UPS - Unbelievably Poor Service. Avoid this courier...

[BreadBin]

I have shipped a number of bass guitars and other items fairly recently using Parcelforce with no problems at all, save for a small delay during the snowy season. 

They come to pick up from my work address and bring labels. 

I haven't paid for extra insurance as none of them have had hard cases but always pack well, double boxed and with plenty of padding. 

No help to you @Dood I am sorry, but feel I should point out not all couriers are useless. 

[Dood]

37 minutes ago, discreet said:

Really sorry to hear this, Dan.  But at least we all had a good moan about couriers...

If it has managed to highlight some of the issues and that the likes of UPS see feedback from their customers.. and you know, they even do something about the bad rep they are getting, then the discussion needs to continue.

[Dood]

Just now, BreadBin said:

 

No help to you @Dood I am sorry, but feel I should point out not all couriers are useless. 

Of course, I agree in part, but I think Parcel Force have had their share of fails too! 

[Monkey Steve]

33 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Amazon are one of the worst. Because they outsource there couriers. Ive had drivers knock on the door. If not answered within 30 seconds they just leave it on the door step in the rain. I have a very ill father in law that just can't get to the door that quickly. Ive also heard of couriers from Amazon that are under so much pressure to deliver a certain amount of parcels in one day that they don't have a break, and go to the toilet in bottles because they don't have time to go to the toilet. WTAF. !!!

very true, but I have to say (and I know others on the site have a less generous opinion) Amazon do at least have a very easy to use Customer Service dept who tend to lead with "so sorry, here's how we put it right" - I've never had an issue with getting busted or missing stuff replaced or refunded

[Twincam]

7 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

I have shipped a number of bass guitars and other items fairly recently using Parcelforce with no problems at all, save for a small delay during the snowy season. 

They come to pick up from my work address and bring labels. 

I haven't paid for extra insurance as none of them have had hard cases but always pack well, double boxed and with plenty of padding. 

No help to you @Dood I am sorry, but feel Ia should point out not all couriers are useless. 

I get the insurance with them no matter what. It costs more but psychologically I think (or is that hope!) it's more likely to be treated with respect. Plus of course if something does go wrong then  there more likely to help and you should be covered. 

[ambient]

1 minute ago, Twincam said:

I get the insurance with them no matter what. It costs more but psychologically I think (or is that hope!) it's more likely to be treated with respect. Plus of course if something does go wrong then  there more likely to help and you should be covered. 

Parcelforce insurance doesn’t cover instruments. I had to send a gig bag back to the distributor a few months ago. I booked the postage online and took it wrapped up into the post office, the lady  at first was reluctant to accept it.

[discreet]

9 minutes ago, ambient said:

Parcelforce insurance doesn’t cover instruments. I had to send a gig bag back to the distributor a few months ago. I booked the postage online and took it wrapped up into the post office, the lady  at first was reluctant to accept it.

Not only do they not cover instruments, but they will still take an insurance premium from you! Mis-selling if there ever was.

[Twincam]

22 minutes ago, ambient said:

Parcelforce insurance doesn’t cover instruments. I had to send a gig bag back to the distributor a few months ago. I booked the postage online and took it wrapped up into the post office, the lady  at first was reluctant to accept it.

Yes they do. They cover damage only up to £100 pounds which ismt great however losses are fully covered. Must be packaged in a hard case. There not covered for enhanced compensation but yes they are certainly are eligible for insurance. I believe max loss is £2500 I could be wrong there. 

When you book with them on certain sites like parcel2go they actually clarify this better than the parcelforce site.

From parcelforce site

Please note that musical instruments will only be covered up to the maximum amount of inclusive compensation included with the service and no enhanced compensation can be purchased on these items.

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Twincam

[ambient]

10 minutes ago, Twincam said:

Yes they do. They cover damage only up to £100 pounds which ismt great however losses are fully covered. Must be packaged in a hard case. There not covered for enhanced compensation but yes they are certainly are eligible for insurance. I believe max loss is £2500 I could be wrong there. 

When you book with them on certain sites like parcel2go they actually clarify this better than the parcelforce site.

From parcelforce site

Please note that musical instruments will only be covered up to the maximum amount of inclusive compensation included with the service and no enhanced compensation can be purchased on these items.

