Takealot: what has happened to the quality of your delivery service??

Firstly, to be told on a Saturday that your order, which was originally scheduled for delivery on a Monday, will arrive 'sometime before 5 PM today' is ridiculous. On a Saturday, I'm expected to sit and twiddle my thumbs until the driver decides to arrive?? If you are going to deliver on the weekend, give at least a two-hour window so that people can plan their time, which is just as precious as yours on weekends ... at any time actually!

Secondly, when Monday does come around, with its usual 'sometime before 5 PM today' text message, the driver arrives when I'm not in; fair enough because these things happen and seem to be the 'norm' in South Africa.

We make a plan for him to come as soon as I get home. I get home, call him, receive a promise of: 'I'm coming there now'. I live in a complex, and it's easier for me to wait at the gate to get deliveries as a courtesy to the driver and in compliance with our complex rules.

After having waited over an hour for his 'now' to manifest, I call him to ask where he is and when he'll be in my neighbourhood.

'Oh, I'm in your neighbourhood,' he replies, 'so I'll be there "now".'

'Now': such an interesting word with so many meanings ... apparently...

Back down to the gate I go only to wait another 30 minutes ... eventually, I go back to my unit, send the driver a WhatsApp message asking him to use the intercom when he arrives although this is not ideal or in line with the complex's rules.

When he does eventually arrive, all I get is a: 'Good afternoon, sir.'

No apology for keeping me waiting (I accept that I missed his first attempt to deliver the package, but what I felt to be a reasonable compromise had been reached ... *twice*); no apology for making me stand for over an hour and half, waiting for him, in the sun; no apology for lying about being in my area, which is one of the smallest in the greater suburb ... just a quick scan of the package, no checking of my ID, no asking of my name, and off he goes on his merry way.

Earlier today, a driver from DHL stopped with a package for my neighbours, whom he could not reach, so I offered to take it for them, along with a scan of my ID; he refused, preferring to get the package to the correct person.

*That* is delivery service, not keeping a client waiting for over an hour and a half, standing around like a fool in the sun, and lying about one's location; especially after plans have been made _twice_!!