Metropol

i spotted this whilst coming back from a meeting this morning:



the white box you can see is a brother laser printer... it's hard to see from that picture, but it's upside down and just thrown in, in fact every box in there looks like it's been chucked in... i always knew couriers were pretty bad but we were all quite amazed to see this.

Just last week, I watched an Inital Citylink van pull up outside, after which the driver climbed in the back and just chucked parcels out of the back onto the road behind. He then quite calmly picked them up and went over to the house to where they being delivered.

And a few months ago, I went apeshit at a Parcelforce courier for doing the same thing when he delivered a Canon Pixma printer to me in three pieces with a huge rip down the side of the box. He claimed complete innocence even though I'd watched him drop the box out of the van. Even as he stood at the door, the "this way up" arrow was pointing sideways as he had completely ignored its presence and placed the box on its side. I opened the box in his presence to explore the damage, and even as I removed the seperate chunks of printer inside, he was completely unapologetic, and refused to acknowledge any culpability.

Parcelforce themselves were no more helpful when I spoke to them. They called me to ask why I had refused to accept delivery of the item, and when I told the woman what I'd witnessed, and the state of the box and the product inside, she claimed that it must have been like that upon leaving the retailer. Not a word of an apology from anyone.

So to be honest, I'm personally not at all surprised to see a picture like that - it seems to be the norm these days.

My firm recently moved from TNT to Initial Citylink.

I have to say that the drivers I have encountered are most helpful, and they are good enough to take the time to call us if they encounter problems with delivery. Not something which can be said of other carriers.

On the face of it the van looks to be in disarray, but boxed items like that are designed take a surprising amount of movement and even tumbling. The more worrying items would be the ones which are repackaged without polystyrene forms to hold goods still.

If you are in any doubt about items being delivered, refuse to sign for them and phone the vendor. A contract to supply is not complete until you sign for receipt. All carriers cost in insurance for items danaged in transit, and they have to cough up - beleive me!

Citylink are the best out of all the ones who deliver to our shop too. Depends on the driver of course

i can say i've ever really had much success from courier services.

we've had quite a few boxes with great big rips in and a number of items completely repackaged by the courier, although the items inside weren't too breakable.

i guess these things happen from time to time and i've always worked at places where a large number of bulky goods are shipped around the place so i suppose it's to be expected.

what frustrates me the most though is the fact that a lot of courier drivers seem to lack any sort of common sense or initiative - especially when it comes to delivering items out of hours.

you just cannot get the drivers to ring you when the parcel turns up or when they're 20 minutes down the road. they just turn up, see nobody is there and leave a card. because i'm based in a different building to the main reception all they need to do is ring me and i can be in my car and on site within 5 minutes.

Dr Lobster* wrote:the white box you can see is a brother laser printer.

That's all right; no problem.

If you trade your old printer in for a Brother 5240 at the moment, you get a free three year warranty.

Damn fine value!

nodnirG kraM wrote:Initial City Link are the worst of the bunch when it comes to collecting a parcel from them. I'm at work pretty much every time a courier arrives with some tat from eBay, so I normally get the usual card through the door apologising for the fact that I'm not home.

Consider yourself lucky. The last two times I've had stuff delivered by Initial CityLink they've not even bothered to leave a card. The first time the package got returned to the sender as a result. The second time I double-checked by phoning them and managed to pick the parcel up from the depot, staffed by some of the rudest and most unfriendly people I've ever met.

Clearly standards must vary around the country, but from my experience of them I'd never choose to use them.

Nope it doesn't surprise me at all! My brother is a postie and some of the things he's told me are shocking!
What annoys me is the stupid places they park. There is a particular spot on one of my travels where he parks on a notoriously dangerous blind bend without a care in the world. It's an accident waiting to happen. I'll get him one day < evil cackles>

Thought I would share my experances from last week.
The comapny is amtrack - not had a good thing to say about them the last time I have been sent something via them.

ordered my item online - said next day delivery as standard - thought how nice. Got my dispatch note and tracking number... checked online and had a message saying arrived at teesside and with driver. Checked the next day and was saying delivered - but signed by someone I had never heard of.
Phoned them up and was told it was delivered to my address and signed by this persion. had to disagree with her about this... Promised a call back.

Later that day...
They admitied they have no idea who they delivered the package to and were going to ask the driver when he returned to see of he rememebred.

Much later...
The driver has no recolation of delivering the package to any address.

Many long calls to supplier and amtrack later...
Am getting a new item sent via royal mail!


(last time) Amtrack left the item in the back garden (in the rain) in about 50 peices and clmaied I had signed for it!

I have a great postman (cute too). He delivers post and parcels during the day and Chinese food at night.