Couriers- Crooks and Liars

[MIGNAL]

Courier companies. Just tracked yet another collection that states ' failed collection, could not gain access 16:35'.
Hold on. I was sat 2 yards away from the front door (complete with door bell and door knocker) all day and I'm not quite yet in need of a hearing aid.
Last time this happened I phoned customer services to be told that the driver had attempted collection from a house with a White door. I've had exactly the same 'reason' given on two previous occasions. White house doors must be by far the most popular and I guess that they are playing the percentage game. Anyway ours is Brown and has been for the last 10 years.
This one was a next day delivery or money reimbursed. What's the odds of the 'get out clause' ?

 

[mailee]

Had a similar experience the other day with a delivery. Courier couldn't find address, rescheduled to be delivered the following day....didn't arrive! got on to supplier who got on to courier only to be told they had bent the said item, (2 mtr piano hinge) supplier apologised for the courier and said they would deliver the following morning, which they did. I knew something was wrong after the first missed delivery as they had delivered to me the week before with no problem? :roll:

 

[MIGNAL]

It gets better. The agents refuse to reimburse me because they believe that the Courier attempted collection. So in other words the extra that you pay for the 'reimbursed service' is a complete waste of money because they haven't the slightest intention of paying it.

 

[Baldhead]

That is shocking, I've used UPS via Interparcel well over a dozen times for larger parcels and have never had a problem, these crooks need to be named and shamed!

BH

 

[spinks]

I am putting my money on the courier in question being Yodel!!!

 

[barkwindjammer]

10-1 on 'Parcel-Farce'

 

[MIGNAL]

Nope. CityLink. DHL aren't any better but in fairness to DHL they once turned up 2 days earlier than the scheduled collection :shock: and then promptly failed to turn up on the day that they should have :roll:

 

[sawdust1]

Hey spinks i use yodel all the time via parcel2go never had any problems, yet i probably will now!! Used city link once customer asked me where parcel was, tracked it, they tried to deliver twice both times customer was home then sent the parcel back to me damaged.

 

[JakeS]

I am putting my money on the courier in question being...

I was going to ask, but then I realised it was pointless: they're all useless and bordering on criminal.

 

[wizard]

I use UPS via Interparcel all the time now as all the others let me down to many times

 

[MIGNAL]

Failing to turn up is one thing. Lying about it is another. The problem was that I gave my customer the tracking number and he was extremely angry when it came up as 'tried to collect'. I got the blame and his wrath. Offering and charging for a service that you damn well know that you have no intention of fulfilling is scandalous. It's the lies and the deceit. Is that what modern business practice is all about? I guess if the banksters can get away with it.
BTW the agent was ParcelMonkey. In future I'll go back to Interparcel and try UPS.

 

[Baldhead]

ParcelMONKEY, you pay peanuts......etc etc etc :lol: :lol: :lol:

I can nearly set my clock on the UPS driver, 12.15 regardless of the weather conditions and always with a big cheesey grin.

BTW I don't work for, or have shares in UPS.

BH

 

[henton49er]

I think it depends upon the local delivery person. Our local guy from MyHermes is very good, will give out his mobile phone number so you can call him direct with any issues, collects and delivers without hassle. We do not send or receive that many parcels but tend to use MyHermes for the convenience and they are cheaper than the Post Office.

If you've not used them before: https://www.myhermes.co.uk

 

[JakeS]

I think it depends upon the local delivery person.

Yes... and also sometimes no.

I have no doubt that Mignal's courier had every intention of fulfilling the contract of service with him, for example - but there's every chance that they have laid such ridiculous targets on the driver that the driver didn't have time to finish his work for the day, so Mignal got skipped. But if the driver went back to the depot and said "I didn't have time to pick this one package up" he would have got in trouble because some management consultant or study or whatever said that the targets were completely reasonable, so he's forced to tell them that nobody was at home because he's afraid of losing his job.

No doubt there's also some drivers who take the piss and don't do their jobs properly, knowing that it's incredibly difficult for the customer to prove them wrong and most people won't bother. But while if you get good service from a courier it's probably down to the driver as much as anyone, if you get bad service it isn't necessarily the driver's fault!

 

[MIGNAL]

Oh don't worry. I've heard awful things about Hermes as well.
i can't remember if I previously posted this link but it makes for 'interesting' viewing.


http://www.channel4.com/programmes/disp ... mail-video

 

[John51]

Anyone used Collect+?

I fancy trying it when I do an ebay clearout. Main advantage apart from low prices is that the customer has the option of having the package delivered to a local shop and gets a text when it's there. Handy for people not in during the day.

Cons are slow delivery, can be 5 days and the risk of the package being sent to Amazon as a return, as that seems to be the bulk of their traffic.

 

[marcros]

i have used it a couple of times. It is through Yodel IIRC. i dont really like it because it is slow, restricted sizes and my local shop has so few collections, they dont seem to know where to put them. i wouldnt be surprised if it was still there 4 days later. May have some advantage if you get a signature within the price. I dont know how attractive having it delivered to the local shop is- sounds good though.

i do like the service that i can drop off at my local BP station. I think it is Hermes, through P2G. If i drop it off on the way to work, then it gets collected about lunchtime. My parcels are reasonably unbreakable, and of average value about £40. I dont insure them above the standard £20, instead "self insuring" by saving the couple of quid each time. For ebay, I would pay the extra 80 pence for a signature to cover yourself. I guess that this service (for me) is how collect+ should work.

 

[John51]

Thanks marcus, seems collect+ is part of the parcel2go group. Different drop off points for Hermes though.

This discounting to agents looks like being a way to pass the blame. xyz courier handles it but any complaints go to the agent.

 

[MIGNAL]

I don't think that any of the actual couriers get good reviews although Interparcel (agents) reviews are reasonable.
No doubt a lot of the problems are down to competition and low prices coupled with low staff numbers. Pretty much what Jake wrote: 'targets' that can be reached when using a piece of computer software but the practical road reality tells something different. I've yet to see a courier driver parked up, *** in mouth and feet resting on the dash board. Anyway, I guess that they are all tracked. What I disliked about my recent experience is that I (actually the customer) paid for the upgraded service thinking that it would result in a better service. It's actually proved to be worse than 95% of the 'standard' services that I've used in the past.

 

[sawdust1]

Hi all, have you ever heard of timed delivery, a customer i was working fro told me a courier turned up and would not let him have the parcel for 10 minutes as it was timed, meaning that using the hand held signing device logs into a computer the time the customer signs. as it was a sceduled timed drop he would be in trouble if it was signed for earlier. It was something like that. The problem for delivery's out here in the sticks is that in a town their would probable be say 10 drops in a couple of streets but out here they can go miles up and down small lanes to do drops. You never see the same driver longer than 6 months, iv'e had them turn up at 6 o clock and they still have more to deliver and can't return to base until all drops and collections are done and drive 50 miles back to base. Not a job i would relish.