Parcels couriers - what are your horror stories?

[NGT6 1315]

Now, about the names... they're usually written in Kanji (Chinese characters), and especially when it comes to names, Japanese is a total fustercluck. I refer you to the famous Monty Python "Raymond Luxury-Yacht" sketch ("it's pronounced Throatwobbler-Mangrove"). This is Japan. Every. Clucking. Day. Let's zip back to the "subdistrict name", in my example "Meiromachi". The "machi" literally means "town" or "settlement". Logical, you might think. Yes... but for historical reasons it has two pronunciations, "machi" which is etymologically Japanese, and "cho", which originates from Chinese. Aaaaand... there is no earthly way you can tell from the Chinese character for a given location whether it's"machi" or "cho". You just have to know. True story - one place I was living, it took me about 6 weeks before I realised I was pronouncing part of my address incorrectly.

 

Any questions?

 

Just a short while ago, I was reading up on precisely this peculiarity in the context of the Kun and On readings of kanji characters! One analogy to explain how you need to analyse the situation at hand to determine which pronunciation would be called for went as follows:

 

If you consider the "&" sign, the Latin pronunciation would be "et", the Italian one, "e", the Spanish one, "y", and the German one, "und." In this context, "und" would be equivalent to the Kun reading.

 

Now, if the text in question was, for example, dealing with a topic related to the Roman period, you'd have to pronounce the "&" as "et"; if it was about a topic related to the Italian Renaissance, "e"; if it was about Simón Bolívar, "y"; and if it were about Nietzsche, "und." 

 

 

Quite intriguing what language may be capable of and what kinds of challenges it may pose!

[railsquid]

My understanding of Tokyo house numbers is that they are allocated when the houses were built making the lowest number in any street the oldest, etc. Has a weird kind of logic to it.....

 

Yup, but like I wrote they're not "street numbers" but "plot numbers" on a block of land

 

The other odd thing is that they have best guitar shops anywhere - but that’s a different story.

 

 

Certainly no shortage of guitar and other music-related shops, but that's outside of my area of expertise.

[Welly]

Found this on Reddit and thought of this thread. http://i.imgur.com/O3opjt1.jpg

[MJI]

A new one

 

Royal Mail, had two missing large letter packages lost in one month

 

Claim forms are ready

[jivebunny]

Here's a good one...

 

A couple of months back I purchased an item from an eBay seller in the US, which was shipped to me through eBay's Global Shipping Scam Program. Bad move. It took a whole fifteen days to reach France, which is incredibly slow. This was because the seller first had to ship it to a processing centre in Kentucky, which then took a couple of days to process everything that needed to be processed (i.e. nothing) before repackaging it and sending it on to me.

 

When I made my purchase I didn't expect the parcel to take more than the usual five to ten days to be delivered, and so didn't consider that my impending house move could be a potential problem..... As I track all of my parcels using an app on my phone, I was alerted when it was eventually put out for delivery in Paris a day or two later - which was the day before I was due to hand my keys back to the landlord at midday and move 200 miles away. Despite having a lot of things to do, I opted to stay at home all day to make sure I was in to sign for it.

 

The company delivered until 8pm so I didn't get too worried when I saw 5pm, 6pm and 7pm come and go... But then 8pm came and still no parcel. I went to check if I'd missed them, no card either, and no missed calls on my phone. The following morning I called the delivery company to have a bit of a go at them because I wasn't very impressed. They called their driver while I waited and he claimed that he couldn't get into the apartment complex and had no phone number, which I found surprising since the delivery instructions included my mobile number and the access codes to get past the gate of the apartment complex and into the lobby, where the letterboxes and intercom could be found... They noted my number and told me it would be out for redelivery that same day, but that the driver would only be in my area in the evening. This was no good to me as I had to hand the keys back at midday and drive to the other side of France.

 

I eventually ended up driving 15 miles to find the driver, whose mobile number he had agreed to give to me after I explained the parcel would have to go back to the US if it wasn't delivered before lunchtime. I called him as I was getting near to the street he was in, but by the time I got there he had moved on (he had a job to do, after all). I'd call him again and he'd be a couple of blocks away, so I'd try to catch up but would inevitably arrive once he'd moved on to his next delivery. This went on for some time as naturally I got stuck in roadworks for a good 15 minutes while a crane was being manoeuvred onto a building site, and then had to drive around looking for a petrol station when I realised I was about to run dry.

 

After almost 90 minutes of playing cat-and-mouse on the streets of western Paris in my fully-loaded estate (washing machine, shelves, dismantled beds etc...), we eventually came to the conclusion that it might be easier just to arrange to meet in a set place at a set time, which in retrospect have been the easiest option from the outset...

