The shambles that is Argos on line

Never again. Never ever again will I shop at Argos on-line. Complete and utter shambles does not even come close to describing their complete incompetence. Here's the story of our one-date-wonder.

16th May we decided to take advantage of a scheme run by Family Fund and get a discount on goods bought at Argos. The registering and purchasing was a song and dance in itself but having eventually completed the order we sat back to wait for the thud on the mat. Like most Autism parents we're experienced internet shoppers. We know how it works. Argos on-line apparently do not.

Time passed and our order didn't arrive. I called the customer services number and was told it had been shipped and should be with us by the end of the week. The end of the week came and went. No order. I called again and customer services was not happy when I wouldn't be fobbed off again with the same story. They gave me the scary music treatment but finally told me it had been delivered and signed for. What?? Well not by me matey!

After much persistence on my part they eventually found out they had sent vouchers for my order to the Family Fund office. Why would I ask for vouchers to take to the store?? I'm shopping on-line because it's more convenient!! This isn't rocket science. I order goods and pay for them, they dispatch them to me. At this point I start to loose patience. Thankfully they put me on to someone who appeared to have use of a brain cell who called me back to say what had happened and that she had sorted it out. My order would be dispatched and would be with me in the next few days. Again we waited. Again no order arrived.

I called her back. She gave me dispatch numbers so I could track it on line and sure enough a week later HALF the order arrived. By this time it was 222nd June. I talked to the delivery guy - we live in the back end of no where, we know our delivery guys - who said if he wasn't here by half ten he wasn't going to be here. The next day, you guessed it, no order. I went on line (thankfully our internet connection was holding up) to discover someone had signed for it in N7 not IV7. By this time I was beyond shouting. Steam was coming out of my ears.

I called again. Apparently, even though Parcel Force were able to deliver the other items, they "had trouble finding the address" and the other items had been returned to Argos depot. I sit here seething, quietly waiting for the rest of my order. I have a new dispatch number and I know how to use it. If it's not here as promised on Monday there will be big banana trouble.

Watch this space for further developments and in the mean time don't even think about using Argos on-line unless you are loosing the will to live. You have been warned.