I am fit to be tied with Home Delivery Service out of Hudson, NC. I have a low tolerance for poor performance and apathy, so effective today I will no longer use or recommend them unless a customer specifically requests I use them. They're FIRED.

I have kept HDS in the chain because their prices are very good. One of the least expensive of the delivery services I have found, and they delivery damage free for the most part. Two major pluses on their behalf. However, their customer service is atrocious and this last incident was the deal breaker.

I have a customer in Missouri who ordered two H&M sofas. HDS picked them up from H&M on 03.15. The HDS facility is a whole 5 miles from Hancock and Moore so its easy for them to get the pieces. Normal service lane time from pickup is 14 to 21 days in the blanket wrap business, so that meant this customer should have had their furniture by end of March, to first week of April at the latest.

Today, April 27th, at about 3 p.m. my customer calls and says she hasn't heard from HDS, do I know whats going on? WHAA? I figured she already had it in her home three weeks past....

I call HDS. They say "Well, we haven't had anything else to go to Missouri so its sitting here in the warehouse."

Me: "You've got to be kidding me".

HDS: "Nope, and we still don't have anything else to go out there so it might be another two or three weeks before it gets loaded. We don't send trucks out that way unless they're full."

Me: "Unacceptable! You can't do this to my customers and not call anyone to let us know. If you can't handle the business, then you need to hand off orders like this to someone who can. Let me speak to David, the owner."

I get Davids voice mail and no call back within the next two hours, so I'm pretty furious about this and want a resolution before 5 p.m. this evening, this will not drag on into another day. Another phone call to HDS at 4:58 p.m. and no one answers, so now I know what I have to do. I call Amanda at Sun Delivery and Amanda says she can have a truck over to HDS tomorrow to get the pieces and packed out on a truck this coming Monday to Missouri. They'll put a Hot Rush on it for me, and the customer should have by end of next week.

Perfect. Amanda at Sun knows how to do it. So I told them to do it, I'll pay the extra charges. She assures me she will take care of it - and I believe her.

HDS's apparent lack of concern of delivering or even informing us of this order cost them my business. I'm still cranked up over this as of this evening....grrrrrrrrrr. To make a mistake is one thing, to ignore things and be complacent is unacceptable.