In the beginning, when Lucy Willow first started selling furniture back in 2007, and with little experience and limited budget, we decided to deliver our furniture ourselves. Every Friday night we would load up our large van in order to deliver everyone’s furniture for the weekend. This invariably meant a 4.00am start in order to beat the traffic to travel to various parts of the country to begin a long day’s work as well as face the inevitable long drive back home. I am thankful that those days are gone and we now employ the services of a professional delivery company however along the way there were quite a few, let’s just say, ‘experiences’ that I would like to share a couple with you...(both completely true except that all names and offensive language have been removed)
(1) Crikey....where’s that smell coming from?
Okay, okay this story is not one of my finest hours I grant but it does manage to highlight, in one foul swoop, a lot of altogether different scenarios when it comes to the simple (yeah right) task of delivery. Firstly, I need to set the scene. It had been a particularly long and hard day of heavy and awkward deliveries. It was late in the day and it was cold, dark and wet. We were also running particularly late and were facing a long drive home. We arrived at the property only to be confronted by someone who was not best pleased that she had waited in all afternoon and that she needed to leave very soon and could I hurry up. Thankfully it was a small delivery (a Florence Bedside Table I seem to remember) however carelessly and without thinking I forgot to take my shoes off. Umm readers, I already sense you know where this is going. I proceeded to follow the homeowner up the stairs and through to the bedroom whereupon I began to unwrap it for her. Whilst talking she started to raise her nose in the air and chirped ‘Crikey ...what’s that smell?”. I looked round and happened to notice a small brownish mark on the carpet. As I leaned to look at it more closely the smell hit me quite ferociously....Dog Poop, there is no mistaking it as most of you will well know. “Oh Dear” I said “there appears to be a little bit of dog poo on your carpet!”. “Oh crikey, that is all I need” she said “at least it’s only a small mark” by which time I had retraced my steps to the top of the stairs only to find ruddy great lumps of it at various different intervals from hallway to all the way up to the top of the stairs – cue expletives from homeowner! I could only apologise profusely whereupon, in a raised voice, she asked me to leave. Little did I know that in my haste with collecting the packaging I had unknowingly caught one of the curtains between my hand and the packaging. As I repeated my humblest of apologies and began to leave in haste I pulled the curtain from its pole! She looked at me for a second and sighed and in complete contrast to previously she said in the calmest of voices “I was going to change those anyway!”
A few important lessons to be learnt here:
(a) Always wear shoe protectors when delivering. Believe it or not Health & Safety these days prevents delivery guys from removing their shoes, some still do but most don’t. Shoe protectors should be put on automatically by the delivery people when entering your home however in moments of haste they may become forgetful so please insist on this if you notice their omission.
(b) Be it traffic or as a result of a combination of awkward deliveries sometimes delays are an inevitable. If you are ever concerned about what time your delivery is due to arrive please call us as we can often contact the delivery company to find out when they anticipate arriving to you as the vehicles are fitted with trackers.
(2) lastly, thank goodness for pooper scoopers as the incidence of trampling in dog mess is far, far less these days than it was back then.
(2) Love is....knocking a bedroom window out in the pouring rain!
We arrived at a property to deliver a rather large and ornate super king (6ft) French style bed (why not take a look at our French furniture on www.lucywillow.co.uk). The lady who greeted us was over the moon that we had arrived on time and welcomed us in. All great so far, however, from the moment we entered it was very clear that the lady had not measured or allowed for any possible access constraint. We huddled into her tiny hallway whereupon we were confronted by a spiral staircase! I looked at my co driver in disbelief which must have been clear from my facial expression as the lady of the house said “there isn’t a problem is there?”. After a little measuring (albeit not required) I had to break the bad news that even a single bed would struggle to get up that staircase – cue the tears and expletives! She began to sob uncontrollably whilst explaining that she had set her heart on this bed for months and assumed that as she had beds upstairs they must have got up there somehow so didn’t think to measure! Thankfully her husband then arrived home. Whilst consoling her he looked at me with a raised eyebrow and asked if there was any way possible of getting this bed upstairs from outside. It just so happened they had a particularly large bedroom window and so I said that the only way would be to take the window out. Whilst sipping our tea and looking at our watches (we had a long day ahead) his wife pleaded with him through teary eyes. He disappeared fleetingly then re appeared with a hammer and chisel whereupon he proceeded to knock the bedroom window frame out there and then! Quite literally on the second blow of the hammer the heavens opened and it began to pour down with rain whilst his wife stood outside below clapping her hands in gleeful delight. Whilst this was going on we carefully manoeuvred our van to under the bedroom window and climbed on top (health and Safety wasn’t quite so stringent back then) whereupon we carefully negotiated the headboard through the now entirely removed window frame. Phew! success, and a huge relief all round. On leaving, she could not thank us enough for our time and patience however, I’m not sure her husband, who was left stood in a now sodden wet bedroom carpet trying to re fit the window frame, shared her sentiments entirely.
A few important lessons to be learnt here:
a) Firstly, please don’t expect all husbands or partners to be this understanding when confronted with situations such as this. I think this couple were newly married!!
b) Never ‘assume’ it will fit when ordering furniture or large items. There are various tips to measuring correctly. One good idea is to use a couple of tape measures. Set one at the widest measurement and the other at the deepest point of the largest item or piece that you are thinking of ordering – Remember to allow for an additional few centimetres for packaging and remember to bear in mind if the item is flat packed such as a bed as you will only need the measurement of the headboard (ie the largest piece) not the fully assembled bed as is often given by companies . Simply cross the tape measures over at these longest and widest points and walk from your entrance, up the stairs and through to the room that the item is to be delivered to. If either tape measure hits a wall or banister rail at any point this will provide a good indicator of whether it will fit or not. If stairs are a little tricky try cutting some newspaper or cardboard to the area size of the largest piece and lie it on the floor and drag it upstairs. If the corners of the newspaper touch your walls at any point you know this is going to potentially be a problem. Remember large items don’t bend or always flat pack so be careful with your measuring. If you have any concern or need any advice please do call us on 0845 8030988.
3) Lastly, and in the most courteous way possible, please don’t expect all delivery companies to be quite as patient as in the above scenario (I seem to remember we were there around 2 hours to deliver one bed) when delivering as they are invariably under a time constraint. They aren’t being rude it’s just that they, like us, don’t want to disappoint other customers who are waiting to be delivered after you.
There are quite a few more stories that I might share with you over the next few months. Looking back though, I’m so glad that we now outsource our deliveries to a professional delivery company.