Why do delivery firms not deliver?

Warning - this may turn into a rant.

I'm a big fan of online shopping.

Not groceries mind you - as convenient as it may be, I still prefer to choose my own because I have a sneaky suspicion that the supermarkets try to palm you off with the stuff that's about to go out of date. And what's with substitutes - if I choose cornflakes, I want cornflakes not coco pops!

But everything else - DVDs, furniture, books, gadgets - they're invariably cheaper online and there are no queues at the till.

All well and good, until you actually try to get your stuff delivered.

This is where the supermarkets have got it right - guaranteed 2 hour slots and weekend & evening deliveries so you can actually get your shopping delivered at a convenient time. Brilliant.

But no-one else seems to be able to manage it. If you're lucky, you'll be able to choose a morning or afternoon slot, but more often than not you simply get told "we'll deliver sometime between 8 and 6". When, of course, you're at work.

So you've got a choice: either take the day off and stay in all day waiting (and sod's law says they'll turn up at 5.59pm), or hope they leave a card (which frequently they don't) then spend an hour trying to get through to ask them to deliver on Saturday ("sorry sir, no") or whether you can collect it ("of course sir, we're on an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere").

I just can't believe that in the age of satnav, GPS and onboard computers, delivery firms can't tell you exactly when they'll be turning up. When you've just paid £800 for a new sofa, "we'll deliver it sometime on Tuesday" just isn't good enough.

So come on delivery firms - stop running your businesses to suit yourselves and try delivering.