I don't know about you, but when I want something, I want it now! This is probably not a good thing, I know, but it;'s the truth. In this day and age of online shopping, immediate delivery seems to be the norm, as you can purchase a book and download it to your Kindle or whatever eReader you use, purchase, pay and download the software you need to your laptop or workstation, and add all those useful(-less) apps to your phone or tablet.
But what about physical goods bought online?
How fast can you get them delivered to your home or workplace? Amazon, which I use pretty often, has an express delivery option to allow you to receive the goodies the very next day, which sounds very reasonable, even if the cost isn't. Some time ago, I opted for an Amazon Prime subscription costing £49 for a year but giving me one day free delivery for most products sold by Amazon.Excluded from this offer are products sold by Amazon affiliates, and that where I start having an issue. You see, you find that book or DVD you want and it is only available from an affiliate. You will have to pay postage, but that's fine. Then you either find there is no express delivery option, only standard (read 5 to 15 business days!) or you see a delivery date for next week as you checkout only to find after you finish the purchase process that the actual delivery date has changed to 5 to 15 or whatever business days! You are willing to pay more so you can get the stuff here tomorrow, but such an option is not given!
Well, if you think that's preposterous, wait until you hear about the next one.
The company I work for has put an order to acquire a new laptop for my use. From the specs and the reviews out there, I must say it is probably the best (some even say the only) business class laptop available, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. In case you are wondering, I'll tell you what it is... it is a Lenovo ThinkPad W510 with custom specs (I'll blog about it in the near (hopefully) future). Lenovo took the order and gave us an estimate delivery date, well, not an exact date, actually, of 2 to 8 weeks! Then a more definite date was given, 27 October, soon to be replaced by 3 November, which became sometime next week (that was last week) and now it's kind of a surprise we're all waiting for!
My first thought was, this must be a local problem, and I wonder if they know about the lack of professionalism of these guys back in Taiwan. it was then I thought of doing something unthinkable... google it! It seems to me that delivery dates are a worldwide problem for Lenovo and only the superior quality of their products is keeping the customer base loyal.
Now, think about what you do, and if you have to work with delivery dates, deadlines, etc., would it be acceptable to your customers, employer, suppliers, etc. if you were to consistently change the date you had committed to? Or if you have to replace 150 laptops during next year, would you consider buying the replacements from a company that seems to be unable to deliver on time? I struggle with both the fact that something is not working and the fact that nothing seems to have been done to make it work.
I'm still waiting!!
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