Making More Work
Posted: Fri 12 August, 2022 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Getting Organised, I Don't Understand, People, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »As part of my preparation for moving (about which another post sometime soon) this week I ordered some decent moving boxes from SafeStore. Yes, I’m sure there are other sources for them, and so on, but I was happy with the stuff on offer, and they’d deliver it, so *shrug*, it’ll do.
For cost-effectiveness (within the provisos of “I’m sure I could get it better somewhere else, but CBA to hunt”) I got one of their “kits” – 4 each of small, medium and large box sizes for considerably less than individual prices – and also added in some bubblewrap, tissue paper, and a mattress cover. All well and good.
It got delivered this morning, as expected and on-time. Two boxes – one the ‘kit’ box, and one for the bubblewrap roll etc. Except… there’s no mattress cover, no tissue paper. So I called them up to let them know, and the lady went off to check with the despatchers. And that was where it got weird.
“Have you checked in the Kit box? They say they might’ve put the extra things in there, to keep it all together“.
And it turned out that was exactly what had happened. But that boggles my mind.
Now, I assume (and I’m aware it’s an assumption and thus could be utterly flawed) that the kit boxes are exactly that – they come as a sealed box with the kit contents in. That makes sense to me. (Otherwise they’d be assembling the kit from box stocks for every order, which seems… odd)
So, if that’s the case, the despatchers opened a kit box, put the extra bits in, sealed it up, and then put it with the other box that already had bubblewrap etc. in it. Why go to that effort when there’s an unsealed box (with space in it) right there? Why make even more work for oneself?
I despair.
[Note : I actually did better than expected out of this deal – because they didn’t send me the kit box I’d ordered, and instead sent one that’s larger, and should’ve cost about £10 more!]
Perhaps it was to do with the weights of the boxes? Couriers charge by weight of package and the difference between weight bands can be significant.
The price of boxes for moving is scandalous for what they are. We decided to move our heavy stuff using 64l Really Useful Boxes which we bought in bulk and got for £8.50 each – just double the price of a one-use cardboard box and they will last forever.
What changed to make you decide to move? It doesn’t seem long ago that you mentioned staying put. Good luck with it!
It’s only tissue paper and plastic sheeting/bagging (I haven’t opened it to check yet) so I think the weight is insignificant, TBH.
Agreed re the price of boxes – although in the case of SafeStore, they do have what they call a “Box For Life” policy, so if you take a box back to them to be recycled, they’ll replace it. (From the site, “Our boxes are made from 100% recycled card and are 100% recyclable. We continue to uphold our “box for life promise” to our customers ensuring our boxes are recycled in a responsible way.”) Which is part of the reason I went with them.
I hadn’t come across the Really Useful boxes (well, I’ve seen them, but didn’t know the name etc.) but I’ll bear them in mind for future. Mind you, a good portion of the move is about getting some of my stuff *out* of boxes! (Tiny House has never had the space for bookshelves, for example, so there’s a lot that’ve been in boxes since I came here)