Deliver me again

Yes, I know I've complained bitterly about my struggles getting items delivered in the past, but I feel another rant is warranted. The few items missing from my bedroom order were supposed to turn up today. And to be fair, most of them did...

It's frustrating for a multitude of reasons. I originally expected the bedroom installation to be one of the easy parts (though I must be careful when I say that - it implies that that have actually been easy parts). The bedroom was the very first thing I ordered for the flat. Back in May 2004 if you're keeping track. It seemed easy at the time. With hindsight now I realise that it seemed too easy. I walked into the store, wandered around a little, and then came across a bedroom suite that I thought looked rather lovely. More importantly, it was set up in an area whose dimensions corresponded exactly with that of my bedroom. It was ideal. I basically ended up walking over to a sales person, where I pointed at the display, and said "That. I want that." Of course, that wasn't what I paid for in the end, as it turned out that the list of items produced was missing some important components. I'll raise my hand and admit some of these I should have been aware of had I checked the list of items more carefully. The missing chest of drawers for example. On the other hand, there were more whose absence I had no way of recognising. Four gable ends, for instance. Even now I'd be hard pressed to describe what a gable end is, but I can tell you they've taken on undue importance in my life right now.

The delivery today contained 2 gable ends and for my present purposes 2 gable ends is functionally identical to no gable ends. And thus I began a trail of phone conversations that would have driven even Patrick McGoohan's Number 6 to distraction, such was it's frustrating illogicality. I don't really want to go into the details, since it doesn't paint a particularly flattering portrait of myself. I will say that I lost count of the number of different people I ended up getting upset with as I was passed from person to person and department to department, speaking to a succession of people who seemed to have a decreasing ability to aid me. In the end, I found solace with one enterprising young man who couldn't help me directly - no one, it seems, had the ability to make the missing gable ends materialise - but who could report that the original two gable ends I'd received were damaged thus setting in motion a chain of events that will hopefully result in the missing items arriving on my doorstep.

Throughout this whole frustrating process, one thought remains constant in my mind: "It's not supposed to be this hard."