City Link driver probably stole my flowers

Azari

notanewuser wrote: »

So the OP's post wasn't really a warning, just a vent. I don't doubt this experience was annoying, but nobody died and he's not out of pocket.

So, why did you not just take the opportunity to keep quiet as you clearly have nothing useful to say on the subject.

If every member here took to posting telling everyone how unimportant they thought someone else's problem the place would be inundated.

If you go to the trouble of ordering flowers for others anticipating their pleasure when receiving them it will be a major disappointment if they don't turn up.

Not life threatening but since when are we not allowed to be upset about things that are not a matter of life and death?

Danno81

In my defense (I didn't think I'd need to defend my post?!). My post was a factual account of what happened plus my interpretation of why (it was stolen is my conclusion based on the evidence). I did very little in expanding that to all drivers, although each interaction with them that I've had has been a disaster and reviews are very negative if you search for them. I'm sure many parcels are successfully delivered and positive reviews are less likely to be posted than negative ones. But there are LOTS of negative ones!

As with all my posts anywhere online I try to be objective and factual as far as possible.

My post is a warning in the same way that peanuts have warnings about choking and small children. Not every peanut will choke every child but the warning must stand (yes, that is a matter of life and death and this is not, but I thought it was an ok analogy. You may dissagree)

The events are detailed in my first and second posts. I don't really care that technically it may have been a warning or not or just a vent with an unfair warning, etc. My original point stands...

I ordered something. The courier probably stole it. This is not ok.

The fine details are in my posts.

DCFC79

Theft isn't OK but you got the refund so its now down to Waitrose to claim something back from the courier and add to the list of reasons to not use citylink.

Just seen another thread about Wait rose, a certain courier and a Mothers Day item. I hope those at Waitrose/John Lewis partnership who make decisions with regards to which courier they use change the courier.

aloise

Azari wrote: »

He posts a warning/vent on a warning/vent forum.

I'm not sure what your point is?

Do you understand what the words 'warning' and 'vent' mean?

NOW i remember why i got fed up with coming on here.
Nothing has changed then.

Azari

aloise wrote: »

NOW i remember why i got fed up with coming on here.
Nothing has changed then.

Sadly, no.

There still seems to be a hard core of posters who make a 'forum career' out of pointless posts that seem to have no other purpose than to ridicule or belittle people who have had a less than satisfactory experience and come here to vent or warn others about it.

Pollycat

notanewuser wrote: »

Fourthly, one potentially untrustworthy driver in one can working for one company doesn't indicate that every driver working for citylink will be a thief.

I don't think the OP did say that every Citylink driver was or will be a thief.

Danno81 refers to the specific driver and then goes on to say that he has had 3 negative experiences with Citylink.

I can't see anywhere where he alleges that all Citylink drivers are thieves.

Danno81 wrote: »

Vent and Warning:

I have to come to the conclusion that the City Link driver that was delivering mother’s day flowers to my house on Saturday stole them for himself. I wish this was not true, however I cannot think of any other reasonable alternative based on what happened.

I ordered 2 sets of flowers from Waitrose online to arrive on Saturday, one for my partner on behalf of our baby son and one for my own mum to give to her when we met for mother’s day lunch. I ordered for the Saturday because my partners parents were visiting and I knew we’d be in to receive them. In the unlikely event that we had to go out when it was delivered I put “Please leave with a neighbour if we’re not in” in the delivery instructions. All should have been fine.

Our living room is next to our front door and we live in a close so there’s no through road. My parents in law had arrived and we were all in the living room drinking a morning tea or coffee after their journey. We see a City Link van drive past the window, stop for a moment, turn around and drive off. The driver did not even get out of the van at any point as he literally drove down and left. All four of us saw this happen outside our bay windows and I noted the time and I went outside the house to see if he’d parked up further away from our house looking for us. He had not. It’s also not hard to find our house as they’re sequentially numbered in my close (as they usually are) and each house has a large number on it that is hard to miss. 20 minutes later the tracking information updated to say the parcels were delivered at the exact time the van had arrived. It was self-signed by the driver in their shorthand for “Left safe by the front door”. This was a lie. The driver had not even exited his his van as we all witnessed and the parcel was not left by our front door (we were all in anyway so an attempted delivery would have been successful).

