Day three, and the door is chipped
The unit delivery came on a pallet the week before. Whoever was at the house signed the driver's sheet and the boxes went into the garage. On day three of the fit, the fitter opens the box for the corner door and finds a chip on the edge. Two plinths are missing. A drawer front is the wrong colour. None of it was noticed on delivery, so now the fitter rings the office, the office rings the supplier, and the supplier asks for photos and the delivery note, which nobody can find.
Replacement parts come on the supplier's next delivery run. The fitters work round the gaps and come back to finish.
Why faults are found so late
Checking a kitchen delivery properly takes time and needs the order schedule to hand. The driver wants a signature and to leave. Often the delivery goes to the customer's house when no fitter is there, and the customer signs.
- The delivery is signed as received without opening boxes or counting items.
- The person receiving it does not have the order schedule.
- Damage is reported by phone and not logged against the job.
- Suppliers have claim windows and photo requirements that the fitters do not know about.
- Replacement parts are not tracked, so nobody notices when they fail to arrive.
What a late find costs
Each missing or damaged item can mean a return visit to fit it. Some suppliers limit how long after delivery a claim can be made, so faults found late may be harder to recover. And the customer sees an unfinished kitchen with gaps and a chipped door, which is not the handover you want them to remember or talk about.
The delivery check we put on the fitter's phone
- When a delivery is due, the job's order schedule is loaded into a checklist grouped by box or pallet as the supplier ships it.
- The person receiving it, fitter or office staff, ticks items as present, marks anything missing, and photographs damage in the app.
- A damage or shortage report is produced in the form each supplier asks for, with photos, order numbers and delivery note attached, and sent by email or through their portal.
- Each claim is logged on the job with its status: reported, acknowledged, replacement dated, received.
- Replacement dates are compared with the fit plan, and the office is warned if a part will not arrive before it is needed.
- If a delivery was signed without a check, the job shows it, and the fitter is prompted to check before starting.
| Step | Without a check | With the delivery check |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery arrives | Signed, boxes stacked | Items ticked against the order |
| Damage found | Days later, by the fitter | On arrival, with photos |
| Reporting it | Phone call to supplier | Claim sent in the supplier's format |
| Replacement | Remembered, or not | Tracked against the fit date |
How fits run with the check in place
Faults are found while there is still time to get replacements before they are needed. Claims go to suppliers with the evidence they ask for, which makes them simpler to resolve. The office can see every open claim on every job. Fitters stop discovering shortages halfway through a wall run.
The check also builds a record over time. You can see which suppliers send damaged or short deliveries most often, which items tend to arrive chipped, and how long replacements usually take to come through. That is useful when you talk to suppliers about their packing or their delivery drivers, and when you decide how much slack to leave between delivery and the fit start on future jobs.
Is this your delivery routine?
- Deliveries are signed for without being checked against the order.
- Fitters find missing plinths, fillers or doors on site.
- Supplier claims are made by phone and not recorded.
- You have had to return to a job just to fit one replacement door.