Any Parcelforce delivery issues during strike?

Got an EVRI one that's still with Santa after over a week

I think all the delivery companies are letting things slide now that Royal Mail are not up to much

It's a pattern most private companies follow

When Post Office Banking was trashed the banks started closing all their local branches en-masse

The strikers make up for the service on overtime, so no problems for me.

As always, Parcel force and Royal Mail have "delivered" for me.

For me, certainly better than many of the others.
They will always struggle because they offer decent conditions of service for their staff - at least compared to the others having self-employed couriers, mainly immigrants, with zero conditions. They will be unable to compete in the end and will have to do the same - a race to the bottom.

Hi Dave, where I live, I've only known one break-in in the thirty years that I've live here and that was my closest neighbour who is about 100 yards away while he was away on holiday, and I believe it turned out to be someone who knew he and his family were going to be away for a week. I have never seen an Amazon vehicle delivering in my area and have always been owner drivers and quite possible many not having the correct insurance for doing so. One EVRI delivery I had, the driver turned up it what looked like their family car with parcels piled up on the back seat and in the footwells, not a good advert for a national courier service in my view. One excuse that I've had, is they couldn't find my house, well, there are plenty of houses before they get to me to enquire. Some couriers even come to me and pass my nearest neighbour who they should be delivering too, and many of them don't even knock, leaving me to walk those 100 yards and back to finish their job for them. When I first moved here and had a small machine delivered, I asked the company if they would like a map of my location, their answer was that it was the courier's job to find you wherever you address is and he did, and this was long before sat-nav's were around, the courier wasn't a national one, but a full time self-employed one. I have a lockable steel cabinet beside my door which will hold up to medium plus sized parcels, so there is no excuse to say they left it with a neighbour if there is no answer. Another courier that has delivered to me on a number of times is UPS and haven't had any issues with them, the first time they delivered a package, it came from USA and that was also before sat-nav's were around.

Regards Nick.

Wonder if this is still still happens?

Jim

**LINK**

Very often the service provided will depend on the individual worker.

After being made redundant, for six months I worked as a parcels courier.

One driver was prone to throwing parcels a\round the depot, in the general direction of his van, for loading.

One morning he threw a box of wine, with the inevitable result. A few days later he did the same again!

And the boss thought he was good!

The problem was that wherever you were, the office wanted you somewhere else, five minutes earlier!

Under that sort of pressure, the temptation to cut corners is almost irresistible.

It kept me fit, but was glad to be able to return to my old job, on contract.

Howard

I ordered some printer inks online from HP Wednesday afternoon and received a confirmation email for Friday delivery.

Shortly after an email from Parcelforce arrived stating the same.

Yesterday morning Parcelforce emailed me to say the delivery would be made between 09:50 & 10:50 the fully branded Parcelforce van arrived at approx 10:30 and driver handed the parcel to me at my door.

I call that good service from HP & Parcelforce.

Placed an order with Arc Eurotrade yesterday 8th December for some Xmas goodies and got an email at 2:30pm saying delivery tomorrow Friday 9 December, I was due to go out so re arranged everything so I could be in all day also opted for delivery to a safe place, the porch, because then they won’t be able to put a card through the door saying no ones in. Got up this morning and at 9:01 got an email from DPD saying sorry your parcels delayed in transit, we will update you when your parcel moves. Doubt anything will happen now until Monday,. I have no complaint with Arc, their stuff is OK but I think their delivery partner is c**p, this is not the first time they have said next day delivery and pulled the delayed in transit trick on me, sorry Arc but DPD are letting you down.

Apologies Baz,

In addition to Royal Mail, we only use Parcelforce and DPD. Earlier you mentioned that Parcelforce is crap, so we used DPD this time.

At present we and a small percentage of our customers are finding delivery delays from all carriers. We are trying our best, using premium services. The diversion switching from 2nd to 1st class, or 1st class to courier, or switching from one courier to another has cost us 11% over and above what we would normally pay. This is not a moan or sob story. I am just explaining what we at ARC are doing to deal with the situation. We are getting goods out as quickly as we can. For Royal Mail, there will be strike dependent delays in transit - currently between 1 to 2 weeks for 1st class depending on U.K. destination, regardless of what you buy from all shippers who use Royal Mail.

