# Parcelforce 48 hr service: please can I rant??



## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (5 September 2013)

OK so spotted a lovely item on E-bay and successfully bid for it and paid for it immediately after.

Then I get an e-mail to say that seller has sent it at her local post office using the "Parcelforce" 48 hour service and that "man at the post office" says I should get it Wednesday, so I stay in all day on a gorgeous day (easy, as I'm home based), and it doesn't arrive.

Seller's sent me the tracking/parcelforce numbers, so I try this mornign to track my parcel on the Parcelforce System. Nothing, zilch, it says its not in the system, so I spend at least an hour trying to speak to a person and not a machine, who then promises to ring me back asap, and disappears into the ether. THEN I speak to someone else who says hang on we're Parcelforce and if the parcel was handed into a post office then they don't know where it is and can't track it coz its not "in their system".

So then......... I ring Royal Mail, who say its "post office" and not them, and anyway if its the "48 hour" guaranteed service, its nothing to do with them and its a matter for Parcelforce and the seller (which OK it IS up to the seller, but I'm merely trying to gee things up from my end).

So......... I've spent two days wasted waiting around for a delivery, and my poor seller has sent something off and neither of us have a clue whether It'll ever see the light of day again!!! Its quite a big item too....... so the thought of my lovely item which I've coveted on e-bay ever since I saw it, hanging around in some lonely place quite breaks my heart.

I've had issues with Parcelforce before: items we'd ordered from catalogues would mysteriously go missing, or the driver would ring up and say sorry they can't find us and they'd be here within 10 mins, only they never turned up and neither did the items............... funny that.

I don't get a good feeling about this................

Bleddy postal system, it really is a total fook up in this country innit? My dad used to be a postie in the 1960's and it was all so simple then; one company, one system, people who actually CARED. I've spent two hours today talking to a blessed machine. Just wanna talk to a PERSON FFS!!!

Anyway, I've had to throw this back to the seller. Bless her, we've communicated by e-mail and she sounds a darling, probably on here too????!!! 

Sorry, sticky buns to all who've made it this far........... words beginning with F S & B come to mind.....................


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## its_noodles (5 September 2013)

i know. it happened to me once a couple of years back. i was waiting for a book parcel from amazon. when it didn't turn up i checked the systems and they said they have "tried to deliver it unsuccessfully". it was a lie and i had to drive to the depot to collect it myself...i think things are going to get worst


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (5 September 2013)

its_noodles said:



			i know. it happened to me once a couple of years back. i was waiting for a book parcel from amazon. when it didn't turn up i checked the systems and they said they have "tried to deliver it unsuccessfully". it was a lie and i had to drive to the depot to collect it myself...i think things are going to get worst
		
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Yep, we've had this, and KNOW blimmin well that they were lying because if anyone comes anywhere near here then (1) the dogs will tell us PDQ and (2) the guinea fowls will start to kick off!!! 

Plus we're the ONLY people with our postcode, so satnav should take them straight here. Even if they're not from the UK!!!! FFS how hard is it?? (sorry, blood pressure's still up


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## Joeyjojo (5 September 2013)

This happened to me when I bought a saddle on eBay. I expected it on the Friday and when it hadn't turned up by the following Weds I started asking questions of the seller who gave me all the tracking details.

Managed to call the delivery company and it turns out they'd delivered it to my neighbours on Friday, not put a note through my door and my neighbours hasn't said anything!!

I can't believe the sat there with a huge parcel in their tiny lounge for 5 days!! Postal system is a complete joke sometimes.


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## Sugarplum Furry (5 September 2013)

Parcel-farce. I had problems with them in June, they insisted the place the parcel was being collected from by them didn't exist. Oh yes it bloomin' well did, they collect a truck full of stuff from there every day. 

Then the parcel didn't show up on their system after collection for 2 weeks, it was meant to be a 2 day delivery service.

Three weeks later when it finally came I'd made so many phone calls to them, and yeah, the same, I'd been passed round their depots like a box of rancid chocolates, ignored, dropped, spat out and cut off, I'd almost lost the will to live. I spent so much on phone calls it would have been cheaper to hire a taxi and go halfway across the country to collect the wretched item myself. Still quite cross about it, can you tell...?


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## holeymoley (5 September 2013)

Is it possible she's handed it into the post office to get picked up by parcel force?


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (5 September 2013)

holeymoley said:



			Is it possible she's handed it into the post office to get picked up by parcel force?
		
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Um, yeah, I gather this is what's happened.......... and Royal Mail are denying all knowledge coz Post Office isn't part of them anymore (OMG it gets soooo confooosing ); but Parcelfarce are saying that IF its gone into the "Royal mail system" then they can't/won't track it!

