[Closed] parcelforce, muppetry..

How about you wander around later today and see if there is someone in at Number 3 and collect your parcels.

Mistakes happen - at least he had the balls to come and tell you.

Complain to parcelforce then

thats exactly what I plan to do, and I've made plenty of mistakes in the past. my main problem is that at no point did he express any kind of desire to either sort it out, or say sorry.

Why don't you put a note through their door to let you know when they're in.

Alexander Graham Bell's research would not be wasted then.

I feel your pain...now how about you do what you're supposed to do and go and stew on this for a while and then come back and post a proper rant so we can all give you condescending scores and humerous "advice"?

I had a positive Parcelforce experience yesterday - sold a frame to Petesam, who was quite keen to get it and build the bike up by the weekend. Booked a ParcelforceAM collection online yesterday morning, said collection would be today between 9.30 & 15.30. Was surprised when an hour after booking a Parcelforce van turns up to collect!

So long as Petesam gets the frame today then the plan has come together.

please please tell us that the parcels consisted of 1X bombers and 1X cat urine filled shoes?!?!

it'd be fantastic thinking that the normal response would be hindered by the non-delivery of the normal response.

please?

"a great british institution" is dying on it's feet?

That's a bit melodramatic innit? Don't be such a big girls blouse 😉

We've had "signed for" post left a few times for people that are over a mile away. Usually I just do the job of the delivery bloke and drop them off on the way to work.

I did a shift at a parcelforce depot while doing temping stuff during my a-level summer hols.

I was tasked with loading an HGV from a conveyor got told off for loading it too slowly. I was going as fast as I could, but apparently the technique I was using was incorrect.
You weren't meant to carefully place each item taking into account weight, size etc. The correct technique it turns out was to stand at the end of the conveyor and hurl every package towards the back of the HGV as hard as possible. I was shown this technique by a supervisor, who clearly ignored "fragile" stickers on boxes and broke at least a couple of items, while I was stood watching him (you could hear them break).....

I try not to use Parcelforce now. I did one shift & refused to go back.

Bought a bike, delivery by parcelfarce
come home and there it is sitting on my doorstep
far from chuffed i call the depot to complain because a an unsecured bike sitting on a doorstep can not only be stolen, it's a pretty fair indicator that the householder isn't in
apparently, "the woman two doors down", a Mrs X had signed for it and said she would "keep an eye on it"
i spoke to the only neighbour i have who is "2 doors down" (there's 4 cottages, it's not hard to work out, and asked her if she was Mrs X. no, she's Miss Y and has never heard of Mrs X
no, wait a second, the names rings a bell, oh yes, that's who she bought her rouse from, and the name is still on the garden gate and she's never replaced it becasue the name is part of the gate.
so, in summery, lazy ****wit from parcelfarce has found a name on a gate, forged a signature and lied about it.
when i raised this with the depot manager i was told that this is "one of our best drivers" - god knows what the rest of them are like

thread title incorrect - should be ParcelFARCE

i have had so many issues with parcel farce that i no longer use them - DHL are much much better. Recently my lady was posted a dress from her mother on 12pm delivery. It never arrived. After much chasing Parcel Farce informed us the delivery was made to the local post office because the driver refused to drive down the road as it was covered in wet leafs! I hope they are privatised as quickly as possible.

And just to add - a while back i purchased a frame from the states. The value declared was $1000 and I would have been liable for VAT and Tax. They initially wrote to me requesting a payment of £10. So i went along and paid the £10. A month later I had another letter stating they had made a mistake and requested £480! After i protested I received another letter with a cheque for £42.00.

Wouldn't worry, all the courier firms are at the same level of incompetence, including but by no means a definitive list
a) leaving a £800 dvd player in the wheelie bin 'because it was raining' despite being a signed-for parcel.
b) Rifle left at back door of parents house, despite the 3ft high fence anyone could see over
c) Set of Hope Hoops left at my backdoor, despite visible from road
d) Collecting one parcel from depot the guy threw it from the first floor and the guy 'catching' missed

and too many 'Home Delivery Network' parcels left at front door to count.

