Courier unreasonable behaviour

codetown

Hello,
I am expecting a parcel which is to be delivered by a courier (CityLink).
I called to ask at what time they would come and they don't want to tell. I asked to have the telephon number of the driver to check with him the route he is taking and the time he expects *roughly* (+ - 2 hours!!) to be here.
They refuse to tell the numer and insist I have to stay home all day as they cannot absolutely predict when the delivery will happen.

I can accept to stay and wait for 4-5 hours if they tell a rough timw window for delivery, but cannot stay all day without moving at all!

Do you fell this is a service?
We pay for this and we have no rights whatsoever?

What do people do with couriers?

lister

Strikes me as perfectly normal and pretty reasonable.

In fact, you don't (normally) pay for the courier's service, whoever is sending the parcel does. You may pay the supplier for delivery, in which case, your complaint is with the them regarding their choice of courier. As the recipient you don't have a contract with the courier.

How on earth do you expect most couriers to give you a rough time? A driver will have a van probably with dozens of parcels. Some of these will not have been given to the courier until late in the previous day. The chances are the driver only decides a route on just before he sets off, or at best the evening before. He then has to deal with the vagaries of traffic. Do you really want your driver to be further delayed by endless calls with customers wanting to know a rough time and endless calls to customers to say he will be late etc.?

I am frankly in awe of companies who manage to give even an am/pm specification.

If you think you can do better, you have spotted a serious niche in the market and could make your fortune - get planning your business.

Think about the practicalities of this. For me, your expectations are utterly unrealistic.

Bendybops19

codetown thats perfectly reasonable i'm afraid

They cant give you the guys number !!! If they did, he'd be getting customers calling him all day and he'd never get anywhere.

They cant give you a time scale because of the amount of deliveries he has to make, they'd end up getting complaints that he didnt make it on time because of being stuck in traffic etc.

I know it is annoying having to wait in all day, in fact its a pain in the botty, but theres nothing you can do about it

calleyw

I am agree with Lister. Yes it is a pain in the backside having to wait in all day.

But there are so many things that can make a courier late. Traffic, Breakdowns,picking up more packages, being made to wait to deliver or collect. Or just the sheer load and spread of packages to be delivered.

It is hardly surprising they don't have time to hang around. I mean sometimes they are back at the van ready to drive off by the time I get to the front door and have unlocked it.

And why should they give you the drivers mobile number

Not a job I would want to do.

Do what the rest of us do have it delivered to work if they will allow it. Or go and collect it from the depot.


Yours


Calley

Kzlnd

Agreed, this is usually how it is unless the courrier offers timed deliveries.
A bit of a pain in the bum, waiting in all day (More so when the delivery times are between 7am and 7pm yet they finally turn up at 8:30pm!!) but nothing you can do really.

Hebejebe_3

This is a norm for most delivery services. Have to say that it is Citylink then you might as well have a week off work waiting for that shower of idiots - the invisible man came to our house 3 times and left a card through the door when he couldn't deliver. Did he F*** they are liars and well done for managing to get to actually speak to one on the phone.

Good luck, you'll need it

mr_fishbulb

If you want delivery at a certain time, you have to pay extra for it.

One thing that CityLink do in my area is let you drive down to the depot in the evening and pick it up yourself if you missed it during the day.

Pulse

Codetown, I can understand where you are coming from. Perhaps if they could just check where you are on the list, that would be a help

But what I would say is do what Mr Fishbulb has said. I NEVER wait in for a delivery, unless I'm desperate to get it, and I just go down the depot and get it

basill

I am extremely unlikely to be in when the courier or postie calls and now have good knowledge of where all the local and not so local depots are.

Its not so bad collecting everything, but sometimes the vans get back too late for easy collection and its certainly hard to raise Citylink for confirmation. It is possible to have items held at the depot so you just get the card through the letter box and know you can go straight there to collect when you come home from work.

B

JasonLVC

I'm with HeBeGeBe on this.

I generally ask who the courier is when buying things online and if it's CityLink I buy elsewhere, they are that bad. They rarely, if at all, leave missed delivery cards, you can never get through to th depot. Our nearest depot is about 1hr drive away and if you try to reschedule a delivery they either say 'we only deliver once, you've already had a second attempt, or some other fantasy.

However, with regard your OPosting, that's the state of couriers today. You'd think in this '24 hour' world we live in where people work different hours and pubs open all night that a courier company could actually deliver an improved service. Some do. The people that Dell use usually call you an hour before hand, but not always and you can always track the item online to get a rough idea of where a package is with most couriers.

I guess they handle massive amounts of items every day and the logistics to drop items off to individuals at specified times must be difficult (even though tesco and Ocado seem to get a delivery within the half hour?!). However, I do find that couriers have route numbers, so if you missed a delivery in the morning, they will likley deliver again, the next morning as that's the drivers route or round. You could always ask the courier what route they are on I suppose.

trickytrolleys

I used to work for citylink and the driver only knows what deliveries he has for the day when he gets to work (they are all overnight). You can pay for a delivery to be with you by 7.30, 9, 10.30 12.00 and by 5.30 - what gets on the staffs nerves are people who only want to pay for the 5.30 service and then moan when they dont receive it by 9am!! If it is booked as before 5.30 then it (should) be there by 5.30 - You cant buy a merc at mini prices!!