Parcelfarce grumble

jonnyburgo · September 17

Bought a guitar from Reverb, seller sent using parcel force 24 been tracking it since when he sent it Monday morning, did it come 24hrs later on Tuesday?No. Did it come today 48 hrs later? Tracker said we will deliver between 11 and 3. I waited. Nothing. Will it come tomorrow? Fuck knows. You can claim compensation for postage price but only if the next day delivery service takes more than 7 days. What is the point of paying the extra for 24hr delivery?. When he said he'd sent it parcelfarce my shoulders dropped. FFS.

woodworm · September 17

Currently waiting on a guitar to be returned after it went missing in the parcefforce system for three weeks. Dropped it off on the 24th of last month, it was scanned at the depot, then just vanished. After two weeks I was told to put in a loss claim, but yesterday it suddenly reappeared in the system and is now marked as being returned to me - it is still at the original depot. Spoke to a parcelforce driver who said it is has got a lot worse since their merger with royalmail system .

snowblind · September 17

Parcelforce: referred to as A**holeFarce back in the old logistics days.

We used to run sweepstakes on how many pieces breakable objects would be delivered in.

boogieman · September 17

I recently had a parcel sent to me via their “48” service. Note that it doesn’t claim to be delivered in 48 hours “that’s just the name of the service”. Mine took over a week to arrive. At one point the tracking showed it had gone back to the sorting office about 2 miles from where it was posted, even though I live 300 miles away.

woodworm · September 18

Does Parcelforce payout out on lost guitars , I know they will only payout upto £150 compensation for damage but if the guitar is lost and insured for the say £700 will they payout that amount or still restricted to £150 ?

fretfinder · September 18

I used to use Parcelforce all the time and they never let me down... until the last time I used them when I shipped a guitar to Cornwall. It arrived fine 24hrs later but the same afternoon I got an email from PF saying the dimensions were larger than I’d stated on the booking and I owed them £42. According to them I’d sent a guitar in a carton over 6ft long! I went onto their X feed and posted the pics I’d taken of the parcel with a tape measure alongside, and a pic of the measurements which I’d written on the side of the parcel with a sharpie. I never heard from them again after that but they obviously hadn’t actually inspected my parcel and it seems to be a random automatically generated corporate scam and I know others have suffered the same comeback about dimensions or weight. Bloody disgraceful.

In answer to the above comment, I believe their T&Cs state that their insurance doesn’t cover musical instruments. But they’ll happily take your money for it even if you’ve stated that the item you’re sending is a guitar!

boogieman · September 18

woodworm said:

Does Parcelforce payout out on lost guitars , I know they will only payout upto £150 compensation for damage but if the guitar is lost and insured for the say £700 will they payout that amount or still restricted to £150 ?

They’ll take your money for the extra insurance but it’s still only covered for the £150 or whatever their limit is these days. It’s either a con trick and/or they don’t bother training their counter staff… whatever it’s been going on for decades. Also you MUST send the guitar in a hard case, a gig bag or box won’t do. It’s all in their T&C’s but it seems a lot of people don’t bother to read them.

boogieman · September 18

jonnyburgo said:

Bought a guitar from Reverb, seller sent using parcel force 24 been tracking it since when he sent it Monday morning, did it come 24hrs later on Tuesday?No. Did it come today 48 hrs later? Tracker said we will deliver between 11 and 3. I waited. Nothing. Will it come tomorrow? Fuck knows. You can claim compensation for postage price but only if the next day delivery service takes more than 7 days. What is the point of paying the extra for 24hr delivery?. When he said he'd sent it parcelfarce my shoulders dropped. FFS.

Did it turn up yet?

PLOP · September 18

I’ve had two instances this month with RM/parcelforce, both bad.

First was some pickups I sent to be rewound, which someone signed for, but not the person who was meant to get them. The parcel then vanished with no tracking info into an abyss. I spent 40 minutes on hold to them and they eventually managed to find it. It still isn’t with the recipient but they assure me and him that it’s coming.
second thing was some tru oil off eBay. They “attempted” delivery on a Saturday when I was home but certainly didn’t knock on the door, my dog was in the front room looking out the window all day, and he usually has lots of opinions on postmen.

I updated the site to say please redeliver on Friday when I was off, or to leave it in the safe place behind the plant pots. Well, they tried delivering on Monday and Tuesday, then didn’t tell me where it was. I had to go to my delivery office and ask about it, even though I never got a red card about delivery. The guy on the desk rummaged through a disordered looking sack and pulled it out.