You honestly couldn't make it up. Laurel and Hardy could do better, and probably would.


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## wench (5 September 2013)

if the post office has ever been part of royal mail... it was a long, long, long time ago!


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## DJ (5 September 2013)

Parcel force are useless ... couldn`t hit a cows ar$e with a barn door ....... The seller needs to nip back to the post office, as it the blame now falls on the clerk who dealt with all collections, and whether she stuck it on the RM van or the PF van ........ It may be worth finding out which sorting office RM use from her to you (sorting office/main depot) as it could well have found it`s way there and be sat on the warehouse floor.


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## ew0855 (5 September 2013)

You have my sympathy - when we were planning our wedding we ordered our invites mail order. Parcel force left them in 'a safe place' .... The wheelie bin ... On bin day. Obviously by the time we came home and found the card through the letter box our lovely invites were already in landfill :-(

The icing on the cake? We complained, the company we bought from kindly sent out replacements and a week later parcel force did EXACTLY the same thing. Luckily we only have rubbish collections once a fortnight but 5 years later I'm still shocked at the sheer stupidity.


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## zaminda (5 September 2013)

Even if Royal Mail collected it from the post office, as long as it was labelled correctly it would make it back into the Parcel force system, as they also collect for them, and have a separate slot for those before they go off to the main mail centre. Think its a case of people trying to buck pass!! It could of course still be at the initial post office!


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## Gloi (5 September 2013)

They drive me mad too. Waited in all day, went to the toilet, bell rang and by the time I got to the door they'd put a card through and driven off. So now I have to drive to the depot tomorrow. Grr.


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (5 September 2013)

Gloi said:



			They drive me mad too. Waited in all day, went to the toilet, bell rang and by the time I got to the door they'd put a card through and driven off. So now I have to drive to the depot tomorrow. Grr.
		
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Yep, the front doorbell ALWAYS, without fail, rings when I'm either in the loo or under the shower......... ah, so mebbe THAT is the answer then, bung naked self under the shower OR sit on the throne till they come. Yep, know what to do know. Sorted (ha ha).


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## MagicMelon (5 September 2013)

They can be really rubbish.  Its the delivery drivers which annoy me - I had one the other day who called me (it was something quite big) saying he was on his way and would be 10 minutes (I guess he was calling as it was 5pm and this was the cut off for when they said it would be delivered by - I had waited around ALL day).  I actually asked him "do you know where we are?" because we do live in the middle of nowhere, he said yes he knew the area and knew which house we were.  I wait 10 mins... nothing... 30 mins later I try calling him but his phones off.  Peed off by now, I call the company direct who say it says on their system that the driver had said (what turned out to be 5 mins after he called me!!) that he'd tried to deliver but nobody was home.  WHAT?!?!  I was livid and made the company take a complaint that their driver was a total liar!!  They then said the next delivery slot was 2 weeks on from then... you can imagine the abuse they got... it was delivered 3 days later...


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (5 September 2013)

MagicMelon said:



			They can be really rubbish.  Its the delivery drivers which annoy me - I had one the other day who called me (it was something quite big) saying he was on his way and would be 10 minutes (I guess he was calling as it was 5pm and this was the cut off for when they said it would be delivered by - I had waited around ALL day).  I actually asked him "do you know where we are?" because we do live in the middle of nowhere, he said yes he knew the area and knew which house we were.  I wait 10 mins... nothing... 30 mins later I try calling him but his phones off.  Peed off by now, I call the company direct who say it says on their system that the driver had said (what turned out to be 5 mins after he called me!!) that he'd tried to deliver but nobody was home.  WHAT?!?!  I was livid and made the company take a complaint that their driver was a total liar!!  They then said the next delivery slot was 2 weeks on from then... you can imagine the abuse they got... it was delivered 3 days later...
		
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Yeah...... almost exactly the same happened to us. We ordered some clothing items from a well known catalogue, and the delivery driver rang up when he was less than a mile away, and said I'm at such-and-such but don't know how to get from where I am, to you. So we told him - and its easy, just go to the next crossroads, take the righthand turning, and go exactly a mile, and we're on the right. Simples???? Well, driver said OK then I'll be right along......... so we waited, and waited, 10 mins came and went, and we didn't hear anything else. He never returned.

We had to contact the catalogue company and told them what had happened. They said that the driver had told his courier company that he "couldn't find" us! What rot! Anyway, they refunded us OK without any hassle but to this day we've got no idea what happened to the items! My suspicious mind couldn't help but wonder if some of these drivers aren't on to a good thing.................. classic case of "it fell off the back of a lorry". Perhaps I shouldn't think that, but I can't help but do so.


