Parcel2go. Good when they work, appaling when it goes wrong.

Marty1972_2

I had been a loyal customer of Parcel2go for many years, but I will never use them again and I don’t think they really care. Their service had worked well in the past, but that obviously masked the fact that they are totally incapable of dealing with a problem if it arises which is what I also need to know as a customer. I want to know that a company provides a good service AND also know that it has procedures in place to help customers when it goes wrong. Parcel2Go have shown no such procedures with me. I have never experienced such a lack of interest by a company or an inability to deal with a simple problem EVER before.

My parcel was collected on 10 Nov 12 for delivery to Brentford and has still not been delivered. I have spent hours and hours on the on-line chat and writing emails to Parcel2Go, and all they can do is make up excuses for why the courier could not deliver. On every occasion, the online chat representative said they would email a progress report, and on every occasion the representative failed to do this. When I tried to escalate the problem, I was often stonewalled and told it could not go any higher, which I took as a deliberate ploy to hide the incompetence of the system. I have now been dealing with the complaints department for the past 2 weeks and, amazingly, am no further forward. There has been no acceptance that my parcel is lost, only flannel and stonewalling throughout.

Amongst many pitiful assurances I have been given are the following:

“If it doesn't arrive tomorrow, please come back to us and we'll chase up the courier again for you.”
“Apologies, hopefully all will be delivered tomorrow can you let me know tomorrow”
“I have escalated he situation with the courier and I can assure you that the problem will be resolved in the next 24 hours”
“Okay Martin, I will get my supervisor to look into this for you. As soon as this has been resolved we will be in touch via e-mail”
“The last note on the order says that the parcel is on route for delivery. “

The excuses from the complaints department were no better and I am flabbergasted they even believe what they are writing. They cannot be reading their messages as the answers are so unbelievable.

“Deliveries have failed as the driver has been unable to gain access to the property or the customer has not been home to receive the parcel/ I would expect this parcel to be processed as a return to sender within the next 48 hours” (Parcel2Go was provided with a residential address and a business/work address, both of which are manned during the day so it is clear the delivery instructions have been ignored)

Almost 3 weeks after it being processed as ‘return to sender’ there is still no sign of the parcel.

Other excuses given are:

“the weekend can slow things up a little as couriers tend to be working days only”
“If the recipient is sure they didn't see any courier we can only assume the driver went to the wrong property”
“we trust the courier to try their best, but at this busy time of year things can go wrong”
“Its possible the driver was struggling to locate the address, though it was correct."
“this is a service which requires a great deal of human input and as such there's always a margin for human error”
“As this is the complaints department it takes us a little longer to get through things”
“It appears the courier did not understand this”
“I would note that it's extremely unusual for delivery to take this long on this service.”
“we requested an update every time we promised - sometimes these requests piled up cumulatively, and the courier would respond to the most recent when they reached the file”

After starting an email conversation with one of the ‘customer service supervisors’ the chain finished when I asked an awkward question. The excuse given by the complaints department as to why there was no response was “Your email may have been marked as SPAM or [the representative] may have seen I was looking into this for you now” (as the issue had not been escalated to the complaints department by this stage there was nobody else ‘looking into this’ so this is another untruth)

I have threatened with reporting this to BBC Watchdog and leaving poor reviews on parcel delivery websites, but that did not prompt a refund of delivery charges or an admission that the parcel was lost. I have now carried out both of these actions as potential customers need to know what to expect if they have a problem.

The final correspondence, received last night, still does not admit there is a problem despite no delivery after over 5 weeks. They still say “if it appears we cannot find the parcel”. I am amazed that they think they cannot find a parcel after all of this stage, it is blatantly obvious that it is gone and they have no clue where it is.

I will never use Parcel2Go again, neither will anyone who I have talked to about this situation as they are equally disgusted at the incompetence. Last week I said I would take the issue to the Small Claims Court today if I do not get suitably compensated, but that has not even been acknowledged by them.

I would be grateful for any other advice that any MSE users could offer as I am (quite literally) at a loss. Is the next stage a letter to the MD?

shocky_2

Shocking customer service. A nice idea might be to fill in a court claim and send it to them. You can download a claim form here - http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/n001-eng.pdf.

Just briefly fill in the box saying that your parcel was collected on 10 November 2012, they haven't delivered, and they have just given you pathetic excuses. Therefore you claim value of the items (state a value) + refund of the fee + interest + costs.

You don't need to actually issue the claim form. Just send it to them as an email attachment with an email saying you will issue the claim form in county court if they don't deliver within the next 7 days.

Marty1972_2

Youngsolicitor

Thank you for the reply, it is appreciated. Having searched the MSE Forums for 'Parcel2Go' I see I am one of many people suffering from this sub-standard service. In difficult financial times, I think companies play a very dangerous game by shunning their customers and pushing for profit over service. Good service can make a company, bad service can do the opposite. It is all down to how a customer service representative responds, and in my case, they have all been very bad.

Fingers crossed (I won't hold my breath as I think this is a marathon, not a sprint).

