Courier nightmares

Limehouse_Blues

A few weeks ago DPD / Interlink collected my wife's wedding dress on behalf of Johnsosn dry cleaners. A couple of days ago Johnsons contact my wife to say the dress is cleaned and ready for delivery. She books in the delivery for yesterday afternoon. The dress never appeared but she got a text from the Interlink driver saying that it had been safely delivered. The driver also posted a picture message to the online tracking showing a far too small parcel left in front of a doorway obviously not ours.

i enlarged the photo from the online tracking page and could just make out the address and postcode from the waybill which was for an address about a mile away. I went round there yesterday evening and spoke to the occupant to see if they had received a parcel in error but they said they had been expecting a DPD delivery and received it yesterday. I'm pretty sure this person does not have my wife's dress because apart from anything, the parcel in the picture left by the driver is too small for a wedding dress.

We're now alarmed at the thought that between them, Johnsons and DPD/Interlink may have lost my wife's wedding dress. That the dress is valuable (over 2k) is one thing but the sentimental value wrapped up in it is huge. We managed to set a rocket under DPD this morning to open an investigation (even though their contract is with Johnsons) but frustratingly can't speak to Johnsons until Monday.

Crap, negligent service like this boils my blood. Johnsons charged 150 quid for this special 'bridal service' and proudly claim to take great care of wedding dresses.

Apart from the one occasion UPS managed to lose a poster that was being shipped to me from the US (it eventually turned up weeks later in a UPS warehouse in Copenhagen (!) before finally reaching me in London) this is the only bad experience I've had with a courier. Shipping guitars I've had nothing but good experiences with UPS and FedEx.

So, a word of caution. I'd give DPD interlink a wide berth and as for Johnsosns... Well, just don't bother. If this escalates not only do I have every intention of suing in small claims for any loss but also writing personally to the Timpsons CEO who is ultimately responsible for Johnsons' abysmal service.

Winny_Pooh

Sounds like a horrible situation. Was it insured? No courier is perfect unfortunately as alot of it comes down to individuals who do a good job or screw it up for the others.

Foster

Get the police involved, sounds like mr driver had a good idea what was in the parcel and thinks he can flog it on ebay for a few quid. 

Fretwired

Foster said:

Get the police involved, sounds like mr driver had a good idea what was in the parcel and thinks he can flog it on ebay for a few quid. 

^^

This. Looks like its been stolen to me.

ICBM

Never send anything by courier that you can't afford to lose, whether or not it's insured. The loss rate is fairly small but it's always just a gamble really.

Hopefully threats of legal action will get them to do something about it.

FreddieVanHalen

I had an amp go missing with the East London branch of DPD.

Claimed they "couldn't find it anywhere, must be lost, we'll have to instigate a search but that could be weeks, etc, etc"

So I went down to their warehouse in South East London on a Saturday morning and miraculously they were able to find it for me in about 10 minutes.

Other people claim to have good experiences with DPD but mine have always been terrible and I would definitely not recommend their East London depot. Utter wankers.

boogieman

Foster said:

Get the police involved, sounds like mr driver had a good idea what was in the parcel and thinks he can flog it on ebay for a few quid. 

Plod won't be interested at all. Firstly there's no proof of a crime, secondly they'll tell the OP to sort it out himself with the supplying company.

I wouldn't have thought a wedding dress would be an obvious thing to steal either, it's not exactly something like a laptop or jewellery that's easily shifted. 

Bygone_Tones

There are some courier staff who will rip off the labels and try to steal the item that way. I had this happen to me with DHL a few years ago. Always write on the cardboard in marker pen the destination address and the tracking number. Dont rely entirely on a printed label sellotaped to the box - it might come off...

