Useless Dell couriers

Dell rang us last week to say that the new PC would be arriving between 4pm and 8pm on Tuesday. That was fine by me - I am usually home a bit after 5, and we knew that J would be home before 4. Taking delivery at that time would not be a problem.

For some reason, the courier rang the home number before deciding whether to turn up or not. J didn't get to the phone in time, but the courier didn't leave a message, let alone a return number. The courier then decided to call me on the mobile.

I was riding home at the time, so my phone rang - five times - on the journey. I didn't manage to pick up any of those calls, but no messages were left on any of them. And of course the courier was calling from a silent number, so I couldn't even ring back.

What a stupid bastard.

When I'm on the bike, there is no way in hell I am going to pull the phone out of my back pocket until I have found somewhere safe to stop. If the lights have just gone green and I am in the middle lane, it is lunacy to try and answer the phone. If I am belting along, it takes a few rings to find a place to stop, brake and pull over. Then I have to extract the phone from an elasticised pocket on my back, which is not that simple at the best of times. It is even harder in gloves with full fingers, as they don't have a lot of grip. I managed to get to the phone quite quickly on one call, but my fumbling fingers hit the "hang up" button as I was grabbing it. I'm not going to stand there on the side of the road for 10 minutes hoping the bloke will call again.

Of course we got no delivery that night. The courier is supposed to come anyway and leave a card if there is no one home, but he didn't even show.

I am looking forward to writing a rude letter to Dell about this one. I hate people that ring repeatedly, but won't leave a message.