Tuesday 24 August 2010

Birthdays, Bugs and Bullshit

This blog has been a bit neglected recently. We've had a busy weekend with 3 kids' birthday events and then both Cubling and I were down with a nasty tummy bug. She's up and hopping again thankfully, I'm still considering if food is a good idea or not. It's a hard call that food thing, between the fear of sickness (which is something I abhor unspeakably) and the fear of fainting (which is only mildly better, provided it doesn't happen at the top of stairs). Sounds melodramatic? It's not meant to be, I have low blood pressure (which is mostly a blessing) and a day without eating does often lead to bouts of fainting. No big deal, I just don't like it much and it can be sore if you don't pick the right location for it.

I'm slowly but surely getting some energy back - which is just as well because there still is a lot of stuff that needs done before baby arrives. What's held me back recently is Argos. That company deserves a massive rant from me, honestly. Months back, I ordered a beautiful, perfect chest of drawers, which would have been ideal for all those toddler/baby clothes. Our house is small with sloped ceilings and space for furniture precious. We don't have many wardrobes etc so it has to be just right. This chest of drawers was just the thing and it was also nicely half price. So I ordered online. The first glitch was that I never received a confirmation email. A couple of weeks later, still no confirmation email. Thus started a regular email enquiry from my side - first of all to get an order number and confirmation that I had actually ordered something (the money had of course been taken off my account), followed by trying to find out when the drawers would be delivered.

On two occasions, I was told that a delivery date would be set by a certain date. Both times the date passed and no communication was made, not even one advising that there will be a delay. When the second expired I had enough of email and phoned. A nice customer service adviser apologised that they hadn't been in touch (but should have been) but there was a delay and delivery would be roughly in mid October. If she hadn't been so nice, I'd have screamed through the phone. Well, it's not her fault to work for a shite company, so I just said that my baby is due 6 weeks earlier and I can't live in a pile of clothes for the next 10 weeks (bearing in mind I'd been already doing it for 10 weeks) so could she please cancel the order and reimburse me.
Done. (I hope I got reimbursed, mental not to check)
I still really want that chest of drawers but nevermind. The one I bought on another online site was delivered promptly within a week. It's not perfect, it's pink, but at least Cubling will love that, and it's the best I could find in my panic to get something organised.

So then, I'll be off to do some flatpack assembly and finally get some floorspace back. And I shall try to boycott Argos, hard as it may be, but I'm seriously peed off with their delivery "service".

Similarly, baby mattress sheets have not been delivered, and every single little bureaucratic undertaking turns out to be more complex than originally thought. I still don't have a UK driving license (because they want me to fill in a vocational form - I don't drive vocationally, so why????). I'm generally losing my patience with all that stuff.

10 days or so to go and I'm still fighting the to do list rather than enjoying maternity leave with a bit of knitting and reading. No happy camper in the Cartside home.

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