Less than satisfactory service

As you can see, the radiator on my old jalopy certainly is past its usefulness. I used a trick of cracking an egg in it on Saturday to temporarily seal up the leak. That didn't appear to work initially, but it seems to have possibly done the trick today. Yesterday, when I started the car having topped up the rad yet again, there was a spurt of water reminiscent of that statue in Brussels "Manneken Pis".
I'm not happy!
After pondering my options last week, I decided to go down to my local garage in the village and ask for a quote to supply and fit a new radiator. The mechanic promised me a call back that day, but the call never came.
Now I'm one of those people that doesn't like being messed around when it comes to spending money on repairs. As my good friend Alan always says;
"Time is money and I haven't got a lot of either!"

I didn't waste time following up on the garage option. Instead, I continued looking for quotes to supply on via the internet with the intention of finding someone to fit afterwards. I registered with a site called Breakeryard.com ....... Seemed like a reasonable option. Very quickly I received a few quotes from various merchants at different prices. One pushy place phoned me trying to secure an immediate sale. I chose to tell them I'd wait for a few more quotes before making a decision. Eventually I made a decision on Wednesday last week after phoning "Japanese Auto Salvage". Needless to say, it was a premium rate number, but the guy was helpful with advice and the Breakeryard.com website showed positive feedback from previous customers. The Salvage yard was not the cheapest quote, but I chose them because feedback stated mostly next day delivery. I waited in all day Thursday for the part to be delivered having secured a friend from the pub who offered to fit the radiator for a very reasonable price.
Said car radiator didn't turn up!!!!!
On Friday, I grudgingly made another call on the premium rate number and was told the part was in transit. The guy promised me a tracking number and said he would call back with it because his computer was down.
No phone call
No delivery
Saturday arrives........ No delivery
I looked up customer service for Breakeryard.com to discover phone lines were...... surprise surprise not open at the weekend (although an email address promised a reply within the hour) ..... and Gordon Brown is going to cut all taxes to 0% - yeah right
Finally, I call Breakeryard.com today and they provided the national rate phone number for Japanese Auto wotsits. I phoned then at 9am and 10am. No answer so I send yet another email to Breakeryard.com and still failed to get a reply.
Finally, at midday, I get through to the merchant who supplies me with the tracking number and the courier responsible for delivering my radiator.
Here is what I found: -

08/09/2008	06:05:00	Canterbury South Home Delivery	Out for delivery
06/09/2008	06:19:00	Canterbury South Service Centre	Released to other delivery agent
06/09/2008	06:02:00	Canterbury South Service Centre	Arrived At Depot
06/09/2008	00:51:18	Hatfield Terminal	Departed Depot
06/09/2008	00:50:00	Hatfield Terminal	In Transit
06/09/2008	00:48:01	Hatfield Terminal	Arrived At Depot
05/09/2008	16:46:00	Borehamwood Service Centre	Parcel Picked Up
05/09/2008	16:38:00	Borehamwood Service Centre	Departed Depot
05/09/2008	00:00:00	Borehamwood Service Centre	Shipment Data Received

Despite placing the order on Wednesday afternoon about 4pm, a request for "shipment" did not occur until midnight Thursday and the part was not collected until almost 5pm on Friday. For some strange reason, despite a journey of less than 100 miles, the package is transferred to a depot at Canterbury (some 15 miles from me) where it remains for the weekend.
The next entry on this tracking system appears at 12:22 hrs with some criptic message that I subsequently discovered meant the parcel hard been "scanned" for dispatch. That was yet another phone call I had to make.
It appeared there was also a transfer of courier to deliver. Well, I'll state I'm less than impressed with "Interparcel".

Finally, my car radiator arrived at 3:20 this afternoon, 5 days after I ordered it. If I didn't know better I'd have wondered if it had been shipped direct from Japan. It would have cost me a fraction more (probably around £10) to have driven up to Herts and collected the thing myself.

I now can't get hold of my friend who said he will fit the part for me. Oh well..... maybe tomorrow. I'd have a go myself, but I don't have the tools.

Here ends yet another cautionary tale poor customer service in our so called lightning speed, modern technilogical world.