A Parcel Delivery Rant

[AlanHo]

I ordered something from Amazon on Friday morning via their website. They confirmed the order stating that the anticipated delivery date would be today Saturday 5th March - which surprised me because I had not paid for next day delivery and did not expect a Saturday delivery anyway.

They provided me with a link to the City Link parcel tracking service and a parcel tracking number.

Early this morning - at about 7.0 am - I tried the link and was surprised to see the parcel tracking stated that "The goods have been loaded on a van for delivery today".

Goodie, goodie cried my wife for whom the parcel is destined - but we had to cancel our plans to go out visiting friends for lunch today so that we were at home to receive the parcel.

It had not arrived by 3.00 pm so I returned to the parcel tracking website which to my horror and anger reported that at 12.11 pm "There was no-one to receive the goods at the delivery point so a card was left".

I was furious - there was no chance that we would not have heard someone at the door and it was a blatant lie to claim that a card had been left.

I tried to phone them to vent my anger but the offices close at 12.0 noon so I have sent a strongly worded Email of complaint. Having wasted today staying at home to receive the parcel - we have to do it all over again on Monday (assuming it comes then!!!)

Rant over...........

[Gandalph]

The same sort of thing happened to me with a Mobile phone that I had ordered from Virgin. I waited in all day one Thursday and nothing arrived. When I phoned Virgin on the Friday morning they said that the courier had been and got no answer. When I said that was impossible they asked me to hold while they checked with the courier, the courier had told them that they had been and left a card through the letter box. 'No there wasn't a card left in my letter box' I told them, then I cancelled the order.

Working on a hunch I then went to Boston Court which is on Station Road directly behind us and low and behold when I rang the bell at number twenty the ladie said they had been out all day and when they got back a card had been put through there door and they didn't have a clue what it was all about because they weren't expecting any parcels.

I then rang Virgin back to explain what had happened, 'the courier had gone to the wrong address' and they very nicely apologised and sent me a phone free of charge.

So Alan, if there is an address that sounds very close to your own I would check it out. Mistooks happen.

[AlanHo]

Its a thought - but there is no other road, avenue, court, street, place or whatever that bears the name of our grove. I reckon the bloody driver was a Villa or West Brom supporter and he was determined to finish early and get to the local derby match. I fully intend making a right fuss about it with the couriers on a matter of principle. The daft thing is - I didn't expect the goods to be delivered until Monday - if I had not looked at the parcel tracker early this morning I would have been none the wiser and avoided this irritation.

In any event, most, if not all parcel couriers nowadays have sat-navs in the van for accurate routing. Some use the latest units in which you can enter up to 100 destinations first thing and the sat-nav works out the fastest or most economical routes for the day's work. At least one courier firm I know of can do this remotely from their office computer and download the route to the driver. It is only in the most remote rural locations that this system can be faulted becuase post codes cover a wide area and destinations often lack road numbers. I live in a town where modern up-to-date sat-navs bring drivers to directly outside the house.

I am quite convinced the driver played the wag and never attempted the delivery - we shall see.

[andsome]

We have in the past, actually heard the door bell, and walked straight up the hall to answer it, only to see the driver getting into his cab to drive off. They obviously get a bit behind time and hurry round in this fashion so that they can get home. BUGGER the customer. :censored:

[-pops-]

I have so many tales about (non)deliveries that I wouldn't know really where to start.

A sample few: package not delivered when I was at home ready to accept it. Tracking said the driver had attempted delivery but no-one home. There was some other verbage which I can't remember but something which I DO remember is the term "green door". My doors are white and I don't know of any green doors in the area. No card was left even though there was said to be one. I received the parcel the following day. I asked the driver why there was the comment "green door" on the tracking message. He wouldn't tell me but I did glean that the original driver was new in the area and failed with a lot of deliveries the previous day. I asked if they all had green doors. He looked very sheepish and said "perhaps". It may well be that green door is a euphemism for "can't be bothered".

Another one, just before the bad weather last December. My parcel arrived at the "sortation hub" (WTF?) somewhere in the Midlands. I next found that it was out for delivery in Newcastle-on-Tyne. Bearing in mind I live in Sussex, not a good omen. After a week of weather delays, the package arrived back with the sender who was told that the delivery address (and presumably me) don't exist. The delivery firm was changed from DPD to CityLink and after numerous too-ings and fro-ings I received that package Jan 25th.

A few years ago a package from Amazon was eventually received having been on a world tour which included British Columbia (Canada) and Colombia (South America). Nothing remotely resembling Colombia/Columbia forms any part of my address.

I'll stop here before I get apoplexy from the nostalgic frustration.

[Belatucadrus]

We occasionally get the not in note from the postman, this usually translates to "the box is to large to go in the mail box at the end of the drive but I can't be fagged to walk the extra couple of yards to your door". So we have to wait for a few hours till they finish the round and drop it at the local post office to be collected. Total pain in the posterior.