Parcel Farce, A grade useless

[Delta-SI]

INCIDENT 1
I am sat here fuming at Parcel Farce.

A last week I ordered something from Hong Kong, get a note that the item has shipped so I start tracking it online.

Takes less than 24 hours to arrive in the UK.

And is then listed as out for delivery, so in we wait. No knocks on the door, so I check the tracking and it is listed as "Attempted delivery- item refused". Now I have been sat in the office all day looking out of the window, I think I would have noticed a huge great big Parcel Farce truck and then the dogs would have gone mental should someone open the front gate, let alone knock on the door.

I phone PF "customer service", oh yeah the package didn't have an address on it to deliver too, only one in Hong Kong.. There is no other address on the package "well how did it get to the UK then", her only reply was the label must have come off in transport, so she then demands £12 for it to be redelivered, I pay this and the next morning my package is here!

With my full address on it! I phone up PF again, but this time the woman from Customer Services won't talk to me about it, so I am connected to my local branch. Who then claim that they are the ones who have written the address on the package. "What and have had my address stamped over with an official HK customs stamp?" their reply was yes... Needless to say I didn't believe them, so have written to complain to their HQ.

INCIDENT 2
Order something online, wait in for it to be delivered,both myself and Jenni are in the house between 0600 and 0900 when Jenni went to work and I installed myself in the office. Check the tracking and it says "out for delivery" check the tracking later in the day and it lists three delivery attempts at various times: 0650, 1030 and 1345. Now at these times there was at least one person in the house, as well as two dogs who are, in essence, a motion detector. Anyone moves within 100 feet of the house and they go mental, also at 1029 I was outside talking with the DHL driver and can prove this with the signature log on the DHL tracking website.

PF then took my package to a post office some 20 miles away and refused to redeliver. refused to look into the matter and said that it was my fault....

INCIDENT 3

Ordered something from America two weeks hence, checked the tracking and it got to the UK within 48 hours, had a note from PF today to say I owe them almost £300 because they attempted delivery twice and failed, so they have returned it to the sender, oh and would I mind paying for customs into the UK, shipping back to the sender AND customs in the USA....

I have tried to speak to various people at PF customer service today but they say there is nothing they can do...

Anyway, rant over. Carry on

[ken_uk]

Had similar with various couriers over the years, cards saying attempted delivery.

Except I have several cctv cameras covering the front of the house, and the footage is kept for days so I can check if they are lying.
(Usually they are)
DHL, on behalf of parcel2go even dropped a laptop on the pavement on camera, still never had any compensation from them even though I provided footage of the incident.

[Delta-SI]

Ah there were no cards, the woman says that because the driver wasn't in his normal van there were no cards... Either of the times it happened...

[KidsBeeHappy]

DHL are notorious for the "attempted delivery" excuse when what they really mean is "we're not going to deliver that today, because it's too far out from the other deliveries and it's not worth our while going there".

Apparently, the wheelie bin is the current favourite point for leaving parcels when there is no-one at home :eek:

[Delta-SI]

With a company called Parcel Net it took them three weeks to get us a next day delivery package because they considered our post code to be equal to one that is in the outer reaches of Scotland... When the muppet got here I heard the dogs go off and looked out of the office window, just as he was leaving. When challenged he says he looked through the window and "it didn't look like there was anyone in" so didn't bother to knock or anything...

[Jenni384]

I am sat here fuming at Parcel Farce.

Directions:


Stand up
Go downstairs
Put kettle on
Pat dogs
Make tea
go back upstairs
drink tea
shoot some folk on the x box
give me a hug when I get home
go to the pub

Simple :D

[Delta-SI]

Yes but that won't resolve my anger. I am thinking about quickly ordering something so that it arrives tomorrow and I can shout at the idiot driver.

[movietub]

DHL - D!ck head logistics

City Link Sh!tty Link

Parcel Force - Parcel Farce

DHD - Don't hold, drop.

I'm sure there are more of these... We have been through so many to deliver our parcels and all seem ok until one day when they try and ruin your life.

I'm basically a hater of all delivery companies ;)

[Jenni384]

Yes but that won't resolve my anger. I am thinking about quickly ordering something so that it arrives tomorrow and I can shout at the idiot driver.

