Arc euro and parcelforce. Great partners

I placed an order the other day with arc euro and was pleased to get texts from parcelforce letting me know when the parcel was coming with a one hour slot for time of arrival.

Worked great and was as reliable as dpd who have done the one hour slots for a while..

Parcel force are definitely improving, had a delivery the other day, from Arceurotrade as it happens, and the delivery person engaged in amicable conversation, definite improvement as you only used to get grunts if you were lucky. Company must have had a morale transplant.

Dave

Most couriers are okay or improving now days. I guess there is also an element of quality of a particular couriers service in your area.

Improvement in Parcelforces service started slowly about a year ago, after they listened to feedback from one of their major customers. This resulted in better communication throughout the network, as well as drivers being held more accountable for failed deliveries. With the PDAs which the drivers were made to use, the service started to improve. Some of the PDAs still fail at times, and this does create problems for all concerned. Parcelforce advise that most of their drivers will have new PDAs by end of October. In theory, this will make the service more or less like DPD. We are also uncertain if all the drivers WILL get new PDAs by end of October, or if this is just another marketing comment.

I guess the service is fine, as long as Parcelforce and other couriers have their 'regular' drivers covering specific areas. It becomes variable when they have to put on temps., or cover drivers during periods of the regular drivers holidays or illness. We do see problems when this happens. This would apply to all couriers... including DPD.

Above comments would apply to most areas of U.K. mainland, excluding deliveries to London/Greater London, where one would need to toss a coin regardless of which courier you use. Most depots of all couriers based in and around London are also just as bad as each other when it comes to dealing with problems.

As far as we are concerned, DPD is probably one of the best couriers. We were using them for many years, but about six months ago, we had to consider changing to Parcelforce due to various issues we had with DPD. So far, we are generally happy with Parcelforce. However, we wait and see what happens with them in October after the new PDAs and related systems are rolled out. There is also a ballot on industrial action by Parcelforce workers - which include drivers - who are members of CWU, results due on 4th October. See link. We are monitoring this development, and we will move over to some other service provider (other than Yodel or Hermes), if we believe there will be any delay to service.

Ketan at ARC.

Ketan,

I saw stories today on front pages of Daily Mail and I think the other was D. Express, about postal strikes being targeted for a couple of days late November to do max. damage to Xmas rush. They reckon people will make a lot of "black Friday" purchases of presents at large discounts but be frustrated in their attempts to post the presents.

Maybe we should all put in our orders to Arc well b4 these dates.

John

Made an order to ARC 16:30BST Monday, shipped FedEx Tuesday p.m and arrived S.W.France 14:00 Wednesday.
Sent Arc a courtesy email to say thanks for great service.
DaveD

@Ketan

I have bought items from you (well Arc Eurotrade to be precise) and never had any problems, however as a customer I do prefer (now) to source items from suppliers using DPD as they will deliver to a nominated shop or other place chosen from their network. In real terms, for me it means I can order something late in the evening after work, then go onto interweb thingy and arrange for it to be delivered to the off licence half a mile away. I can then call into said off licence up until 10 pm whenever it's conveiniant. Now if parcel force can start to offer that kind of service it will really make for a level playing field.

Best regards,

Ian

John,

This sort of thing happens every other year. So I think it is best to relax and carry on as normal, as one would do for Christmas shopping. ARC will just monitor and try to deal with the problems as they arise.

Ketan at ARC.

Thanks Dave,

For Europe we use a combination of tracked post, Parcelforce and Fedex, based on various factors to include value, weight, destination. Under normal circumstances, your order would have been shipped through tracked post or Parcelforce based on weight and value. However, Parcelforce informed us of on/off strikes in France during the past two weeks, so we shipped through Fedex pack service, which is supposed to be fast for small weights, upto 2.5kg.

Whilst writing, just received this update from Parcelforce:

'French drivers have finished their strike around the Port of Calais now, but there are still extensive delays around Calais and the Channel Tunnel and further disruption is expected.

There continues to be delays of up to 36 hours for parcels and import parcels will also be subject to delays of up to 24 hours. This is expected to return to normal after 8^th October.'

Ketan at ARC.

Agreed Ian,

At present, in my opinion, Parcelforce policy is a little unclear for failed delivery. They will try to re-deliver, deliver to a local post office, or Parcelforce depot, for one to collect, or return to sender. However, they lack clarity on this subject. This was a concern when we switched to Parcelforce, however, we have seen very few negative events arising from this so far. It would still be a good idea if they could deliver to shops/supermarkets which work late, for customers to collect in the evenings.... or through the night in case of certain supermarkets.

Ketan at ARC.

Hi,

Just thought I would share an update on the subject from my POV.

