Why buying over the net isn't much fun

There are lots of great online stores offering a wide variety of goods from electrical goods to fresh food. Although there are many fantastic bargains to be found and savings to be made, the one major flaw with them is the delivery of the item you have purchased. It's a pain.

Today is delivery day and the item I have ordered, a new wireless router, is due to arrive. The company has given be a delivery time of 7am to 6pm. Does it really think I'm going to get up at 6.50am just in case it comes early or stop in the house for 11 hours on a weekday when I'm supposed to be working?

I can't change my routine just to please the delivery company. I have things to do, places to go, people to see and so on. If I'm in when it arrives then great, but if I'm not then it means the parcel will be taken back to the local sorting office. Tomorrow (yoiu have to wait 24 hours before going to pick it up) I'll have to drive all the way across town through the traffic to get it and then drive all the way back again. It's really frustrating.

This is why I often don't mind paying a few pounds more for some things and buying in the high street. At least I get the item there and then and don't have to wait two weeks only to be out when it comes. Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to narrow down the delivery to a morning or afternoon?

Parcel tracking is only partly helpful and I know, for example, that it was logged as being in my town's postal depot at 03.59 this morning. It doesn't tell me when it will arrive at my home. It could be in a van and on its way by 8am or it could sit there for 12 hours and go out late in the afternoon. Who knows? I'm not going to sit at home and listen for the doorbell all day.

Is internet shopping really progress? I long for the good old days. If only the item had been available at the local computer store. It's a 10 minute drive. I could have been there and back in 20 minutes and have the device up and running in half an hour.