Citylink (& Amazon)

Fella

As it turns out, my experiences on Tuesday were just the beginning. The damaged delivery was one of 4 items I had ordered (all from Amazon incidentally). I rang them & they told me they'd arrange collection of the damaged item on Wednesday. They also confirmed this collection in writing. This is what has happened since:

Wednesday 26th: Waited at home all day. No-one arrived to collect the damaged goods.

Thursday 27th: The Amazon/Citylink tracking system told me I was due to receive 3 deliveries. I also (naively) still expected that someone would arrrive to collect the damaged TV stand.

No-one arrived. Rang Citylink who told me that someone had tried to deliver to my house & got no answer (a lie). Was promised delivery the next day.

Friday 28th: No deliveries all day. Rang Amazon & was told to chuck away the TV stand! (I'm not kidding) & continue to wait for the other 4 deliveries.

Rang Citylink at 3.00pm & was told the delivery was definitely still going to arrive.

Rang Citylink at 4.30pm & this time was told they tried to deliver at 10.00am & got no answer again!!! Once again, not to mention that this completely contradicted what they'd told me 90 minutes earlier, this is an outright lie! I stayed downstairs practically camped on the doorstep all day & can categorically state that no delivery van came anywhere near my house (I live in a cul-de-sac so that's easy to tell) & no-one tried to deliver anything. Had an hour-long conversation with "a supervisor" which ended with him promising me categorically I'd receive delivery of all 4 packages the next day.

Saturday 9.30am: A different delivery person arrives with 2 of my 4 packages. One of them was the replacement TV stand & this one is also damaged & covered in red tape saying it had been opened & resealed. The other one is a box containing all different sorts of fragile electrical stuff (TomTom etc). The box was absolutely mangled, the worst condition delivery I've ever had, & was also covered in red tape which the driver told me meant the delivery had been opened & resealed. I refused both deliveries.

After another 2 hours I still hadn't received the other two items. I rang the depot & after half an hour waiting for the phone to be answered was told that despite what the supervisor had told me the day before neither package had been dispatched & both were still in the depot. I was told there was now no chance of them being delivered today & Monday was the earliest possible.

I then spent a further hour on the phone to Amazon. All they would agree to was to resend the two damaged packages I receieved today, for delivery Tuedsay. They refused to compensate me for the time (& money) & stress this has caused so far.

So to recap, I've now waited in on 5 consecutive days for deliveries (or on one occasion a collection) from Citylink. To date I've received:

Tuesday: One package which was damaged
Wednesday: No-one turned up
Thursday: No-one turned up
Friday: No-one turned up
Saturday: Two packages both severely damaged. The other two packages weren't delivered at all.

I'm now faced with the prospect of waiting for deliveries both on Monday AND Tuesday. I have zero confidence they'll turn up. If they do they'll probably be damaged again.

As of 4 hours ago I've written a huge email of complaint & sent it to [EMAIL="managingdirector@amazon.com"]managingdirector@amazon.com[/EMAIL] which is basically the only recourse that a customer who's been !!!!!! on by Amazon has.


Am both suicidically miserable & homicidally angry at this treatment. I'm taking this further.

Will try to post back here (can't guarantee it, even typing this stuff is making me shake with anger).

Fella

Here's a picture of one of the deliveries I turned away today. The picture doesn't do it justice, it looked much worse than this & even with the tape was literally hanging open.

superscaper

The worst courier problems I ever had were with CityLink, I once stayed in all day saw them pull up, turn around and then drive off. Then it registered as attempted delivery with noone in. I phoned up to complain and they quoted me my door colour as proof they attempted delivery. I politely pointed out that if he stopped outside my house then of course he's going to get the door colour right. They said what would be the point in making the effort of stopping and then driving off without actually getting out. I said it's not my place to explain the behaviour of their employees! I certainly try to avoid using any service that uses them if I can.

Fella

superscaper wrote: »

I phoned up to complain and they quoted me my door colour as proof they attempted delivery.

.....

They said what would be the point in making the effort of stopping and then driving off without actually getting out.

I kid you not, they said both of those things to me yesterday! (Except they actually got the colour of the door wrong!)

Do you live in Essex?

superscaper

Fella wrote: »

I kid you not, they said both of those things to me yesterday! (Except they actually got the colour of the door wrong!)

Do you live in Essex?

Nowhere near. I live near Blackpool. But I'm sure this kind of poor service occurring nationally is just coincidence.

smcaul

Looks like you upset the driver when you called him back and he has been petty and not bothering to deliver whilst giving your packages a good kicking whilst in his van. Very easy for a driver to lie and say he has attempted delivery when in fact he has been no where near your door!!!

