We called, but you were out. Deal with it!

This page deals with one of our pet hates - mail order delivery.

I remember a radio sketch from back in the eighties, that featured an irate consumer asking the question: "How come that even though Britain owns, or part-owns, 48 geostationary communication satellites, I still had to wait in for three hours for the gas man?"...

The Problem With Mail Order...

I love Internet shopping - not only do you get cheaper stuff and a better choice - you also don't have to lug stuff home yourself. The downside is that you have to be there when the little chap in the courier van turns up. And that's the hard bit.

Now I'm not having a go at the courier companies - the logistics in shifting thousands of packages around the world in 24 hours is frightening. I'm also not having a go at online retailers, who have stock issues and distribution headaches. I'm not even complaining about companies that fail to turn up on the day that you're expecting (although that's really annoying)... I'm having a go at the system in general. It's the silliness of things like the following:

• Companies that offer "delivery within 2-3 days" - Well, which is it? And does that include the weekend?
• Companies that say "your order has been dispatched", but not how it's being delivered (Royal Mail, Courier, 24 hours?)
• Companies that let you order when there's no stock, but don't tell you that it's back in stock and they shipped it - the first you know is when you get the "we tried to deliver but..." card
• Failed deliveries where the little boxes aren't ticked so there's no clues - so you drive to the sorting office to get a bit of junk mail that the kind postie didn't want to fold or leave outside, when you were expecting to be picking up your hi-fi.
• Couriers that aren't flexible. "We can't deliver to your work address. We don't deliver on Saturdays. You can't collect from our depot"
• Couriers websites that let you view online tracking... that's a day out of date

• Waited in for a courier that didn't show
• Faffed about with parcel-tracking websites and "we called but..." cards
• Spoken to a courier's head office to arrange redelivery - and got very frustrated
• Tried to get a number for the courier's depot (not the call centre)
• Driven to a depot on a Saturday to collect something a courier wouldn't send out at a weekend

1. A retailer that quotes an accurate delivery estimate, and tells you when the items's dispatched
2. A retailer that emails you a tracking number, and tells you the company/tariff that will be delivering
3. A retailer that provides the option to pass on your mobile number to the courier, so they can call you if you're out, or to check you're in (cheaper than them driving miles to find you're out)
4. A courier that acknowledges people work from 9-5, and offers evening and weekend deliveries
5. A retailer that mails you after delivery to check you got the goods, and find out when the courier turned up (to improve their performance, and estimates)

Visitor comments:

Thanks to Jonathan Eden for the following:

"City Link yesterday (a Friday) supposedly "Delivered" my parcel and have Proof Of Delivery. Very impressive, except that they have gone to a house where I don't live and allowed someone to who is not me to sign a completely different name and Citylink were lost/confused, have not checked the address nor the identity of the receiver and the person receiving seems to have happily done so because they have taken something they did not order, to a name and address that is not theirs! But hey, that's OK because Citylink have a POD to prove it!

There's now nothing I can do about this idiocy or fraud until Monday. Citylink's drivers should try reading the info in front of them, try finding the addresses they're meant to reach and shouldn't accept some name and signature at the door that in no way relates to the person who paid the money for the product!"

Thanks to Valerie Spruce for this:

I was waiting for a parcel from citylink, which was meant to be a next day delivery. I waited in 2 days and nothing came. In that time I contacted the company I'd bought from, City link themselves and my local depot. They all told me the same: the parcel is on the van still and Citylink is in your area and when its a consumer and not business they tend to run late.

On their website this is what they say:  City Link is the UK s leading Premium Express Delivery Company providing high quality, flexible and innovative courier services across the UK, Ireland and Worldwide. City Link has been successfully delivering your documents, parcels, pallets and freight throughout the world since 1969. You can track online, customer services will give you an ETA up to 8.00pm.Saturday services can only  be specified by the sender. You can however collect the parcel from the depot with certain I.D. (providing of course they can find it). And the first attempt of a missed delivery, according to citylink will be re-attempted the next day.

We also heard from Jude Bland:

No company can give an "accurate" time for delivery unless they themselves operate their own delivery service. All Mail order companies are at the mercy of the carriers on this one. Royal Mail Track & Trace - doesn't. They can only say when an item was sent and when it was delivered. They are completely unable to "trace" any item. Nor do they give adequate compensation to the company sending out the goods. Only the end-customer, the intended recipient who has bought the goods can get compensation for the value of the goods.

Many companies are too small to get decent prices from the private carriers. So they go to one of the mail consolidating companies. However if an order goes astray, they have no access to the carrying company who was actually responsible for the delivery as their contract is with the consolidator - who don't give a damn as they've already got their money from the sending company and aren't responsible for paying out compensation.

What you are therefore asking for is simply unachievable.

Thanks to Steve Bennett for the following:

City link are a joke with a seriously flawed tracker system and rubbish customer service. I had ordered items online and received an e mail from city link to say that the parcel would be delivered on thurs 15/12, I was at home all day but nothing got delivered, I was at home all day the following day but again no delivery.

I checked the parcel tracker on the city link site which stated the parcel was delivered on thurday 15/12 at 15.03, I then tried to phone the help line to explain that the parcel had not been delivered but after going through the automated service I was put on hold for 10 mins then the line went dead, several more attempts with the same result, I checked the tracker again this morning (mon 19/12) and the tracking details had changed and now stated the parcel was delivered and signed for on friday 16/12 but I still havent received a thing. Tried the help line again this morning but after 15 mins on hold the call got severed again!

Other links

• Shopping online - A list of online retailers
  
  
• Offers - Special offers for Internet shoppers
  
  
• Essex couriers - Help tracking down local depots in South Essex
  
  
• Complaining to Royal Mail - Get your voice heard by the UK postal carriers
  
  
• P.O Box Problems? - Perhaps we can offer some advice
  
  
• Complaining - Found a bad retailer? Goods not supplied? Some help in getting your complaint heard

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