Can't Complain

‘What is this?’ I asked my husband pointing at the collection of incredibly large boxes piled up in the middle of my daughter’s bedroom.

The question was rhetorical. We’ve been waiting for Piper’s bed to arrive for over two months despite purchasing it off the floor to make sure there were no delays. A friendly shop assistant told us how lucky we were that the bed was in stock and in Brisbane, meaning no need to wait for transportation from Melbourne, Sydney or overseas. No need to worry about maritime worker strikes or shortage of truck drivers because they were all isolating. The bed would arrive as early as next week.

Two weeks later my husband Andrew stayed at home all Tuesday waiting for the delivery after getting a text message from the delivery company asking him to be at home between 8am and 2pm. At 3pm he rang them to check where they were and was told it was now going to be a Thursday delivery. No one came on Thursday. This repeated again in another two weeks and another two weeks.

‘I don’t know. Two delivery guys just dropped it off and left’, Andrew replied.

‘But it’s a bunk bed… We paid for assembly’, I said.

Andrew shrugged and lifted his eyebrow inviting me to read his mind: ‘Really?! Did you honestly expect any better than this?’

Indeed, I expected better than this. When we bought our new house last May and visited a local renovations place to ensure that everything was done by the time we move in November, we were assured this would be the case. Then I found myself nagging Andrew to check in with the renovation guys in August and in September and in October… When we moved in mid-November, nothing was done. We spent a couple of hours in the renovation company showroom with the project manager hinting that they were now aiming to start after Christmas. The only project that was on time was the payment schedule that required us to pay for 95% of the renovations well upfront. ?

‘Mate, we’ve paid over thirty grand so far and no one has even come to look at anything yet’, my husband said to the project manager at the end of January.

‘Here is the builder’s number. Call him and he’ll tell you when they are starting’, the project manager said. Since then, any question directed at him would have the same reply: ‘Call the builder’.

‘Aren’t project managers supposed to manage projects rather than passing the task onto their clients?’ I was fuming.

I got the ‘What do you want me to do?’ look from Andrew and shut my mouth. ?He is absolutely right. No amount of complaining will help.

‘Everyone is renovating. They have so much business, they don’t care. If we were to walk away – we wouldn’t get anyone started till mid-year. We can’t complain.’

Every little thing we tried to do over the past six months has been a series of delays and broken promises. And bad service. I mean terrible, horrible service. The kind where even common courtesy is out the door: waiters are rude, hotel rooms are dirty, taxi drivers expect you to navigate their route, deliveries don’t arrive, and nobody smiles or says please or thank you. Instead, they shrug and let out a sigh, ‘What do you expect?’

We went through stages of disbelief, anger, and even rage, only to settle with the all-too-common in these unsettling times emotion of discontent and an attitude of acceptance of whatever comes our way as an attempt to ‘always look on the bright side of life’. ?But I am sad and hopeful.

I am sad for Australian industries and for Australian consumers right now… I know that the times are difficult, the Staff numbers are thinly stretched, people are depressed and constantly restricted etc. But I am wondering if we are all really doing our best… Are we? I hope so. When Covid restrictions are but a memory, when we are done being hostage to the circumstances, will the service suddenly improve? Because there will be no Covid to blame for incompetence. Because the demand for certain things and services will surely drop and the supply will increase. Because reputation will once again become important. Because we will be able to say when we are not happy without the fear of missing out on the very thing we are complaining about. Because we will be able to complain.?