Bloody Parcelfarce strikes again

[Harbo]

I often get “sorry we missed you” cards even though they have delivered the parcel from UKMail!!?

Rod

 

[NickN]

Had a funny today - a card in our post box (external wall mounted box) telling me that the associated package had been left...

... in the post box, along with the aforementioned card... :mrgreen:

 

[dickm]

Not had many problems with deliveries up here, apart from the ludicrous surcharges that some seem to want to charge because at 60m a.s.l. we are "Highlands and Islands" in their strange geography. But Tuesday got email from DPD saying we would be notified of a delivery slot Wed morning. No email until 13:30 (long mornings they must work) saying between 16:10 and 17:10. Those times came and went, then email arrived (timed at 17:15 - so much for their accuracy) saying they couldn't deliver as there was noone in to sign for it. Lights on all over the house, outside light on because we were expecting neighbour to pick up earlier parcel on her way from work, two functional doorbells and a cat that is scared stiff by any slight noise.
Oddly, noticed that the security light had come on about 17:15, so the guy must actually have come near our door. Went on to the tracking site, and discovered a picture of our neighbour's front door, saying this was where they had tried to deliver. Large signboard at end of drive points to our house, nameplates by door and so on.
Promise of delivery today, but no indication of time. Fortunately we are planning to be in all day, but otherwise blood pressure would be even higher as it's 15 miles to any of their drop off points and 25 miles to depot.

 

[lurker]

Not had many problems with deliveries up here, apart from the ludicrous surcharges that some seem to want to charge because at 60m a.s.l. we are "Highlands and Islands" in their strange geography. .

I used to have a KW postcode (Kirkwall Orkney) even though we lived on the mainland (Thurso).
I wanted some stuff delivered but the company insisted we lived "overseas" I spent several fruitless e-mails suggesting I frequently drove from England to my house without getting on a ferry. The fact their carrier had a depot within walking distance carried no weight either.

 

[HappyHacker]

I must say that, despite being very hard to find: some long term village residents don't know my house exists, I have never had problems with Parcelforce, normally get the same driver. Same with DPD although I have occasionally stood by the van waiting for the start delivery slot time to arrive so that I could sign for the delivery.

Recently even Yodel have been doing well, last year they left a small parcel in the hedge behind my post box which I found some time later while hacking at the hedge and having received a replacement.

 

[sunnybob]

Not had many problems with deliveries up here, apart from the ludicrous surcharges that some seem to want to charge because at 60m a.s.l. we are "Highlands and Islands" in their strange geography. .

I used to have a KW postcode (Kirkwall Orkney) even though we lived on the mainland (Thurso).
I wanted some stuff delivered but the company insisted we lived "overseas" I spent several fruitless e-mails suggesting I frequently drove from England to my house without getting on a ferry. The fact their carrier had a depot within walking distance carried no weight either.

The story has been told before, But i think I can claim the best when TNT decided i lived in a different country and tried to deliver a parcel to a post office 500 miles away as the crow flies across international borders and a sea. After the second failed delivery I had to make up a fictitious address and when they called me to arrange a delivery DAY (not time) I just got the driver to meet me at the nearest petrol station.

 

[cookie777]

parcel force have been ok in my area, yodel a different story, I ring the supplier before I order, if their courier is yodel I just say I will not order then, surely that must sink in with a supplier if enough people did this

 

[sawdust1]

cookie777 Same for us with Yodel, every time we track a Yodel parcel it say's out for delivery then at the end of the day address could not be found.
If we keep patient it will eventually arrive may be 2 day's or up to a week later. Last week we payed extra for a next day parcel (shoes for my son's class mates funeral) our hearts sank when the delivery instructions said Yodel. and guess what, it arrived the day after the funeral, the driver said we can refuse it which we did.
All the other couriers find us no trouble. I recon its more to do with the fact we are the last drop furthest from the depot and the drivers can't be bothered.

 

[sickasapike]

After the irony of my new 2-ringer long-range doorbell arriving faultlessly, I installed it, tested it out at both ends, one in the lounge, one in the workshop, both set nice and loud with an industrial carnage sounding chime (only delivery folk/strangers actually ring the bell.. or not..) and awaited the arrival of my replacement 6 quid hoover part from Amazon.

11:23 the stealth operative slipped a card through my door and slunk away, didn't notice for an hour or so but I was never more than 10m from one of the bells, /how/ reluctant they are to share their treasures !?!?!

Tested the bells, working fine, went to the redelivery web site, typed in half my life story, redelivering Monday, jesus...

 

[Mark A]

I have a lot of sympathy for the drivers, having spent a few years as a same-day courier. Whereas I may have had up to eight deliveries in a day, the drivers for the likes of Yodel and Parcelforce can have well over 100 drops and collections. All it takes is one delay to throw their ludicrously tight schedule; be it traffic, unavailability of parking or vague/incomplete addresses.

When a driver posts a "sorry I missed you" note he's been delayed and simply can't wait for the customer to come to the door and go through the rigmarole of signing for the parcel. A lot of drivers are paid a pittance for each individual delivery, so delays mean undelivered parcels, which mean less money. I'm guessing they are paid for attempted collections/deliveries, hence leaving notes in letterboxes without ringing the bell.

It's a hard job for cr@p pay.

 

[cowfoot]

Nice one Mark (from an ex-Parcelforce driver!).

 

[sickasapike]

I have a lot of sympathy for the drivers
...
It's a hard job for cr@p pay.

