Parcelforce Customer NON Service

[Alan Griffin]

I ordered something on Wednesday 18th December, which I wanted for
Christmas (2013!)

I paid Parcelforce for "Express Delivery". It should have arrived on
Friday 20th December.

It didn't and their tracking device said "Address problem: unable to
locate premises". Our house has been here for 350 years, and everybody
else can find it. I e-mailed them and gave them precise instructions as
to where our house is, and got an e-mail back saying that my
instructions had been sent to the depot.

I also telephoned them, and they apologised and promised to deliver it
the next day. They didn't, and the next tracking message was on Friday
27th December saying: "unable to locate premises" again.

I e-mailed them again, and had another phone call from them yesterday
promising it would be delivered today. It wasn't, so the earliest they
will now deliver is next Monday. That's over two weeks so far for an
"Express Delivery"

Any suggestions as to what I can do next? Their "Customer Service"
seems to be non-existent!

Alan Griffin

[jl]

Hi Allan

As far as I can make out, you have to put up with it. Not finding the
house is obviously somebodies excuse for not bothering and once its on the
computer, there it stays!

Around here, if they can't be bothered, they just dump parcels with a
neighbour within the radius of about 2 or three miles. Around this time of
year delivery services don't operate too well.

Jochen

--

------------------------------------
The Roe Valley and Limavady
Roe Valley News Browser
http://roevalley.com

[Vince M Hudd]

Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

[Trying to get Parcelfarce to deliver something...]

> Any suggestions as to what I can do next? Their "Customer Service" seems
> to be non-existent!

Skip calling Parcelfarce, and call whoever you bought the goods from. It is
*they* that you paid, and they in turn who have a contract with Parcelfarce.

Nothing might actually come of it - but the company from whom you purchased
the goods from would have a complaint on record about their delivery company
of choice.

If *enough* people suffered the same problem, and took the same action, then
eventually the company would realise that they need to seriously think about
changing delivery companies - and it's not until *that* happens that the
likes of Parcelfarce might deal with their problems cease to deserve their
long-held nickname.

The problem is that people generally don't complain to their suppliers about
situations like this, and instead deal with the couriers themselves, which
ultimately achieves nothing.

--
Soft Rock Software: http://www.softrock.co.uk
Vince M Hudd: http://misc.vinceh.com/about-vinceh/
RISCOSitory: http://www.riscository.com

[Alan Griffin]

In article <mpro.myvgpe000...@softrock.co.uk>, Vince M Hudd

<vin...@softrock.co.uk> wrote:
> The problem is that people generally don't complain to their
> suppliers about situations like this, and instead deal with the
> couriers themselves, which ultimately achieves nothing.

The firm I bought it from have been excellent.
They immediately refunded the money I paid for express delivery.

They have telephoned Parcelforce twice to try and get the parcel
delivered. and were fobbed off with promises that it would certainly be
delivered tomorrow!

They have e-mailed me each time they have contacted Parcelforce.
They are definitely doing their best to get it sorted,

Alan

[Alan Dawes]

In article <53c46a...@argonet.co.uk>,

Give the story to the newspapers. A quick call from eg the Guardian or
Mail to their press office usually produces results.

It's very likely that this has happened because Arsehole-Farce's Sat Nav
system database is wrong.

Alan

--
alan....@argonet.co.uk
alan....@riscos.org
Using an Acorn RiscPC

[Alan Griffin]

In article <53C5340F5D%mik....@xemik.com>, Mik Towse

<m...@towse.org.uk> wrote:
> > The firm I bought it from have been excellent. They immediately
> > refunded the money I paid for express delivery.

> I had four failed next-day with Royal Mail, some taking five days to
> arrive. Has cost Amazon �25 in goodwill payments.

I'll wait and see if they offer!

> > They have telephoned Parcelforce twice to try and get the parcel
> > delivered. and were fobbed off with promises that it would
> > certainly be delivered tomorrow!

> Have you suggested they leave it at your local post office?

No. Good idea. I'll do that if it doesn't arrive tomorrow.

Thanks!
Alan

[Bill (Adopt)]

In article <53c46a...@argonet.co.uk>,
Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> I ordered something on Wednesday 18th December, which I wanted for
> Christmas (2013!)

> I paid Parcelforce for "Express Delivery". It should have arrived on
> Friday 20th December.

[..]

> It didn't and their tracking device said "Address problem: unable to
> locate premises". Our house has been here for 350 years, and everybody
> else can find it. "

> Any suggestions as to what I can do next? Their "Customer Service"
> seems to be non-existent!

