A Pigeon could give a better delivery service! (Parcelforce)

Member Name: blackrose_

Product:	Parcelforce
Date:	29/12/01 (261 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not too expensive

Disadvantages: Rubbish delivery service, Rubbish customer service, Complete lack of common sense in some of their delivery personnel

Ahhh Parcelforce. Where can I possibly start? I have had so many problems with this company, that I am now reduced to the point of trying not to order from online sites which only use this company as their carrier.

Living in a rural area and not owning a car, I do an awful lot of shopping, from food to clothing to luxuries and gifts, online. In the past few months I have had about 50 parcels delivered either to myself or my partner, about 15 of them were by parcelforce, and we had problems with 12 of the deliveries. To me, this percentage of failure, particularly compared to the one single solitary problem out of 35 parcels delivered by Royal Mail, is totally unacceptable.

Problems have ranged from no attempt at all at delivery, which I only learned of after the company we ordered from contacted me to tell me the parcel had been returned to them, to parcels being left outside and mysteriously vanishing, to the great 'hunt the parcel' game parcelforce decided we should play; they left a parcel with a note to say they had left it....and no clue as to WHERE they had left it. After searching the back garden, the front garden, and canvassing several of the neighbours to see if the parcel had been left with them, we eventually found the parcel. The kind delivery bloke had thrown it into the dog pen with the dog, who had proceeded to do the doggy thing and chew it up. Irate, I phoned parcelforce, but was told that once they have delivered the parcel to the address on the label, it ceases to be their problem, or words to that effect.

We have also exerienced problems the one and only time I will ever use this company in an attempt to send a parcel to someone else. It was a return from a company, and I took it to the depot and even had my wits about me enough to get a receipt from them to say that they had taken the parcel from me. It is a good job I did, as a couple of weeks later I was billed twenty five quid for it. I contacted
the company and said that the parcel had been sent via parcelforce. I sent them a copy of my receipt and they said I didn't have to pay, but if I hadn't have got a receipt I would certainly have been left footing the bill for something I had returned as unsuitable.

Their parcel tracking service is, in my opinion, next to useless too. All it can tell you is whether the package is in transit or not, no clue as to when you might expect delivery or where it is, just that it is somewhere in their system and will, if it doesn't get lost, get to you sometime...hopefully!

To be honest, I think that if this company don't start providing a satisfactory service, they are going to be facing severe financial problems in the very near future. I can't be the only person who has emailed an internet company to request a different courier, and if enough people start to do this, these internet companies will drop parcelforce as a carrier. So, parcelforce, sort yourselves out before its too late!

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