Will Couriers ever get their act together?

[Lucan Unlordly]

Every day I'm spending time that I don't have chasing deliveries, placating customers who've taken time off to accept a delivery that hasn't arrived and filling in claims forms to get a refund. Of 30 consignments sent recently I have a bona fide refund claim against 12 of them. Black Friday kicked off here in the UK around 10 years ago so isn't it about time Couriers got their act together?

NEXT DAY DELIVERIES SENT (Pre Black Friday)
4 parcels sent - never left the depot.
4 parcels sent - didn't get past the hub.
5 parcels sent - 2 delivered, 2 late, 1 stuck in hub

NEXT DAY DELIVERIES AWAITED
12 parcel consignment awaited. 8 turn up, time as expected, 3 on separate van 5 hours later (sods law with the parts we needed quickly). 1 missing - arrives 2 days later.
...etc., etc.,

EXCUSES: Belt breakdown, driver sickness, accident on M6, software issues, not enough drivers............and then the big one Black Friday!

 

[boxlot]

Which courier?

 

[James]

Always a nightmare this time of year with delays and creates excuses for people to abuse in some cases. A few couriers move there standard next day service to a 2 day service to try and manage customers expectations.

 

[Clodbuster]

I wish they would start using the more accurate What3words system to locate delivery location than a Post code which is reasonably accurate but still general. I admit I sell a lot to farmers and their locality can often be quite difficult.
At least once a week I'm told the delivery cannot be found so I go back to the customer and ask for that detail, fix it on a map and send it to the courier.

 

[James]

I wish they would start using the more accurate What3words system to locate delivery location than a Post code which is reasonably accurate but still general. I admit I sell a lot to farmers and their locality can often be quite difficult.
At least once a week I'm told the delivery cannot be found so I go back to the customer and ask for that detail, fix it on a map and send it to the courier.

One of my customers also delivers to farms they put What3words in the delivery notes. It has helped a lot on missed deliveries especially into Europe.

 

[HFE Signs]

I share your pain, being mail order ourselves we suffer the same

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Which courier?

I use Parcelforce for the simple reason that I can almost immediately get through to a human being and get an update in a couple of hours.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

I wish they would start using the more accurate What3words system to locate delivery location than a Post code which is reasonably accurate but still general. I admit I sell a lot to farmers and their locality can often be quite difficult.
At least once a week I'm told the delivery cannot be found so I go back to the customer and ask for that detail, fix it on a map and send it to the courier.

Parcelforce were supposed to have done a deal with What3words a year ago to do just this, but I've not heard any more?

 

[Clodbuster]

I won't touch DHL again, consigned a parcel to Zimbabwe which never arrived, the tracking STILL says "In Transit" - 3 months down the line. It proved near impossible to speak to a human as their automatic system is pants - asks for a post code, there are no post codes. Eventually went to the ombudsman and then they phoned me.

 

[japancool]

I use Parcelforce for the simple reason that I can almost immediately get through to a human being and get an update in a couple of hours.

We use RM, and while I can get through to a human, they're less useful than a broken vacuum cleaner. All they can do is send emails to depots. They promise someone from the depot will call back but never do.

 

[14Steve14]

We use RM, and while I can get through to a human, they're less useful than a broken vacuum cleaner. All they can do is send emails to depots. They promise someone from the depot will call back but never do.

We also use RM for 90% of our deliveries and we have now decided to attempt to claim for everything they do wrong. We have paid for age verification, which never happened, signatures that are not obtained and guaranteed delivery not arriving for 5 days. We can accept some delays but why should we pay for a service we are not getting. In nearly all cases we have received compensation from RM. We could go further if we anted and claim for all the parcels that show as not delivered because a postie is too lazy to scan a parcel, or too busy. No wonder they are losing money.

We now have less problems with Evri than we do with RM.

 

[japancool]

In nearly all cases we have received compensation from RM.

Just the original cost of delivery?

 

[14Steve14]

Just the original cost of delivery?

yep where a parcel has been delivered but we always claim for lost items regardless of how small the order.