DPD failed to collect

[Banksbroo]

I booked a collection from DPD to a customer in Ireland. Courier turns up to the warehouse - doesn't ask for parcel - then disappears. I get notified of a failed collection. DPD seems to have deleted the tracking number - so it's impossible to get through to online support as the tracking number no longer exists. My account doesn't show the order, but I do have the invoice for it. No mechanism to ask for a refund. No facility to arrange a recollection. It's not much money, but I've a customer still waiting for delivery, and DPD has charged my credit card.
Anyone else had this? Yes couriers are a law unto themselves, but the impossibility of resolving this astounds me. Not so much sharp practice but a system designed to take money from customers without providing the service paid for.
Anyone else done a credit card charge back to them? I'm wary of their terms and conditions that they can then charge me the costs of their response to a charge back! Reads like a classic unfair contract terms, but whose got the time and money to challenge that!
Anyone got a real email or messenger number for DPD to get this resolved? The only one I can see is [email protected]. Emailed yesterday, no response so far.

 

[FreddyG]

They were sold and are now some outfit called Geopost and went from one of the best of the pack about 30 years ago to one of the ones to avoid (IMO) and their number is listed as 0121 275 0500.

 

[Banksbroo]

Thanks Freddy. I'd tried that number, it's an automated entry system, and needs tracking number, which no longer exists!

 

[FreddyG]

Try 0121 500 2500.

Failing that, a written complaint and a charge-back on the CC, followed by using someone else!

 

[FreddyG]

BTW, you do a charge-back by just calling the number on the credit card. It can take a while, but might wake them up - who knows!

Geopost is listed as being at Roebuck Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands, B66 1BY.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Re book it!
Try not to expect the collection driver to mind read

 

[Banksbroo]

Re book it!
Try not to expect the collection driver to mind read

That's what I thought I could do, but DPD has deleted the order and there is no rebook facility. I'm informed the driver never said anything, arrived, then just left!

 

[Newchodge]

That's what I thought I could do, but DPD has deleted the order and there is no rebook facility. I'm informed the driver never said anything, arrived, then just left!

Without anyone saying hello, can I help?

 

[FreddyG]

Without anyone saying hello, can I help?

Drivers are minimum wagers and some put zero effort into their jobs. We ordered a polytunnel and that polytunnel toured our area for three days before we actually got it. I even saw the driver drive straight past our entrance and onto where Google Maps places us on the map. We are numbers 16 & 22 and that is on a sign about two foot high - didn't help. Google Maps told him to go to number 15, half a mile away!

I had to get the courier to text the driver to actually read the number signs and not rely on Google Maps before we could get our polytunnel.

It's the old peanuts and monkeys problem. "I'm not being paid enough to use my initiative!"

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

---

Looking at it from my limited experience and point of veiw

I would never do any business with these parcel companies.

If your charging a fiver to move something from one country to another your only going to get a fivers worth of service

This has gone on for so long now that everybody knows the score.
Young people don't want to do any work let alone driving a van for 15 hours a day
The only sfaff available are those with limited English and no education or upbringing on how to interact with people in a normal way.
Turning up at the Ops warehouse ticks the boxes!
Its only a 5 quid job anyway

 

[AlanJ1]

I would never do any business with these parcel companies.

Genuine question.
How do you expect Ecom sellers to move goods from A to B, especially on the lower value side?

 

[pentel]

How do you expect Ecom sellers to move goods from A to B, especially on the lower value side?

Factor into the costing that some items wont get delivered and accept that it will happen.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Genuine question.
How do you expect Ecom sellers to move goods from A to B, especially on the lower value side?

It's a circular problem, created by ecom, and now suffered by it.

ecom drove couriers into a minimum value commodity, and is now experiencing minimum value.

As an operator, the answer is either to remove yourself from the minimum value environment or to embed the inefficiency into your costing.

 

[AlanJ1]

It's a circular problem, created by ecom, and now suffered by it.

ecom drove couriers into a minimum value commodity, and is now experiencing minimum value.

As an operator, the answer is either to remove yourself from the minimum value environment or to embed the inefficiency into your costing.

Oh I fully understand, we are shipping hundreds of thousands of parcels a year. I was just curious on what Jeremeys take was.

We embed into our costings.

 

[Newchodge]

Can I just elaborate on my point at #8. The OP or one of their staff must have seen the courier, or they would not know he turned up to the warehouse. Is there not some responsibility for those in the warehouse to interact wth the courier?

