Couriers - Good and Bad

[Roger]

Recently I had a comedy of errors that you couldn't dream of with a reasonably well known courier service re-seller.

A long story short is, that through recommendation of many I used a company in Swindon to service / repair my fuel injectoin pump (Rvs Diesel limited) who said they would happily do my pump if I sorted out the courier for collection- now these guys are good and really went the extra mile for me - this post is not about them!

I live in the North East (ish) - they are in Swindon, so I packaged it up, went to the local post office and sent it down to them. They undertook the repair work and repackaged ready for collection by courier.

This is where I failed - I chose a courier re-seller service called Parcel Monkey, you enter your package details and they quote you - now I chose the 24hr Parcel Force Service because you dont have to print labels (Parcel Force do it for you). I paid £10 extra for to up the insurance value also - total price £35 - not to bad for a 24hr delivery of ~ 16Kg in my opinion. The booking comes through, I had to print labels - a parcel monkey policy not parcel force.

I booked this on a Tuesday, for collection Wednesday and Delivery Thursday - on the Thursday I saw the parcel force van drive by without stopping, alarm bells ring - so I went on the online help chat with Parcel Monkey - yep, they knew it hadnt been picked up and would arrange for Collection Friday - this was after a number of pre written hollow "sincere apologies".

They couldn't offer Saturday delivery! - even though I found another service called ipostparcels who could and would (cheaper as well).

When I challenged them about this, they basically told me its my fault, I chose the service they offered "they are just a re-seller, not a courier" and I should have monitored it and checked it had been collected by phoning the collection point! They did everything they could to remove any responsibility.

When I challenged Parcel Force, they told me they never received the first instruction, they only received the instruction Friday - Parcel Moneky denied this and left me in ever decreasing circles!.

Summary - If you value good service DO NOT use Parcel Monkey, it turns out you can go direct to Parcel Force although they are a bit more than Parcel Monkey - ipostparcels seem to work well.

 

[stumog]

Roger all couriers are terrible and will.let you down at some point.

 

[Towpack]

Never heard of Parcel Monkey but I'll remember it for future non-use! I always use Parcel Force, either booking online for collection at home or taking to nearest Post Office and booking/paying there. I've also had items purchased online delivered by Hermes and their service has been excellent.

 

[Chris]

DPD seem reliable and their app is good
I've used myhermes for delivery and they've not let me down. FedEx have been good too.

The rest are pretty mixed and I won't even mention Y****l

 

[karl webster]

Don't get me started Roger ! ! !

 

[Roger]

Don't get me started Roger ! ! !

Deep blue oceans and caffeine Karl?

 

[Roger]

If you want the real icing on the cake.............

So, Parcel monkey failed, I cancelled them - with an email sent from them acknowledging them this, I paid another £25 for ipostparcels to go and collect Friday for Saturday delivery.

Anyway, I check Ipost parcels on the Saturday morning for their ETA - its not been picked up - even though RVS phoned me up to say it had. I checked with Ipostparcels who have a note of "parcel not ready".

It turns out that Parcel Monkey didnt cancel Parcel Force and they were the ones who collected Friday (they got there first) and it was now in holding at the Rotherham depot - this is Saturday, so I called the Rotherham depot who said they will be open to 1230, he can see the parcel on the shelf and its ok for me to come and get it - this was at exactly 60 miles away for me - so, in ture Winston wolf style I arrived at the depot at 12.20pm.

Just to be told - "oh I am sorry sir, we have not attempted the first delivery, its against the law for us to pass it to you now before delivery is attempted" - I know these guys are just doing their job, the law is an ass - Im sure you can imagine the frustration that caused me - I did my very best through gritted teeth to be poilte and told them the story - I walked away empty handed!!! - heres hoping for delivery today!

 

[karl webster]

Deep blue oceans and caffeine Karl?