Motorhate

I had UPS lose some motorcycle brake, clutch and throttle cables on me a while back. They kept delivering it to the wrong address (not even the one on the front of the parcel) and each time I'd ring customer services, get them to redeliver it and again it would not only go to the wrong address and the occupants refuse it, it would then go back to their warehouse in Germany as a lost delivery. This happened three times. I was livid. I bombarded their UPS' Twitter page telling them and everyone else how useless they were. Their customer services people were also useless when the Twitter bod told me to get in touch and I was getting nowhere and I needed these cables badly.
Eventually, after getting nowhere I contacted the UK's UPS CEO directly and told his the whole sorry saga. To his credit, he had them overnight delivered to the correct address free of change and compensated me the postage charges too with several apologies thrown in too. A victory for me, although it should never have come to that if they just did their job correctly.

.... bottom line to the original poster - email DPD's CEO and explain to them why they're useless. In the meantime, bombard their Twitter page and tell the world they're useless. Their CEO is Dwain McDonald and his email is dwain.mcdonald@geopostuk.com

Give them hell my friend.

Foster

boogieman said:

Foster said:

Get the police involved, sounds like mr driver had a good idea what was in the parcel and thinks he can flog it on ebay for a few quid. 

Plod won't be interested at all. Firstly there's no proof of a crime, secondly they'll tell the OP to sort it out himself with the supplying company.

I wouldn't have thought a wedding dress would be an obvious thing to steal either, it's not exactly something like a laptop or jewellery that's easily shifted. 

I was thinking about it and there's proof of fraud. They claim it has been delivered yet the photo they have provided as proof is that of another parcel with someone else's address on. 

Alternatively pop down to the sorting office, preferably with some friends. Make a day of it, take some sandwiches and a thermos - could take them a while to find the parcel, just remind them that you're not leaving without it.

Limehouse_Blues

Well, it's panic over thankfully. Apparently DPD delivered 4 parcels to another flat in my building yesterday but only 3 were for my neighbour. Neighbour only twigged this morning they had one too many parcels and brought the dress round to us.

Huge relief. What still puzzles me though is that the driver managed to post a photo of the wrong parcel/doorway to the tracking page. Also pretty annoying that they didn't read the flat number on the label and buzz our door yesterday afternoon.

DPD clearly at fault. However, part of me wonders whether this shambles is possibly a consequence of drivers having crazy schedules. I remember hearing something on the radio before Xmas about the appalling conditions some courier drivers work to, especially when delivering for the likes of Amazon.

if there's a lesson here for me it's maybe to shop local whenever I can, especially for services. The Internet has made it so easy to shop for goods and services but the whole system depends on poorly paid people working long hours in warehouses and behind the wheel and I guess that when people are pushed hard and under pressure/working to targets, mistakes will happen.

Every time I'm in a car in London I just look at the traffic and wonder how many of the small commercial vehicles are there thanks to e commerce while I know that a good number of the private cars are Uber drivers - a service I've not used because I know it's ruining the local mini cab firm I've used for years.

boogieman

Foster said:

boogieman said:

Foster said:

Get the police involved, sounds like mr driver had a good idea what was in the parcel and thinks he can flog it on ebay for a few quid. 

Plod won't be interested at all. Firstly there's no proof of a crime, secondly they'll tell the OP to sort it out himself with the supplying company.

I wouldn't have thought a wedding dress would be an obvious thing to steal either, it's not exactly something like a laptop or jewellery that's easily shifted. 

I was thinking about it and there's proof of fraud. They claim it has been delivered yet the photo they have provided as proof is that of another parcel with someone else's address on. 

The driver will just claim it's an honest mistake no doubt. When the police weren't even remotely interested in pursuing a case with a huge amount of evidence of fraud against a certain architectural photographer well known to this forum (and several others) I think that speaks volumes. There'd be little hope of getting a charge to stick here I think. 

Anyeay, glad it all got sorted for the OP. 