 

[Socio South West]

In my experience a regular courier is a damned good thing and most drivers friendly and reliable.... except when your regular driver is off, or the round has to be tweaked because an out of line volume for the day and your call is allocated to a different driver.

For one offs I no longer rely on a pick up ex works: I book all to be dropped in at a local service point where I am 100% certain that the package has left me.

With respect to the payment, if there is no customer service contact available then it looks like chargeback is your only option.

 

[DontAsk]

if there is no customer service contact available then

Finding a different courier is the second option.

 

[thetiger2015]

It's a circular problem, created by ecom, and now suffered by it.

ecom drove couriers into a minimum value commodity, and is now experiencing minimum value.

As an operator, the answer is either to remove yourself from the minimum value environment or to embed the inefficiency into your costing.

I don't know though, I think it's more a case of high volume couriers not being bothered about customer service and parcel tracking at all. They've absolved themselves of any responsibility via terms and conditions that essentially say 'we might try and deliver the parcel somewhere, we might not, up to you buddy'

When people say 'pay more, you'll get a better service' - not really. The person driving the van is still on minimum wage, doesn't matter what you're paying. We've used expensive couriers to take artwork from Newcastle to London, cost hundreds as it was an abnormal size, they broke it and were generally rude to deal with, because they're not earning the big bucks, the boss is.

In this instance, I don't know why the tracking number has gone. When you book the parcel out, it usually sends an email with a copy of the label attached. Is the label not on the package?

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Genuine question.
How do you expect Ecom sellers to move goods from A to B, especially on the lower value side?

Not my problem Alan so I have no expectations but always happy to help with advice if I can

 

[Mark T Jones]

I don't know though, I think it's more a case of high volume couriers not being bothered about customer service and parcel tracking at all. They've absolved themselves of any responsibility via terms and conditions that essentially say 'we might try and deliver the parcel somewhere, we might not, up to you buddy'

When people say 'pay more, you'll get a better service' - not really. The person driving the van is still on minimum wage, doesn't matter what you're paying. We've used expensive couriers to take artwork from Newcastle to London, cost hundreds as it was an abnormal size, they broke it and were generally rude to deal with, because they're not earning the big bucks, the boss is.

In this instance, I don't know why the tracking number has gone. When you book the parcel out, it usually sends an email with a copy of the label attached. Is the label not on the package?

Where does responsibility begin or end?

My understanding (somebody may correct me) is that most drivers are self-employed and many struggle to make minimum wage in real terms.

Last time I looked - 10 years ago - when CityLink went bust, it was £1 a drop in urban areas and £1.50 in rural. I'm sure that's gone up, but probably not in line with inflation.

The driver's sole motivation is to tick the box in the least time possible. The operator has de-risked so will cut prices and support.

That can be very different from an employed environment- even a minimum wage one

 

[Banksbroo]

So it seems we have a broken market when it come to the large courier companies. The courier company, in this case DPD, is earning profit from a system they have designed not to work 100% of the time, but delivers extra profit when it fails. No collection. No delivery necessary, but keep the money, and give no recourse to the customer to resolve. If this happens hundreds (thousands?) of times a day, every day, that is a lot of excess profit, and since it is profitable, there is no incentive to fix the system.

 

[James]

Where does responsibility begin or end?

My understanding (somebody may correct me) is that most drivers are self-employed and many struggle to make minimum wage in real terms.

Last time I looked - 10 years ago - when CityLink went bust, it was £1 a drop in urban areas and £1.50 in rural. I'm sure that's gone up, but probably not in line with inflation.

The driver's sole motivation is to tick the box in the least time possible. The operator has de-risked so will cut prices and support.

That can be very different from an employed environment- even a minimum wage one

About 20 years ago i worked of LYNX Express (bought by UPS) as an owner driver it was £1.65 per a drop + £0.16 for each item £4.00 for a collection & extra for per 12.00 and pre 09.00 deliveries. I would average £850 - £1000 a week - costs ( van / ins / fuel). My understanding its about £900 a week now as owner driver with a lot more deliveries in a smaller geographical area due to the growth of online shopping. This creates the problem that drivers just can't wait to deliver or collect due 100 plus deliveries.

DPD i think still have a lot of owner drivers.

Not all couriers fall into the ecom (cheap) service. UPS for example pay above the industry average for their drivers and therefore have better retention / service & vans are layout to minimise stacking parcels. Its about £17.50 per hr after 6 / 12 months with contracted hours and enhanced overtime.