A bit suspect that 2 items have been damaged!!! But would think it is unlikely the depot will do very much, too close to xmas for them to risk upsetting a driver!!!

I would go and see the depot manager if it were me, but then I worked for parcel companies for many a year and know all the little tricks the drivers can get up to!!!!

DCFC79

Why do the drivers put the delivery down as attempted but no one in, surely the more deliveries they actually delivered would be good for the driver as then they dont have to go back to re deliver the package, or is it they're plan to get the customer to ring up and re arrange a re delivery and be charged for the phone call,
why not go to watchdog about the problems,

smcaul

DCFC79 wrote: »

Why do the drivers put the delivery down as attempted but no one in, surely the more deliveries they actually delivered would be good for the driver as then they dont have to go back to re deliver the package, or is it they're plan to get the customer to ring up and re arrange a re delivery and be charged for the phone call,
why not go to watchdog about the problems,

Depots have KPI's and the managers and drivers are normally paid a bonus on the number of "on time" deliveries. A carded delivery is counted as an actual delivery for that purpose. As a result if the driver can not be bothered to deliver the item or has run out of time they put it down as "carded" or "attempted" delivery, this fudges the figures for the depot and ensures they all get bonus when in fact they have not got anywhere near it!!

It also means that the sending company/person don't get a refund for failed delivery!

It happens in all courier/parcel carriers, they will also quite often adjust the delivery times on timed deliveries such as pre 9, pre 10 and by 12 services!!

Not too long ago I ordered an item for a pre 12 delivery, paid extra to make sure. The citylink driver turned up at 1pm and when I went back to the sending company for a refund of the extra charges they informed me it had been signed for at 11am, I had to make a complaint to the depot manager to get the real time entered so I could get the refund!!!! Unfortunately for the driver I am only too aware of all the tricks of the trade!!

DCFC79

smcaul wrote: »

Depots have KPI's and the managers and drivers are normally paid a bonus on the number of "on time" deliveries. A carded delivery is counted as an actual delivery for that purpose. As a result if the driver can not be bothered to deliver the item or has run out of time they put it down as "carded" or "attempted" delivery, this fudges the figures for the depot and ensures they all get bonus when in fact they have not got anywhere near it!!

It also means that the sending company/person don't get a refund for failed delivery!

It happens in all courier/parcel carriers, they will also quite often adjust the delivery times on timed deliveries such as pre 9, pre 10 and by 12 services!!

Not too long ago I ordered an item for a pre 12 delivery, paid extra to make sure. The citylink driver turned up at 1pm and when I went back to the sending company for a refund of the extra charges they informed me it had been signed for at 11am, I had to make a complaint to the depot manager to get the real time entered so I could get the refund!!!! Unfortunately for the driver I am only too aware of all the tricks of the trade!!

thanks for explaining it, ive not had any problems yet with deliveries being put down as an attempt when ive been in

Fella

A further update:

You may recall that the last thing that happened was myself writing a huge & very detailed email of complaint to [EMAIL="managingdirector@amazon.com"]managingdirector@amazon.com[/EMAIL] on Saturday. Here's what's happened since.

Saturday & Sunday - no reply or contact from Amazon.

Monday: The two missing packages from Saturday are delivered & appear to be fine. Still no reply from Amazon though, & I can see from my account that they have only re-keyed one replacement order, not the other one.

I try to call Amazon on both numbers on their website. On both numbers you simply get a message saying "Please try later" & then get cutoff. After trying this for awhile I use their web feedback system to request a call & eventually end up talking to a guy in CS. He says he'll look into it & call me back. 90 mins later he tells me that my complaint has been escalated right up to the office of Brian McBride & I'll be called today by someone from there.

Approx 3.00pm I get called by someone else from CS who tells me that most of my order has been rekeyed (one item is now out of stock so that will have to be cancelled) for "expedited dispatch" which means before midday Tuesday.

Approx 4.30pm I get called by someone from Brian McBride's office who tells me that he personally apologises for all of this mess etc etc etc etc.

Approx 4.45pm I get called by the Citylink depot manager who tells me that he'll personally deliver both the replacement parcels Tuesday.


Approx 5.30pm I get a delivery of one of the two replacement parcels(!) which luckily I was around to take delivery of. Ho hum.

Light at the end of the tunnel. Only one more day waiting at home & I will FINALLY have received everything on this order.

Approx 10am today. I get called by the depot manager. Apparently Amazon haven't bothered to dispatch the second package. No possibility of it being delivered today. Tomorrow at the earliest.


Lost for words to be honest.