Marks and Spencer appalling delivery service

VicksLester

On 1 December, I placed an order with Marks and Spencer. Collect in store was not available so I opted and paid for delivery for Saturday 6 December. At 21.27 last night (5 December) I received an email from M&S advising me my order had been despatched and was on its way.
So, this morning I started to track my order but drew a blank, called the delivery company - DPD - and was advised that they didn't have my order and, obviously, it wasn't going to be delivered today. Called M&S customer service - what a shambles! There was a delay in delivering order to delivery company? It may get there today or tomorrow and may be delivered tomorrow or Monday or after that! Excuse me, I paid for Saturday delivery and you confirmed this and that the order had been despatched - they admitted they did but there had been a delay. He tried to blame the delivery company and suggested I contact them - had to clarify that my contract was with M&S. Didn't seem to appreciate that this was my money and my time. Saturday delivery was convenient as it meant I didn't have to make arrangements for someone to come to the house during the week. I've since read a few reviews of M&S delivery and customer service and think they need to have a good look at their procedures. I won't be ordering from them again. Furious!

mgdavid

Hardly a surprise, in case you hadn't noticed it's Christmas in 19 days time and is the absolute worst time of the year to be ordering anything for home delivery. No company - whether a one-man band or M&S can gear up to handle this workload on a once a year basis. The key is flexibility. Talk to your neighbours, find one who is in all day, or have it delivered to work, for example.
Still, having 'vented' hopefully it'll all work out for you OK.

VicksLester

Sorry, but when you pay, and they accept, an additional delivery fee for a specified day then I think that should be sufficient to ensure that delivery takes place.

shaun_from_Africa

mgdavid wrote: »

Hardly a surprise, in case you hadn't noticed it's Christmas in 19 days time and is the absolute worst time of the year to be ordering anything for home delivery.

So surely it's not unreasonable to expect the management at M&S to also have noticed that it's Christmas in 19 days and to have anticipated the extra demand for their home delivery service and to have manned accordingly.

Armorica

I've always found their delivery to be ok. John Lewis is the best delivery service IMO though. Stuff can go wrong though - vans break down, drivers go off sick etc. there can be some reasonable reasons for it not going according to plan.

One of my deliveries is currently late, but on tracking the parcel online, it's out for delivery so hopefully be here soon. Apparently a Hermes depot had a fire recently, so there is some disruption still for their parcels.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

mgdavid wrote: »

Hardly a surprise, in case you hadn't noticed it's Christmas in 19 days time and is the absolute worst time of the year to be ordering anything for home delivery. No company - whether a one-man band or M&S can gear up to handle this workload on a once a year basis. The key is flexibility. Talk to your neighbours, find one who is in all day, or have it delivered to work, for example.
Still, having 'vented' hopefully it'll all work out for you OK.

No, you are wrong. M&S should be prepared for extra orders - and everyone else is managing to deliver no problem. I ordered from M&S two Saturdays ago. A full week passed with no notification from them at all. In the meantime, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Amazon and E-buyer all managed to deliver within 4 working days of my order being placed.

M&S then proceeded to inundate me with emails, all giving different information - delivery will be on Sat 22nd, then on Monday 1st, then Sat 6th. Then part of the order was cancelled. No one in customer service could offer a coherent explanation. I got a £10 gift card for my trouble. The final insult was that the DPD tracking showed that the order had been delivered and left out on my front porch. It wasn't there by the time I realised (received another email the day after the 'delivery' and checked the tracking which said where the order had been left). M&S had to refund me the whole order.

Ridiculous.

VicksLester

Relieved that it's not me being unreasonable to expect something I'd made an additional payment for to arrive on appointed day! Agree, John Lewis is best of all. I did ask about cancelling the order but was advised that I could request a refund but only after it had been delivered and I had returned it! Crazy and unacceptable.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

VicksLester wrote: »

Relieved that it's not me being unreasonable to expect something I'd made an additional payment for to arrive on appointed day! Agree, John Lewis is best of all. I did ask about cancelling the order but was advised that I could request a refund but only after it had been delivered and I had returned it! Crazy and unacceptable.

Yes, I was told the same thing. They can cancel and delay but I couldn't. Very disappointing of M&S.

Do ask for a sweetener though, I was offered a refund of the delivery charge, but pointed out that I'd not actually paid one :-/ They eventually offered £10 gift card.

della11

"So surely it's not unreasonable to expect the management at M&S to also have noticed that it's Christmas in 19 days and to have anticipated the extra demand for their home delivery service and to have manned accordingly."

I work on a collection desk and totally agree. Its the higher ups that hold the responsibility, so please don't shout at the folks on the desk, we're on your side and doing our best.

muckybutt

Armorica wrote: »

John Lewis is the best delivery service IMO though.

IMO John Lewis are S**T !

I placed an order with JL earlier on in the year, order was confirmed had email confirmations to say order would be at my local store the following day for collection and they would contact me when in store.

Never phoned so I chased them, delivery was never made as there was "a problem" - they didn't see fit to contact me so I had to do the chasing, promised next day delivery so thought ok.

Next day still no call, so went to JL customer service. Order hadn't been received by their shipping depot so still hadn't been sent out. I cancelled order there and then told them to do one. One of their CS managers phoned me to apologise and offered me a £50 discount if I replaced the order - I politely refused telling him their service fell well below my expectations and that I would not be shopping with them again.

So my overall experience of JL is one of them being totally useless