It would seem that a change in events has now favoured Parcelforce. Recent parcels being delivered by DPD are proving almost impossible to get hold of. They have reduced the pick up options available to me by about 600% leaving just one local option. The only option now for collecting my parcels is open between 09:00 and 18:00 making it totaly useless for such a purpose. So a complete turn around in quality of service has taken place as at least the local post office is available outside of usual office hours.

I would have to be really struggling to get hold of something now to choose a supplier NOT using Parcelforce.

After trying to deliver my parcel to a neighbour and being rejected, Hermes promptly lost it. Parcelforce meanwhile phoned me three times last week (starting at 7am!) to inform me of a delivery. Sounds promising.

Geoff

I have a fair amount of stuff collected to go over to France for my Brother in law. DPD usually pick up and most parcels are with him 2 or 3 days latter. Never lost one or damaged one yet. I find both Parcel Force and UPS are also very good, the UPS girl is so cheery she brightens my day.

I try to avoid 'My Hermes' like the plague!

A few weeks ago my wife ordered some shoes which never arrived. Hermes told the retailer that they had been delivered (and signed for) but declined to produce any evidence of this. We both were in all day - fortunately the retailer agreed to send another pair.

Last week (after much searching for someone who actually had stock) we ordered an expensive Xmas present for No1 Grandson and on leaving the house Thursday morning, found it just left on the doorstep - in plain sight of any passer-by.

Give me good old Parcel Force any day - they don't use freelance drivers working on pay-per-parcel dumped.

Regards,

IanT

How many of us ACTUALLY need next day delivery. Some of these delivery persons just might be on zero hour contracts, whilst many of us are enjoying ourselves in our workshops. John

We have a box for bigger parcels outside our house. This works very well for me and saves me several journeys. With some deliverers you can nominate where the parcel is left. Difficult for signed-for parcels but I try to avoid them. Obviously, sometimes it is at my risk. Not a problem so far.

There are difficulties when more than one delivery is made and the first bloke locks the box, but not often and back on the old system then. Works for me.

One improvement I need to make - modify the directing sign with translations in east European languages!

I am surprised to read that Arc euro trade would deliver to a supermarket or off licence.

I tried to buy from them recently,using my Lazer card,but since the delivery cost to my address was too high,I asked to deliver to a collection centre in St Albans,from which my post office would collect for far less.

However this could not be done since it appears that Arc can only deliver to the address at which the card is registered. This was explained to me by way of a very courteous,and prompt,phone call,for which I thank them.

It appears that this is due to some agreement with the card companies..I was surprised because I have bought from other suppliers using the collection centre without any problems.

This is not to complain about Arc,I,m just surprised.

It would appear that despite past track record of being the service that others aspire to, DPD are now having problems with their deliveries, could it be that as they franchise out some of their services they are losing control of the quality of operations. I am currently trying to resolve a problem with a delivery from them; ordered a large amount of coffee pods from Tassimo ( excellent Black Friday discount ) received an email stating it had been delivered and signed for by me, hadn't seen sight nor sound of the delivery so contacted DPD and Tassimo. Received a copy of the signature of the recipient, who certainly wasn't me, anyway eventually DPD asked what the contents were, what value they were and a description of the packaging, what planet are these people living on, how could we describe the packaging when the parcel was lost and not delivered, they did apologise for asking such a stupid question. To date we are awaiting an investigation which could take 3 to 5 working days then someone might decide that yes the parcel is lost and perhaps move on to sorting out reimbursement or replacement. Seems that using carriers is still a lottery but will admit Parcelforce score higher than most at the moment.

Dave W

Hi Larry,

I believe that you are probably based overseas. For overseas customers, ARCs policy is generally to deliver to card registered address. This is for security reasons, which are also connected to your debit/credit card provider.

Other suppliers may be happy to consider sending to U.K. collections centers for onward movement, which is really up to them. We believe that the practice of sending to collection centers is generally to save money, for overseas carriage costs. Whilst ARC understands the reason, it is something which ARC currently finds difficult to consider, until certain guarantees are put in place by such onward routing systems, without ARC having to consider any liability for loss or damage in transit, and without your card provider holding ARC responsible for the same, as well as your card provider accepting payment guarantee for the same.

In the mean time, please accept our apologies for being unable to offer alternative solutions.

Ketan at ARC.

No problem Ketan, I fully understand your position. As you say,it,s the carriage costs which lead to the use of collection centers. In my case,the service is operated by the Post Office here,so should be fairly safe,has not failed so far !

However,please dont take offence ,I do understand your reasons,and perhaps another time ??

Regards

Larry.

No worries Larry, I understand and I am not offended in any way.

Ketan at ARC.