It is after 9:00pm as I begin to write this Internet Shopping 24/7 diary entry.  Peapod has not arrived yet.  They promised delivery between 6:00pm - 8:00pm on Monday, February 28, 2000.

After being nearly one hour past the end of the delivery time slot, I sent the following email (at 8:47pm):

My email to Peapod:

Subject: Car 54, where are you?
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 20:47:00 -0500
From:  "Bruce D. Weinberg" <celtics@bu.edu>
To: Peapod <service@peapod.com>

Dear Peapod,

My family is starving and waiting to eat dinner.  Where are you with my order?  It is now 8:45pm.  I thought you were coming by between 6:00pm-8:00pm.  I organized my entire day for this.  I have things to do and people to see.  Please come by soon.

Bruce

Peapod's reply to me was very quick (within 3 minutes), very personal and very helpful:

Dear Peapod User,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

You should be receiving a personal e-mail response from a member of our staff within two to three business days.  For immediate answers to your questions, please visit the "Questions"  section of our website (www.peapod.com). 

The following link will take you directly to the  "Questions" feature at our website:

http://www.peapod.com/questions.html

If this issue is urgent and our website does not provide the necessary answers, please call us at 1-800-5-PEAPOD.

Thanks once again for writing.

Sincerely,

Peapod Customer Care

My next step:

At a little before 9:00pm, I called the toll free telephone number as I considered this an "urgent" situation.  At about 9:11pm, I came off of hold and spoke with a human.  He was very pleasant and apologetic about the late delivery.  He checked on my order and informed me that the driver was running behind and should arrive within the next 30 minutes.  He asked if there was anything else he could do for me.  I said no, but I was thinking "Could you please tell me how you like your Noosie, shaken or stirred?"

The delivery:

The driver arrived at 9:37pm and was very pleasant.  (She almost took down some of my hedges while backing down the driveway -- it is narrow -- but details, details, my order arrived with only the broccoli out of stock.)

The items:

There will be some returns on this order.

Sliced sandwich meats - smelling very bad.
Hamburger meat - some of it was dark brown (not red the way we think it should look -- I would never select this off the shelf).
Chicken breast - smells ok, but given the record on the other meat items, I am not taking any chances of getting sick from meat that has been sitting out too long.
Eggs - some were broken.

Maybe the items needing chilling were not chilled well enough; the driver was nearly two hours late and who knows what is the capability of their ice boxes.  This e-shopper is not taking any chances with his family's health on the line.