Feeling a bit cross

Taffycat

Taffycat

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That's putting it mildly actually... and it's the delivery company HDNL who is causing my angst!

We ordered £50 worth of goods from Amazon on Friday, I've been on their "Prime" scheme for the past few years, so qualifying purchases are normally delivered next-day; our current order was scheduled for delivery yesterday. To be fair, it's usually pretty efficient, but there is always one weak link, isn't there; and that weak link is usually the delivery company.

We were issued with a tracking number, so I could see that just after 9 am, it had been loaded onto the driver's van in Cardiff. Great, going on past form, it should be with us by around lunchtime.......or not!

When late afternoon came around, the liklihood of receiving the parcel was diminishing by the second; when eventually, the tracking page was updated, it confirmed the parcel had now been returned to the Depot... probably to be given a sticky bun for its tea, then bedded down for the night, following a nice day's outing in a van! :wall: Okay, sorry, sarcasm doesn't really help. But it was pretty galling, because there was no explanation/reason given on site, and not the slightest hint regarding when the parcel might find its way to us.

I know this is pretty typical of a lot of companies, one only needs to look around online, to see the complaints stacking-up against many well-known delivery couriers. So it makes me wonder why the mighty Amazon doesn't employ its very own fleet of delivery vehicles/drivers? Much in the way that the supermarkets and other large companies do? It would surely be a no brainer. Their logo emblazoned on the side of shiny white vans would be additional advertising for them and, hopefully, if they ran their fleet as efficiently as they run the rest of their operation, there would be far less customer complaints regarding failed deliveries to deal with.

Who knows..... perhaps some enterprising CEO will be struck by this idea one day and, Amazon vans will become as familiar on our streets as some of their smaller rivals............. ooh look, is that a flying pig I see..? :rolleyes:
 
You have my sympathy TC, yours is not an uncommon story and one I've experienced myself many times.

A courier company can single handedly ruin a supplier's reputation.

When a parcel doesn't arrive, especially if no card has been left, then when the tracking information is updated it usually means the driver has not even attempted a delivery. Why not? Several reasons including the driver being a lazy git or they are underworked and overpaid and they literally can't fit all the deliveries in in one working day.

The suppliers will often go for the cheapest delivery company and as the old saying goes - you pay peanuts you get monkeys. The courier business is an extremely competitive one and sales pressure from them to suppliers is intense.

FWIW Scan seem to have hit on a winner, this is without a doubt the best delivery company I've ever experienced http://www.scan.co.uk/information/delivery.aspx

Perhaps you should point Amazon in their direction...

As for being cross, yes, I'd be cwoss, jolly jolly cwoss, maybe even cwoss enough to stamp my feet ;)
 
Lol, yes Flopps, my degree of cwossness did produce a few rather more choice phrases than the ones I have used above. :D

I have to strongly agree with you regarding that link. Interestingly, another recent parcel (ordered via Amazon, but from one of their market place associates) was sent via DPD and they were excellent. The tracking system worked very efficiently and, they even gave us a one-hour delivery slot! That was a surprise. What is more, the driver arrived within the first five minutes. So big thumbs-up to them.

I am in communication with Amazon at the moment, so I'm glad you have jogged my memory. Can't hurt to give DPD a praisworthy mention, can it. :thumb:
 
Funny you mention it, but I have nothing but trouble with HDNL too - they've had my parcel go round in their network for days at a time, apparently attempting delivery of parcels 3 times... even though I was in each day.

Last time they delivered, they didn't show up as usual - I suspect they don't bother even trying to delivery to our block most of the time, as lots of other people here have had problems with them too. In the end I knew the drill and rang up the depot to get the drivers phone number and I gave him directions. It was a massive goods lorry filled up with what looked like removal furniture and he unloaded a lone sack of what must be his HDNL goods and found my parcel. It didn't look like he'd bothered with the earlier delivery that day (marked as "recipient not in" or something to that effect), as I had to give him directions on the phone.

I guess as HDNL seem to hire lots of self employed drivers, they probably get next to nothing for each parcel and doesn't have the training/experience. I really wish Amazon would offer the option of using another courrier.

Royal Mail have generally been fine and the only courrier that always delivers is DPD - they dropped off the NAS I reviewed a few weeks ago and sent a text just before they got here! Perfect! It looks promising that all 3 people in the thread so far have had good luck with these guys!
 
Taffycat said:
............. ooh look, is that a flying pig I see..? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That would be the latest ultra secret drone design being tested by the RAF. Pig shaped and coloured to throw confusion into the enemy if they ever spot one.Makes them think that their water supply has been contaminated with mind altering drugs. :D
 
I was talking to a delivery driver the other day when I took in a parcel in for a neighbour he got 50p a drop, and he couldn't afford to return later that day as we live right out in the country just outside Maidstone and his round was Ashford which covered the coast as well. He was telling me that he was giving up courier work as it was not paying him enough to make a living. I used to do same day courier work some years ago whilst I was between jobs and I know how much goods in transit and public liability insurance cost 20 years ago never mind fuel costs today.It is cheaper for large distributors to have self employed contractors working for them than employing and owning their transport. Not very good for the customer but good for the distributer though.
 
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Here is an update:

This morning when I checked the HDNL website's order tracker, I was happy to see that our parcels had been loaded onto the driver's van at 7:16 am, and 7:17 am respectively. Oh good. Hopefully no need for more hair-tearing and carpet-biting....

Call me fussy, but I actually checked the website again a while later............ aarrgh! The items had both been removed from the darned van at 8.28 am and were shown as being back in the Depot again! Why...? Were they misbehaving or something...? Doh!

Anyway, after giving them a while to maybe re-load the parcels... dumb idea... I contacted Amazon again - by phone this time. The helpful woman in CS asked me to hang on whilst she contacted HDNL. You might be wondering why I didn't contact them myself.... it was a matter of principal, I'm afraid. The non-delivery was not my fault, so I really didn't see why I should spend 10p per minute, on what turned out to be a very long call indeed! (Does that make me sound stingy? Thought so..... oh well... But in mitigation, the Amazon call was completely free! :o)

It took the Amazon CS lady 10 minutes at least, to sort something out with her HDNL counterpart. But she says the order will be delivered today, by 7 pm tonight. Good news... if it happens. I will report back later. :D
 
HDNL are rubbish for me too... As are City Link...

Amazon use both of them and insist on sending my Prime deliveries too via them both.... Such a pain in the ....... :(

I feel your pain TC. :)
 
Now you have geeeed them up you'll receive your parcels pronto, always takes a phone call for things to be put right..
You can bet the parcels were taken off because the driver saw the delivery destination and thought I'm not going there, the drivers will cherry pick there deliveries so they don't take to long and they get off home early, I know a City link driver that sometimes finishes at 11:00am in the morning, after cherry picking his round so its all in one area..

Hope it turns up later.
 
Just reporting back to let you know the outcome of my grumbles, lol... our parcels were finally delivered at 5:45, yay!
smiley_highfive.gif
:D
 
City Link improved deliveries when they gave all drivers Guide Dogs, as their drivers are blind. The dogs are trained to bark when approaching the correct address, unfortunately, City link didn't know that the drivers they had employed were all deaf. :)
 
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