Amazon/UPS - terrible!

JustAnotherSaver

Ordered item from Amazon about 2-3 week ago. Took an age to even get dispatched.

Supposed to be delivered yesterday - get notification "more address information required".

Fair enough the house isn't great. It's on the main A road but it only has a name, no number. After seeing a TV advert I now include what3words reference whenever possible (such as with Amazon orders!).

I ask Amazon what the problem is - they say the courier needs more information to be able to deliver to the right location.

I said what3words information has been given, in addition to post codes and phone numbers. I'm not sure what more information can be provided. If the driver downloads the app & uses the reference, they will literally be standing at the front door.

This is when Amazon got annoying. We need more information they said.

Eh??

Well if that's not good enough then what information are you looking for I ask.

Is the address near a school, a field etc.

Honestly!! I could tell them it's near a hedge but that could be anywhere on a 1-2 mile run.

I could say it's near a tree but same as for hedge.

I could say it's near a railway track but then they could be any of about 20 houses on the 1-2 mile run.

Or they could just use the flipping app & be standing at the front door.

I told them I've already given them information that would result in a successful delivery if they just followed it.

Sorry I don't see that information the guy says.

Are you for real??

At that point I have enough & just tell them here's some information for you - cancel my order & I want a full refund thank you.

To which the guy says I was only trying to help but you didn't provide information to locate the address.

I give up!!!

This makes Hermes look good (ok, Evri).

custardy

Are you sure this detail is on the label the courier has?
having done enough deliveries in my time its not always that easy.
EG if the courier company is using routing software then the parcels are put in order by software (often via postcode) so they dont deal with the parcel till they come to it. Then if the software is dropping them to a vague location via postcode its time to move on (multi drop delivery is a time pressured process)

JustAnotherSaver

No I can't possibly be sure as I've not had the parcel in front of me to be able to say what is or is not on the label.

I don't work in courier delivery work myself so can't speak from first hand experience, however I do work with delivery driving of sorts and I do know that if any of our guys had the option of

a) being told to locate a house by a field/tree etc to get you roughly in the area and hopefully you'll spot the right reference point

or

b) being given something that will have them standing at the front door without fail

Then they'll opt for the second of those because at the end of the day, they don't really give a toss about the job like I suspect <insert high percentage here> courier drivers don't - they just want to get paid for which they have to do some delivering, and then go home.

I do know that it was out for delivery on Weds - so it was loaded on the van.

But they couldn't find the address.

Not being funny here but what3words or no what3words ..... Hermes/Evri, Yodel, DPD, Royal Mail - no problem. Not sure why UPS need to be different.

sheramber

Maybe UPS do not issue drivers with mobile phones

custardy

JustAnotherSaver said:

No I can't possibly be sure as I've not had the parcel in front of me to be able to say what is or is not on the label.

I don't work in courier delivery work myself so can't speak from first hand experience, however I do work with delivery driving of sorts and I do know that if any of our guys had the option of

a) being told to locate a house by a field/tree etc to get you roughly in the area and hopefully you'll spot the right reference point

or

b) being given something that will have them standing at the front door without fail

Then they'll opt for the second of those because at the end of the day, they don't really give a toss about the job like I suspect <insert high percentage here> courier drivers don't - they just want to get paid for which they have to do some delivering, and then go home.

I do know that it was out for delivery on Weds - so it was loaded on the van.

But they couldn't find the address.

Not being funny here but what3words or no what3words ..... Hermes/Evri, Yodel, DPD, Royal Mail - no problem. Not sure why UPS need to be different.

Well lets take RM. You say no problem.
RM have a whole swaithe of afternoon delivery staff who are not posties (in the traditional sense) and use routing software as I described.
They would be in the same boat as the software they use relies on  postcodes.
Now RM has the luxury of a whole experienced day shift they next day to fill these knowledge gaps.

maisie_cat

We are similar, rural, no near neighbours and you miss our driveway if you blink. We've had several "problem with your address" situations including a whole monthly S&S delivery returned. I think it depends how prepared the actual driver is to look, we often get drivers looking for a neighbour over the field as well so it appears to be a function of sparsely populated areas. RM are the best and for a while we had an excellent Hermes guy, his replacement doesn't bother and simply claims to have attempted delivery when they haven't. I accept it as a price to pay for living somewhere rural and beautiful, along with slurry spraying and tourists.

