City Link in Administration

knight_rider

Ordered 2 tvs over the last week both delivered by them, both were damaged and looked like they had been dropped on the corners. Driver could`nt care less and just said ok just return them.

Nodding_Donkey

bris wrote: »

Well all you haters should be ashamed. For all the millions of parcels there is a few that don't end well, name a courier company that hasn't had the same problems.


Same with the drivers 1 or 2 bad apples doesn't make the whole barrel rotten.


Bottom line is thousands of good people are now facing the new year with an uncertain future, worried for their family's and home. Hope you lot are smug enough to be sure it doesn't happen to you.

So you think a company should stay in business despite how badly they perform or how much they are needed? It is unfortunate for the good ones that lose their jobs but things move on. The next day parcel industry must be getting bigger with the increase in online shopping in recent years but that doesn't mean that inefficient firms should be somehow propped up.

visidigi

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

So you think a company should stay in business despite how badly they perform or how much they are needed? It is unfortunate for the good ones that lose their jobs but things move on. The next day parcel industry must be getting bigger with the increase in online shopping in recent years but that doesn't mean that inefficient firms should be somehow propped up.

The next day couriers are struggling.

But they are struggling with retailer demands driven by the consumer.

• Next day delivery.
• Day definite delivery.
• Time definitive delivery.
• Free Delivery.
• Couriers equipped with mobile phones.
• Delivery to home when the person ordering knows they wont be in.

All these things are going to drive companies out of business. Its is because the couriers are crap? No, its because they only have so much money - the yields on domestic now are horrific leading to no money to fund modernising the networks.

Vicious circle - when the number of companies offering services drops to a handful then prices will rise, without a doubt.

They have no bargaining power with the retailers as it stands...

prowla

I can't say I'm sorry to see the company go; they were always bad mannered, inflexible, and difficult to deal with, and after a few bad experiences I made a point not to use City Link (also specifying not to to people sending things to me).

There may be one or two of the employees who were genuinely interested in helping their customers, and to those I say I'm sorry to hear about this unfortunate change in your circumstances and wish you good luck in finding new employment.

To the rest I say you brought it on yourselves, and in your next job remember that your customers are the people who pay your wages, and if you upset them they can choose to go elsewhere.

shaun_from_Africa

bris wrote: »

Well all you haters should be ashamed. For all the millions of parcels there is a few that don't end well, name a courier company that hasn't had the same problems.

Well, I can't say that I'm sorry to see them go either and am I ashamed to say that?
Not in the least.

In the past 6 months, I have had 2 deliveries go missing (one eventually turned up 2 months later) and one item delivered looking like it had been used for football practice. Guess who the couriers were on all 3 occasions?

Yodel get a bad rap on here but I've never had a problem with anything delivered by them.

Nodding_Donkey

visidigi wrote: »

The next day couriers are struggling.

But they are struggling with retailer demands driven by the consumer.

• Next day delivery.
• Day definite delivery.
• Time definitive delivery.
• Free Delivery.
• Couriers equipped with mobile phones.
• Delivery to home when the person ordering knows they wont be in.

All these things are going to drive companies out of business. Its is because the couriers are crap? No, its because they only have so much money - the yields on domestic now are horrific leading to no money to fund modernising the networks.

Vicious circle - when the number of companies offering services drops to a handful then prices will rise, without a doubt.

They have no bargaining power with the retailers as it stands...

Are they struggling though? DPD seem to be doing ok and they are hardly the cheapest. What they do though is provide a service, something that !!!!!! Link and Yodel and their ilk seem incapable of doing.

mattyprice4004

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Are they struggling though? DPD seem to be doing ok and they are hardly the cheapest. What they do though is provide a service, something that !!!!!! Link and Yodel and their ilk seem incapable of doing.

You'd be surprised how cheap DPD are - they're only about £1 more than Yodel when you have a business contract.
Guess who we're using in a month or so?

unholyangel

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Are they struggling though? DPD seem to be doing ok and they are hardly the cheapest. What they do though is provide a service, something that !!!!!! Link and Yodel and their ilk seem incapable of doing.

Bad service is still a service

DPD certainly have their own issues - their network lost a laptop I ordered a few weeks ago. Was scanned when collected from the retailer but never arrived at the depot.

Feral_Moon

bris wrote: »

Well all you haters should be ashamed. For all the millions of parcels there is a few that don't end well, name a courier company that hasn't had the same problems.


Same with the drivers 1 or 2 bad apples doesn't make the whole barrel rotten.


Bottom line is thousands of good people are now facing the new year with an uncertain future, worried for their family's and home. Hope you lot are smug enough to be sure it doesn't happen to you.

Exactly! It's usually Hermes or Yodel getting it in the neck as they employ the highest percentage of self-employed lifestyle couriers. My depot alone handles 50,000+ parcels a day and complaints tally less than 0.005%

Usually petty stuff about parcels being left 'in a safe place' or a questionable signature where a courier has left a *need to be signed for* parcel in a safe place for a reg/low risk customer during peak period. Would they have preferred it got sent back to sender after 3 failed attempts??

Couriers can't win! If people order online then they need to be home to collect or leave clear instruction of a safe place.

visidigi

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Are they struggling though? DPD seem to be doing ok and they are hardly the cheapest. What they do though is provide a service, something that !!!!!! Link and Yodel and their ilk seem incapable of doing.

They are all struggling with yields - City link were more exposed to customer change because they had a high % of B2C deliveries.

DPD are part of the massive GeoPost brand, which in turn is part of the behemoth that is La Poste - they have a serious amount of business diversity there to keep DPD alive - CL didn't have much, if any diversity - additionally DPD is very new to the marketing perspectively speaking which is why they are so technically advanced - they have very young IT systems.

Don't expect DPD to remain cheap for very long - they can afford to charge more for the service (which has been both fantastic and horrific for us)