Parcelforce are rubbish (Parcelforce)

Member Name: ModelCitizen

Product:	Parcelforce
Date:	19/02/04 (2183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None at all

Disadvantages: Service, Service, Service

Parcelforce must be the worst company I have ever dealt with. Parcelforce is rubbish. Parcelforce are terrible.
The first time I sent something they lost it. The compensated me, eventually, but it cost me a lot of time and effort to get it.
Now I have had the misfortune to be sent a package by Parcelforce 48hour delivery. It took 9 days to get to me and cost me almost a days worth of my time to retrieve it from them.

My Parcelforce tale of woe:

Win bid at eBay for Naim NAP180 amplifier.
Seller sends it of by ParcelF*****d on wed using 48 hour delivery.
As Parcelforce are incapable of specifying a time of day it is to be delivered (or even which half of the day it may be!) I wait in all day Friday to take delivery. It does not appear.
At 5.00am I ring them up (they are supposed to be there till 5.30). Just get put on hold for 20mins until I give up.
Look at web site and find out my amplifier appears to be in the Redhill depot. Discover they don't deliver on Saturday and they there is no one manning their phone lines.
Ring them from work first thing Monday to find out what is happening. Get put on hold. Try to ring them at various times of day to find out where parcel is. Always the same... get put on hold... By now I have spent over 1.5 hours on hold in total. As I am self employed this has cost me quite a lot of money in lost time (not to mention phone bills). About 4.00pm I get through. They haven't a clue where my parcel is but will find and ring me back. They don't.
I ring them again first thing next day (Tuesday). Eventually get through. They say they will find parcel and ring back. By 4.00 they haven't so I ring them. After absolutely ages i get through. They cannot find parcel. By now I want to go to the Parcelforce?s offices with an Uzi. They give me the number of the Redhill depot so I can ring them myself to see where the parcel is. I ask them why they did not do this in the first place. The
y do not have an answer. By now I am now imagining taking one of those big guns from Quake into their offices.
I ring Redhill depot three times (before 5.00pm). No answer at all.... phone times out after about 5 mins each time. I decide I must take large Quake gun to Redhill depot too.
Next day (Wednesday) Parcelforce lady rings to tell me she has found the parcel and it is at Redhill (well, there?s a surprise!). She can't explain why there has been a delay. I blow my top big time, very big time (which is a shame as she is really quite nice).
She says they will deliver it tomorrow. I am not at home tomorrow so they say they will deliver it to my work address and one of my employees can sign for it (I am visiting Birmingham on business for the day).
Arrive home from Birmingham to find a note from Parcelfroce saying they could not deliver as I was not in. The stupid ******* have only tried to deliver it to my home address! Go to their web site to arrange a re-delivery. Web site is running even slower than usual and keeps timing out (I have v. fast broadband too!). Give up some time later and go to bed.
Try web site next morning to arrange re-delivery. It is still running slowly but I manage to arrange it and guess what... the amp turns up at work on Friday!!! An employee signs for it. As I am not at work I make special trip into work in the evening and pick it up.

If anyone has managed to read all this, please, please, please, do yourself a favour, pay the extra 2 quid and use a professional reliable service like UPS (http://www.ups.com/content/gb/en/index.jsx). www.parcels2go.co.uk or Swift (www.swiftcouriers.com). These have all delivered packages to me simply and efficiently.

Parcelforce do not deserve to be in business. It is amazing that anyone will use them when they have service levels and customer care rooted in pre-neolithic times.

Parcelforce are totally useless. They have no excuse. Parcelforce should not
operate in todays market at all. I imagine that they can only operate due the advantages of once being part of the state parcel system. If they operated on a level playing field with other operators they would not exist now.

If I total up my time, phone calls and petrol collecting this parcel cost me well over £350! And guess what, PF operate a compensation scheme, but only the sender can claim! Marvellous.

Summary: