Postal delivery services

[Richard]

What is the worst postal delivery service you have experienced?

DHL are dreadful, they do nothing other than offer a date of delivery.
No time-slot.
No text/phone call in advance.
This means you have to be on standby all day incase they happen to chance along.

[seahermit]

Deliveries have long been a source of great hassle - I think most firms are probably as bad as each other. I don't think anything delivered to me in the last few years has been preceded by a predicted delivery time - sometimes you can download a tracking app, if you wish to be bombarded by updating messages over a period of a day or two! That still doesn't cover situations where you just HAVE to be away from home for a time.

This is quite relevant to me at the moment because I have lost my "mailing address" - I was for some years using a bookshop in St Leonards instead of my home address, a very handy solution. The owner was a very nice guy and a good friend but sadly died in January (not Covid).

I have been unable to find a similarly convenient way - except for deliveries direct from Amazon. My orders from them now get sent to the lockers at Morrisons.

The Post Office are ghastly. Numerous things have been just left on the doorstep for anyone to take (rarely do I even know the day of delivery). Or I have to take an hour out to collect an item from the sorting office - buried in a backstreet on a trading estate at Silverhill and only open until 10am!

[Richard]

For small parcels Amazon locker at Morrisons is ideal.
Ebay will send to local corner shops.

From DHL I got the following:

WE STOPPED BY
Unfortunately, nobody was home to deliver your parcel to.
Shipment number: 41872160003952
We really wanted to deliver your parcel by hand, but your DHL Parcel driver called today at 10:47 and you were away. Your parcel has been returned to the local depot.
Not much use if I have to wait in all day since they fail to text or use mobile phones to indicate a time-slot.
I don't have a smartphone so the Apps are not helpful.
Phone them up and you get choices of robot messages, it is hard to find an operator except by sheer chance.

[seahermit]

These days, the technology should make it very easy to warn people by text, ahead of an approaching delivery, even on a simple keypad mobile: "your parcel will be delivered this morning" etc. Nothing like that seems to happen. And you hear of parcels thrown over fences, people living on main roads are told "we couldn't find your address" etc.!

Several of my parcels simply disappeared en route - fortunately I managed to get refunds in each case.

The Royal Mail are amongst the worst. They leave things on the doorstep (or leave a card) without even bothering to ring the doorbell first!! You can ask for a re-delivery to the local post office. Sounds fine, except that they charge you for the favour!

[seahermit]

The DHL service sounds inexcusable. Again, computers should make mass deliveries to multiple customers easy to organise and control - why is it that the opposite happens?

Postal deliveries for instance are less efficient, less frequent and less reliable than in Victorian times! Even the memories of my childhood are that you could post a letter to a friend via the last collection and it would drop through his letter box at 8am the following day.

[UncleB]

The DHL service sounds inexcusable. Again, computers should make mass deliveries to multiple customers easy to organise and control - why is it that the opposite happens?

I find UPS to be reliable - always pick up at the same time and provide a good service (not particularly cheap though).
DPD we have had fail to deliver first time on the last 5 orders we had delivered, in spite of us being home waiting for them. They took the time to post a note though, but pressing the buzzer seemed to be beyond their abilities.

The Post Office and ParcelForce deliveries tend to be just left exposed at the entrance or returned to depot if too large. Luckily we have not had any stolen for a few years now.

Postal deliveries for instance are less efficient, less frequent and less reliable than in Victorian times!

It is a mixture of work ethic on the part of the delivery staff and also the delivery companies expecting unrealistic levels of "performance" where they can maximise profitability at the expense of doing a good job for the receiver.

Quality of service is becoming a rare commodity, as is a good work ethic and I think it worth sharing the positive exeriences here as well as the negative ones.

[Richard]

When you order products you are most likely not able to choose the delivery service.
The company you order from makes that choice.

I ordered flooring amounting to many thousands of pounds but had to wait three days in a row for 'promised' delivery by their chosen agent.
No time-window given that was met.
No communications whatsoever from the delivery company.
Pure chance that I happened to be around on the day and time that a 'drop' was made.

No use having decent companies that offer a good service if a company you order from doesn't employ them.