Courier companies

[PaulT]

Do not know what the French ones are like as never used them but the UK ones do my head in.

Had an email to say that a parcel, on 24 hour delivery, would be delivered between 14:37 and 15:37 - how precise - yesterday. When it did not arrive half an hour after the 15:37 I phoned the company, in fact in total three times:

First time 'The driver is not answering his phone he must be driving so I have texted him asking him to call you with when he will deliver'.

Second time:

Me 'Nothing from Driver'

Person 'I will get hold of him and call you back in 10 minutes'.

1 hour later and naturally no call:

Third call

'Return the parcel to the sender as I will be cancelling my order with them'

'Oh, we cannot do that they have to tell us to return it to them. What I can do at no extra charge is have it delivered tomorrow between 08:30 and 12:30'

Blood boiled at the term NO EXTRA CHARGE

'That has done it you saying that I will not accept it'

Technical problems being given as the excuse - the real reason is that I am a little off the beaten track so if the drivers only have a couple of parcels for the area they leave them to another day.

I then emailed the supplier cancelling the order and telling him to tell the courier to return the parcel.

This morning an email WE WILL DELIVER BETWEEN 14:35 AND 15:35 - must be one less parcel today. Concerned that I might not be here and they leave it with a neighbour (requires a signature) so that I cannot refuse delivery I phoned.

Fourth call and once again apologies.

'Do not give me the technical problems things, I am a little bit out of the way and if the driver only has a couple of parcels they do not bother delivering'.

'Ah, if he does not deliver he does not get paid'

'But if he delivers today he will get paid wont he'

And the girl did not reply to that.

'Do you want me to tell the driver not to deliver'

'Do what you want but I do not want not to be here and he leaves it with a neighbour'.

When I sell anything on eBay now I do not offer delivery but the buyer can arrange their own. If they plead then the only service that seems to work for me I will use but wonder what it will be like after privatisation - and in such a capitalist country as the US even their service is essentially nationalised.

Thanks, feel better now.

 

[Chancer]

You say that you dont know what the French ones are like. All I can say is that if that makes your blood boil then dont ever get involved with a French parcel company, it will vaporise.

UK parcel companies are my heroes compared to French ones, more and more of them are going onto these real time systems giving a precise delivery slot which is an excellent development and one which will never happen in 500 years in France, by and large the UK companies meet these exacting targets but it would seem that it raises peoples expecations.

That in itself is not a bad thing as it makes the companies even more performant.

Whenever i go back to the UK I recieve many parcels, many of which are Ebay purchases that where I have arranged the collection myself, the service has always been 100%, I dont pay the supplement for guaranteed next day delivery but it always arrives, I really like the timed delivery advices, it means I dont spend all day waiting in for something, in France I have spent several weeks!!

The final thing is the price, I pay less now for delivery as an individual than I did back in the 90's as a business, prices in France can be 5 or 10 times higher, and for that they wont collect, you have to take it to the depot and more often than not the recipient has to as well as they just deliver an avis de passage not the parcel.

[idun]

When I first moved back, the window I was given was sometimes 7am until 17h. And I do not get up at 7am unless there is a emergency or a flight etc, and this would be neither.

In the last couple of years, the one hour window has always been spot on. And because I have had lots of deliveries on time, I'll accept one that is a bit of a mess about now. Because accidents happen and traffic jams etc resulting in delays. Still I would expect precise and honest answers from the couriers company when they were late.

[PaulT]

Chancer I did have a 1 hour delivery slot.

Idun as I stated the driver was sent a text asking him to contact me and he never did and the delivery never happened.

[idun]

Bad customer service. All they needed to do was lie (or even tell the truth). 'Sorry Mr PaulT, the driver has broken down and will be unable to deliver today, and we will email you with a new time and date'. That was all it would have taken. You would have been disappointed, but understanding and then all they would have had to do was get it right the next time. And that is how to do good customer service when there is a problem.

[dave21478]

Waiting for the courier to arrive? I find that going to the toilet and starting to have a shite is guaranteed to make them turn up.

I hate couriers with a deep-seated loathing. God knows how many times I would hear the letterbox rattle in UK, get up to look and be just in time to see the twat climbing back into his van and sodding off, having left a "you werent in" ticket.

Then there was the whole episode of my hedge trimmer being stolen.....never did get to the bottm of that, but my suspicion is that there is now a courier driver somewhere in this area with neat hedges at my expense.

Having said that though.....Last Thursday I ordered some chemical products from UK. They were sent on Friday and arrived on Monday. 6 large boxes, maybe 80cm cubed, each weighing at least 25kg.... Only cost eighty quid, which I thought surprisingly reasonable. Like a twat though, I chucked the boxes on the bonfire without noting the name of the main delivery service. The last 50km leg was done by the usual firm of clowns - I guess I got lucky and they didnt decide to leave them sitting in the depot for a week or two!

[NormanH]

I find UPS in France (I know they aren't a French company) pretty good.

I get a call beforehand and arrange the time to be in with the driver.

I also make a lot of use of the Point relais system, whereby they drop of my parcel at a local shop and I have 7 days to collect it. They email me when it is there, and it avoids having to be at home at an inconvenient time.

That works very well with firms such as LaRedoute.

[PaulT]

Ah, UPS - on a bus tour around Philadelphia the driver saw one of their vans and exclaimed UPS, Unbelievable Parking Skills [:D]