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.
Comments
This. Looks like its been stolen to me.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Hopefully threats of legal action will get them to do something about it.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Anyeay, glad it all got sorted for the OP.
Glad it was sorted .. someone else not so lucky ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4212018/Bride-distraught-losing-wedding-dress.html
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-38944387
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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
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!
http://news.sky.com/story/thousands-join-newlyweds-quest-to-find-lost-wedding-dress-10763379
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.
Fortunately the next day there were still people in the building clearing out (shutters were down) so I could get the parcel