Question Regarding Delivery (Sun Delivery)

[SemperFiMom]

Duane,

My order (H&M Sundance sofa, matching chair/ottoman, custom pillows) has been sitting at Sun Delivery's warehouse in Dallas since Monday, April 26, 2010, and will not be delivered to us (Plano, north Dallas suburb) until Saturday, May 8, 2010. Is that normal for a delivery to sit in close proximity to its destination for that amount of time (almost two weeks)? Unfortunately, I am traveling extensively this week, am involved in a 3-day meeting, so this may be my only means of communication until I return later in the week.

Your insight would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mary

[drcollie]

Hi Mary,

This is what I was able to find out from Sun Delivery on your order, from Amanda at Sun:

We picked up the order on 4/16 (Friday) & the order was processed, which takes up to 48 hours. The order was added to the line haul for TX that left their facility on 4/23 & arrived on 4/25 (Sunday) & was released on 4/26 into routing. We spoke with Chuck on 4/26 who advised that they would be out of town 4/28-30. Due to the high volume of freight to the Dallas area, the order did not arrive in time to deliver on the last truck to the area (5/3).

Looks like your out-of-town dates interrupted the order flow time sequence as best as I can tell. Sometimes that happens when you can't take delivery on certain days - sorry!

Best,

[SemperFiMom]

Duane,

There is a significant miscommunication going on here, and I would appreciate a telephone call from you tomorrow (Friday) to discuss. I am in town, and available at your convenience.

Sincerely,
Mary

[drcollie]

Sorry, was out of town and the store closed all day today, had to pick up my daughter from college. We'll talk on Saturday or you can PM me with your concerns.

[drcollie]

An update to this thread....and since I believe in telling the good and the bad - this one has been problematic.

Mary's delivery didn't turn out so well, Sun Delivery damaged her furniture in transit due to rough handling to her home in Texas, and it was avoidable damage. Like most companies, Sun Delivery removes the Hancock and Moore packing/crating/boxing which allows them to pack more on the truck. H&M uses an "export' pack which is designed to ship worldwide, and while I can understand why they strip the pieces out of the cartons to get more load on the truck, I can't agree with it. After removing the packing from the pieces, Sun taped on blankets, but the tape was put onto the leather itself. When pulled off, it removed the leather color in several places. Also, her Sundance chair appeared to have been transported upside down pressed into a sofa arm, which resulted in a very odd-looking, stretched back cover, that cannot be repaired locally. There were also several scratches on the Sundance back and ottoman top, photos of which were sent to me and Sun Delivery.

This is not acceptable, plain and simple. As a customer you ordered new, high-end furniture and it should arrive damage -free. I feel strongly about that, and spent much of today on the phone with H&M and Sun and Mary's husband working up the best solution for this issue. While its the responsibility of the delivery company, I also have a 'dog in the fight' and feel I have to get involved to not only figure out a better way to do it, but to get the best resolution to the problem at hand.

At the end of the day, the course of action for Mary's order is for Sun to send in a professional home touch-up restoration expert for the marks, and to return the stretched back cover to H&M for replacement or rework. If the touch-up person is unable to perform a satisfactory restoration, then the pieces will go back to H&M.

I have also decided to specify that all orders to my customers remain in the factory packing until in their driveway. Sun Delivery has agreed to this demand from this point forward at no additional charge and I have an email into West Express/Alpha Omega requesting the same service level. We've been getting too many 'rub marks' in transit and too many touch-ups kits being sent out lately.....time for a change.

I have no doubt the furniture will travel better in factory packing. However that will create a trash disposal issue and the delivery company may not be able to haul away the packing debris and instead will break it down and put into your trash (Cardboard and perhaps some wood used on H&M sofas). Also, on H&M sofas its almost mandatory to have a power drill to back out all the screws from the base crate so its not a bad idea to have one handy if the delivery service forgets to bring one (# 2 Square Drive bit is ideal, but a # 2 Phillips can work in a pinch).

While I can't make every delivery perfect, I can - and will - work to make sure we try to make it better for future orders. I think leaving the pieces in the original factory cartons up to your driveway will go a long way to cut out light transit damage.

And Mary, we'll get this take care of to your satisfaction, thanks for your patience.

[artielange]

When our 8 different pieces of H&M were delivered by HDS, each of them were still in the H&M boxes. This was over the course of 3 separate deliveries and I had no damage at all. They took away all debris except for one chair box that my daughter wanted to keep to play in.

Now I'm nervous about my sister's Sun delivery that is scheduled for tomorrow.

[drcollie]

Let me know how it goes..

The search for the perfect shipper is never-ending....

[artielange]

The problem with the perfect shipper is that it is so dependent on individual drivers. We ship a lot of oversize, irregularly shaped equipment in our business. While we generally use one shipping company that we are quite happy with, there are still issues with some delivery drivers. I do agree that specifying factory cartons with Sun will help tremendously.

[drcollie]

Agreed! It is totally dependent on each delivery team and the loaders for a given truck.

As an update to this thread, Sun Delivery's VP has contacted me and told me they will not ship product in the factory cartons, and over-rode the Sun Sales Rep who told me they would do it. So all product delivered via Sun will be taken out of the factory packing, inspected, re-wrapped and delivered.

West Express/Alpha Omega has agreed to deliver in the factory cartons for an additional fee of $ 50 (due to the extra cube space the order takes) on the east coast and as far west as mid-Texas, but its cost-prohibitive to do it points west of Dallas. Plus there will be significant trash that they will have to leave at the customer's home if unboxed in the driveway. But this is a good option to have and I applaud West Express for their willingness to do this.

[SemperFiMom]

Duane, sent you a PM. Chuck and I are not happy with the way this transaction has gone, beginning with the furniture sitting at Sun for too long (their side of the story to you had many inaccuracies). From delivery to quality issues with the leather furniture, this transaction has been frustrating. I will call you tomorrow.