All different courier firms.

royal mail made my blood pressure increase a bit a couple of weeks back:

delivered some dvd's from play.com (about 8 of them) all of which were individually wrapped for postage, each separate one with its own postage paid and addressed etc.

but becuase they had been held together with a red elastic band in his bag, he didnt bother to take the band off and post them through the door, instead leaving a "parcel is too big, and nobody answered the door" note.

now a) he could've taken the band off and actually put them through the door with ease but also b) there was a support worker standing less than 10ft from the door when he posted the note apparently (she was talking to a patient so didnt check the note until he had wandered off down the road) and he didnt even knock or ring the bell.

i had to travel to the other side of reading to collect the pile (still held together by an elastic band) from the depot.

Best one i've experienced was when i had a 'while you were out' note put through my door... trouble was it was completely blank with no hint of where my parcel was.

A cow orker of mine ordered a laptop which was left unsigned for in his porch. He called the company a few days later and reported it hadn't been delivered. Got sent a second laptop, also left unsigned for in his porch...

Nice bit of frad there bassspine.

I've had one better:

Bought some Juicy 5s on Ebay and told the parcel would be due on Wednesday. Wednesday came and went, and I thought I'd leave it a day or so in case the post was late. Come Saturday I got a bit annoyed and thought the seller was trying to con me. Sent a (polite) message on Ebay about it, and the seller sent me a tracking number for it.

I put this into Royal mail tracker and what happens?
"Delivery failed on Wednesday 26th." Item too big for letter box," etc. What p!seed me off so much was that on that day I was no more than 10m from the front door working on my uni essays ALL DAY! There was no knock or even a cheeky red slip put through the door!

I then dashed to the sorting office, powered by pure rage and came to pick it up. The woman at the sorting office was very polite and helpful, and even let me take my housemate's package from CRC that they'd "attemtped" to deliver the same day as my brakes. I explained what happened and she was not happy with it either.

Royal Mail and Parcelforce do REALLY annoy me at times.

I'm quite disappointed in this thread,.

Very poor effort.

When i was a member of a book club books kept going missing, so went to the depot to find out why, spoke to the manager, to get a book back, he went off and found it in the staff canteen, when another chap saw him handing it over to me, he said Dave want be very happy he was reading that book, The manger explained that the book was mine and i was a customer not the new driver as he thought i was as i turned up in van.

That depot has now closed due to the large amount odf stuff going missing i was told.

I have floor to ceiling windows in my sitting room that you have to walk past to get to the front door, the path through the garden also has anyone walking to the house face the window. I have been stood in the window and had a delivery guy walk down the garden path, walk less than 3 feet in front of me and then post a "you were out" notice through my door.

It was a large parcel I was waiting for, which he didnt even take out of the van.

I managed to catch up with him on his way out of the garden, once I had the parcel I made him aware of my feelings and told him I would be making a complaint. He didnt care a toss and said it would make no difference - he was with home delivery network.

Last month I came home to find a pallet delivery wagon off loading a pallet of cider onto my drive 😯 Yes I had ordered it - but the driver was going to leave 48 2ltr bottles of Thatchers Gold - wrapped in clear plastic - on a pallet, on my drive with no signature...

Reminds me - must order some more.... 😉

cynic-al - Member

Nice bit of frad there bassspine.

wasn't me what committed the frad, it was the driver who left the laptop without a signature and my coworker with no morals. I thought it was a good example of a failure on the part of the courier as well as the customer, costing a legit business money. Did I[i] have[/i] to explain that?

A cow orker of mine ordered a laptop which was left unsigned for in his porch. He called the company a few days later and reported it hadn't been delivered. Got sent a second laptop, also left unsigned for in his porch...

...and a that boys and girls is how PC World was born.

It's not just Parcelforce. Mrs B runs her own business and the other week the delivery driver left 3 large cardboard boxes full of greetings cards worth about £600 in our front garden - in the rain. He helpfully posted a note through the door saying which bush he had hidden them behind. He also should have obtained a signature. About £150 worth of cards were ruined.