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## budley95 (5 September 2013)

Oh the joys of parcel force. Im known at work for getting my way from them, so always get the querries handed to me! Ring the main line. Options 2 then 5 then 2 again. Get a name. Find out where it was lost. They can do this where it was first scanned. Then get that depot direct number. Ring it and select option 5. Get a name again. Give the tracking number first and then once they've tracked it you explain. They will say they will send a message to a driver or another depot and call you back. Give them an hour and then call back every hour. They'll hate you as you have names. You tend to get through to them then! Haha. If you know the depot I may have them in my notes at work tomorrow. I hope you get it sorted. You can claim back from them, large expensive items tends to appear even though they're lost as the labels fallen off at the national hub if you say you'll be claiming. Useless information from a very sad person im afraid. But completely understand your need to rant. They're rubbish when they mess up and great when they get it right!


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## Beentheredonethat (5 September 2013)

Not just Parcelforce. Last week I got a package from Amazon via Yodel. Checked online and apparently it was delivered to my address and signed for at 9.15. Odd, seeing as I live alone and had been in the office since 8.30. My neighbour is happy to take in parcels for me but signature wasn't his name and when I texted him to check he was out all day. Got home at 6 to find package propped against my door, in full view of anyone passing or waiting at nearby bus stop, and it was just starting to rain. Contacted them to complain but not surprisingly haven't heard back.


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## WelshD (5 September 2013)

The company i wirk for uses four different couriers for various things. Two of the drivers openly admitted to us that in less built up areas the drivers get so little to deliver each parcel that anything tricky, heavy or with an even slightly obscure address gets left with some poor excuse for non delivery for when another driver is working that route so that poor sod can deal with it - if he is savvy it gets left again and so on


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## Nicnac (5 September 2013)

Well they (PF) turned up here last week and said 'oh sorry - I don't have your parcel; it's not due to be delivered until tomorrow'

So they tried to deliver it 24 hours early and came back the next morning with it (which was the day it was meant to be delivered)

Couldn't organise a vertical wee in a beer making house.


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## EmmasMummy (6 September 2013)

Strangely..........having moved close to the arse end of no where, we have BETTER postal service than when we lived in town.  I get mail that has been sent from down south either the next day or the day after and same for deliveries.  And so far the drivers have been very good in that they will leave stuff at the local shop - and some will leave in our garage, but I am wary of directing them to leave stuff there for liability reasons as they have to cross a shared yard. 

But, in town, living in the flat the postmen could not be arsed to delivery parcels as I only ever got ones that could fit through the letterbox.


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## Tobiano (6 September 2013)

Er .. Point of order. You can only rant on here if it was a horsy item.  

Have had similar. You need to move to a condo with a concierge service, just so you can have parcels delivered without having to give up everything else in life.


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## mutley75 (6 September 2013)

I have to have a quiet chuckle at the responses above. As someone that on occasion gets thrown in to most of the parcel companies as an agency driver. From the other side you are expected to do 120+ drops a day. You are routed by a wonderful system that expects you to run at speed limits. And not knowing the area! Remember most single track roads that people ride on I am still expected to push 60mph on! Then when no one is home you try to be helpfull and leave and dodge singniture on only to be disciplined for it. Bottom line if 1delivery is going to cost you 30 mins + a simple unable to deliver on your notes saves you a lot of time! And all this agro for not much more than £50 after tax for the day. Hence I very rarely do it anymore!


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## fatpiggy (6 September 2013)

I am quite a regular Ebay purchaser and generally have things delivered to work unless I am positive they will go through my letterbox and don't need a signature. Recently though I forgot to change my address.  Parcel Force left me a card and took the parcel around to the local PO  - which closes at 5pm so it had to sit there all week until I could go on Saturday morning.  And yet everything else has always gone up to the main sorting office which I can visit on my way home from work if I get a move on.    Anther time I had a card saying I needed to collect, went the next day in my lunch hour by bus and they told me there wasn't anything there and the postman who left the card had gone on holiday for a week.  I pointed out that I had wasted my lunch break, and two bus fares to collect something THEY had told me was waiting in their backroom and they told me to ******* off - in front of all the other people queuing to collect. Charming.


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## jendie (6 September 2013)

You have my sympathy. Some years back I sent some precious frozen semen (canine and fragile) from London to Vancouver. We used FedEx. It was supposed to fly direct so you can imagine my alarm when I checked it on the tracking system and found it was in Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria. It did arrive at its location safely though, a couple of days later. Fortunately there was sufficient liquid nitrogen in the container to keep it safe.


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