Shades of Grey

Several months ago, I noticed the “Build you own Solar System” part work in a newsagent somewhere. I dug into it, blogged about it and put it to the back of my mind- until David started asking lots of questions about the planets as they are doing astronomy at school.

After showing him the video of the orrery and the information on the website, I asked him if he would read it if we subscribed to it. Yes, came the reply, but I’d have to help him assemble all the gears.

So, pleased that he was showing an interest, I signed up for a subscription, starting from Part One. The small print warned that the current one would be sent first, followed by earlier ones afterwards with the various free gifts, including the toolkit on the third delivery.

After a few weeks, a grey plastic sack envelope plopped through the box. When I opened it up, I found issues 4-6, a binder and three prints of the Solar System (the first wave of extras). They were all a bit bent as they had been folded over to fit through my letterbox but they were otherwise OK. A couple of weeks later, another grey sack, issue 7 arrived, with the toolkit. Odd, I thought, it must have beaten the earlier order there. A week later, I received issues 8-11 (in a grey sack). At this point I assumed that 1-3 must have gone astray, so contacted them. They advised me that their records showed my subscription as starting from number four (despite their confirmation showing as number one further down the email as I had replied to their initial acknowledgement ) and there wasn’t actually anything they could do about it, However, if I rang their 0871 number, I could place back-orders.

Strange, I thought, a Customer services team that didn’t actually seem to be capable of serving the Customer. Still, I got myself onto the website (rather than hold for ages at my cost) and back-ordered issues 1-3.

The next thing to arrive was my card statement. I looked closely at what I had been charged and it didn’t add up, two single issues charges and two four issue charges. So I had paid for ten issues but only received eight. I queried this and they advised that they had accidentally taken payment early for the next tranche of four issues, so I was actually quids in in that I had paid for ten but was receiving twelve. A couple of weeks later, 12-15 arrived (in a grey sack, of course). Time continued to pass. I had a week holiday and hoped it arrived before we went so I could take it with me to assemble for david in the cottage. It didn’t, but I consoled myself that it would probably be waiting for us when we got back. It wasn’t. I was now starting to get twitchy, wondering why the back order was taking so long. I now had a large A4 pouch bulging with twelve blister packs containg brass wheels, planets, moons, grub screws, washers and assorted bracketry, but without the basic building blocks to start it.

All this week I’ve been watching the post. (I’ve been “watching the post” since 1968 for a present from my Uncle Allan, but that is another story). Monday- letters. Tuesday- letters. Wednesday-letters. It was like waiting impatiently for my Acorn Atom self-assembly Computer back in 1980. Thursday- a red Post office card, “package too large for your letterbox”. (The first delivery was too large but that didn’t stop them trying!) Could it be?

Off to work via Morley Softing Office this morning. Postie gone a long time. Will it be a grey plastic sack envelope? YES! Punch the air!

I have now assembled the base with the main shaft topped with the Sun and the geared Mercury, what the suppliers refer to as stage one (the first four kit parts). David asked me to do that stage but he wants to help with the subsequent bits. It looks a bit more spartan than the picture above, of course, but time is a great healer.

(Some assembly required.)