 

 

 

I was merely repeating what the lady in the post office said.

[Twincam]

10 minutes ago, ambient said:

I was merely repeating what the lady in the post office said.

It's ok I didn't take it any other way. I just thought might be useful for people to know the score on posting via parcelforce. As it's not easy to fully know what exactly is and isn't included. 

What I've found with posting many instrument related things in different areas Ive lived, that in each post office they will say a slightly different thing! The do have in common one thing.... That there are all adamant there correct haha. 

In any case i would of replied (very politely I may add) to the lady that this isnt a musical instrument but actually a bag. 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Twincam

[PawelG]

8 hours ago, Beedster said:

There are good and bad people, and good and bad practices, in all courier companies. My UPS guy is outstanding, he carries rolls of 'FRAGILE' tape with him and asks whether we want stuff labelled before he takes it to the depot. He's on occasion added extra tape to boxes for me when he thinks they look undertaped, and he even hand wrote a message from himself ("This is the collection driver, please do not place any items on the top of this customer's box") when I sent an acoustic a while back. He's under a hell of a lot of pressure and often works 12 hour days, but despite this he's polite and friendly, and never rushes. 

This.

There is a lot of great people in courier companies. Most of them can’t deal with the pressure properly. With the amount of parcels today every major courier company knows that there will always be work. And on paper everything looks nice and clean with all the rules and requirements, the reality is very different. There is only so much a human can do before he’s forced to cut corners. And that’s when the damage happens. The worst thing for me is that the people who are responsible for putting such a ridiculous targets on courier have never done a delivery in their lives. Most of it is all estimate. And they always try to squeeze more and more out of the hard workers. Not much we can do about it...

Edit: On the other hand we can’t forget about the amount of parcels being delivered in total. The damaged ones are probably a very small percentage. Mistakes happen. And we, the bass players, sometimes driven by GAS are using couriers to post naturally fragile things. Sooner or later, an accident happens. I doubt very much that a courier would damage anything on purpose, 99% of the time it’s just an unfortunate event.

Edited September 6, 2018 by PawelG

[Dood]

1 hour ago, PawelG said:

I doubt very much that a courier would damage anything on purpose, 99% of the time it’s just an unfortunate event.

Unless you happen to be the depot (or a depot like it) featured in the first video on this thread. YIKES!!

[PatrickJ]

Social Media, and Twitter especially, is definitely the best way to escalate your complaint.  If you are nof an active user already it might be worth signing up just for this issue.

Most of these organisations have customer service teams that are low paid and understaffed.  They become so used to dealing with these issues that they are desensitised by it and your individual case isn't important to them, just another unhappy customer in a day full of them.

Social Media however makes things very public.  Most organisations are quite nervous about the potential reputational damage negative tweets can cause and so they have dedicated staff monitoring the feeds and responding to issues.  

The company I work for have a social media team - any negative customer comments that are posted are immediately passed on to the management team to be addressed.

I can't say UPS is the same but I don't think you have anything to lose by trying it.  It's worked for me, last month I was having a problem with a music store that I ordered a pedal through.  I'd phone them up and never get promised call backs, I emailed them with no response and I even raised a dispute via PayPal that went unanswered.   After a few days of frustration I wrote them a negative review on Google - within hours they had responded and I suddenly received a flurry of communication from them.

Good luck, I hope you get your parcel soon!!

[Dood]

1 minute ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Social Media, and Twitter especially, is definitely the best way to escalate your complaint.  If you are nof an active user already it might be worth signing up just for this issue.

Most of these organisations have customer service teams that are low paid and understaffed.  They become so used to dealing with these issues that they are desensitised by it and your individual case isn't important to them, just another unhappy customer in a day full of them.

Social Media however makes things very public.  Most organisations are quite nervous about the potential reputational damage negative tweets can cause and so they have dedicated staff monitoring the feeds and responding to issues.  

The company I work for have a social media team - any negative customer comments that are posted are immediately passed on to the management team to be addressed.

I can't say UPS is the same but I don't think you have anything to lose by trying it.  It's worked for me, last month I was having a problem with a music store that I ordered a pedal through.  I'd phone them up and never get promised call backs, I emailed them with no response and I even raised a dispute via PayPal that went unanswered.   After a few days of frustration I wrote them a negative review on Google - within hours they had responded and I suddenly received a flurry of communication from them.