 

[James]

So it seems we have a broken market when it come to the large courier companies. The courier company, in this case DPD, is earning profit from a system they have designed not to work 100% of the time, but delivers extra profit when it fails. No collection. No delivery necessary, but keep the money, and give no recourse to the customer to resolve. If this happens hundreds (thousands?) of times a day, every day, that is a lot of excess profit, and since it is profitable, there is no incentive to fix the system.

I don't believe they design it to fail, it is pushed to the limit to maximise efficiency. Normally if collection has failed it is either rebooked for the following day or cancelled not normally charged unless you have a daily collection.

It's never going to work 100% of the time there are too many things that cause issues humans, machines and weather all 3 unreliable at times . The main bit for me is expectations and communication from the carrier and customer in turn to their customers.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Where does responsibility begin or end?

My understanding (somebody may correct me) is that most drivers are self-employed and many struggle to make minimum wage in real terms.

Last time I looked - 10 years ago - when CityLink went bust, it was £1 a drop in urban areas and £1.50 in rural. I'm sure that's gone up, but probably not in line with inflation.

The driver's sole motivation is to tick the box in the least time possible. The operator has de-risked so will cut prices and support.

That can be very different from an employed environment- even a minimum wage one

About 20 years ago i worked of LYNX Express (bought by UPS) as an owner driver it was £1.65 per a drop + £0.16 for each item £4.00 for a collection & extra for per 12.00 and pre 09.00 deliveries. I would average £850 - £1000 a week - costs ( van / ins / fuel). My understanding its about £900 a week now as owner driver with a lot more deliveries in a smaller geographical area due to the growth of online shopping. This creates the problem that drivers just can't wait to deliver or collect due 100 plus deliveries.

DPD i think still have a lot of owner drivers.

They are nearly all Owner Drivers
Most of them are on the same money that my vans were on 30 years ago £150 -£170 a day !
These parcel companies dont make much of a profit Citylink went bust and Tufnell's went bust in recent years. Something that we discussed with some detail on here

 

[FreddyG]

So it seems we have a broken market when it come to the large courier companies. The courier company, in this case DPD, is earning profit from a system they have designed not to work 100% of the time, but delivers extra profit when it fails. No collection. No delivery necessary, but keep the money, and give no recourse to the customer to resolve. If this happens hundreds (thousands?) of times a day, every day, that is a lot of excess profit, and since it is profitable, there is no incentive to fix the system.

It's a brilliant business model when you think about it. The no recourse bit is the brilliant part! Giving people a useless telephone number that serves to only send customers around in circles is a practice used by so many large companies nowadays.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

It's a brilliant business model when you think about it. The no recourse bit is the brilliant part! Giving people a useless telephone number that serves to only send customers around in circles is a practice used by so many large companies nowadays.

Not actually the business model Freddy

The reality is that there will never be enough staff to deal with the minute by minute issues and if they could get enough staff to take care of things there would not be enough money in the business to cover the wage bill

 

[Mark T Jones]

They are nearly all Owner Drivers
Most of them are on the same money that my vans were on 30 years ago £150 -£170 a day !
These parcel companies dont make much of a profit Citylink went bust and Tufnell's went bust in recent years. Something that we discussed with some detail on here

At the time of the CityLink news I was spending a lot of my life in Clapham - high-earning, high-spending with lots of terraced housing. I calculated that a driver could possibly gross £30 ph, with costs down to heavy traffic and parking tickets

I currently live in a village of 800 inhabitants, with 1/3 of the houses being off-road, and other smaller villages nearby. I'd say (on old rates), they be pushed to do £15 PH - if they know the route well - with greater traveling, far more vehicle wear and some areas totally weather-dependent.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I had 3 deliveries from DPD on Tuesday. All the same consignment - 1st parcel arrived at 10.15, 2nd at 12.30 and the remainder on a 7.5 tonner 10 minutes later It's difficult to have sympathy for loss making companies when they can't work out that a single drop would be more cost effective.

 

[Banksbroo]

For others having DPD problems. I have some updated contact addresses:
[email protected], responses normally take about 2 - 3 days, but someone actually responds.
After more than a week of chat with the social media team, I've been advised by this social media team that [email protected] deals with refunds. I'm now trying that address; we'll see how that goes. My card chargeback will activate once sufficient number of days has expires since the initial order.
My impression so far of DPD is that they are dysfunctional company operating on the cheap, with a poorly implemented customer support system which is designed to deflect customer queries rather than deal with them.