Fretwired

@Limehouse_Blues

Glad it was sorted .. someone else not so lucky ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4212018/Bride-distraught-losing-wedding-dress.html

ICBM

Fretwired said:

@Limehouse_Blues

Glad it was sorted .. someone else not so lucky ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4212018/Bride-distraught-losing-wedding-dress.html

(Edit) And has now been found where it was all along, although not exactly in the kind of condition it should be…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-38944387

DrJazzTap

Dpd are shite. I bought a pedal years ago and it was delivered by dpd. They claimed to have tried to deliver the package twice. 
On both occasions they said "nobody was home". On the second occasion my old housemate was working from home. In his downstairs office which was right next to the front door!! It was because the house was on a slight hill and away from the main road. They couldn't be arsed to get out and walk to the door.

Glad it turned up

57Deluxe

Bought a new chair from Wayfair. Ordered online 12.30 last Saturday. All the feedback reviews said delivery didn't happen when advised and they mucked them about. I Was advised on Monday AM that the free delivery was scheduled between 9th and 13th Feb... Turned up 2pm Tuesday... just 3 days from order... Just an anecdotal counter point...

dogload

I have only ever had one annoying experience with couriers, and that was also DPD being unable to deliver a package (a guitar).
Admittedly heavy snow was involved which meant my workplace - the delivery address -was closed so I was at home. I notified DPD who said they would deliver it to my home - which was easily accessible - only to receive a message that they had tried to deliver to work and couldn't because it was closed so it had been returned to the depot. Another phone call and I'm told they can't deliver to a different address to what's on the label. Fair enough.
Next day, work's open so off i go and I call DPD to say they can deliver it to me there. End of day, nothing, so call DPD to be told that they had tried to deliver it to my home but nobody was there so it was returned to depot... I eventually got the guitar - at work - over a week after the first attempt. It would have been easier to collect it from the depot but the only opportunities I had to do that, it was supposed to be on it's way to me! 

breakstuff

Looks like you're not the only one its happened to (unless,of course,this is you).

http://news.sky.com/story/thousands-join-newlyweds-quest-to-find-lost-wedding-dress-10763379

axisus

Parcelfarce.

I took a massive chance and threw £1500 to a guy in Slovakia for his chapman stick. It flew over from there and ended up in an airport somewhere up the UK. Got taken to Parcefarce's storage (somewhere near Birmingham). Sat there for days before eventually driving the 70 miles to somewhere local. By now I was ringing them a lot saying 'where's my parcel'. Nobody could tell me exactly where it was. Eventually they drove it to my mum and dads close (delivery point). They stopped at the end, and although they had the correct street name and house number they decided that they couldn't read the postcode (I kid you not!?!?!). so they did what any driver would do - they drove it back to the local depot. The local depot sent it back to the main one, the main one sent it back to the airport, and the airport stuck it back in the stuff to go to Slovakia (F***ing unbelievable!!!). I know all this because my boss was off work that day and I spent hours on the phone in his office trying to track my parcel down. The whole company were fekkin useless, but the one person who saved my bacon was a lowly PA at the airport who went out of her way to find it, write the postcode on and get it sent out again. It wasn't even her job. 

strtdv

This week UPS left a parcel at an "approved pickup point" which was a shop which literally went bust and closed the same day!

Fortunately the next day there were still people in the building clearing out (shutters were down) so I could get the parcel

boogieman

57Deluxe said:

Bought a new chair from Wayfair. Ordered online 12.30 last Saturday. All the feedback reviews said delivery didn't happen when advised and they mucked them about. I Was advised on Monday AM that the free delivery was scheduled between 9th and 13th Feb... Turned up 2pm Tuesday... just 3 days from order... Just an anecdotal counter point...

Wayfair are ok, their couriers definitely leave a bit to be desired though. We got a set of garden furniture off them last summer, a table and four chairs. The packing on two of the chairs was literally shredded when it turned up and when we opened up the box they'd been completely distorted and virtually flattened. They were aluminium framed: I'm 15 stone and bounced up and down on one of them and they wouldn't give at all, quite how the courier had managed to do that much damage to them on the way is a complete mystery. Maybe they have a pet gorilla in the van just for the purpose? Wayfair weren't at all interested in taking the damaged pair back and suggested we just dispose of them. They did give us four new ones though (no idea why four instead of two) so we eventually ended up with six decent chairs.