An Appropriate Symbol

You likely have a story similar to this one.

Last week we discovered a hair-line crack in toilet bowl I put in in 2011 when I remodeled a bathroom. I found the same bowl on the Internet and placed the order. Two days later (Thursday) I received a phone call from a trucking company I will not name. The dispatcher told me the toilet bowl could be deliver the next day, Friday, between 10:00AM to 2:00PM. I accepted and arranged to be home. At 2:30PM I phoned the trucking company to ask when the delivery would be made. The dispatcher phoned the driver. I was told the driver had been delayed in making an earlier delivery, but was in State College and would be at our house within the next 45 minutes. 3:15PM came and passed. At 3:30 I called the dispatcher back, told her I had an 4:00PM appointment I had to keep and we would need to reschedule. A second delivery attempt was set for the following Tuesday between 9:00AM and noon.

Just before noon on Tuesday, I received a phone call from the driver indicating he was a few minutes away, but I would not want to accept the shipment – “…it was smashed.” Still, I needed to sign on the delivery attempt. I gave him directions for avoiding some of the construction on US 322 (see the 3/19/19 Blog entry). When the driver arrived, I went up into the truck. The box had a large hole in the side through which I could see a large scratch on the bottom of the toilet bowl. When the driver moved the box to open the end, there was the sound of china rattling. The bowl was shattered. He took a few photos with his hand-held computer, and I signed noting the toilet bowl was broken and that I rejected the shipment. As the truck pulled away, I phoned customer service at the company that sold the toilet bowl to indicate I rejected the shipment and why. The agent said he would file a claim with the trucking company and send another toilet bowl out.

The next day, Wednesday, I received another phone call from the trucking company’s dispatcher indicating she had a toilet bowl for shipment for me. I accepted a 10:00AM to 2:00PM delivery window for the next day, Thursday. Thursday at about 10:30AM, I received another phone call from a different dispatcher from the trucking company’s, who indicated she had a toilet bowl for shipment for me. I said “Yes, I am waiting for it now….” After some back and forth and the checking of records, the dispatcher indicated that the broken toilet bowl, which I had rejected, was probably on the truck headed back to me. She apologized and said she would call the driver to stop the delivery. We scheduled a delivery window for the second toilet bowl for the next day, Friday, between 10:00AM to 2:00PM.

The toilet bowl finally arrived at 2:30PM (30 minutes past the designated four-hour delivery window), but in good condition. Unfortunately, the above photo of the toilet is often an appropriate symbol for the current state of customer service.