Courier Shenanigans

[BaggyMan]

So, over on the auction website that must not be named, I purchase a G&L L2500.  Much happiness and excitement, but with a lot on the to do list this week the hour each way to pick it up was out of the question.  Option available "deliver to Argos for local pickup".  Handy thinks I, saves missing the courier etc. 

Pays up and waits.

Normally if I ship a bass I use UPS (I know some don't like 'em...) as I have had no issues and normally a couple of days turnaround.  did the deal on the Monday with a vie that it may turn up in time to gig on the Saturday.  Update says yesterday..(one week and a day to go 25 miles or so..nice) Check the courier...the dread Hermes.  every dealing I have ever had has had 'issues'.

So checked the status on the due date, still not delivered, with a note saying the were trying to contact the sender to return it...from a depot 1 mile away from the Argos they were supposed to deliver it to.  

Turns out this particular depot has a history of high value 'missing items'.  Quite unhappy I get down to the depot to be confronted with a sign on the depot door "parcel inquiries not available , ring this number..sign'.

Moving from DEFCON 2 to 1 I tail gate man employee, and (somewhat amazingly) remaining civil request a "WTF is going on?" status.

The guy was quite helpful (a first for this lot) and finds my parcel to inform me that they tried to deliver to Argos, only to be told the parcel was too big for Argos to accept. 

So luckily me picking it up stopped them from returning the damn thing and wasting my £35.  Massively slow delivery, bad communications, not contact lines , and no customer services at the depot. Ebay offering a service that Argos doesn't support.  Dumbfounded.  Who do I shout at or even how.   

Especially, after a recent run in with the post office who lost a bass I shipped with them and with casual indifference didn't even bother to apologise.  Pfft...definitely resent handing over monies and insurance premiums to cover the inept handling of the couriers who should have some legal duty of care for your item you have paid for a service to deliver.  And yet we even have to insure for if they lose or damage it.

[Bassfinger]

Yodel jerked me around last week.  I'm off work at the moment, but still have a life.  Nevertheless, when I got the alert at 0629hrs that the parcel was now out for delivery I elected to remain in all day as it was a large item (a JB body) and I didn't want it left on the doorstep.

It didn't arrive until lunchtime the next day.

The only one I like is DPD, purely because the Sikh guy that does our local round has been doing it for donkeys and is well known, and doesn't take the pith.  If he ever left to do something else we'd be stuffed.

[Jono Bolton]

I always ask which courier would be used, and if it's Hermes or Yodel, I'll request that it's shipped by other means. I won't buy anything if it's going to be "delivered" by those charlatans. 

The Argos thing is curious; I bought a football shirt a few months ago and chose the Argos collection option as there was one 5 minutes from my office and I'd presumed it would be easier. As it was, it got stuck in limbo for nearly two weeks until the shop were notified by eBay that the parcel was going to be arriving in their store. I'll not bother again after than.

One of the local guitar shops offers a courier service where they'll pack and ship an guitar/bass for £25. Saves a load of hassle and when I ever need to ship instruments, I use them. They did sting me last time for an extra £15 because I was shipping to Northern Ireland, even though when I phoned in advance they said the cost would be the same. 

[NikNik]

Shipped a bass abroad recently on 48hr delivery via FedEx. Took 9 days. Told that I should have bought late delivery insurance. 

[davegriffiths91]

Vaguely on topic with Hermes...

I decided to part with alot of books and my entire CD collection with music magpie. About 5 sizable boxes full with a value of around £200. The hermes tracking stated it was on it's way to them but amazingly it never made it. Contacted MM after seven days to resolve the issue. Couple of days later the moneys in my bank but the boxes never made it to MM. 

I'm happy cos I got paid but I would NEVER use Hermes!

[kodiakblair]

I've had no bother with Hermes/Argos collection, not so good collecting from Yodel.

 

Royal Mail is a different story,if stuff isn't 3 days late it fails to turn up. In the last month 1 bass body has went missing,a set of tuners joined it in the void. Now it's a couple of control plates gone missing 🤬

I swear blind some chancer in the depot is building basses with my gear.

[BaggyMan]

UPS: No problems, I am sure other have, but they have been on the money every time for me even internationally (Portugal and two to France)

PostOffice: Bass went missing got less than the value back and didn't get the postage refunded. They also managed to reduce the recipients wife to tears blaming her for not paying attention.  Second occasion they swore blind the address of the house next door was the delivery address, who obviously objected that they had it wrong.  So, they said "so you are refusing delivery.." In the end they returned it back to me. n finally left a Fender Jazz in a fully marked Fender box behind my dustbins, didn't leave a card or email, I found it three days later (two of which had rained all day.)

Hermes:  Missed two delivery dates even though they agreed to both, then said they didn't have the package, then found it, and delivered it to the wrong address.  Now this with Argos refusing the parcel because of the size, they knew my address and contact details yet wanted to send it back to the sender. 

TNT: bit expensive but ok

 

 

[BaggyMan]

I take it back TNT:  failed to turn up on the scheduled time (last monday in the PM), rang interparcel to do a WTF status check.  Apparently TNT had a 'system issue'  and would i please re-schedule a pickup...I politely suggested that TNT/Interparcel should have contacted me to inform me rather than i have to chase it.  That said they picked up within a couple of hors and it arrvive the following afternoon.  Much to the @TheGreekrelief..

 

[fleabag]

The Greek does like a bit of relief,  occasionally

[TheGreek]

Can confirm the Bass arrived safely today - a day early...

Downside? Bad traffic in Luton town centre stopped me getting to the car and back to the office to collect it. Training tomorrow so may not be able to get it home till Friday...

[BigRedX]

As a seller, I've encountered the maximum parcel size problem before when I tried to ship a guitar to an Argos address.

There was no information from Argos itself and first I knew of it was when the guitar was delivered back to my address about 2 weeks after I sent it. Tracking showed that it had two delivery attempts that were refused before the courier gave up and brought it back.

Since then I've simply removed the "click and collect" option from all my auctions irrespective of the size and weight of the item. I can't be bothered with the hassle.

[Jakester]

16 hours ago, BaggyMan said:

I take it back TNT:  failed to turn up on the scheduled time (last monday in the PM), rang interparcel to do a WTF status check.  Apparently TNT had a 'system issue'  and would i please re-schedule a pickup...I politely suggested that TNT/Interparcel should have contacted me to inform me rather than i have to chase it.  That said they picked up within a couple of hors and it arrvive the following afternoon.  Much to the @TheGreekrelief..

 

I had a problem with TNT via interparcel - late to collect, then after repeated chases, refused to deliver, citing the fact they didn’t have a depot in the area. When I pointed out their depot was less than half a mile for the recipient’s address, they cancelled the order and sent the item back to me. 
 

Morons.