Full Metal Wheelbarrow

But not, as usual without accompaniment of assorted cockups.

Rob ordered the mattress on Friday. "24 Hour Free Delivery!" trumpeted the website, but being reasonable people we didn't expect them to deliver on Saturday or Sunday. On Sunday they called to confirm the order and arranged to call again on Monday to let us know when the delivery would be. OK.

Most of Monday went by with no call, so I called them. They didn't know yet if it would be Wednesday or Thursday they said, but they'd call and let me know (old hands at this game will probably know where this is going by now...). Being a nosy person, I asked about the 24 hour delivery thing. They were very behind on orders said the nice young lady, because they'd had to wait ages for a replacement part for their laser cutter. Sounds a bit high-tech for a mattress firm, but fair enough.

Fast forward to 3.30pm on Wednesday. As usual at this time on a weekday, I am getting ready to go and collect Rob from work. As I'm about to leave, the phone rings. It is the driver of the mattress delivery van. He is half an hour away. I am very cross. So poor Rob had to wait an extra half an hour for me to come and fetch him so that I could take delivery of the mattress (I called him first, fear not). I called the company to register my displeasure at this state of affairs, and was told that the dispatch department had failed to tell anybody they were delivering the mttress, so they hadn't been able to call me because they didn't know. Bah.

Still, we now have a new mattress, and it seems OK so far, although we haven't tested it properly yet (fnarr!). Now I just have to get rid of the old one...