couriers Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[boatyboy]

Evening all.You may not think this topic connected with narrow boating.Buy bare with me.We recently cruised the Ashby Canal.Having read up about Measham Barge ware pottery.On reaching the end we met Terry who runs the little shop.He was selling late copies of Measham tea pots.So i bought one.

Now i've turned into a small time collector of original tea pots,and now have 4! Well three and a half.

I've recently taken delivery of a lovely original in near perfect condition.Well it was until it was taken for delivery to be delivered by forcel parce(you can work it out)

When i recieved the parcel and went indoors to open it up the package rattled a bit.Not good sound me thought.

My suspicions we confirmed. Even though the teapot was packed so well the spout was smashed into hundreds of shards of pottery.

You can imagine how disapointed i was.So now i had a teapot that in its previous state was described as 'slight chips around rim' and was worth £150. was now worth nothing at all.I let the seller know straight away,and sent her lots of pictures of the damage so she could put in a claim.

She strait away refunded my money,and said i could keep the pot.subject to the company paying her claim.Nice lady eh!

I'm only posting this as i had a chat today with a driver who has worked for lots of couriers.Fragile tape on a parcel to a loader in a depot spells kick the sh*t out of that one,and they launch it into the vans with no care at all.

Is there a courier users ombudsman do you know?

Night night...Dave

[Liam]

I worked in the offices of a fairly large courier a few years ago for around 6 months.

 

On one particular day a rather large and expensive flat screen TV was used as the goals, whilst the other smaller parcels were used as footballs whether they were labelled fragile or not.

[luctor et emergo]

It is much easier to throw, or kick, a parcel to to front of a 40' trailer, than to walk in with every item....

[Daftmare]

Don't get me started on bloody couriers!

 

Every time we have to send back a laptop for repairs, or have a new one delivered there is trouble. No delivery time stated, they turn up 2 days early and leave a card in the door. Its an automatated answer machine when you try to call the number on the card, can't talk to anyone. They automatically turn up the next day (and of course you at still not there), and then start getting shirty with you for wasting their time (apparently they only get paid for a confirmed delivery no matter how many times they have to attend....?!?). I had to flag the van driver down in the street last time, just to sort it out.

 

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Chertsey]

Similar experience with the pallet company who moved our engine. We told them not to rely on sat nav, but they did, and it took them up a road too narrow for the lorry, tried to back out, went up the kerb, tipped our pallet over (only held upright with that baling plastic stuff), broke the oil filler casting and crushed some of the tinware. This is the engine we'd just taken out of Chertsey. I was gutted but my son in all innocence had signed for it in our absence so not much I could do, except learn to be VERY wary in future.

[jim and pat dalton]

It is much easier to throw, or kick, a parcel to to front of a 40' trailer, than to walk in with every item....

 

Actually all of the companies I have worked with use extending conveyer belts with min wage slaves at the front to load them up and to unload them (takes about 3hrs to unload a 44ft box). It does not make commercial sense to load them as you describe, as it would not make use of the space properly.

 

From my experiances working for a large international courier last year and from covering for HGV drivers in parcel post: The real abuse seems to happen in the main sorting centres and smaller regional ones where they are sorting into post codes or indiviual runs. Some of these guys can drop kick more accuratley than Wilkinson.

 

However you mark up your parcel, there is a complete lack of respect for it. But then they pay peanuts, cos you want it cheap, so don't be surprised if your parcel is handled by monkeys.

 

I'm in the process of Ebaying the house contents (all 26yrs of them) at the moment and have been using parcel post, as most of thier workers at the regional DC's are way too lazy to kick anything unless they are issued with back support! .

 

An extensive use of good cardboard and an over obsession with bubble wrap has saved me so far. It may cost extra, but I factor that into P & P anyway.

 

 

Jim

 

PS: I should add, the best packing I ever saw, was at a Glass Jar factory. I then managed to get thier goods safetly all the way to Liverpool docks and didn't notice the rather large road hump as I concentrated on finding the correct loading door.....I did feel a prat.....doh!

Edited May 19, 2011 by jim and pat dalton

[Guest User]

I was impressed when Parcel Force managed to bend the M5 connection studs on the back of an alternator that had been very well packed (but clearly not well enough to withstand whatever height it was they chose to drop it from)

[Tinally]

I ordered a few boxes of plant plugs from a well known firm that I've traded with before with no problems. This year they changed to another, presumably cheaper, courier. Only ONE box arrived in good condition. Most of the others were squashed nearly flat! The local courier showed me a pile of similar boxes in his truck. Apparently they get to him in very big sacks all jumbled together and are well damaged by that point. He was telling everyone to write and complain as he doesn't want to take the flak any more!

 

My last box arrived with the postman like they used to, and was in good order. I suspect their cost cutting exercise will have cost them most of this year's profits in replacing damaged consignments.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Tinally