I called Waitrose, who were themselves exceptional in their customer service, and they chased the courier who contacted their driver. The driver said he did leave them at the front door, but will return to “check that he definitely got the correct house”. No driver ever turned up despite Waitrose chasing them 2 more times. Waitrose refunded the money for the flowers at 7pm on the Saturday as there was no chance these would be turning up.

I wish I could put this down to delivery driver incompetence, however I can’t think of any other scenario other than a criminal one. The box would have been clearly labelled as flowers, it was the day before mother’s day and the driver had most definitely lied about what he did with the parcel. His mum probably had some lovely flowers the next day whilst mine had the leftover dregs of flowers from our local supermarket I managed to pick up on Mother’s Day morning!

Waitrose were very good in handling the problem and I can’t fault them about their approach. I would, however, question their choice of courier as I have so far had 3 experiences with City Link (this one and 2 more with my work premises) all 3 were disasters as a result of City Link themselves. I can find only very little amounts of positive information about them on online reviews.

What other possibility is there other than theft from the driver? Nothing else seems likely based on what we witnessed actually happen.

Or have I missed something that you haven't?

Danno81
I don't think you do need to defend your posts.

Azari

Pollycat wrote: »

Have you read all the posts on this thread?

Or have you just picked up on the one from Azari that you have quoted?

I think Azari has a fair point about notanewuser's posts.

I know it could be taken either way but, on balance, I think it is more likely that aloise is agreeing with my point. Particularly since I am complaining about people being nasty and she made a similar complaint, today, about the continued nastiness on this site on another forum, here.

I can never understand what it is that compels people who don't think someone else's problem is important or significant to go to the trouble of posting and telling everyone. Surely, if the complaint is of no importance then the opinion of some random onlooker about that point is even less important.

lucy03

notanewuser wrote: »

So the OP's post wasn't really a warning, just a vent. I don't doubt this experience was annoying, but nobody died and he's not out of pocket.

I personally found the OP's post relevant, and it was interesting to see how Waitrose handled the matter.

It also makes no difference whether someone died or is out of pocket on whether they're allowed to post. Some people post because matters are important for them, some because they want to help others, and I personally think some posters have to be careful not to dissuade others from posting because they themselves have certain standards on what they consider personally to be interesting or relevant.

Pollycat

Azari wrote: »

I know it could be taken either way but, on balance, I think it is more likely that aloise is agreeing with my point. Particularly since I am complaining about people being nasty and she made a similar complaint, today, about the continued nastiness on this site on another forum, here.

I can never understand what it is that compels people who don't think someone else's problem is important or significant to go to the trouble of posting and telling everyone. Surely, if the complaint is of no importance then the opinion of some random onlooker about that point is even less important.

On reflection and in fairness to aloise, I've edited my post.

I do agree that notanewuser trivialised the situation as described by danno81.

When you've gone to the trouble of ordering flowers to be delivered for a special occasion and the recipient is disappointed (whether by non-delivery for whatever reason or even poor quality flowers) I'd find it very annoying too.

shaun_from_Africa

notanewuser wrote: »

Fourthly, one potentially untrustworthy driver in one can working for one company doesn't indicate that every driver working for citylink will be a thief.

Well, I've read and re-read the opening post and I can't see anywhere where the OP has stated or even implied that every driver working for Citylink is a thief, and they actually made it quite obvious that it was only one driver they were accusing.

City Link driver probably stole my flowers.

and the driver had most definitely lied about what he did with the parcel

What other possibility is there other than theft from the driver?