vs. Sofasworld.co.uk (Worldstores)

Seven weeks ago we ordered a nice leather corner sofa from sofasworld.co.uk which is a division of worldstores.co.uk - a group of websites that sell pretty much everything from bedding to playstations.

The sofa was out of stock but be delivered in 2-3 weeks claimed the website. As a concious online shopper I googled the company and.found a BBC news article discussing its success and also some consumer websites rating it 4/5 stars on average.

That was enough verification for me that they were not out to rob me blind so we ordered it and they took.the £600 from my bank.

3 weeks later the sofa had not appeared and the website still listed it as a 2-3 week wait so I emailed the customer services who responded that it was due back in stock the following week and apologised for the delay. Fair enough, these things happen.

Another week passed with nothing so this time I called them and after spending twenty minutes on hold, I spoke with a girl who told me that it was a build to order item coming from Poland and that it would be another week. I wasnt happy about this but only having another week was survivable.

I'm sure you can now guess what happened the following week and the week after that. More calls with the excessive hold times, more emails from me but the same excuses from them. My family had to sit on the floor for over a month because they did not keep contact and advise us of delays and problems.

I finally had enough last week and threatened to cancel my order. The girl put me on hold and when she came back on she had the suspicious good news that it was back in stock.

Then the cycle started over. They could not give me an accurate delivery date. I called up on Thursday to verify that it was out for delivery and they said yes. An hour later we got a call saying it would now be Monday. Saying I was not happy would be an understatement and i made this quite clear to them.

I opened a case with their complaints department (one person who was conveniently on holiday) and threatened them with legal action but the best they could do is deliver on Monday.

Which they did...just. The delivery note said that it was only to go to the door and then we would sort it so the driver just dumped it and ran, there were four feet missing for the sofa and it was a pain to get into the house.

So in summary, don't order from sofas world or any world stores company as you will suffer. You will suffer listening to the endless loop of 5-6 songs when on hold, you will suffer their lies and excuses and will suffer when the product finally limps its way to your door.

If you've found this page through googling because you have already ordered from them. Here are some staff direct dials of team leaders who will be somewhat more helpful than the five call centre staff they seem to have....

Michelle -  Team leader - 0208 408 6268 (Very helpful, deserves a better job)

Michael - Deliveries - 0208 408 6269 (didnt call me when he was supposed to)

Where Apple goes next

Now that the furore surrounding the departure of the tech industry's favourite CEO has died down, I thought it would be interesting to look at whats next for Apple.

Apple won't change much in the next 2-4 years. You read it here first folks (and if you didn't then someone is clearly ripping me off). Apple has a roadmap like most other tech firms, seeing a revamp of each core product at least once per year around the same time and (unlike most other tech firms) tends to stick with it quite religiously.

The problem is that even Steve Jobs can't predict the future and when I say Apple won't change much in the next few years, I mean that they will still churn out the Samsung/Foxconn made shiny things that some folks queue outside the store all night for but behind the scenes will likely be a different story.

Jobs had a vision (or several, depending on which bio you're reading) of what he wanted technology to move towards but the success he had came from a high degree of luck, forward thinking and being in the right place at the right time.

I'm in no way downing the man's talent, but merely pointing out that Tim Cook and those alongside him now at the helm of Apple are not Steve Jobs and no amount of luck or forward thinking will guarantee them the success of their predecessor.

I see a fragmented future for Apple, with lots of voices claiming to know "what Steve would have done" because at the end of day, no product left Cupertino without Steve's stamp of approval. Expect more products that compete with each other as much as third parties in the marketplace.

This could complete Apple's slow transformation from the tech world's "Little engine that could" into the lumbering juggernaut of the tech world that Microsoft is today - a confused and fragmented organisation which has lost touch with the industry.

Each passing week sees Apple get more aggresive in litigation, patricularly where Android and Samsung are concerned. Would "the good guys" patent a screen unlock? This reminds me of Bill Gates being determined to crush Netscape at all costs a decade and a half ago.

The question I leave you with is simply whether Apple can still be Apple in the post-Jobs era?