Life must be filled up

Last month I ordered a large sack of compost, on special offer from Thompson and Morgan. I have no quarrel with them but with the delivery service of Yodel. When the compost was delivered, in a large cardboard box, I had an email from Yodel: Rate Your Delivery. It then said, ‘left in safe place outbuilding’. I hunted around and eventually found it leaning against the front wall of the house, in full view from the road. There’s not much of me and I have mobility issues, so I really struggled to manoeuvre it round the house to the porch, where it had to wait until the gardener came to cut the grass and kindly put it in the shed for me. I gave Yodel a bad review and also contacted T & M to complain. Annoyingly, in order to do this, I had to go through some outfit called Resolver, which was a faff. T&M apologised and said they’d contact Yodel. Yet less than a month later …

I’d had plants on order from Crocus and was informed they would be delivered today. Would you believe the same thing happened again? Same email but this time the ‘safe place’ was right near the road where my wheelie bins are. Luckily, this time the box was light and easy to move but the principle is the same: I said ‘please leave in rear porch’ and the driver couldn’t even be bothered to walk round the house. Admittedly, my house is odd. It’s an old cottage and is back to front to the road, if that makes sense, so when I say ‘back porch’, it’s actually the front. Every week, Tesco delivery people toil round carrying trays of groceries. The postmen find me. Every other delivery company leaves a parcel in the right place. But not Yodel.

I’m writing this while I’m still fuming and also while my monitor is still working, Worryingly iffy today.