I hate Parcelforce and DHL

[Mikey D]

i find parcelforce pretty good ,always leave a card if im not in ,normally leave goods at the local post office , if not there local depot is only 5 miles away .
parcel line i think it was left a £700 welder on my doorstep when i wasnt there
luckily i live in a very quiet area

cheers mike

 

[Wedg1e]

If we're criticising parcel carriers...

I ordered a new DVD writer from DABS shortly before last xmas. No problems, it was despatched sharpish.
So sharpish that whilst I was slumbering in my girlfriend's arms 70 miles away, Home Delivery Network tried to deilver at 0845... on a Sunday! Now that would normally be pretty impressive. Except I wasn't in, so they took the parcel away and left a card saying they couldn't leave the parcel as it needed a signature.
I duly rang their office and they said they'd deliver on the Monday. Unfortunately I had to go to work, but I came home expecting another card... there wasn't one. I rang HDN on the Tuesday morning and was told by the receptionist (cleaner, tea-lady, delete as appropriate) that she'd 'speak to a manager' and get back to me. At 4PM someone called and said the parcel had been left with a neighbour on the Monday evening. As I got home the neighbours passed me in their car so I hung around till they returned at 9PM and asked for my parcel.
'What parcel?', quoth he. I asked him his surname; it turned out to be not what HDN told me it was.
A thought occurred. I nipped on 192.com and did a search for the particular surname (it's an odd one) in my town. Sure enough, in ANOTHER POSTCODE is a street with a similar name... and a person of that name at that house number.
Fuming, I had to wait till Wednesday morning (ie Xmas Eve) to call HDN back.
No problem, says the 'Manager', we'll send someone round to collect it. I was home by 1PM, no bloody parcel.
In the end I went across town to the other address. There was nobody in. Then I thought, perhaps they gave it to the people at the house with the correct number in THEIR street...!
I went across the street, knocked on the door and a pretty young thing answered.

'Do you by any chance have a parcel with the wrong address on?'
'Oh yes, this one! Is it yours?' (Oh FFS...)
'Er... what did you plan to do with it?'
'Well I thought it was something to do with my landlord so I was going to give him it....'
'And is your landlord called Ian ******?'
'Erm no, it's Mr Khan...'

Words, uncharacteristically, failed me. I grabbed the parcel, muttered 'Merry Xmas' through teeth so gritted that the local council could have used them on the roads and headed for home.

I'm still waiting for HDN to explain it all to me...

 

[rtbcomp]

DHL deliveries have turned up in private cars (once granny & grandad taking grandchild out for a ride), and a taxi in the past.

 

[aero]

I use the normal mail for most stuff. yes it can go wrong, but at least they have an office in most towns where you can go and pick stuff up from. Unlike the private firms....missed elivery? wait until next week when the driver is on that round again. Or come and collect it yourself......our office is only 100 miles away from you.

 

[rtbcomp]

I found this on the web - it's a reminiscance from a postman during the 1950's - can you see today's PO staff (or DHL et al) going through this procedure these days?

In the days when I joined the Post Office it was a Crown Service, to a certain degree under the auspices of the Treasury, which as we know today is not renowned for its generosity. We were Civil Servants, but before you came established you had a long way to go. When you joined you were temporary, and only after the Authorities had checked you and your family background going back many years, also checking out on every job you had been employed in, if you passed your vetting, the next step was to sit the Civil Service exams in Birmingham Head Office, which took about three hours. If you were successful after a considerable time you became established.

Taken from http://www.solihull-online.com/shirley-post.htm

 

[gavuk]

I ask for royalmail/parcel force in preference ,as Aero says if they miss us its delivered to the local office 5mins walk, Dhl used to deliver a lot for the missus ,she had an agreement to leave parcels if no-one was available around the back of house ,City Link were terrible they would attempt delivery ,card us ,and shut the office before either of us finished work so we were unable to phone and arrange a date when we were in ,as parcel would be automatically delivered the following day.if we missed second delivery nearest depot is 30 miles away,a 60mile round trip ,not funny,arrive at depot with card they posted to collect "have you got photo id sir?passport or driving license?",at the time i didn't have a passport and had an old style license,"i have got the card you posted through my door,and a wallet full of bank cards,photo crane license,photo safety passport" i said,parcel was eventually released when i told "hitler" who it was from and what it was and he'd opened it to check,lot of hassle for a £15 dvd drive

 

[tessa]

Parcel delivery

Zardos, have a look in this weeks Classic car weekly(page 3) some body is setting up a web based delivery called Stuff2send.com it might be of use to you

 

[English Steve]

Our Parcelforce driver is very good here. My wife works in the local post office, which is about 5 miles frome home, and the driver regularly takes parcels in to her at work if nobody is at home. In the past if it has been a particularly heavy item, he has gone to the post office to check that it is ok to leave the parcel in our porch - that's a 10 mile round trip he didn't have to make - top bloke!
The rest of them can't be bothered to come to our village, let alone find our house

 

[malcolm]

For rural areas Parcelforce are excellent. Our driver has been over just about every day for the last few weeks delivering stuff for a flatmate. He must be wondering what plans are afoot with all the deliveries.

A lot of the others don't bother coming out. it's normally a few miles out of their way, so claims of you weren't in etc.

 

[Robotstar5]

He must be wondering what plans are afoot with all the deliveries.

So are we now!

 

[malcolm]

He's building a motorcycle for racing. Lots of big boxes through the postal system. Another flatmate (we are 4) reckons he's taking advantage of the lull in the automotive industry to build his own factory in the shed.

 

[madkayaker]

whens sparkey going to be ship over then to start production welding?