Possibly not quite the same track ..but a very
similar situation existed here where deliveries
of everything, from letters to parcels, seemed
to be forever going astray - or were just plain
wrongly addressed by computer.

Royal Mail, (as other deliverers) were somewhat
perplexed ..and bluntly couldn't have cared less!

The answer, after much to-ing and fro-ing,
annoyance and exasperation for not a few years,
came when a young 'Council' lady took personal
responsibility for the street addressing formation
and mapping within the District.

She bared her delicate fangs and, with our Council
Solicitors' support, took up her cudgel.

The Solicitors confirmed both my addressee name
and the (un-numbered) address in use, which they
then forwarded/circularised to all interested
parties having legal requirement for the information
held on the electoral roll. The various computerised
addressing lists emanate from this source. (Not the
publically available list, by the way, which was
opted out).

The Council's Solicitors then issued me with a
letter formally stating the details with the
suggestion that this be kept safely so that it
may be displayed to anyone questioning in the
future.

At the same time the Solicitors informed Royal
Mail, at their main addressing centre, (Doxford
Park, Sunderland), of their confirmation of both
my addressees name and the full postal address.

Royal Mail then politely acceded and formally
confirmed the said details, writing to me as
"The Occupier" at the confirmed address - again
the suggestion is that this letter also be kept
with the house documents pending any further or
future questions. They confirmed that they would
advise all interested parties of this confirmation.

After all this the information semed to rapidly
filter through, even appearing on sat nav with
the previous mis-direction collapsing almost
overnight.

The 'kick in the tail/tale'? A friend noticed
that, with Google Maps, there's now a big arrow
with the house name hovering over the roof of
..you've guessed it ..a nearby house!

mmmmm...!

Hope this is of some help, Alan - at least, if
you have concerns despite the 350 year standing of
your address, I'm guessing that you should be able
to find out who is responible for the mapping and
addressing within your local Council area and ask
them for assistance.

Of course, you will no longer be named 'Alan Griffin',
merely 'The (Anonymous) Occupier'!

:))

Bill ZFC
..and a belated Happy New Year to one and all :))

--
Bill ZFC
http://www.billsimpson.com/

[Alan Griffin]

In article <53c59a7...@billsimpson.com>,

Bill (Adopt) <ad...@billsimpson.com> wrote:
> Hope this is of some help, Alan - at least, if
> you have concerns despite the 350 year standing of
> your address, I'm guessing that you should be able
> to find out who is responible for the mapping and
> addressing within your local Council area and ask
> them for assistance.

Thanks Bill!
Alan

[Alan Griffin]

In article <53c4f0...@argonet.co.uk>,

Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:

> The firm I bought it from have been excellent.
> They immediately refunded the money I paid for express delivery.

The parcel has just been delivered, nearly three weeks after I ordered
it by "Express Delivery".

However, I now find that it was not entirely Parcelforce's fault.
The firm who sent it failed to copy down my address correctly!
They just put the name of my house, and the village I live in, leaving
out the road name!

I'll get back to them and see if they make a "goodwill payment"!

Alan

[Alan Griffin]

In article <53c5c8...@argonet.co.uk>,

They e-mailed and offered their profuse apologies - but nothing more!

I replied and said I expected some compensation for all the phone calls
and the hassle over the last three weeks.

They have answered and said they are giving me a refund of 20% = �2.57!

Very generous of them.

They said that it wasn't a human error.

"We have a system which automatically uploads all addresses and so they
are not manually inputted. This has never happened before and I
apologise greatly for the trouble, inconvenience and delay that has
been caused. Do you still wish to keep the order".

How can a computer fail to copy the address correctly?

Alan

[Alan Dawes]

In article <53c5d8...@argonet.co.uk>,

Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> How can a computer fail to copy the address correctly?

The database in their computer system, which checked the address before
passing it on to labelling, didn't contain the name of your road so
helpfully left it out?

[spampling]

In article <53c5db0853...@argonet.co.uk>,

Alan Dawes <alan....@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <53c5d8...@argonet.co.uk>,
> Alan Griffin <a...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> > How can a computer fail to copy the address correctly?

> The database in their computer system, which checked the address before
> passing it on to labelling, didn't contain the name of your road so
> helpfully left it out?

Which is therefore, as per normal, a human error.

Computers don't normally error without a major failure, they do however
frequently carry out stupid instructions to the letter and repeatedly if
requested.