 

Much annoyance and a nerve-calming croissant later, I finally spotted the van and driver pulling up to the square I was on. He duly showed me his company worksheet which, true to his word, didn't have either my phone number or the access codes on printed on it. The US company that was supposed to "take care of everything" hadn't even bothered to pass on my contact details. Excellent service...
 

I thanked him and apologised for the trouble it had caused him (not my fault or his company's, but my delivery must have slowed his day down somewhat...). I called the company to make it clear it wasn't their driver's fault and that they hadn't been given the full delivery information, before driving home to pick up the girlfriend and the dog, hand back the keys, and finally setting off for a new life in Brittany.

That was the last time I bought from an eBay seller using the GSP.

 

JB

[Spitfire2865]

Here's a good one...

 

A couple of months back I purchased an item from an eBay seller in the US, which was shipped to me through eBay's Global Shipping Scam Program. Bad move. It took a whole fifteen days to reach France, which is incredibly slow. This was because the seller first had to ship it to a processing centre in Kentucky, which then took a couple of days to process everything that needed to be processed (i.e. nothing) before repackaging it and sending it on to me.

 

When I made my purchase I didn't expect the parcel to take more than the usual five to ten days to be delivered, and so didn't consider that my impending house move could be a potential problem..... As I track all of my parcels using an app on my phone, I was alerted when it was eventually put out for delivery in Paris a day or two later - which was the day before I was due to hand my keys back to the landlord at midday and move 200 miles away. Despite having a lot of things to do, I opted to stay at home all day to make sure I was in to sign for it.

 

The company delivered until 8pm so I didn't get too worried when I saw 5pm, 6pm and 7pm come and go... But then 8pm came and still no parcel. I went to check if I'd missed them, no card either, and no missed calls on my phone. The following morning I called the delivery company to have a bit of a go at them because I wasn't very impressed. They called their driver while I waited and he claimed that he couldn't get into the apartment complex and had no phone number, which I found surprising since the delivery instructions included my mobile number and the access codes to get past the gate of the apartment complex and into the lobby, where the letterboxes and intercom could be found... They noted my number and told me it would be out for redelivery that same day, but that the driver would only be in my area in the evening. This was no good to me as I had to hand the keys back at midday and drive to the other side of France.

 

I eventually ended up driving 15 miles to find the driver, whose mobile number he had agreed to give to me after I explained the parcel would have to go back to the US if it wasn't delivered before lunchtime. I called him as I was getting near to the street he was in, but by the time I got there he had moved on (he had a job to do, after all). I'd call him again and he'd be a couple of blocks away, so I'd try to catch up but would inevitably arrive once he'd moved on to his next delivery. This went on for some time as naturally I got stuck in roadworks for a good 15 minutes while a crane was being manoeuvred onto a building site, and then had to drive around looking for a petrol station when I realised I was about to run dry.

 

After almost 90 minutes of playing cat-and-mouse on the streets of western Paris in my fully-loaded estate (washing machine, shelves, dismantled beds etc...), we eventually came to the conclusion that it might be easier just to arrange to meet in a set place at a set time, which in retrospect have been the easiest option from the outset...

 

Much annoyance and a nerve-calming croissant later, I finally spotted the van and driver pulling up to the square I was on. He duly showed me his company worksheet which, true to his word, didn't have either my phone number or the access codes on printed on it. The US company that was supposed to "take care of everything" hadn't even bothered to pass on my contact details. Excellent service...

 

I thanked him and apologised for the trouble it had caused him (not my fault or his company's, but my delivery must have slowed his day down somewhat...). I called the company to make it clear it wasn't their driver's fault and that they hadn't been given the full delivery information, before driving home to pick up the girlfriend and the dog, hand back the keys, and finally setting off for a new life in Brittany.

 

That was the last time I bought from an eBay seller using the GSP.

 

JB

Now THERES a horror story. Though, for 15 days to travel across the Atlantic and then to Paris is pretty damn good in my mind. You must have some good postal service if thats slow.

[NGT6 1315]

It is about time that an alternative to the closed door and small post box was found, or deliveries geared to a schedule of when there is someone at home to take receipt.

 

DHL over here have begun offering home parcel boxes for customers for a monthly fee starting at € 1.99. Information page (in German but with photo gallery for configuration options) here: https://www.paket.de/pkp/appmanager/pkp/desktop?_nfpb=true&_nfxr=false&_nfxr=false&_pageLabel=pkp_portal_page_info_depotbox

 

However, it seems to me these boxes are only practical for homeowners, and not really suitable for multi-party houses such as ours as I figure you'll need certain ownership rights to even be able to set them up. Obviously, there's a certain maximum size to them, too, so I suppose things like bulk parcels of cat food and toilet litter couldn't be deposited there. Of course, other couriers outside DHL and Deutsche Post cannot access them.

 

There also is the question of safety against burglars who might take an interest in these boxes, so while I do think the basic idea is good, there are a couple of items I'd have to have addressed before I would consider ordering one of these boxes.