JustAnotherSaver

custardy said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

No I can't possibly be sure as I've not had the parcel in front of me to be able to say what is or is not on the label.

I don't work in courier delivery work myself so can't speak from first hand experience, however I do work with delivery driving of sorts and I do know that if any of our guys had the option of

a) being told to locate a house by a field/tree etc to get you roughly in the area and hopefully you'll spot the right reference point

or

b) being given something that will have them standing at the front door without fail

Then they'll opt for the second of those because at the end of the day, they don't really give a toss about the job like I suspect <insert high percentage here> courier drivers don't - they just want to get paid for which they have to do some delivering, and then go home.

I do know that it was out for delivery on Weds - so it was loaded on the van.

But they couldn't find the address.

Not being funny here but what3words or no what3words ..... Hermes/Evri, Yodel, DPD, Royal Mail - no problem. Not sure why UPS need to be different.

Well lets take RM. You say no problem.
RM have a whole swaithe of afternoon delivery staff who are not posties (in the traditional sense) and use routing software as I described.
They would be in the same boat as the software they use relies on  postcodes.
Now RM has the luxury of a whole experienced day shift they next day to fill these knowledge gaps.

Funnily I knew someone would latch on to me saying RM. I was debating actually taking them out before I hit post but said no sod it I'll leave it in.

The same applies to the other couriers I mention - they have no issue.

And yes maybe UPS don't supply their drivers with phones, who knows. I knew we don't supply our drivers with phones but we do cover their charges if they have to phone a customer to make delivery. What we don't cover is data usage.

Many people these days have plenty of data allowance on their plans. I've had to nip out myself before and I'm terrible on the road when I'm somewhere I'm not familiar with.

I don't cry about it and look for excuses. I just use my phone. I have plenty of data that it's not going to be a big issue to me.

I think maisie_cat hit the nail on the head there. Depends how bothered a driver can be.

I've worked with enough delivery drivers where it's an effort to get them to even do the bare minimum.

I've also worked with drivers who just constantly go above and beyond to the point you have to tell them to stop helping everyone else as they need to crack on with their own job. We know you mean well but you need to get on.

And then everyone in between.

In recent times we had one guy who was walking all around an estate knocking on doors etc trying to locate the customer. Then another who didn't even bother phoning the number provided on the delivery & just brought the goods back without authorization because nobody was at the door when they knocked (once).

custardy

JustAnotherSaver said:

custardy said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

No I can't possibly be sure as I've not had the parcel in front of me to be able to say what is or is not on the label.

I don't work in courier delivery work myself so can't speak from first hand experience, however I do work with delivery driving of sorts and I do know that if any of our guys had the option of

a) being told to locate a house by a field/tree etc to get you roughly in the area and hopefully you'll spot the right reference point

or

b) being given something that will have them standing at the front door without fail

Then they'll opt for the second of those because at the end of the day, they don't really give a toss about the job like I suspect <insert high percentage here> courier drivers don't - they just want to get paid for which they have to do some delivering, and then go home.

I do know that it was out for delivery on Weds - so it was loaded on the van.

But they couldn't find the address.

Not being funny here but what3words or no what3words ..... Hermes/Evri, Yodel, DPD, Royal Mail - no problem. Not sure why UPS need to be different.

Well lets take RM. You say no problem.
RM have a whole swaithe of afternoon delivery staff who are not posties (in the traditional sense) and use routing software as I described.
They would be in the same boat as the software they use relies on  postcodes.
Now RM has the luxury of a whole experienced day shift they next day to fill these knowledge gaps.

In recent times we had one guy who was walking all around an estate knocking on doors etc trying to locate the customer. Then another who didn't even bother phoning the number provided on the delivery & just brought the goods back without authorization because nobody was at the door when they knocked (once).

Then the guy that spends loads of times on poor addresses etc might fail 20 parcels at the end of the run
Its a balance