I have to deal with them most days. Hard work to say the least. I use UK mail to send stuff mostly. They work quite well for the collections and I have the drivers number.
They don't do too bad but when they do mess up its in a big way.

 

[Shayne]

Ditto parcel monkey , its for chimps !

I've had problems with myhermes and uk mail as well but as Karl points out much depends on the driver , i think i have now reached regular customer status and they know if i'm not in somebody in the street will sign for it so i rarely have problems nowadays .

 

[StarCruiser]

We used to send out several parcels a day most days and used interlink. Never had a problem, part of DPD. I've even dropped a parcel off to their depot before now. Trouble was at the time things got a bit tight and they started asking for a minimum pickup or would charge a surcharge so we stopped using them in favour of Parcel Monkey. Never had a problem. Parcel Flight for international via DHL were also good.

Recently with the Gullwing doors I've been using UK Mail through ipostparcels who have been perfect…until Wednesday last week when they (or should I say their parent company) tried to contact a member to deliver his doors in Gran Canaria. At 11am I got an email to my phone when I got signal saying they were going to return the parcel (from GC) if they didn't get a working telephone number for the recipient by 5pm that day. The sting in the tail was that the email didn't contain any form of link or anything to be able to send the information. Nor did the mailbox it was sent from accept incoming emails!

3 hours spent between myself and my wife later I've sent half a dozen emails and finally got somewhere and somebody rang me as I asked. Turns out it's DHL who set the tight target.

It also turns out the phone number was right but the member was visiting hospital at the time that DHL rang and couldn't answer.

I've had everything go right with Hermes and like their drop off points. Some stuff has gone missing via the Post Office but U.K. Mail and Interlink have been good.

TNT on receiving goods from overseas charge a whopping £24 admin fee for processing while the Post Office charge £8.

To Err is to be human. To really foul things up takes a computer. Couriers use both. It's bound to turn to poo at some point or other.

 

[Roger]

To Err is to be human. To really foul things up takes a computer. Couriers use both. It's bound to turn to poo at some point or other.

Way back from when the schools single BBC Micro used to be wheeled into class I remember the teacher telling the class "remember, GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out"

Its rung true to date!

 

[StarCruiser]

Looks like you're of a similar Vintage to me there Roger…

 

[Roger]

Looks like you're of a similar Vintage to me there Roger…

Or much younger with a poor school!

 

[Julian T]

Yes I have always liked GIGO, these days I appreciate PEBKAC more and more.
PEBKAC = Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

 

[StarCruiser]

Operator error is one I sometimes use.

 

[Ian Rubie]

Way back from when the schools single BBC Micro used to be wheeled into class

Many years ago I worked for a company who did maintenance on those, and the later Acorn computers that a lot of schools replaced them with. I remember a call from a school saying the computer was dead. I did the usual over the phone checks, any power lights on the monitor, computer or printer? Answer no. Is it definitely plugged in and turned on. Answer yes. Off I go to the school to have a look and the teacher had plugged the 4 way mains extension lead back into itself rather than the wall socket!

 

[chapel gate]

Many years ago I worked for a company who did maintenance on those, and the later Acorn computers that a lot of schools replaced them with. I remember a call from a school saying the computer was dead. I did the usual over the phone checks, any power lights on the monitor, computer or printer? Answer no. Is it definitely plugged in and turned on. Answer yes. Off I go to the school to have a look and the teacher had plugged the 4 way mains extension lead back into itself rather than the wall socket!

And thats the teacher..

 

[StarCruiser]

Many years ago I worked for a company who did maintenance on those, and the later Acorn computers that a lot of schools replaced them with. I remember a call from a school saying the computer was dead. I did the usual over the phone checks, any power lights on the monitor, computer or printer? Answer no. Is it definitely plugged in and turned on. Answer yes. Off I go to the school to have a look and the teacher had plugged the 4 way mains extension lead back into itself rather than the wall socket!

The fix for the BBC B micro used to be to lift 3" from the desk and drop it. This seemed to work every time.