There is higher pressure on the carriage system at present due to execution of Black Friday deals, and strikes which are outside our control. Certain large corporates are switching from the cheapest e.g.EVRI to other carriers, and then from Parcelforce to carriers like DPD when Parcelforce is on strike. This has put an increased load on DPD… as in our case, and it is clear that they are all having difficulties coping. It’s a case of crap rolling downhill!….

This afternoon as I write, just been advised… don’t use DPD for shipments to Stoke or Cardiff as their depots are well and truly backed up and will need senakot to relieve their constipation … Parcelforce on strike today....so we are removing such parcels from the system now, and will switch them over to Parcelforce on Monday!

Yes, the result is that we are hearing about these problems every day, and we are switching between services as and when we hear about expected problems with a service or destination area. Had we participated in Black Friday deals, our problems would have been greater.

Ketan at ARC

Not sure if this is quite on topic but it seemed like useful information.

Yesterday I ordered something from Machine DRO, I selected DPD as recommended, and the parcel arrived this morning at about 11.00 am. Hertfordshire to Cheshire. Pretty fast footwork by both supplier and courier.

So it's not necessarily too late to get something for Christmas whatever it says on the News!

Rod

Lucky you Rod!

Based on the delay calls our team are having to deal with, we are less optomistic... especially for orders sent out by Royal Mail.

I hope this link for DPD Operations works, as it is showing delays in different parts of the country for their service:

**LINK**

Yesterday we tried to ship to an Oldham OL postcode, and the DPD booking system stopped us from continuing, requesting us to book on a different date as that destination has a back-log.

Ketan at ARC

Ordered something from Stuart Models on November 30th and it hasnt arrived either. Thankfully they will send me a replacement. Deliveries from Amazon and deliveries via DPD are arriving next day without any issues here. My order from ebay posted 21st November still shows as being in Heathrow but on contacting Royal Mail this morning they are now advising to claim for it as its lost.

Edited By Ian McVickers on 14/12/2022 12:54:29

Ordered a plastic kit just yesterday from Models for Sale. Expecting it to take a week or so due to the current circumstances - just come home to find Parcel Force about to leave the area. Order to delivery less than 24hrs so yes, Parcel Force were delivering in this area today for me

Who's a happy bunny then

Tug

I received 2 parcels this morning, one by the Postie and one by Parcelforce both rang the doorbell and put them down outside as we have Covid.

Both had been dispatched yesterday in fact one of them had only been ordered online yesterday morning.

Edited By V8Eng on 14/12/2022 13:41:10

Ordered a couple of small end mills and two slitting saws from Arceurotrade around 5th Dec, received them on the 12th IIRC (but it could have been a day or two before that). That timing is OK by me, especially for December..

The package was delivered by Royal Mail 24, to Central Scotland.

I don't know if it has always been the case but recent small deliveries from Arc arrive in a neat rectangular stiff cardboard package around, say, 6" x 5" x 3/4" .... these always fit through the letter box so no need to stay in for a delivery.

Ches

Edited By Ches Green UK on 14/12/2022 15:12:34

Edited By Ches Green UK on 14/12/2022 15:30:51

Ketan

Yes, very lucky, still my lucky experience has encouraged me to order something from you as well, so I am hoping to be lucky twice.

I suppose you have a difficult balance to strike at the moment between offering goods for sale and managing expectations of timeous delivery.

Rod

Ches: Glad you got your goods. Yes we have been experimenting with more cardboard packaging this year.

Rod: Thank you for your order. It is in the system for processing. Yes it is fun and games trying to strike a balance. Hoping to get it out tomorrow depending on who allows us to book through their booking system.

Ketan at ARC

Just had a parcel delivered by Post Office. Ordered Monday for next day delivery, according to tracking seems to have got hung up in Bristol main depot for most of yesterday before getting to my local office today. Not bad for a strike day.

Perhaps EVRI is the answer

An item I was informed as despatched by the supplier yesterday turned up today.

Clearly Parcelforce have current issues but with the others it would be interesting to know the ratio of complaints to volume of deliveries.

Rod

A few Christmas goodies ordered from ARC maybe Monday or Tuesday arrived this afternoon, just have to wait a week or so until I'm allowed to play with them.

Did not get the EVRI notice myself as someone ordered them having been sent my "wishlist" from ARC's website.

Ketan

Parcel arrived, safe and well, at lunchtime today, delivered by Parcelforce, so I have been twice lucky.

Thanks for the service.

Regards

Rod