A warning!! Do not use collect plus!!

notbritishgas

notbritishgas wrote: »

Oh dear I wish I had taken your advice, I put your and Bluemonkey's woes down to the Christmas rush, and in order to save my customer a few £ and to make my sale a bit more attractive I booked Collect plus.

I am now on day 3 and the parcel is still at the drop off point, if the tracking does not change shortly I will go in and check with the shop. But it does not bode well.

I have noted the email address Soolin was using so thanks for that. Will keep you posted.

Just been in to the drop off point, they could find no trace of the parcel, said no courier called on Tuesday so assumed it went on Monday. Still tracking as at the drop off point.

Soolin, I presume the shop in question is a general one not just Collect plus? So they have not gone bust!

soolin

notbritishgas wrote: »

Just been in to the drop off point, they could find no trace of the parcel, said no courier called on Tuesday so assumed it went on Monday. Still tracking as at the drop off point.

Soolin, I presume the shop in question is a general one not just Collect plus? So they have not gone bust!

The shop is a tiny little shop- doesn't seem to sell a great deal and it is one of those 'unlucky' shops that changes hands several times a year due to issues (usually pirating or lease cost sissues) . There are two small areas locally where we have a handful of these unlucky shops, every time a new business moves in you feel you ought to warn them that no one lasts long- strange how that happens in some areas.

notbritishgas

notbritishgas wrote: »

Oh dear I wish I had taken your advice, I put your and Bluemonkey's woes down to the Christmas rush, and in order to save my customer a few £ and to make my sale a bit more attractive I booked Collect plus.

I am now on day 3 and the parcel is still at the drop off point, if the tracking does not change shortly I will go in and check with the shop. But it does not bode well.

I have noted the email address Soolin was using so thanks for that. Will keep you posted.

notbritishgas wrote: »

Just been in to the drop off point, they could find no trace of the parcel, said no courier called on Tuesday so assumed it went on Monday. Still tracking as at the drop off point.

I had better turn this into a "praise for Collect+" post.

Following my previous posts I contacted Collect plus using the email address Soolin had kindly posted. 19 minutes later I received an apolgetic reply saying a technical glitch with the tracking on my order and giving me the actual tracking which showed parcel out for delivery that day

Had another email from Paul Gilbert yesterday giving tracking showing parcel delivered on Wednesday. So dropped parcel off on Monday morning and it was delivered on Wednesday.

So apart from the tracking issue the sevice was good and I will use them again, when hopefully the tracking will work OK.

sealady

Also had issues with collect +. Made a purchase from Very. Goods were dropped off at collection centre on the sat. Following tues went to collect them and they had been sent pack. Of course the shop and courier had nothing to say. What was even more annoying was the fact I needed these items before a long stay in hospital.

Amps

RFW wrote: »

There seems to be an unhealthy system where the companies are happy to see a certain amount of parcels undelivered and don't care if they get complaints, they'll just ignore them. As long as there are new customers to take the place of the older ones they'll be ok. As for companies like Amazon using them sadly, if they can keep postage costs down they won't mind too much either with losing a few percent, it will all be costed out.

So disappointed that Amazon have started using Collect Plus. My only hope is that their reputation spreads fast enough for companies who value their brand image and worth to stop using them.

I've only had two experiences with Collect Plus so far, and I'm already considering shopping elsewhere!

My first experience was an email out of the blue, just telling me to use the attached label to return the item. What item, return to whom? Was I going to be charged for the delivery, or was it prepaid? At first I thought it was junk email, and almost binned it. As I was actually waiting to make two returns (one to Amazon, and one to an eBay seller), I decided to email Collect Plus for more information.

They responded fairly quickly, but could only tell me the recipient's company name; of course in this instance that was enough to work out which item I needed to return.

Then the hassle of trying to find a 'local' drop off point. I live in Chiswick, W4, but my nearest drop off point was in Hammersmith, a good 20min bus ride away, depending on traffic.