The regular guy delivers to us a good few times a week. Therefore, he must know where we are and when we are in. Surely it must have been a different driver who b@llsed it up?

[Delta-SI]

Nah it must be the same muppet, but he comes at such early times my eyes are always full of sleep so I have no idea what he looks like...

[Dwebs-Ltd]

DHL are idiots too.

Ordered some shrink/pallet wrap, 6 rolls in fact. The supplier sent it out by DHL 24hr Delivery.

1. DHL Claims they attempted delivery but no one was in.
2. DHL tries to delivery again and they say it was refused by the receiver
3. I phone up the supplier and stated not a single delivery attempt has been made to our address and I want the shrink wrap. So supplier tells DHL to deliver.
4. DHL attempt delivery again this time it’s refused by receiver as "no longer required". But they never turned up.
5. Contact supplier asked what the hell is going on and I want to see who signed to refuse delivery.
6. Supplier contacts DHL and they don't know where the hell the parcel is.

3 weeks this has been going on.

DHL = Dropped it, Had it, Lost it


I've had about 5 parcel force deliveries in the past 3 weeks plus a couple of city link drop offs and they all managed to go to the correct address.

[C.J.Couriers Professional]

That is why I hope that more companies will start using local couriers / owner drivers than DHL or CityLink. I know that in many cases they will not be able to offer the same prices as big companies, but if you have got many local deliveries it can be more cost effective and much more reliable than DHL.

In many cases small operators are using track and trace technology as well, or you can just track their van online when completing delivery for you. Personally I call my client when I pick up parcel for him, I give him realistic E.T.A. (basing on TomTomWork Active system with Live Traffic Updates), call when delivered to confirm who signed for delivery etc. and still will call when there are more delays on the road than 10 minutes from E.T.A. that I have given.

Well, but in the end low price wins so most companies preffer to send a parcel for next day (hopefuly!) delivery for £20 than try a local courier.

[Venka]

Hi,

We used Parcel Force in the past but dropped them as there were too many complaints.

It depends on the local driver though, I know our local one quite well and he always delivers early in the morning as he knows I am at home then., he is a complete sweetheart, can't say anything wrong about him but previous drivers were horrendous, one even told me I had a nice bum! :eek:
Very inappropiate.

[chris nangle furniture]

I have had sooooo many crap dhl experiences once I sent a palett to swansea next day my client stays of work no palatte called them and they dont know were it is three days later it turns up they said oh we dont send much stuff into wales WTF is swansea not the bloody sudan
if i ran my business with half of the nonplus incompertance of these folks I would have gone tits up years ago
the mind boggles some times

[Julian]

Ah, how cathartic, a courier haters thread. I'm in :D.

I suspect that a lot of it has to do with the individual delivery drivers in your area. For me Citylink is by far the best, 100% reliable. The worst is FedEx, I've had the "card left" (no it bl**dy wasn't) experience on the last three parcels they delivered to me.

My most recent FedEx episode was last week when they claimed to have carded my property twice. When the parcel was finally delivered I asked the driver what had happened and he said that he'd been trying to deliver it for a week (interesting, given it had been despatched 4 days earlier). When I asked him why no cards were left he said that the depot had run out of cards. It was really apparent by his eye contact and other body language that he was lying. The little toad.

In the middle of a previous FedEx episode I was in town and saw a FedEx driver delivering to a shop so I bounced my theory off him that sometimes drivers run out of time on a particular day and just mark all the premises they never visited as "carded". His "yup, that's possible", coupled with a wry smile, pretty much confirmed this theory for me.

Regarding Parcelforce I've also had experience of their ineptitude on a couple of occasions, most recently also last week. In these cases it was the idiot driver not reading the address on the parcels and trying to deliver someone else's packages to my address on two occassions. The first time I was in and saw that it wasn't for me so I sent him packing. The second time I was away on business and I came home to find a package on my doorstep that was supposed to have been singed for, wasn't for me, and might have been there for a couple of days. I ended up delivering the parcel to the correct address myself since it was only 5 minutes walk away.

Ahh. Deep breath. I feel better now, until the next time it happens.

- Julian