Parcel deliveries; is there a decent firm out there?

[Blue in Munich]

:rant: Been off this week and had ordered a few things. Get an e-mail from UPS that our parcel is due to be delivered Monday; nothing important, just a battery to get the motorbike back on the road Monday comes & goes, no battery. Check the tracking; Monday evening marked up as "the street name is incorrect" at 1907, Tuesday at 0431 it's "on the van for delivery". What, to the wrong address? :angry: Tuesday the regular UPS man turns up, apologises and says he can't understand why the driver couldn't find us, nor can the depot manager explain. Neither can I, the street has only been here since 1934!!

Today, we are told, Yodel will be delivering the steam cleaner, the carpet cleaner and the jollop that goes in the carpet cleaner, 3 separate parcels, any time up until 9pm. The e-mails tell us that all 3 parcels are at the Chessington depot yesterday. Driver turns up at 10.22; with 1 of the 3 parcels!!! :angry: And of course it's the carpet cleaner; not the steam cleaner that we can use without the dollop, but the ones that needs the other parcel in order to work. Who in their right mind puts 3 deliveries for the same address from the same depot on different vans?

And don't even get me started on Autoglass! I'd begin to wonder if customer service still existed in this country if it wasn't for the John Lewis delivery. :rant:

 

[Fish]

I use the Parcel2Go site, punch in all my sizes & weight, look at the quotes against the services available and company, then choose, can have it collected or drop it off at some local stores, never had any issues at all.

I had an interest in 2 very large carrier companies so I know how they operate and how things can go wrong easily, especially when parcels are sent not as a next-day delivery, they can end up on different trunk vehicles into depots and as such some will go out with the early vehicles and some will arrive during the day for the following day, you have to be involved sometimes to understand the things that go wrong and believe me, its sometimes the sender sending 3 separate items rather than a 3 part single consignment, as for drivers, depot managers are under pressure to get the vehicles out in the morning ASAP, putting a relief driver on a round he's not fully knowledgeable of but with the same amount of deliveries that the normal driver would do is stupid, but happens on a daily basis, so items fail, not always the drivers fault, he simply runs out of time as too much was loaded for him to cope with!

 

[pbrown7582]

None of them are without fault some better than others but it's pot luck really.

 

[c1973]

There used to be one. The Post Office.

 

[FairwayDodger]

I got a parcel last week, delivered by UKMail.

The emailed me in the morning to say it would be delivered between 4.10 and 5.10 pm.

Their tracker link showed that my package was in the delivery van and due to be delivered at stop #119. Refreshing that through the day showed how many stops the van had made so I could track its progress. They offer a free text to let you know when your delivery is next on the route, but I didn't register for that.

The package was delivered about 4.30, right in the middle of the one hour window they gave me in the morning.

I was impressed, first time a delivery company has managed that.

 

[Crazyface]

Interlink did a great job of getting my Go Kart battery to me the other day. Even down to taking a photo of the bin at the back of my house they, as per my instructions, put it in.

Tick and a star from me !!!!!

 

[Imurg]

No matter who you use you are reliant upon the monkey at the far end of the chain. I use MyHermes. I know people have had issues but I haven't. I must have been lucky that the peoe in my chains weren't at the back of the queue when common sense was dished out...

PS...parcel companies are not the reason I'm having a bad week and am on the verge of going Postal...!!

 

[GreiginFife]

Yodel are a joke of a company and it amazes me to this day how they survive.
If I know a compamy uses them I wont buy.
I didnt realise eBuyer use them and last week ordered a laptop for my son, it was a nightmare as they insisted that only I (not my wife or a relative) could sign for it so had to take a day off work, they then never appeared until 6.15pm and let my wife sign for it at the door.
Couple of years back a driver of theirs effectively forged my signature and said I had signed for an item when I was 45 miles away at work...

Use Hermes now and with the exception on one issue, which was resolved very quickly, I have sent 65 items in the past 12 months and they have been great. Stuff has even been delivered on a Sunday when it was actually not due til the Monday.

 

[Dan2501]

I've not had any issues with MyHermes either. Been very good whenever I've used them!

 

[Hacker Khan]

I got a parcel last week, delivered by UKMail.

The emailed me in the morning to say it would be delivered between 4.10 and 5.10 pm.

Their tracker link showed that my package was in the delivery van and due to be delivered at stop #119. Refreshing that through the day showed how many stops the van had made so I could track its progress. They offer a free text to let you know when your delivery is next on the route, but I didn't register for that.

