ParcelForce 'too busy' to Deliver!!!!

Snowedunder

An expected large parcel could not be delivered as I was out. The usual card was left, but no 'options' were ticked.


Went to Collections office next day and told they usually try and re-deliver next day, but were running 3 hours late due to late arrival of container. Nothing could be found with the Tracking Number.


I went straight home - nothing - asked neighbour who was out front gardening and confirmed there were no delivery attempts. Nothing arrived.


Went to Collections office next day - parcel was 'on' the system as 'returned' customer not home for Monday, but nothing since (now Wednesday). Despite search Parcel was not in depot apologies we have 4 drivers off sick. We will telephone you later today.


As promised telephoned and confirmed that parcel was found so would now be waiting for me at depot - I requested a next day delivery as it is approaching Easter weekend - sorry we (Parcelforce) are 'too busy to deliver :eek:
Don't suppose for one minute there is a right to any compensation?

Fosterdog

I doubt you have an argument, you were out for the attempted delivery, they never made any promises about when they would redeliver and it looks like by missing the first attempt you have been moved to the bottom of the queue for a redelivery. That seems perfectly reasonable if the only alternative is them pushing someone else's delivery back for them to redeliver yours. I think it's just unfortunate they are just short staffed and very busy right now. I don't quite get why you think you should be compensated or offered a free premium delivery service.

Can you not just collect it from the depot yourself?

marcarm

A) What losses do you need compensating for?

IT would be the sender who would be able to claim as they have the contract with PF. If you were due some recompense, this would be from the sender and the sender would then claim from PF

daytona0

Snowedunder wrote: »

Despite search Parcel was not in depot apologies we have 4 drivers off sick. We will telephone you later today.

4 drivers going off sick is just a random event which happens from time to time! It is comparable to heavy snow or flash floods; stuff just happens...

Nobody can reasonably control such events.

So your beef is based on some random life event happening after you missed a delivery (were you given notification on what day it was going to arrive? )

As promised telephoned and confirmed that parcel was found so would now be waiting for me at depot

That is actually really positive feedback! Most times the customer is all "but they didn't ring me back as promised!! outrage". You never hear about promised callbacks being actioned.

- I requested a next day delivery as it is approaching Easter weekend - sorry we (Parcelforce) are 'too busy to deliver :eek:
Don't suppose for one minute there is a right to any compensation?

I suspect that they are "too busy to deliver" because of the random event happening whereby 4 employees were sick. Sadly you don't get compensation for stuff like that! I suppose your compensation could be the fact that you can go and pick up the item yourself! That way you'll get it before Easter (why did you order so late anyway? Could easily have been a "my parcel didn't arrive before Easter when I ordered it with just a few days to go" thread).

dragonsoup

Snowedunder wrote: »

An expected large parcel could not be delivered as I was out. The usual card was left, but no 'options' were ticked.


Went to Collections office next day and told they usually try and re-deliver next day, but were running 3 hours late due to late arrival of container. Nothing could be found with the Tracking Number.


I went straight home - nothing - asked neighbour who was out front gardening and confirmed there were no delivery attempts. Nothing arrived.


Went to Collections office next day - parcel was 'on' the system as 'returned' customer not home for Monday, but nothing since (now Wednesday). Despite search Parcel was not in depot apologies we have 4 drivers off sick. We will telephone you later today.


As promised telephoned and confirmed that parcel was found so would now be waiting for me at depot - I requested a next day delivery as it is approaching Easter weekend - sorry we (Parcelforce) are 'too busy to deliver :eek:
Don't suppose for one minute there is a right to any compensation?

So no delivery was even attempted then and you've already visited the collection office twice?

I'd be complaining to the retailer. It's their choice of courier and up to them to be chasing around for your package.

ThumbRemote

Fosterdog wrote: »

I think it's just unfortunate they are just short staffed and very busy right now. I don't quite get why you think you should be compensated or offered a free premium delivery service.

daytona0 wrote: »

4 drivers going off sick is just a random event which happens from time to time! It is comparable to heavy snow or flash floods; stuff just happens...

Nobody can reasonably control such events.

You both appear to be justifying poor management of a business. What sort of business that sells a time-dependent service has no adequate contingency for staff sickness? And I really can't see 4 people being that many relative to the size of most delivery depots.

