Viking Direct isn’t a new discovery for me. Before mummydom hit, I was an Office & Facilities Manager (amongst other things) at the London HQ for one of the largest global names in social media. Looking after hundreds of pampered, stressed and high-earning executives was no easy task. Most, if not all, had come from some of the most exclusive offices in London, and expectation was often higher than our budget afforded.
Ocado and Viking quickly became my go-to brands for stress-free next day delivery of all manner of essentials (from luxury handwash, to sweeties, to flowers, to stationery). Let’s face it, running out of paper in a busy office means you’ll be fending off irate executives and swiftly picking up your P45 when 5pm hits. In fact, with my lot, running out of chewing gum was as just as big a drama.
When I fell pregnant and left my peeping Blackberry and chaotic Outlook inbox behind me, my days became an equally monotonous haze of nappy-changes, baby-rocking and rhyme time classes. I must admit, until now, I hadn’t given Viking another thought.
When I found out they were seeking bloggers to trial their service from a home-based worker’s perspective, I thought I’d throw my hat in. I already know how fab they are for business use - I was on first name basis with my Account Manager and often rang them at unsociable hours with urgent requests - any business that welcomes hysterical phone calls from a stressed out Miss Mills deserves a medal.
Accepted as a trialist, I was given £40 to spend on absolutely anything from the site. It might surprise you just how far £40 can go at Viking. There’s some seriously useful things for the home, from confectionery to back-to-school essentials to pretty diaries and organisers. There’s also tons of freebies on offer if you buy certain promotional products.
But nope, I decided to order a printer.
A printer has to be the most overlooked gadget in the average home. Every home office needs one, but few actually have one primed and ready-to-go, with a neat supply of ink and paper. Why? Because they’re a faff to maintain, and are prone to breaking down.
Yet try as we might to go paperless, once a week you’ll be sent a form, email or invoice that will need filling in, signing and sending. People sat in swanky offices just can’t seem to get their head around the fact that not all of us have the means to print. In fact, forwarding attachments to friends and family to print off and pop through our letterboxes is a frustrating but necessary monthly skirmish for most of us.
When our last printer gave up the ghost after just one month of service (I think I only printed off a few coupons and some colouring-in sheets for Lil Man), I vowed never to bother again. But then real-life took over and hauling a double buggy down the library to print became a real pain in the bum.
I was shocked that £40 could actually get me a good quality branded printer. We plumped for the HP Deskjet 2540 wireless all-in-one inkjet, and waited patiently for it to arrive. Sure enough, the next day a friendly delivery guy knocked at my door.
Craig set up the printer for us (I have zero patience for manuals). I won’t lie and tell you it was an easy set-up, I did hear the odd expletive from downstairs as I relaxed in the bath, but eventually persistence paid off.
Our new printer is rammed full of features. With the option to print, scan and copy it performs every task you need it to. Better yet, you can do these wirelessly from any room in your house. Built-in WiFi and HP Auto Wireless Connect, means you can sink it to laptops, tablets and smartphones. Connecting to all our devices was really simple and now we can send documents to print from all of our most used devices.
The product description makes a big fuss out of the fact it’s compact and space-saving - I’d certainly question this - it’s a whopper! This doesn’t bother me at all though as it lives happily in our lounge and isn’t ugly.
The best thing about it, was the price. You can bag this with free delivery for just £35.99. Better yet, operation costs are low as you can use high capacity cartridges.
All in all, I’m impressed. Now I know that Viking offer personal accounts, I’ll definitely be using them again in the future. Every 3 months or so we do a trolley dash down Staples for paper, post-its and pens - now we can save a little money and stock up without leaving our sofa. The only person likely to be disappointed is Dexter - he really does love pulling down pen displays, opening reams of paper we have no intention of buying, testing out of the office chairs… you get the picture!
To set up a home office account, just visit www.viking-direct.co.uk