I decided to use a drop off point near work instead; Staines. This was still a 15min drive from the office.

Anyway, drop off was painless enough, but on tracking the package, I find it's been rolling around in the Collect Plus process for 7 days! The tracking ID is 76F2H1J in case you would like to see it for yourselves.

But as poster RFW says, we are most likely just the few percent that companies like Amazon will be happy to cost out

techspec

This item arrived on the the 23rd. But this is what their tracking says:-

Parcel problem, please call 0845 270 9888

At 17:09, Fri, 23 Mar 2012

• Parcel problem, please call 0845 270 9888 17:02, Fri, 23 Mar 2012
• Parcel problem, please call 0845 270 9888 18:48, Thu, 22 Mar 2012
• Collection attempted, we will reschedule 15:44, Thu, 22 Mar 2012
• Parcel collected by courier 15:42, Thu, 22 Mar 2012
• Parcel problem, please call 0845 270 9888 18:38, Wed, 21 Mar 2012
• Collection attempted, we will reschedule 16:13, Wed, 21 Mar 2012
• Parcel problem, please call 0845 270 9888 17:55, Tue, 20 Mar 2012
• Collection attempted, we will reschedule 14:57, Tue, 20 Mar 2012
• Received at MCCOLLS, 17:00, Mon, 19 Mar 2012
• Delivery booked 14:05, Mon, 19 Mar 2012

I complained about their tracking - and now they are looking for my parcel. Good look with that one :rotfl:

MGPB1936

We have used Collect plus for only 2 weeks and have so far sent approx 40 parcels....it would appear their tracking system fails regularly....

• Tracking system says 'not delivered' ebay customer has sent feedback saying they have received parcel..????
• Another customer checked the tracking to find 'in depot for 3 days waiting delivery.
• Yet another customer has been waiting 6 working days albeit waiting in depot for 2 days!!
• They have promised a refund on one parcel but....it will take some time to authorise.

That is on approx. 50% of the deliveries. We are switching to Royal Mail.:(

timbosolo

Never ever use Collect Plus. I have set up a Facebook page for everybody to share negative stories.

Please share your negative story and don't forget to like:

www. facebook.com/ bancollectplus

Thank you

Irn-Bru-Kid

I've used them 6 or 7 times without problems however, the online tracking is crazy.

I posted something on Tuesday and this is the tracking:

Collection attempted, we will reschedule
at 11:30, Thu, 23 Aug 2012

Received into MAIDSTONE DEPOT
09:44, Thu, 23 Aug 2012

Despatched from MAIDSTONE DEPOT
19:42, Wed, 22 Aug 2012

Parcel collected by courier
18:28, Wed, 22 Aug 2012

Parcel collected by courier
12:15, Wed, 22 Aug 2012

So it was despatched from the depot before it was received into the depot!

...its nuts

Han_naH

I sent a dozen laptops recently via Collect+ without a single problem.
These are high value items but nothing has gone missing.

I think there is some serious trolling on MSE, be it Collect+, MyHermes, Parcelforce etc. Look closely and you'll find individual cases of a lost item or two followed by a negative diatribe.
Honestly some of the comments on here make the provider look like a second class firm but they are of course a professional, nationwide operator with all the hubs, delivery codes and the like.

The fact is, Collect+ is the quickest process to send - the website is mega quick, just enter a post code, name and number and then pay via Paypal or card. Other websites are still asking for loads of details like dimensions and all that nonsense. Collect+ have streamlined it brilliantly.

When you drop at the shop, you receive a receipt with the recipient's details on it. It's clever.

The tracking is excellent - send the buyer the URL link, tracks all the way to their door. Better than entering 20 digits on competitor's sites.

I preferred this to MyHermes, where some scruffy bloke walked off with my laptop and no receipt. I had no evidence that the item was even collected if it was lost. I wasn't impressed.

Honestly, I found Collect+ the slickest system I have come across.