Despatch Bay and DHL A Warning !!

andyboy190

Hi everybody, just wanted to give anybody thinking of using despatch bay pallet service , (who use the DHL) a warning . I booked an urgent pallet to go to Edinburgh on a next day service , as I had a major trade show booked for the Saturday and Sunday . I booked and paid way in advance and even phoned on the Tuesday before the weekend to ensure that it would make it as I was driving 390 miles and they had all my stock . NO PROBLEM SIR WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME .STOP WORRYING I WAS TOLD .. you know what's coming now don't you .Friday 4.45 pm no pallet but an email please contact us urgent, sorry sir we have a problem your pallet wont make it .. I was so angry and upset despatch bay phoned and asked DHL for a Saturday delivery , yes ok be there at 10 am ..this was no good as the show started at 10 and I had to set it up ,so all parties agreed 8am ..yes you know what's coming again don't you, they hadn't changed the time slot and 10 am it was due ..so yes 9.30 my pallet arrived half hour before the show ..I didn't ask for compensation , but I thought the least they could do would be to offer a refund on the pallet drop .no just an apology ..so be warned if you need an urgent delivery using despatch bay or DHL. DON'T BECAUSE THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT CUSTOMERS !! :mad:

andyboy190

I would like to give you all an update on the situation regarding the pallet I sent using despatch bay and DHL .as you can see from my previous posts I was clearly upset that nothing was being done and accused despatch bay and DHL of not caring for there customers , well I have to take back 50 % of what was written as I have had a long conversation with the customer service management of Despatch bay after they phoned me today and told me in detail of what they have done and are going to do the rectify the situation .i would also like to mention that i have used despatch bay on many occasions and have always received good service, so thankyou despatch bay keep up the good work :T

Trevor_Hawkins

I have opened an account with Despatch Bay/DHL for them to collect & deliver items that I sell on Ebay.

I now feel foolish that I did so !

They promised me cheap rates on all my collection & delivery needs.

The thing is that I now find that if I dont send 4 items/parcels each time I use the service they charge me a Penalty Fee for undersending !

So the per item/parcel figure goes up to a higher fee than if I used another courier !

Worse still is the ammount of Damaged Items/Parcels that they have damaged/broken in transit since joining them !

Far more than City Link who I had been using.

First claim was allowed & paid.

Second claim was Not Allowed although I sent them an Email with attached photos showing the very expensive damaged item on the same day as it was delivered !

They refused the claim because they say that I didnt notify them within the 15 days that they stipulate !

It seems all one way traffic for Despath Bay/DHL only want your money & really dont care about their clients !

Greed it would appear rules !

Not the way a "Major" player in the Delivery Sector should conduct itself I feel !

What say you ?

Will Despatch Bay / DHL reply to this ?

I will let you know !

Trevor H.

Cavalier_King_Charles

We too were impressed when the sales rep called us about their service. It seemed, on the surface, much cheaper than our existing couriers, that is until you look into it properly.

Like the last quote you cannot just send one parcel it has to be four or more. There are also conjestion charges and re-delivery charges.

On the whole the rate seems very competitive but I would advise anyone to look into this properly or you could end up with no money in your account.:(

sadfurry

I wish I had checked reviews before joining this company. I have had 3 deliveries in a week, not one has gone well.

A parcel booked and paid extra for Next Day didn't arrive, my customer had waited all day. When contacted they said I shouldn't have booked Next day because it was Scotland, and that could never go on Next Day, and I should have known this. Nothing came up on screen to say that, they wasted my money and time and customers time because the system doesn't tell you that ANYWHERE.

Meanwhile I had booked a Pallet delivery, and it was also going to Scotland, paid on a Next Day service, so I had to then double check that one, it did arrive, but it took hours of phone calls back and forth to establish they would actually be delivering it, and at one point they told me I would need to book and pay for it again!

Third parcel, booked for collection, no-one turned up, I sent a ticket, they said my fault as I didn't book a collection and closed the ticket. WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE LEFT IT OPEN SO I COULD ASK HOW. I had to work out what I had done myself, more time wasted, basically you book input the customer details, then it takes the money, then you print the tickets, then you print the manifest THEN you book the collection. What a palaver! So, I booked the collection, and guess what? The parcel is still sitting here, no-one came for it.

I'm now stuck till I have used all my 'credits', because you have to put a minimum of £50 PLUS vat on your account, and with the Pallet I had to put extra, so I still have another £27 to spend with them, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I dont have to have 4 parcels a day, no surcharge, but the price I pay is pennies under what I was paying interparcel for economy service, what tempted me was that was a Next day service. Except of course for my very first parcel it wasn't, and the time taken to sort things is costly.

Strapped

I've been using them for a month now with no problems apart from the first collection when I got a sub contractor white van man who didn't know how to process the parcels. I haven't had any extra charges but I'll keep an eye out now, thanks. If my volumes keep up though I think I'll be happy to keep using them.

ETA: Just to correct one of the posters above - you can send just 1 parcel but as there is the collection surcharge of £1.95 for less than 4, it's best to group collections. I sometimes only send 2 or 3 but try not to send just 1!

midgetmax

Despatch Bay/DHL are no better and no worse than any other operators in this sector. I've been around them all...you just have to keep on top of what you are doing. my suppliers use most of the companies, they are all only as good as the idiot in the van.

They may not be any good for the one off parcel collection, I use Parcel2go for that, but over a period of time I've had better service from DHL than others and at a better price.

I tried to switch to Interlink lately, but they wanted a minimum invoice value of £40 per week (yes, pay them for not collecting!) and it was so full of fuel surcharges that I couldn't actually pin down the rate! Despatch Bay and Day and a Half Late isn't perfect but then neither are the others. I like the online tracking, the email service to my customer and the fact that there are phone numbers for depots so you can actually speak to someone who may have an idea where the parcels are! And I like the fact that I don't incur a charge if we are in a quiet period.

Use them with reasonable confidence, try to batch deliveries or make sure you charge your customer enough for the small packet surcharge!

ewa999

We have used despatch bay for about 1 month and they are totally CRAP!!, We have requested 4 away collections this week and not one of them have been collected the customers are telling us that no one has even come in to collect the parcels and despatch bay are saying that the parcels have been attempted but yet on every collections tracking history it says Sorry, we couldn't obtain tracking history for your parcel at this time.
I have now asked them several times to refund the collection charges but they are not having it.
If you read this do not bother using them.

pitkin2020

Thanks for the warning.

I always use parcel2go using the DHL and i have always been pleased with the service, they collect when they say they are going to and they always deliver earlier than expected.

crossbat

DHL, now Yodel, hopeless! I've been with Despatch Bay quite a while now, and every time I keep going back to them to send a parcel, I remember why I shouldn't have done that. Yodel fail to colelct, they fail to collect again, and again and again. they don't guarantee collection, they don't guarantee delivery. Why on earth Despatch Bay use them, i do not know. All you get from DB is an apology, but the parcels still don't get delivered. Yodel - pathetic!

crossbat

Even the staff at Despatch Bay can't give you the same answer ... one tells you that collection could be till 5.30pm, but not guaranteed. The next tells you it's till 6pm and not guaranteed. How long do we have to wait for a non-guaranteed collection? Well 2 days is enough, we'll be going with a local courier, may cost more, but they will collect, guaranteed!