 

DHL also have a network of electronic parcel booths called "Packstationen" which are mostly available in and around major cities and look like this example:

 

 

Size and specific types can vary, depending on location. These are intended as a convenience for customers who are, for example, at work during the day and cannot easily pick up parcels left at the post office due to working hours. These booths have storage cells of different sizes and can be accessed with customer ID cards and individual transaction numbers which customers receive by text message for each shipment. Parcels have to be specifically addressed to any individual booth.

[Gwiwer]

Not sure if this is a horror story or an example of outstanding service but anyway ....

 

I've been waiting for a new camera and had an email last Monday to "confirm" it had been collected by the courier and providing me with a tracking number.  The email didn't identify which courier which made the tracking number useless unless I spent time looking through every website I could find.

 

The email assured me the item would be delivered "Within 24 business hours" which is a curious way of making it look like next day but actually meaning 3 - 4 days assuming an 8-hour business day.

 

Nothing happened until Friday when I heard a van pull up in what is a very quiet court (cul-de-sac) most of the time.  I waited a few moments in case.  I then went to the side door and out into the car port to see a delivery driver carrying my package back down the drive!!!  

 

I called out to him at a distance of no more than five metres but this was ignored (or intentionally not heard?) and he drove off.  I found a card left at the front door.

 

Back inside I immediately rang the now identified DHL contact centre which is over 1000 miles away in Brisbane using the number on their card.  I explained to a very attentive, understanding and easily-spoken female that I was actually home, that the driver had failed to knock the door and had simply left a card; I was only alerted by the sound of a van stopping outside.  She offered every assistance she could and asked (a nice touch) if I minded being placed on hold.

 

Five minutes later she was back with an apology that it had taken "far longer" than she expected.  She had traced and had spoken to the driver who told her he rang the doorbell.  We don't have a door bell and I told the girl this.  She did say the driver's English was "appalling" but accepted that there had probably been a lack of effort on his part to effect delivery and that I, the end consumer, had been unduly inconvenienced.

 

She could only offer re-delivery next Tuesday coming - another four days - but when I pressed the point that I really did need the package before then she asked again to place me on hold.  When she returned she advised she had spoken with the driver supervisor for this area.  Nothing could be promised but they would firmly advise the driver that this item had to be delivered today.  

 

Not more than a minute later he was back at the front door, this time banging firmly on the wood frame and the glass but I had already heard the van and was out there quickly.  The driver, apparently Chinese, asked me "What happen?" to which I replied that I had been home before and had called out when I saw him walking away.  He shrugged his shoulders and after signing his little device he handed me the package before stomping off muttering something in another language.

 

At the end of that I have a new camera and can finally join the DSLR brigade.  I had no control over the courier used and the supplier had almost, but not quite, achieved delivery from Hong Kong to Australia within 24 "business hours".  Only the delivery driver let the operation down but isn't that so often the case?

Edited February 22, 2015 by Gwiwer

[jivebunny]

Now THERES a horror story. Though, for 15 days to travel across the Atlantic and then to Paris is pretty damn good in my mind. You must have some good postal service if thats slow.

 

I usually receive things by courier (so by air freight) from the US and Japan in six or seven days, so fifteen days for it to arrive in the country plus two extra days to actually receive the item was an unusually long time in my experience! Once parcels have landed in France they're normally delivered the following day. That's the advantage of living in a country that's smaller than Texas I suppose! 

 

Only the delivery driver let the operation down but isn't that so often the case?

 

In my own experience it's very rarely the driver who lets the operation down (although it does happen obviously) and the vast majority are usually quite keen to complete their deliveries. When deliveries don't turn up it's usually down to incorrect / incomplete information, badly-designed routes which the driver has no chance of completing before the end of his or her day, or simply down to having too many parcels to deliver in one shift. It's eleven years since I last had any involvement in the courier business though so I'm not sure how things work now i.e. if drivers have targets / quotas to meet.

 

Those DHL boxes look good. I think Amazon allow you to have parcels deliviered to lockers at railway stations in the UK now, but I don't think any delivery companies have rolled out such infrastructure.

 

JB

[TheSignalEngineer]

Another parcel thrown over the fence by Hermes, pity it snowed while we were out. Why does a company like John Lewis use such a rubbish delivery service?

[Black Sheep]

Another parcel thrown over the fence by Hermes, pity it snowed while we were out. Why does a company like John Lewis use such a rubbish delivery service?

Go throw it back at JL...

 

There's a chap lives near me dumps his excess rubbish on his local MP's garden if it won't fit in the bin. We're on a 3 weekly bin collection these days.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Another parcel thrown over the fence by Hermes, pity it snowed while we were out. Why does a company like John Lewis use such a rubbish delivery service?

 

Go throw it back at JL...

Already fixed replacement delivery at a pre-arranged time.