She rang the couriers to complain and they actually tried to say that it was an issue between her and the supplier! The supplier is resolving the situation by no longer using the company concerned.

I've posted and received quite a few items over the years with parcelforce - frames, suspension forks etc - and never had a problem. Just in the interests of balance, mind.

We had a parcel force van break the manhole cover on our drive, not only did it break but the wheel of the van fell into the pit. How do I know this well it was all observed by our neighbour, she also observed the driver gunning the van to get the wheel out. When we questioned parcel force they denied all knowledge till we revealed the witness and suddenly they were offering us compensation. The best bit was a 'while you were out' card for a DVD sized packet.

She rang the couriers to complain and they actually tried to say that it was an issue between her and the supplier!

Well that is technically correct if the supplier had arranged the courier.

That postman is a complete and utter useless ****, I would of called the sorting office there and then and reported it. It was not a mistake as these things have been known to happen a lot. The Royal Mail deserve to lose out to the private sector.

Not much better here - i got home to find a new dishwasher, a very expensive stainless steel range, a rangehood, a frame and set of sign-for documents all dumped outside my house on the driveway. Thankfully its a private driveway but nonetheless. Interestingly enough my wife was in the whole day and not once did they come to the door (she was working in the office at the back) which has a view of the door.

I also had a pallet of beer dropped in front of my garage without any notice which was a mixed blessing - the beer was well receieved but i had to get my ****in car out in a hurry !!

mashiehood - Member

DHL are much much better.

Ha ha! That made me laugh.

I spent a while working as an agency driver and drove for most of the companies. DHL were one of the worst, along with Home Delivery Network.

DHL have little idea what's on on the van, how many parcels are in a consignment or where anything's going.

If you want to send something that will arrive in the correct place and be delivered properly use Fedex or UPS. DPD are also excellent.

If you're intending to make a hefty insurance claim for a lost item try DHL or HDN.

You can, of course, get good individual drivers for any company (my local DHL guy is one) which helps if you live in a country area with a regular guy on the same route.

What's a cow orker?

What's a cow orker?

It's a device to ork cow's, obviously.

Ahh, thanks.

At least I can easily go and collect from Royal Mail, unlike everyone else who I need to book a time (during working hours) to visit...

And surely if they leave a parcel on your doorstep its their (and their customers) problem if its either stolen or damaged?

tbh I'm quite happy that they leave stuff, as it shows that I live in a decent area and I don't have to either go get it or re-arrange delivery.

I have far greater issues with couriers than parcelforce or royal mail

KINGTUT - What's a cow orker?

i worked for dpd here in innsbruck. was hillarious.

we unloaded the hgv's to a conveyer. some things were just chucked onto it and i was astonished by the fooook off big drop either side to which packages used to fall off the side, you would wait 5 secs and here smash!!!

people wouild then just laugh.

best ones where bikes, couldnt lay them down as the band wasnt wide enough so you would lay on its side, well only took a gust of wind or the band to move into the lorry more and that lepierre bike would shoot off.

money was good tho 😉

I think it depends where you live. In Edinburgh the posties never even tried to deliver the parcel, they go straight to a "while you were out" card. I was standing there when one came through the door (the card, not the postie) once and chased the guy up the stairs to get some flannel about "I bought it yesterday but ran out of cards missus" aye right got his name and made him promise to bring it back the next day.

Like most things in Peebles, the posties are AWESOME. I leave a note on the mat with the keys to the stair cupboard (and some beers the first time) they put parcel in cupboard, lock door and post keys through the hole in my front door. Great system. Must leave out some more beers.

Best mates a postie. I get really worried when I get the red card after some of the things he tells me. Basically now all non delivered parcels get dropped off at a post office (posties don't go back to office anymore, political thing, they'd need to be paid until they clock off blah blah blah) so they all get collected again, sent back to the big area office and start the process again back to the postmand again (that's why it's 48 hours before picking up from sorting office).

The area office is renowned for things going missing especially at Christmas time when they employ casual labour.

