The Couch That Was Promised

The fault for this does not completely lie with MRP – after all, the courier is usually external – but this situation has become laughably complicated, ridiculous even.

Let me take you back to the 14th of September: A young adult is sitting in Mugg & Bean, planning her future, when a couch sold by Mr Price Home catches her attention. It’s gorgeous, modern, and everything she’s been looking for for her future home. She adds it to her cart, calls a friend for advice on making this financial decision, and then she does it. She presses the big red button. And I wish I could say that in the promised 5-7 days, the couch arrived and she was full of glee and lived her life to the fullest thereafter, but that just isn’t what happened at all.

No, rather she received a sketchy call a day past the promised 7th business day, from a woman she didn’t know, telling her “I have your product from Homechoice, can we deliver?” to which the girl responded “Homechoice? Do you mean Mr Price?” and to which the woman, with a deep and dissatisfied sigh, rep**** “Yes, are you available today?”

And yes, I was available that day. And I waited, and waited, and waited. I even bought myself a tub of ice cream, a reward for my patience, a gift to enjoy on the fateful delivery, my first delight on my new couch. A couch that didn’t come before 5PM as promised. Nor at 6PM. And at 7.30PM, concerned and confused, I called said woman back only for my call to be rejected. A while later, she called me and sighed, a horrible weight clearly on her shoulders, and she said “I’m rescheduling for tomorrow, I’m tired.” and she dropped the call after I, confused and dazed, just said “Okay.”

A day later, I’m sitting in my living room waiting again when hours start flying by and no news of my delivery comes, when it hits me: I can call in and find out where it is. Only, customer care doesn’t know either – all they can tell me is that it’s out on delivery. So I call the courier again, but call after call goes unanswered, rejected. But this person is repeatedly viewing my TrueCaller profile, I wonder if they know that I can see this? But no matter, because then a man very close to me calls on my behalf, and this courier flat out tells him she is NOT employed as a delivery person! How crazy is that? And he calls her out on this before dropping the call in her ear, and when she calls back she is suddenly very apologetic, very sorry, a misunderstanding must have happened, and the man in the background on her end of the call continues to yap. I don’t know who he is. A partner? A friend? Perhaps she’s having lunch or tea while I wait for my couch.

So I called in again. Poor customer service rep has to hear me tell the story again, and calls City Logistics to handle things, and I’m promised not a delivery today – but tomorrow, by this competent logistics company. I am a patient person, but how much waiting is too much when your delivery was promised days ago by an SMS and the tracking link doesn’t even work?

It’s been a confusing experience to say the least. I’m not happy. And I’m sure neither is the poor customer service agent who keeps having to hear from me, bless Rickardo. But this isn’t my first sour experience with Mr Price and their pathetic choices of courier services. Lord, no. At the end of 2023, I was stalked by a courier they sent me! Imagine that.

The moral of this story, however: Pay off and close your MRP account, don’t buy that couch, don’t even look at it.