DHL / UK Mail Issue

[Thelonerangershorse]

On the other hand, I once bought a watch from Italy,

Picked up from the shop in Italy at 5pm,

At the airport for 10pm,

2am it was in Frankfurt,

4:30am Birmingham international,

7am in manchester, 

8am, on the truck and out for delivery

delivered to my door 10am.

UPS if you were wondering.

[fehk2001]

People are facing Christmas delivery mayhem with some consumers reporting their parcels have been late, have not arrived at all, or have been opened by their neighbours.

A survey of 2,099 people by consumer group Which? found 56% of people did not receive a delivery when expected, with 21% saying at least one of their parcels did not arrive at all.

One person said their package was left under their car, one had a fragile item "tossed over the gate", and another said their package was delivered to a neighbour who opened it and showed it to people in the village.

About 10% of people surveyed said a delivery had been left outside without their permission, 4% said theirs was left in a bin and 3% said their item was thrown over a hedge or fence.

Some 2% of people were unable to retrieve a parcel that was left with an unauthorised person.

Among consumer complaints were long delays, lack of communication and items being damaged after being forced through letterboxes.

Only 35% received their package within the timeframe they expected.

However, more than half (57%) of people who had an item delivered late did not make a complaint.

In a separate survey, Which? found many shoppers do not know who to contact in the event of a botched delivery. One in three incorrect thought they should contact the delivery company, and only half of those surveyed knew that complaints should be directed to the retailer.

Which? director Alex Neill said: "A delivery nightmare can cause unwanted stress at this time of year, when more than ever customers want to know things will arrive in one piece and on time.

"Make sure you know your rights this Christmas just in case something unexpected happens to your delivery."

[silversky]

16 hours ago, Thelonerangershorse said:

On the other hand, I once bought a watch from Italy,

Picked up from the shop in Italy at 5pm,

At the airport for 10pm,

2am it was in Frankfurt,

4:30am Birmingham international,

7am in manchester, 

8am, on the truck and out for delivery

delivered to my door 10am.

UPS if you were wondering.

I've had only good experiences with UPS.  Expensive but they show up in their UPS American style van and clearly manage the whole chain internationally.  FedEx the same and they clear customs from the USA in a day then send the invoice a week or so later. Great speedy service from them. The UK carrier that I've had good experiences with is DPD.

The bad ones are numerous and it's really hard to pick an order of badness.  Yodel and Hermes are up there but that is more to do with the way they deliver (amazingly nothing stolen yet) but Yodel does seem to be getting a bit better.  With Yodel you just have to make sure that you're at home on the day it's coming.  I once had Yodel leave a box worth a significant amount outside my front door right by the street.  I came home Sunday evening to find it sitting in the rain having gone away at 9pm on the Saturday.  Talk about keen to deliver.  Wasn't too pleased about that of course.  Hermes is not great either and it always seems to be a different scruffy driver each time.  They often just take it straight to my local shop without even attempting delivery which is better in some ways.  They always claim an attempt was made but that's rubbish.

Now to Parcel force.  Parcel force is utterly dreadful when clearing customs from outside the EU but not too bad when receiving from inside the EU.  I've had two packages stolen with Parcel force during the customs process so I really hate having anything handed to them that's come from outside the EU.  DHL and USPS do a good job inside the USA but when it hit's Heathrow it all falls apart.  That rules out DHL unless it's an internal EU package.  When Parcel force receive an item from the USA, if it isn't stolen, it takes them roughly two weeks to clear their customs centre and then be sent on to a local office.  It then takes the unionised and recalcitrant types about a week to get round to delivering a card through the door requesting a couple of quid vat/duty plus their handling charge.  I've tried to cut this week short in the past but been told I have to wait for the card to be delivered.  Great.

So far I've not had too much experience with UK mail so can't really comment on them.

Breaking it down,  the worst of the worst from outside the EU with a solid lead is Parcelforce!!! / (originating DHL or USPS etc.)   Worst (from inside EU)  1) Hermes,  2) Yodel  3) Parcelforce (all seem to be possible depending on which EU national postal service ties up with which).

The good experiences have been  1) FedEx,  2) UPS,  3) DPD (always the same driver and a timed window that is accurate)

OK whinge over,  I guess you can tell I'm waiting for something right now!! 

[Shinus73]

@silversky

I like that you've given it some thought!