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My favourite is when they delivered a large parcel marked fragile full of xmas presents. Rather than leave it outside the dooro r in th porch they threw it over the 8 foot high fence to leave it in the rain leaving no note. The gate cant be seen from the house and everything got ruined by either being broken or wet.
I now get everything sent to work. They once failed to deliver here as they could not find it. There is one building between my work and the main post office for a city - it is one way and you need to pass my work to get to the place they leave it - we have the same postcode 🙄

Today I have Parcelforce Rage!! I booked online selecting collection from 9am - 5pm from my work address. Had a call enroute to work saying Parcelforce is here which was just after 8.30. I said I am less than 1 minute away and he's not meant to be there before 9. Arrived at work to hear from my colleagues that the driver could not wait and has gone. OK stay calm I told myself --- I rang several numbers and was told the collection times are only 'advisory' so why have it on there. The booking process states keep the selection as wide as possible and 9am is the earliest you can select. I then get given another telephone number to call and its the usual menu system, press 1 to listen to this menu a thousand times, press 2 to be totally convinced there are no humans working for this company etc etc. Finally after nearly 50mins I get through to the depot to hear she will send a txt to the driver asking him to call me, she also said they are so busy at the moment that the drivers are ignoring their messages. GREAT!! Stupid twunts!! I spend so much money with them, this parcel is v.important and I've even offered to call the driver and take it to him if he's local. I hope they all get bought out and abused by a group of Horny Silverback Gorillas.. (Ahhh that feels better)

we had a drunk postman for about 3 years at work... would spend about 15 minutes walking in weird directions across the carpark, then spend 5 minutes working out which things to push through the door. not fantastic when half our post is confidential stuff about patients as half the post seemed to be delivered to the wrong houses down the road!

was kinda funny to watch him change direction 50 times in the 20meters of carpark haha

I really shouldn't be reading this thread today...I'm waiting for a bike to be delivered and according to the parcelforce tracking thing on the website it was loaded onto a delivery van at 0755 this morning...

I really shouldn't be reading this thread today...I'm waiting for a bike to be delivered and according to the parcelforce tracking thing on the website it was [s]loaded[/s] [b]thrown[/b] onto a delivery van at 0755 this morning...

sorry, had to be done, hope it wasnt expensive! 😆 😯

...I'll let you know... I am actually wincing now.

Another tip:

NEVER, EVER mark anything you're sending as "FRAGILE". If you do, your package will be singled out for "special" treatment - being flung as high and far as possible and dropped deliberately.

When you pack stuff, assume it'll be handled by hamfisted gorillas, crushed, squashed, dropped, kicked or run over. You can never have too much bubblewrap or padding. For something actually fragile try and build in a "crumple zone" around it with cardboard or polystyrene to absorb the impacts.

If you're paying for extra insurance, make sure the item you're sending is covered by that insurance.

I got a note through the door from DPD. I'm waiting for something to be delivered but not expecting it to be a signed-for affair. The note says "we tried to deliver, we'll try again tomorrow but you can call to re-arrange or pay more for delivery etc..."

But the recipient name is not mine. There's no mention of an address and phoning their number gives you computer-only response so can't even find out if it's my parcel and so worth taking the day off to wait for. Awesome.

How can so many people run so many businesses so badly?

Happy days. I'm back from lunch to discover a couple of large boxes waiting for me. Having thoroughly checked the boxes for signs of mistreatment I am happy to announce that thus far things appear to be unscathed...obviously photographic evidence of a new bike will follow in the next day or two...

Royal Mail farce today.

Made the mistake of waiting in for a parcel this morning. When I decide to leave for work, becuase I can't wait any longer, I discover a 'we called, you were out' card on the mat 😡

Lazy ****ers didn't ring the bell, or knock. I doubt they even had the parcel on them. I'd gibber on in an enraged fashion at the sorting office when I go to collect about breach of contract etc, if it wouldn't be like water off a ducks back.

I've said it before. Fire the lot of them and sell the company to some Germans who'll get the job done properly.

parcel force makes me think of the opening scene in ace ventura pet detective.... smashing the parcel about as much as possible... then stealing your dog.