New Couch

It’s been a while since I wrote a post to complain about some trifling event in my life. I guess it’s time for another one.

Andrea and I had been looking for a sofa-bed. We wanted to put a couch in our spare room, and make it a reading room, but still have somewhere for guests to sleep, if we ever have someone spend the night. So we decided to get a sofa-bed, but I was very picky—I’ve heard too many horror stories about the poor comfort level of sofa-beds, for sleeping, so I wanted to get a good one. We finally found a good one at the Bay, and bought it.

It was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday. Here’s how it went down:

When we bought it: We are told that it will be delivered on Tuesday, the 13^th, between 5:30 and 9:00 PM. No problem, we check our calendars and verify that we can be home for 5:30 on Tuesday.

The day before the delivery: We get a message on our voice mail, reaffirming that the couch is being delivered on Tuesday, between 5:00 and 9:00. Wait… 5:00?!? We were told 5:30, when we bought it! We check our schedules, and confirm that we can be home for 5:00.

Tuesday, 3:40: serna has a conference call, which is supposed to end at 4:00. However, he has warned people that he needs to leave early.

3:50: serna stays five minutes later than he’d planned, because a discussion starts that he doesn’t want to miss. (He still ends up missing some of it.)

4:00: serna is on the DVP, and hits his first accident of the night. Traffic is backed up quite a ways, because of it.

4:30: serna picks up Andrea. They hear a traffic report, indicating that there is a second accident, near where they live, so they alter their route, to avoid it.

4:45: They are taking some non-major roads to get home, and hit a third accident. They’re not overly worried—it’s not likely that the delivery people will show up on the dot at 5:00—but serna still has visions in his head of getting home at 5:10, and seeing a note on the door. Sorry we missed you! Please call to reschedule this delivery at your convenience.

4:55 (or so): They get home, and there is no note on the door. They’ve made it!

5:00: serna decides not to have dinner, yet, because he wants to wait for the delivery people to arrive. No sense being half way through his food, and having to leave it to monitor the delivery people.

8:00: serna starts to worry. Where are these people? It’s not 9:00 yet, so they’re not late, but we were really expecting them earlier…

8:15: serna calls the customer service line. The man confirms that the delivery is still going to happen; they should be arriving at 8:55. (Cutting it kind of close, but oh well…)

8:45: The customer service people call. The delivery people are late; they’ll probably be arriving between 10 and 11. When serna mentions that, gee, this is pretty late, shouldn’t the delivery charge be dropped?, he is informed that yes, the delivery charge will be dropped. (Or rather, “comped”, since it’s already been paid.)

10:30: The delivery man calls. They’re running late; he’ll probably be arriving at 11:15. He apologizes profusely, because he knows it’s very late. Apparently Tuesdays are their busy days, for delivery—who knew?

11:15 (or so): They arrive. They bring in the couch, and haul it up the stairs to the guest room, and set it up. (i.e. they put the legs on.)

11:30 (or so): The delivery people leave.

11:30 and 30 seconds: serna has a realization: They didn’t leave the pillows! There are supposed to be two pillows that came with the couch! He runs to the front door, in time to see… nothing. The van, and its occupants—including the pillows—are gone.

So now I have to call the customer service line, to

1. Make sure that I really will be comped.
2. Find out what they’re doing to do about the pillows. We don’t really need/want them, but since we paid for them, we should either get them, or get reimbursed.

And that’s my story. It kind of puts things into perspective; how great must my life be, that this kind of thing is all I have to complain about?