I refuse to be bullied by the robots in customer service

One woman alone fights the system

Big orange signs on my garage door and front door tell FedEx DO NOT DELIVER PACKAGES FROM HOME DEPOT. RETURN TO SENDER.

Will that work? I don’t know. Are they coming today? I don’t know. Will I lose money on this? I don’t know. I only know that I am taking the suggestion of readers who told me to refuse the shipment, to send it back to Home Depot. My original thought was I can’t. The boxes are already on their way.

Last week, excited by the beauty of my newly repainted and recarpeted living room, I decided my old furniture was too shabby. I went online and ordered a loveseat, easy chair, and ottoman from Home Depot. I looked forward to their arrival–until I discovered Friday night that FedEx would be bringing four big boxes of parts that would need to be assembled. On Saturday, when I was not going to be home. Wait. What?

Five phone calls later, I had made no headway in changing the delivery date, but Home Depot gave me a phone number to locate a “pro” who would assemble the furniture for me.

The boxes did not come on Saturday.

When I called Home Depot in Corvallis and asked to hire an assembly pro, the representative said they have no such people in our area. I could hire someone on my own or recruit friends, but I don’t want to go to all that trouble when I’m worn out from the work I have already done.

The FedEx tracking system now lists three different delivery dates this week. Does this mean I need to spend three days sitting in my driveway waiting for the truck to arrive sometime between dawn and 8 p.m.? And will it be an official FedEx truck or that big white unmarked vehicle driven by this rude guy who sometimes delivers packages around here?

I don’t think I want this furniture anymore.

More phone calls.

Can I cancel the Home Depot order? Nope. It’s out of their hands. Can I tell FedEx I don’t want this delivery–like it says I can right on their website? Nope. They tell me I need to call my local shipping service. Okay. Who are they? Where are they? What is their number? They give me the same 800 number I just called. I consult Google. We have no such shipping service here.

Enough of this B.S.

The website says I can refuse the delivery when it arrives. Okay. I refuse. Read the signs. If I hear the truck, I will run out to tell the driver, but it’s likely I won’t hear it. Even with my hearing aids in, I can be sleeping or writing in my living room and not notice packages being dropped at my front door. Those guys are quick, and they rarely ring the doorbell. I don’t understand why a signature is not required for $700 worth of furniture, but it’s not.

Worst case, the boxes are delivered, and I have to arrange and perhaps pay to have them returned to Home Depot. At this point, I don’t care. I do not want the furniture kits those boxes contain. I want to go to a local store and buy something that is already assembled, that I can sit on and touch, that will be delivered fully formed into my living room–even if it takes me a year to find the right pieces.

This would all be easier if I didn’t live alone–or would it?

Meanwhile, the living room is looking good. I still want to replace the old furniture, but what’s the hurry? Photos to come in my next post.

Thank you all for your wise suggestions and support.

As I said in my last post, check the fine print before you hit “buy now.” Better yet, buy it in person at a local store.

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How did I end up alone? My first marriage ended in divorce. My second husband died of Alzheimer’s after we had moved to the Oregon coast, far from family. I never had any kids, only dogs. Now I live by myself in a big house in the woods. You can read our story in my memoir, No Way Out of This: Loving a Partner with Alzheimer’s, available at your favorite bookseller. Visit https://www.suelick.com for information on all of my books.