Good idea but . . .

In response to Covid one of our major hardware chains has introduced a 'Drive and Collect' system. This enables you to purchase items online, book a time to drive to the store, ring a dedicated phone number when you arrive and then a staff member brings your parcel out and puts it into your boot. Excellent idea.

We have been building a list of things we needed so we decided to use the new system. Everything went well until I arrived at the store. I rang the dedicated number which was promptly answered and I was asked to hold the line. I then sat for a few minutes listening to the conversations between the staff member, who was clearly at the checkout, and a succession of customers inside the store. Then I was cut off. I rang the number again and it rang out. I did this twice more before ringing the store's general number. The staff member who answered was very apologetic and said she would send somebody out straight away. This didn't happen. After a while I rang the dedicated number again and this time it was answered by the same staff member who had answered my original call. She told me they were very busy and she would be out soon. She did come out with my parcel but without a mask. She then came to the window of my car and asked to see my driver's license and stood right up against the open window of my car. As the whole point of this exercise was to not have a close encounter with anyone I was less than impressed. I don't blame the staff members but management needs to do more than have good ideas.