At the moment I'm struggling to see how anybody could be worse than UK Mail.

They don't know where the parcel is and have no idea if or when it will be delivered (a quick look at trustpilot will demonstrate that many are in the same boat in the last few days alone).

The tracking system works only every now and then, and when it does work, the information is blatantly untrue.

To finish it off nicely, there is no hope of being able to speak to anybody to sort it out.

Basically the parcel might turn up, it might not, who knows....

 

[silversky]

5 minutes ago, Shinus73 said:

@silversky

I like that you've given it some thought!

At the moment I'm struggling to see how anybody could be worse than UK Mail.

They don't know where the parcel is and have no idea if or when it will be delivered (a quick look at trustpilot will demonstrate that many are in the same boat in the last few days alone).

The tracking system works only every now and then, and when it does work, the information is blatantly untrue.

To finish it off nicely, there is no hope of being able to speak to anybody to sort it out.

Basically the parcel might turn up, it might not, who knows....

 

That does sound pretty grim and I feel for you.  There surely has to be some form of legal comeback for them having this bad a customer complaint facility.  Might be worth looking up where their depot is and actually going around.  I found out where my local parcelforce depot was and with a bit of trawling managed to get the actual geographic phone number for office there.  It was like that that I managed to get them to check the tracking properly on their system while on the phone and got info on a horribly delayed parcel I'd sent two weeks earlier.  Maybe UKmail might be able to do the same if you can get hold of a human.  Also, they might have a depot close to you and you can just go in and demand that the manager has a look on the computer and makes a decision on lost/stolen etc.

Seems to me utterly wrong that the sender is the one that is supposed to sort it out.  Clearly once the courier has accepted it they should be responsible themselves for all tracking and tracing and determining lost/stolen etc.  It took nearly three months for a retailer in the states to get agreement that my parcel had been stolen in customs because parcel force didn't respond to requests for info from DHL who had the seller making the request of them.  I did finally get a replacement sent in the end and I'm pretty sure you will too but its just painful being in Limbo for so long.

Good luck with it

[Augustus1]

well reading this makes me feel a whole lot better, NOT   as I too am awaiting a coin from Germany/dealer via DHL/uk mail, not my choice of delivery date either been waiting 3 months + for delivery( already another thread), it landed in uk yesterday , what's the chances of me getting it before tis Saturday ?? I know NONE  and even more gutted to think I wont get it at all and start all over again,

dean.m

[fehk2001]

4 minutes ago, Augustus1 said:

well reading this makes me feel a whole lot better, NOT   as I too am awaiting a coin from Germany/dealer via DHL/uk mail, not my choice of delivery date either been waiting 3 months + for delivery( already another thread), it landed in uk yesterday , what's the chances of me getting it before tis Saturday ?? I know NONE  and even more gutted to think I wont get it at all and start all over again,

dean.m

 pre order ? then plus delivery ?

[silversky]

1 hour ago, Augustus1 said:

well reading this makes me feel a whole lot better, NOT   as I too am awaiting a coin from Germany/dealer via DHL/uk mail, not my choice of delivery date either been waiting 3 months + for delivery( already another thread), it landed in uk yesterday , what's the chances of me getting it before tis Saturday ?? I know NONE  and even more gutted to think I wont get it at all and start all over again,

dean.m

Touch wood you should be ok.  There should be no delay because of customs or similar so no excuse for a delay other than Christmas.  Fingers crossed for you.

[Augustus1]

15 hours ago, fehk2001 said:

 pre order ? then plus delivery ?

turn's out yes, despite it being advertised "in stock" but when ordered it was 10-14 day delivery , and was still showing stock when they had not had a delivery 3 months later , and as I requested a refund it showed up in stock! so now been on way for a week now, GRRR .

dean.m

[Augustus1]

well wonders will never cease , what landed this morning my coin from Germany, !! just nearly 4 months inc delivery time after first order and immediate payment, suppose I should consider my self luck compared to some experiences .

any way merry Christmas all

dean.m

good job it was well packed and not fragile ! and s small bag of haribo hardly makes up for a 4 month wait !

 

[augur]

1 hour ago, Augustus1 said:

But what is inside the brown paper bag? Appreciate that Goldbären (bears of gold) might almost be fit for a precious metal forum but I'm sure this wasn't your main order...