Rant Why are international shipping/courier services so crap at everything?

You're absolutely correct on the second point. I ordered a coffee machine from Amazon at the weekend, because I only have 3 at the moment, and it was delivered by Yodel on Tuesday to my office.

It looked like it had been either sat on, or used as a football. The box was crushed and the coffee machine itself had a dent in the front panel. I have now had to send it back and ask for a replacement. What grinds my gears is the box (provided by Yodel I might add) has 'Fragile - Handle With Care' written all over it.

Therefore, I have to assume that either Yodel drivers can't bloody read, or are as ignorant as pigshit

 

A colleague lives opposite a layby frequently used by couriers as a mini-hub.
He tells me he regularly sees vans parked back to back with the doors open, and parcels flying between them at head height.

 

I try to use them whenever I can, they're the only courier seemingly in my area who delivers things properly. I had one instance where they delivered to the wrong address, but it was an easy fix because unlike the others, they have real tracking. They took a photo of the door they knocked at, I could use that and their live GPS feature to work out where it was, they rectified it all in a couple days. Obviously I wasn't happy that I didn't have my package, but it could have been much worse.

The issue is that not everybody does have them as an option, and sometimes you just can't use them as they don't operate there.

It may be that I'm lucky with DPD though, in London at least they seem to offer a very good service. Elsewhere though people have made a number of complaints.

 

I've found them to be decent too, however I was utterly exasperated when, on the way back from the shop, I passed the DPD van, and asked for my parcel. Apparently, they wouldn't let me have it, despite seeing my ID etc, because it wasn't within the 'allotted window', and I had to go home and wait for four hours as the van then went past the end of my road, all round the houses, and came back. Mental.

 

Yeah that happened to me too once. I guess that's the price we pay in order to get an accurate timeslot and delivery queue. If things start happening out of sequence I can imagine it affects all the subsequent operations.

 

I have not had any issues with DPD personally, I know of some who have but personally can't complain with them.

Looks like all delivery companies are a bit rubbish at times. I know most people have a horror story about yodel and I am sure I have said mine in another thread but as there are some good ones in here I will share it again.

Back when I worked as a phone tech in a high street shop If we couldn't fix a phone in store or it needed a warranty engineer we would send it to a central repair shop in fabric padded individual Bags.

They would be sent back in these same bags but commonly in a group of 5 - 10 in a grey plastic shipping bag, Plenty of protection usually.

Anyway yodel guy comes drops off the bag and leaves in a hurry, store has a few people in and has only been open a few hours so I just put the bag down and go out to help. come grab the bag 1 hour later, Come to notice some small holes and scrapes on the bags where the plastic is torn, At first no big deal the phones are all in individual bags and should have ample protection form being dropped and what not. as i pull the fabric bags out I realize I am horribly wrong.

Every fabric bag is dripping with water, all the phones are completely soaked and ruined, All watter damage markers are red, So it looks like about 8 phones adding upto at least £2000 in damage. It was all sorted.

We ended up getting all the phones replaced, I know it took 4 months of work. as they tried to blame me for not checking the phones before signing for them, But after pulling the CCTV the the driver clearly makes me sign first then pretty much bolts before I have a chance to do any sort of inspection. And in my defense why would i be checking what should be a sealed protected bag for signs of it being used as a football in a lake

 

Oh wow, tell you what though, that sounds mighty familiar:




Waterlogged CPU box anybody? I was actually quite impressed with how it could have happened tbh.

 

you seem to literally have the WORST luck in the world with deliveries?!?!

 

It's a good thing I take photos of these things, people might not believe me otherwise rofl.

TBH I do order a fair number of things online and have hard far more success stories than failures. Saying that, things only seem to fail when they absolutely shouldn't. Order some cables, they arrive in perfect condition, a camera though and they play football with it. Send a CD to somebody and it's all signed for by the recipient, but send a computer and the case is smashed and the replacement stolen. That CPU pic shows that even small items aren't exempt somehow.

 

Best tip I've discovered is to have everything delivered to the office (If management allows, mine does).

Couriers don't care about individuals, but when delivering to a large business, they take considerably more care not to harm their reputation.

 

Yeah I certainly try to do that whenever I can, although it does present limits at times. My camera, for instance, had to be delivered to the billing address unless I used a bank transfer, eh nope on that front, not going to remove my only buyer's security for a fairly shady site. Turned out to be all legit, but still not worth the risk.

The other concern is for large, unwieldy or heavy items. Where I work it's a challenge to get that sort of thing back as it's a nightmare to get a car anywhere near the front door (grr Central London parking). So anything that I can get back on the tube with relative ease goes to the office, anything else has to go to the home unfortunately.

 

Well I just had a £260 compensation from MyHermes for losing a PC. Apparently it went missing at their central hub...by which I assume somebody liked the look of it and walked out with it tucked under their arm. Thankfully it was old components, but still.

 

This is actually quite normal, regardless of companies stating that you should "check the contents" before signing.
I don't see a driver giving me the box before signing, let alone open it.

 

When I worked as a PC tech, we had the same delivery guy for a couple of years. Every week on the same day he'd deliver our components to us and we'd always take 10 minutes out for a coffee and a chat.

Then, one delivery day a different driver turned up. Our regular chap was being investigated by the Police after £30k of stolen parcels were found at his property. Apparently he'd been at it for years!

 

I don't see it recommended (or required) quite so often these days, but the idea of having to check the check contents on the doorstep while the driver waits is just ridiculous.

Other than the fact you'd have to deal with an increasingly impatient and potentially angry driver, the whole system is absolutely not designed for people checking before accepting deliveries.
If everyone did it then nothing would get delivered because it would take about 10 times as long for each delivery.


DPD have always been good for me in the UK at least. The 1 hour window and GPS tracking makes a huge difference. It makes waiting around all day listening for the doorbell seem outdated and unnecessary.