Good luck, I hope you get your parcel soon!!

Thank you! Time I had a Twitter account again then! 

[PawelG]

18 minutes ago, Dood said:

Unless you happen to be the depot (or a depot like it) featured in the first video on this thread. YIKES!!

I’ve seen quite a lot of these videos... maybe my percentages were a bit too optimistic then.

[Owen]

7 hours ago, discreet said:

Looking at it from another angle... courier service in general is poor. This is because it's a highly competitive industry and costs are cut wherever possible. This means that your friendly neighbourhood courier (of whatever company) is likely working for minimum wage - which means that no matter how hard they work, they won't be able to afford somewhere to live and to lead an independent life. This shouldn't make a difference to their service of course, but it does. It's hugely depressing.

The other problem is that they are under extreme pressure to deliver an unfeasibly large number of packages in an unfeasibly short space of time. If they lavished as much attention on your parcel as you'd expect, they'd NEVER get home and would be out delivering parcels 24/7. You're thinking about one parcel - he has to think about 240 and how he's going to deliver them and get home in time for some kind of life. So inevitably, corners are cut and even if the guy started out wanting to do a good job, the pressure and reality of the work means that it just isn't possible. 

This. We have remarkably high employment. But a LOT of the jobs suck badly. You would not catch Cameron/Osbourne and their ilk (because it is them who have created it) doing work like this. Ban me for being political, I don't care. And the aforementioned politicians do not either. 

[discreet]

4 minutes ago, owen said:

This. We have remarkably high employment. But a LOT of the jobs suck badly. You would not catch Cameron/Osbourne and their ilk (because it is them who have created it) doing work like this. Ban me for being political, I don't care. And the aforementioned politicians do not either. 

Yup. Much is made of low unemployment, but they're McJobs and zero-hour contracts. You can now be employed yet not be able to afford rent or food. Or have to choose between them. Welcome to 21st century UK neocon society.

Edited September 6, 2018 by discreet

[Owen]

And if you are self employed on a low wage then the Tories just stopped the National Insurance cut they promised 2 years ago. And if we had an opposition with half a clue they would be creaming the present government. 

Sorry to derail your thread dood. I hope UPS pull their finger out and do what they have been paid to do. 

[Dood]

4 minutes ago, owen said:

And if you are self employed on a low wage then the Tories just stopped the National Insurance cut they promised 2 years ago. And if we had an opposition with half a clue they would be creaming the present government. 

Sorry to derail your thread dood. I hope UPS pull their finger out and do what they have been paid to do. 

Oh great. I'm Self-Employed and on a low wage. I think I need to do lie down..... What a week!

[discreet]

23 minutes ago, owen said:

...if we had an opposition with half a clue they would be creaming the present government. 

It's an open goal. One wonders why they don't take the shot. Anyway, moving swiftly on...

[T-Bay]

It’s partly down to the zero hour/ minimum wage culture. If people feel valued and feel that the company they work for is looking after them they will work in away to promote that company and avoid any chance of them losing their jobs. Whilst there are rogue individuals that go against this, it generally works well. Sadly the ‘dont care’ attitude is far too common in both employers and employees in the modern world.

[Dood]

Partly down to the atmosphere in the house this week, but I’m feeling pretty down and dejected at this whole pink torpedo up.

I was really looking forward to this delivery - and if it happens, I will do a separate post, but the excitement of realising essentially a childhood dream has pretty much gone. I don’t think it’s going to have the same desire now. I’m hoping that the bass is actually ok, but that aside I’m feeling really disappointed. 

[Dood]

The swear filter has raised a small smile though!

[Skol303]

On reflection, I wonder whether our (my company's) positive experience of using UPS is due to us using company accounts, held by our suppliers, rather than booking them like 'regular punters'. What I mean is, our suppliers always deal with the same people for bookings, collections, etc. Whereas when I use UPS for private mail, it's often a different pick-up driver each time (albeit still without problems).

Anyway. Just thought I'd throw that out there and hope @Dood finds a happy ending to all this.

[seashell]

6 minutes ago, Dood said:

The swear filter has raised a small smile though!

The swear filter makes it sound ruder than it actually is! 😮