Deliveries

Waiting for them to arrive is one of the most frustrating things about living in France. With the exception of Amazon and a few other companies (Screwfix, a UK owned business in the same group as Brico Depot, can also be trusted) French companies are notoriously unreliable in meeting delivery dates for orders placed on line.

You can end up wasting lots of time waiting for them to arrive because you know that if you’re not there when they do they’ll probably be taken away again and may then not be redelivered for several more days. If ever. There was one instance in my old house when a garden roller I’d ordered was sent all the way back to the supplier because I wasn’t there to sign for it – to Germany! You couldn’t make it up.

I have, or had, two recent outstanding orders. One was for the floor and wall cabinets that I’d ordered for my utility room. Castorama (another UK owned company in the same group as Brico Depot) let me know just after lunch on Tuesday that they’d arrived earlier than expected in its Limoges store but I was still waiting to hear about the doors for my cloaks cupboard that I’d ordered (from a French company) that were supposed to be delivered at about the same time.

I decided to dash up to Limoges to collect the cabinets that same day as there was clearly no chance that the doors would be arriving that afternoon and although I arrived an hour earlier than my appointment, I was pleased to find that my order was already ready for collection and was able to load up my car to head back immediately. That meant that I could assemble the cabinets on Wednesday ensuring that I’d be present in the (unlikely) event that the doors turned up, and they’re now all ready waiting to be fitted in the utility room

But I can’t go ahead and fit them because I need a worktop, small sink and some plumbing fittings to be able to do so and the Catch-22 is that I can’t go and get them because if I do, the doors might turn up. I’ve already received the news that the doors are ‘out for delivery’ and here’s the tracking information for them as of this morning.

You’ll note that there’s no ‘estimated delivery date’ so in effect the information is totally useless. As a result I’m still having to waste time sitting around waiting for a delivery that probably won’t arrive. I’ve not totally wasted the time as I’ve caught up with a couple of house-build videos which are now well overdue. They both err… date back to last February. Doesn’t time fly 😕