RobbedRobbins

Hi there,
I am getting nowhere with a parcel Hermes collected on 11 Dec 2012 and has still not been delivered.
Does anyone have a phone number for parcels2go as the chat line staff have been fobbing me off for over 3 weeks now.
Obviously recipient is well fed up as he bought a very expensive item for Xmas and never received it.
I did not insure the parcel so your suggestion of sending a court form would probably be a bit of a non starter wouldn't it??

I think the chat line staff are all sitting at home on their sofas and paid to answer calls on behalf of parcels2go and just fob you off. They have no direct contact by phone with any "depot" (someone's garage) or the drivers despite this age of SMS and mobile phones.Horrific service all round. I personally think my parcel was stolen by a temp courier over the xmas period. Anyone else having same problems?
Can we find phone number /owner of parcel2go website and get unpleasant with them. I thought there was a LEGAL necessity to have a contact phone number on a website.Chatline staff will not give any out.

youngsolicitor wrote: »

Shocking customer service. A nice idea might be to fill in a court claim and send it to them. You can download a claim form here - http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/n001-eng.pdf.

Just briefly fill in the box saying that your parcel was collected on 10 November 2012, they haven't delivered, and they have just given you pathetic excuses. Therefore you claim value of the items (state a value) + refund of the fee + interest + costs.

You don't need to actually issue the claim form. Just send it to them as an email attachment with an email saying you will issue the claim form in county court if they don't deliver within the next 7 days.

RobbedRobbins

Hi
Did you get your parcel delivered in the end??

Marty1972 wrote: »

Youngsolicitor

Thank you for the reply, it is appreciated. Having searched the MSE Forums for 'Parcel2Go' I see I am one of many people suffering from this sub-standard service. In difficult financial times, I think companies play a very dangerous game by shunning their customers and pushing for profit over service. Good service can make a company, bad service can do the opposite. It is all down to how a customer service representative responds, and in my case, they have all been very bad.

Fingers crossed (I won't hold my breath as I think this is a marathon, not a sprint).

RobbedRobbins

Hi,
my experience is exactly the same.
I am going to try and get this dreadful situaion written about by Daily Mail financial journalist as I know someone there. Would you be interested to pass your experience onto them as you have listed below as I think something should be done about this awful company as quite clearly parcels are being "lost" read "stolen" by so called couriers they have no contact with and "depots" are the couriers own garages and kitchens.They have NO CONTROL and as you quite rightly say don't care.

Marty1972 wrote: »

I had been a loyal customer of Parcel2go for many years, but I will never use them again and I don’t think they really care. Their service had worked well in the past, but that obviously masked the fact that they are totally incapable of dealing with a problem if it arises which is what I also need to know as a customer. I want to know that a company provides a good service AND also know that it has procedures in place to help customers when it goes wrong. Parcel2Go have shown no such procedures with me. I have never experienced such a lack of interest by a company or an inability to deal with a simple problem EVER before.

My parcel was collected on 10 Nov 12 for delivery to Brentford and has still not been delivered. I have spent hours and hours on the on-line chat and writing emails to Parcel2Go, and all they can do is make up excuses for why the courier could not deliver. On every occasion, the online chat representative said they would email a progress report, and on every occasion the representative failed to do this. When I tried to escalate the problem, I was often stonewalled and told it could not go any higher, which I took as a deliberate ploy to hide the incompetence of the system. I have now been dealing with the complaints department for the past 2 weeks and, amazingly, am no further forward. There has been no acceptance that my parcel is lost, only flannel and stonewalling throughout.

Amongst many pitiful assurances I have been given are the following:

“If it doesn't arrive tomorrow, please come back to us and we'll chase up the courier again for you.”
“Apologies, hopefully all will be delivered tomorrow can you let me know tomorrow”
“I have escalated he situation with the courier and I can assure you that the problem will be resolved in the next 24 hours”
“Okay Martin, I will get my supervisor to look into this for you. As soon as this has been resolved we will be in touch via e-mail”
“The last note on the order says that the parcel is on route for delivery. “

The excuses from the complaints department were no better and I am flabbergasted they even believe what they are writing. They cannot be reading their messages as the answers are so unbelievable.

“Deliveries have failed as the driver has been unable to gain access to the property or the customer has not been home to receive the parcel/ I would expect this parcel to be processed as a return to sender within the next 48 hours” (Parcel2Go was provided with a residential address and a business/work address, both of which are manned during the day so it is clear the delivery instructions have been ignored)

Almost 3 weeks after it being processed as ‘return to sender’ there is still no sign of the parcel.