[jamessolomon]

Edited February 22, 2015 by jamessolomon

[Mark Saunders]

Why bother trying or leaving a card but ensure the details are entered on the computerised delivery system!

 

Do not bother checking for split deliveries as it is a well known fact people only get one parcel at a time!

 

I regret the passing of City Link as at least their depot was on my doorstep!

 

Mark Saunders

 

[JeremyC]

Worst service I've seen was the time I had to get an urgent spare sent up to Stornoway following a steering gear failure. The courier took the spare from the south of England to Inverness and then posted it!

 

We're told the delivery business is very competitive, so perhaps we would get a better service if people were prepared to pay a realistic delivery cost rather than expecting free delivery, however I hope delivery charges wouldn't be of the order of one I was quoted recently for a spare for a navigation light panel. The spare was a PCB indicator panel; cost £120, packing and carriage from Norway £150 (the PCB is about 300mm x 50mm.)

Edited February 23, 2015 by JeremyC

[45156]

I've had a couple of bad experiences - one with Yodel, who left my copy of "Each A Glimpse" on the doorstep in the rain when I was out all day - despite my instruction to deliver to an alternative address (neighbour) if it came when I was out.

 

The other was even more serious, and involved Royal Mail Special Delivery guaranteed 1.00 pm delivery, where the post person signed to confirm delivery at 12.47, then continued to deliver the normal post elsewhere.  I was waiting and at just after 13.00  checked the website and saw that delivery had taken place - so went post hunting, and saw the van about twenty minutes away from home, and managed to intercept the post person, and found that the parcel, containing a very expensive teddy bear was still sitting on the passenger seat of the van.

 

Was asked to sign again, and soon afterwards the Royal Mail website was updated to show delivery AFTER 13.00 - so this them became the subject of a failed delivery claim, and the cost of delivery was finally refunded to the seller, who sent it to us.   I was later told by an ex-postman that this practice was common, and that the person concerned was one of the main offenders - that person has never delivered post round here again.

[John_Hughes]

Just got a Hermes delivery, in good order, and two days earlier than expected.

 

Wonders will never cease!

[Kenton]

 

Why does a company like John Lewis use such a rubbish delivery service?

It's cheaper than employing people to drive their JL vans.

[Gareth Collier]

I ordered a Brighton Belle from Locomotion Models at Shildon and paid £7.50 P&P. UkMail were the couriers and this morning I received a text from them saying my one hour delivery window was in around 20 minutes. Great service, pity I was at work so I was wondering where I'd have to pick it up from. Needn't have worried, it was leaning against the front door in full view!

Gareth

[TheSignalEngineer]

 It's cheaper than employing people to drive their JL vans.

Well I suppose they charge the write-off to the courier rather than having to bear it themselves.

[Southernman46]

UKMail .....................................F*CKING SH*T !! ...................... don't EVER use them

[Mark Saunders]

I ordered a Brighton Belle from Locomotion Models at Shildon and paid £7.50 P&P. UkMail were the couriers and this morning I received a text from them saying my one hour delivery window was in around 20 minutes. Great service, pity I was at work so I was wondering where I'd have to pick it up from. Needn't have worried, it was leaning against the front door in full view!

Gareth

 

It is nice to see that the tradition of LOP (left on premises) has not changed since NCL delivered for BR in the 1970's!

 

Mark Saunders

[Spitfire2865]

Well. USPS 3 Day shipping. Original expected delivery day, Saturday the 7th, confused for PO box, handed off to multiple post offices in the area, then delivered to a completely wrong address, then sent back to the office, and now should have been delivered today. Nothing yet.

[RANGERS]

No horror story but used Doddle for the first time this week.

 

We have great difficulty receiving parcels, folks are home infrequently during the day and although the post is pretty regular, other couriers vary enormously as this thread testifies. Doddle offers a receiving service for parcels which you collect from one of their collection points, simply address the parcel to one of their offices with your name and user ID in the address and then pick it up from the office when it arrives, they e.mail and text you to let you know when it's there. The process was pretty slick, the cost can be hefty at 1.95 a throw but you can pay a fiver a month for unlimited collections so any more than two a month and you're in profit.

 

It won't suit everyone, the offices are in major stations, I use the London ones and collect on the way home from work, but if you are near one it's worth considering. Any carrier delivery issues are dispensed with as the offices are manned 07.00 to 20.00 to receive deliveries so no more expensive packages left on the doorstep.

[Spitfire2865]

Well. USPS 3 Day shipping. Original expected delivery day, Saturday the 7th, confused for PO box, handed off to multiple post offices in the area, then delivered to a completely wrong address, then sent back to the office, and now should have been delivered today. Nothing yet.

Update. Mis delivered again to the SAME wrong address. I wouldnt be surprised if this "3 day" shipping takes me 3 weeks...