravel drive that leads directly to a garage where the new shower-screen was to be stored.
I hurried forth when I saw the guy unloading a pallet, some 8 feet high from a Palletways truck. The driver said that he would be unable to get the pallet over the gravel and subsequently he left it at the edge of the drive.
He told me that I’d need a forklift truck to move the monstrosity… Really? It was below freezing at that time but the bloke asked for his delivery note to be signed, which simply had to done, noting that the item had remained unchecked.
The whole package was covered in a layer of black plastic so we couldn’t even get at the actual cardboard packaging of the order to check that the contents were in good order, at which point the driver climbed into his cab and drove away…
Once we had removed the plastic, we then had the nigh impossible job of manoeuvring the box from the base pallet by ourselves. It was incredibly heavy and I am surprised that we managed it, for I had to wrap my arms around the extricated 8 foot high box like I was learning to dance with an obese basketball player.
Somehow, I managed to manoeuvre the object inside the garage and we laid it down to check the contents, after first warming up with hot coffee. The pallets, for there wasn’t just one, formed a frame reminiscent of a ballista, a Roman bolt thrower, which sits on the drive now, like we are preparing to sling missiles at the Royal Mail sorting office in Shirley until they deliver our mail again…
The information sent had stated that the delivery could be checked from kerbside but we didn’t have the opportunity to do so because the driver left immediately. It might have been an act of consideration on his part if he had waited or even helped us to remove the black plastic covering so that we could at least check the box.
Delivering something so unmanageable with such casual ignorance to one pensioner who has rheumatoid arthritis and another who has a sore arm, having received a Covid vaccination the day before, was not acceptable on a February morning which boasted of minus temperatures…
Get a fork-lift truck, indeed…
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