The package was delivered about 4.30, right in the middle of the one hour window they gave me in the morning.

I was impressed, first time a delivery company has managed that.

I was trying to think of the company that have delivered parcels to me who did this so this must be the guys. I would agree they were superb as you can track where your parcel is on a map and see what number it is on the route.

Had some very bad experiences with some, especially Yodel where they employ drivers who have a basic grasp of English. As as we do not have a house number and live out in the sticks they can't find us, so they pretend they tried and mark it as no one was at home. When in fact I work from home and know I was there. Jeez, I came over a bit UKIP there, I apologize.

 

[Val]

Yodel are a joke of a company and it amazes me to this day how they survive.
If I know a compamy uses them I wont buy.
I didnt realise eBuyer use them and last week ordered a laptop for my son, it was a nightmare as they insisted that only I (not my wife or a relative) could sign for it so had to take a day off work, they then never appeared until 6.15pm and let my wife sign for it at the door.
Couple of years back a driver of theirs effectively forged my signature and said I had signed for an item when I was 45 miles away at work...

Use Hermes now and with the exception on one issue, which was resolved very quickly, I have sent 65 items in the past 12 months and they have been great. Stuff has even been delivered on a Sunday when it was actually not due til the Monday.

Agree on the yodel front, horrible courier firm.

 

[Maninblack4612]

I use Myhermes & they're very reliable except that they lost a set of irons I sold just before Xmas. The compensation claim went ultra smoothly & I still use them on the basis that it could have happened with any carrier & at least Hermes are the cheapest & I can take my stuff to the shop up the road. Had a delivery from John Lewis today & it appears they are using Myhermes now.

 

[Rooter]

I use Myhermes & they're very reliable except that they lost a set of irons I sold just before Xmas. The compensation claim went ultra smoothly & I still use them on the basis that it could have happened with any carrier & at least Hermes are the cheapest & I can take my stuff to the shop up the road. Had a delivery from John Lewis today & it appears they are using Myhermes now.

Yup both sides of myhermes, received deliveries from John lewis (from the same lady that delivers next directory stuff) and sent golf clubs and ebay sales, package it up, take to local shop and job done! None of that queuing up with pensioners in the post office to be mugged off 10 quid for a single club!!

 

[SaintHacker]

I sent a 2kg parcel yesterday. Went in the post office, yes sir, you're cheapest option is Parcelforce at £12.95
My hermes charged a fiver. And they wonder why the Post Office is going out of business...

 

[Chisteve]

No matter who you use you are reliant upon the monkey at the far end of the chain. I use MyHermes. I know people have had issues but I haven't. I must have been lucky that the peoe in my chains weren't at the back of the queue when common sense was dished out...

PS...parcel companies are not the reason I'm having a bad week and am on the verge of going Postal...!!

+ For myhermes used without fault ............. so far

 

[Wabinez]

Parcel companies can be the bain of my life at times...although it tends to come down to the sender, rather than the courier. I had a package sent to me on Monday, from 30 miles down the road, and it still hasn't arrived yet!

 

[Stuey01]

I sent a 2kg parcel yesterday. Went in the post office, yes sir, you're cheapest option is Parcelforce at £12.95
My hermes charged a fiver. And they wonder why the Post Office is going out of business...

Problem is none of the cheap ones allow parcel dimensions long enough for a driver, so I end up having to send them parcel force at rip off prices.
Everything else goes myhermes and dropped off at the local shop, excellent service so far.

As a recipient in my experience there are none better than DPD, really good, "real time" tracking updates, you can see where the driver is on a map and how many deliveries before yours, precise 1 hour windows that they have yet to miss for me. The driver round my way is even polite, Darius (not the long haired fella off popstars)

 

[North Mimms]

I got a parcel last week, delivered by UKMail.

The emailed me in the morning to say it would be delivered between 4.10 and 5.10 pm.

Their tracker link showed that my package was in the delivery van and due to be delivered at stop #119. Refreshing that through the day showed how many stops the van had made so I could track its progress. They offer a free text to let you know when your delivery is next on the route, but I didn't register for that.

The package was delivered about 4.30, right in the middle of the one hour window they gave me in the morning.

I was impressed, first time a delivery company has managed that.

I ordered some stuff from Direct Golf yesterday 2pm and it was delivered at 3pm today by UKMail.
Not bad, considering I only paid for 3-5 day delivery.
Next time I'll opt for free 5 day delivery!