Snail mail? A word in your shell-like...

I've had a very frustrating week battling with a mobile telephone company trying to get a new phone delivered. I'll not bore you with the details, but I will bore you with an idea.

Why is it that, in these days of on-line shopping and the reliance on mail companies to deliver your stuff, delivery companies rarely - if ever - deliver outside working hours? Say 7-9am, and 4-10pm? Or, if that's no good to them, why can't they be more specific about delivery times (a two-hour slot, perhaps). Surely there's a market for such as thing? Works for supermarkets... or maybe they just look after their customers!

As my colleagues shared my woes, we all were in agreement that even paying a small premium to have a delivery later in the evening would be preferable to taking a full day off work (which for most ordinary folk just ain't practical) waiting for a delivery 'sometime between 8am and 6pm'... if it comes at all, in my case during this woeful week.

It does seem a little odd that postal delivery services are not responding to an increasing on-line commerce community that relies on good deliveries. Or maybe the domestic customer just isn't worthy enough when business users are bulk posting.

Anyway, when the phone eventually arrives (if I hear 'you'll have one tomorrow' one more time, I'll scream), I'll review it. Because it's really nice.