Other excuses given are:

“the weekend can slow things up a little as couriers tend to be working days only”
“If the recipient is sure they didn't see any courier we can only assume the driver went to the wrong property”
“we trust the courier to try their best, but at this busy time of year things can go wrong”
“Its possible the driver was struggling to locate the address, though it was correct."
“this is a service which requires a great deal of human input and as such there's always a margin for human error”
“As this is the complaints department it takes us a little longer to get through things”
“It appears the courier did not understand this”
“I would note that it's extremely unusual for delivery to take this long on this service.”
“we requested an update every time we promised - sometimes these requests piled up cumulatively, and the courier would respond to the most recent when they reached the file”

After starting an email conversation with one of the ‘customer service supervisors’ the chain finished when I asked an awkward question. The excuse given by the complaints department as to why there was no response was “Your email may have been marked as SPAM or [the representative] may have seen I was looking into this for you now” (as the issue had not been escalated to the complaints department by this stage there was nobody else ‘looking into this’ so this is another untruth)

I have threatened with reporting this to BBC Watchdog and leaving poor reviews on parcel delivery websites, but that did not prompt a refund of delivery charges or an admission that the parcel was lost. I have now carried out both of these actions as potential customers need to know what to expect if they have a problem.

The final correspondence, received last night, still does not admit there is a problem despite no delivery after over 5 weeks. They still say “if it appears we cannot find the parcel”. I am amazed that they think they cannot find a parcel after all of this stage, it is blatantly obvious that it is gone and they have no clue where it is.

I will never use Parcel2Go again, neither will anyone who I have talked to about this situation as they are equally disgusted at the incompetence. Last week I said I would take the issue to the Small Claims Court today if I do not get suitably compensated, but that has not even been acknowledged by them.

I would be grateful for any other advice that any MSE users could offer as I am (quite literally) at a loss. Is the next stage a letter to the MD?

merlot123

parcel2go are useless and are well known for that. I doubt the Daily Mail would be interested in your story, these things can and do happen with carrier companies.

The threat of small claims court won't faze them either.

I had a similar problem with citylink a few years ago, ending up refunding my buyer and putting it down to experience after a few months trying to locate the parcel, it was obvious they would never find it. Citylink are useless at customer service in my opinion.

visidigi

its really VERY simple.

Go direct with the couriers themselves if you want the guarantees and the money back when its late, otherwise keep buying from the companies like Parcel2go at a cut price with an equally cut customer experience.

RobbedRobbins

I don't think its acceptable that literally hundreds of their customers are suffering losses like this and there is nothing being done about it.From a consumer's rights point of view Parcel2go should be inverstigated. If you read the stories on trustpilot and ciao websites about them it would make your toes curl.
I don't send parcels very often and naively thought they were an honourable company just exploiting the PO huge parcel charges,which are way too high these days. I accept parcels get lost but its the non existent CS that is totally unacceptable in this day and age.I will issue a court claim (when I can find an email address to send it to!) and see what happens,have already lost £140 so might as well throw another £25 at it and try and get a result.

merlot123 wrote: »

parcel2go are useless and are well known for that. I doubt the Daily Mail would be interested in your story, these things can and do happen with carrier companies.

The threat of small claims court won't faze them either.

I had a similar problem with citylink a few years ago, ending up refunding my buyer and putting it down to experience after a few months trying to locate the parcel, it was obvious they would never find it. Citylink are useless at customer service in my opinion.

Marty1972_2

Robbed Robins

Sadly no parcel yet, although I have hadmany many more bland emails without commitment and plenty fabrications andexcuses. I guess by the amount of appalling excuses I have been given it is Parcel2gocompany POLICY not to look after customers. This is epitomised bythe question in my last message to ask

"Does anybody at parcel2go care aboutthe reputation of the company, and if so, who is it? (this is not a rhetoricalquestion as, other than the one conversation we [the one person who actuallybothered to phone me and feigned interest at the time] had on the phone, I haveyet to meet someone who cares about the time and effort I have put in togetting this resolved)."

This email was ignored as was any commentabout taking them to court. PARCEL2GO have proved they do not care, ifthey did, they would do something. I think it is a very brave company thattreats customers like this in such a difficult financial climate with stiffcompetition.

My message to anyone who does not want to gothrough this is leave Parcel2Go alone and go direct to the parcelservice provider. I have now found it to be a lot easier and also cheaper.Nothing I can say to Parcel2Go makes any difference, and I suspect it is thesame with everyone. I really hope BBC Watchdog pick up this thread andchallenge them. Perhaps their management do not know how badly their customerliaison representatives are (I would say customer 'service' but it is notapplicable!). If they do, they are playing a dangerous game.

visidigi

They know exactly whats going on, but they also know that sometimes peoples expectations about the ability to resolve the situations that arise are far greater than viable for them.

Again, they work on small margins and offer a very slimmed down services compared to the networks doing it themselves.

The adage you get what you pay for applies here - they are realistic about what they can do - threatening court, suggesting watchdog etc is all well and good, but they know that most threaten and little do.

Your delivery has gone missing, these things happen in the courier world, they have millions of packages a day going through the system.

The biggest problem for the likes of parcel2go is people buy a cheap service, decline the additional insurance and then scream bloody murder when they get offered the standard liability compensation.

The couriers themselves are irritated daily by people using the 3rd parties such as parcel2go calling them direct and expecting them to deal with someone who went through a cheap alternative.

People simply need to face the fact that they get what they pay for when services such as these are used...