Snowedunder

Just to answer a few points raised. I refer to Easter, not because I 'ordered too late' but merely that there would be a long delay in their delivery dates, because of Easter.


Whilst I can see that the seller would be entitled (maybe) to compensation, they have done nothing wrong or suffered any delay, nor have they been put to the inconvenience of making 3 (now) trips to collect a parcel for which they paid a delivery amount (me, having paid for delivery). Parcelforce have inconvenienced me, not the seller, and I therefore do not hold the seller to blame.


Finally, because this is a fairly large parcel and I am 'of the older female generation' this is no slight inconvenience for me. Indeed, I am encouraged to purchase online to save myself the trauma of transporting heavy/large items. We are being told that online is the way to go - but only if the service you use apparently has 'the time' and 'staff availability' to carry out their paid for services.


As for me 'not being available for delivery' - erm how many of you stay off work for days on the off chance a delivery may be made. - that is just nonsense and not helpful at all. Further, 'they never made any promises as to when they would re-deliver,' I did not realise this was a one strike and your out society. They lost the parcel for 2 days so could not arrange a re-delivery until the parcel was found, so how is that my problem?, and why would it be unreasonable to then ask for a re-delivery?

daytona0

ThumbRemote wrote: »

You both appear to be justifying poor management of a business. What sort of business that sells a time-dependent service has no adequate contingency for staff sickness? And I really can't see 4 people being that many relative to the size of most delivery depots.

On the contrary, I think that it MIGHT BE (key words) managed well!

- Delivery attempted in a speedy manner (no complaints, except something about a third party saying that they saw nothing!)

- Item made available for collection in a speedy manner (2 days with delays isn't bad)

- 4 employees is up to 40 hours PER DAY in lost man power. I don't think that they can predict such a spike statistically. Management have probably worked out the average number of sicknesses per day over the previous year, and hired surplus based on that. 4 seems quite a rare occurrence. I'd peg it down at maybe 1 sickness per day on average?

- Despite all of this, they SEEM TO BE trying to reduce any backlog (either through diverting manpower elsewhere or through not neglecting customers who haven't had a delivery attempt yet).

daytona0

OP, I'm not going to argue with you but I'd like to make one more point.

Don't forget that you agreed to the delivery time frames when ordering the item, so you are at least partially to blame for the failed delivery. You effectively agreed to delivery taking place some time when you could have been in work. Now you have to re-arrange it

Fosterdog

Snowedunder wrote: »

As for me 'not being available for delivery' - erm how many of you stay off work for days on the off chance a delivery may be made. - that is just nonsense and not helpful at all. Further, 'they never made any promises as to when they would re-deliver,' I did not realise this was a one strike and your out society. They lost the parcel for 2 days so could not arrange a re-delivery until the parcel was found, so how is that my problem?, and why would it be unreasonable to then ask for a re-delivery?

I can obviously only speak for myself but if I order an item to be delivered, even if I don't know exactly when it will be I make arrangements for the parcel to be received. It's not unreasonable to expect somebody to be available to accept an item they ordered. I never said it was a one strike and you're out society, they were paid one fee to deliver an item, they kept to their end by attempting delivery. It is not their fault that you were not there, you wouldn't have any of these delays if you had been. Not all couriers offer a repeated attempt to deliver service and after one failed attempt it is either up to you to collect from them or returned to sender.

I'd guess that the reason the parcel was "lost" for two days was because they have so many drivers off sick all parcels for those four would likely be split between the remaining drivers to cause as little delay possible for everyone, they probably didn't have accurate tracking for this reason.

I can understand your frustration with it all but you really need to take at least some responsibility for not being there first time. You wouldn't be happy if they were posting on here about how their time was wasted attempting a delivery to someone who wasn't even home while they are short staffed and back logged and causing them further delays.

sheramber

Did you not know from the tracking number when it was to be delivered, so would make yourself available on that day?

How did you intend for the parcel to be received if you are working every day?

Since they did try to deliver they upheld their side of the contract. The fact that they were not able to deliver within the scheduled time frame was not their fault so I don't see how they are liable to pay compensation.
If they were. we could make ourselves unavailable intentionally to get compensation.