Fair enough, not criticising the individuals as such but clearly they or somebody else coming back again is less efficient. I was told by a parcel force operator on the phone that they don't get paid for undelivereds so are incentivised to make the delivery rather than just post a card (no idea if thats actually the case, just wot he sed).

So you're saying if they're behind on the schedule, they might get back on track by filling in a card or two rather than trying to deliver ? - they will get blamed for tardiness, but not for people 'not being in', so quite sensibly go for the latter, fair point, I'd do the same in their shoes.

I can imagine they have a pretty strict computer-generated schedule as you say, presumably with performance related pay/gig-security, charts on the wall/web site of top 10 star deliverers this week etc. I bet the code to decide which drivers to use that day/week/month partially keys off their conformance to the schedule, you have the data, why wouldn't you design it that way if you wanted to squeeze them.

I wonder if they've analysed the relationship between the tighness of the schedule and the number of redeliveries, surely any redelivery is a massive waste, essentially doubling the time that parcel was being driven and carried around; it sounds like bad process design trying to squeeze the most performance out of their humans, but ultimately wasting time and fuel, staffing the desk for people who pick them up etc.

Sorry to waffle, chilling on sofa watching Columbo...

 

[Mark A]

Sickasapike - I don't have first hand experience of multi-drop courier work so what I typed is mostly hearsay. My uncle worked for TNT ten years ago on a self-employed basis and his allocated route covered 250 miles around the rural parts of Devon six days a week. His main complaint and the reason he eventually quit was the clueless management as they had completely unrealistic expectations of what their drivers could do in a day. My uncle's quite a cantankerous, unpleasant ******* so had no qualms refusing orders to backtrack 50 miles to collect an unscheduled parcel as it would interrupt his route. Drivers who weren't so bloody-minded would probably obey, adding 1 1/2 hours to their already grueling day for a just couple of quid.

Consumers demand cheap shipping and courier companies want to maximize profits. They achieve this by pressuring the drivers to do more work for less return, and will continue to do so as for every driver who leaves there's likely 10 waiting to replace him.

 

[Mark A]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 1.html?amp

 

[sickasapike]

Consumers demand cheap shipping and courier companies want to maximize profits. They achieve this by pressuring the drivers to do more work for less return

Aye, sobering stuff in that article, I'm part of the problem in a small way, I've been an IT guy in real life and designed systems to actively and unreasonably (IMHO) pressure users; and some that unreasonably pressure users to unreasonably pressure customers !

All to the client specification obviously; for call centres, debt recovery 'dunning' companies, banks etc; this sort of thing is rife, and it's quite blatant in requirements gathering, there's no mincing words about wanting to be able to nail the users down with a fine-tuned and on-the-fly tuneable mechanism to squeeze every ounce of performance out of them.

As a slight aside, a large constabulary asked me outright to add a button to their new call handling system so the operator could start the clock on 999 response time when they wanted, not when the call was answered as I'd assumed would be the case; we implemented it as requested. Yep, every constabulary has their own 999 solution, even though they all need to access the same address, crime, gun permit etc data on the same external systems, then having huge problems passing data/control from one constabulary system to a completely different one when a mobile incident wanders over the boundary - how bloody silly is that !!!

One of the reasons I'm trying to learn a new trade, working in IT is horrid these days, every development seems to be about doing something unpleasant or analysing the unpleasant stuff we just did.

 

[Mark A]

Sickasapike - I'm not at all surprised that each constabulary has it's own system; it would be daft to assume they have a single fully integrated system for the entire country. Far too sensible!

Now multiply the costs of implementation and inefficiencies once they're up and running across every system in the public services and then ask why there are allegedly money shortages...

 

[sickasapike]

Sickasapike - I'm not at all surprised that each constabulary has it's own system; it would be daft to assume they have a single fully integrated system for the entire country. Far too sensible!

Now multiply the costs of implementation and inefficiencies once they're up and running across every system in the public services and then ask why there are allegedly money shortages...

Indeed ! - not to mention fire, ambulance and police using different systems, the project I mentioned was the first in the UK to implement a tri-service solution, so for example, with a serious RTA you just tell one system you need police, ambulance and fire; rather than telling 3 systems individually, transcribing information, manually keeping them synched with changing situation etc etc - crazy - this was about 10 years back.

 

[RogerS]

.....
One of the reasons I'm trying to learn a new trade, working in IT is horrid these days, every development seems to be about doing something unpleasant or analysing the unpleasant stuff we just did.

Now that is seriously worrisome. Quite glad that I'll snuff it before too long.

Hell. Handbasket.

Having suffered yet another Parcelfarce non-delivery.....although reading some of the earlier replies I can understand the pressure that the drivers are on...I thought I'd do a poll of Trustpilot.

Scores are brilliant/pants

Parcelfarce 19/61

MyHermes 40/42

Fedex 6/86

Yodel 52/34 (surprised at this one)

UPS 4/93


and la creme de la creme

DHL 74/8


Guess who I'll be using to see stuff.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Sickasapike - I'm not at all surprised that each constabulary has it's own system; it would be daft to assume they have a single fully integrated system for the entire country. Far too sensible!

Now multiply the costs of implementation and inefficiencies once they're up and running across every system in the public services and then ask why there are allegedly money shortages...

I was out of hospital for three weeks when I had to go to my GP's for blood tests - the same ones I had specifically had done a week before I left hospital, knowing they would be asked for. They had no record of the them. :?

 

[fezman]

Just had a very good experience from Parcelforce, so for balance, adding it here.
Ordered a new pillar drill from Lawsons (Southampton). Dispatched at 16:23 yesterday. Arrived 8:01 today in Barnsley. Now that is exceptional courier service!