That said, yodel aren’t any better. Bought a food dehydrator this week that had very clear “do not stack” instructions on the box but the lid has a big crack in it from where they’ve probably used it as a step or seat or something. I’m awaiting their verdict to see if I can get compensation on that too.

boogieman · September 18

Our postie is pretty good and will leave things with a neighbour if we’re not in. Parcelforce have definitely gone downhill recently. Evri have always been a joke though, the local facebook group is always full of “Evri strike again, has anyone got my package” type posts.

Schnozz · September 18

I use Parcelforce but Evri are great where I am.

Parcelforce are now using subcontracted drivers that can't speak English, cant print the labels and cant complete the documentation for dispatch.

If you want to use them then drop it into the Depot Manager and it'll go fine, but stick with doorstep collection and expect to have to make a few calls.

BillDL · September 18

I've never had any problems with parcels I've received via Royal Mail or Parcelforce until the last few months. Something odd has been going on with their tracking system as though it had crashed or was undergoing a migration to a new system that hadn't been properly integrated or tested. I had parcels turn up when the tracking system said they were still in the collection hub, and the drivers have said that they hadn't been able to scan them properly. It's as though they are merging previously separate Royal Mail and Parcelforce tracking systems into one. There has been a banner at the top of the Royal Mail tracking home page that shows:

"All Parcelforce customers with a 9 or 14 character consignment number, please track your item(s) here" and the URL for the Parcelforce tracking now has a 7 in it where previously it didn't:

https://www7.parcelforce.com/track-trace

It seems to have been a bit of a balls up because parcels that previously would have arrived timeously under the 24 or 48 services were consistently arriving a few days later.

Fortunately the postman and the Parcelforce drivers are still regulars that have been delivering in this area for quite a while now and they know where to safely leave my parcels out of sight and out of the rain if the tracking isn't working and I'm out. The same is now true of the Evri driver that is on this delivery run for about 4 months. She rings the bell and waits rather than throwing it down in the rain at my front door and driving off.

Adey · September 18

I've never paid any insurance for guitars I have posted. I have always packed extremely robustly (and taken photos) so that if dropped it would be protected.

If they were to run it over with a forklift or lorry, or one of their operatives decided to have at it with a chainsaw, I would still make a claim against them, even though the T's & C's say it isn't covered. They would have been willfully negligent or destructive.

They can't say "We just smashed up you guitar cos we couldn't be bothered to get it of the floor. If it was an empty guitar case we would reimburse you, but as it had a guitar in it, we won't". And just because an item isn't insured doesn't mean that they aren't responsible for treating it with reasonable skill and care.

I know their T's and C's might expressly say a guitar isn't covered, but that seems an unfair contract term to me.

But as I said, I've never had to fight them over it as I pack my guitars very well.

BillDL · September 18

They don't provide "enhanced compensation" cover for damage to musical instrument cases either, so even if a forklift ran over an empty guitar case in a box it would be excluded from their terms and conditions. If somebody hacked up goods with a chainsaw that is completely different from accidental damage in transit, however sometimes boxes fall and sustain damage that isn't necessarily the result of reckless neglect. I've run over a few boxes with the forklift truck when they toppled out of a cage or from a pallet onto the floor right in front of me. Shit happens sometimes. Allowing people to send a musical instrument through their courier service despite the fact that it is not covered for accidental damage, and with no warning other than the terms and conditions exclusions, is not particularly transparent though.

Whitecat · September 18

I sent something Parcelforce 24 a few months ago that got delayed a day thanks to their incompetence - they sent it to the wrong depot, so had to reroute it. I applied for and got partial compensation for that even though it was only one day late. They didn't pay the full amount but maybe about half. Did they book it in direct or through an aggregator?

elkay · September 18

I've had some close calls with Parcelforce, but generally been fortunate. These days I send everything with insurance through Overland Express. Yes, it costs more, but takes all the anxiety and aggro out of posting guitars. I generally share the extra cost with my buyers, and explain the situation, which usually seems to satisfy them, as they know that the guitar they buy will be protected. Parcelforce generally costs around £15, whereas delivery arranged through Overland, with the FB 40% discount, will cost around £40, so I quote delivery cost of £25 and bear the extra £15 myself.

woodworm · September 18

From the Parcelforce website "Musical instruments are excluded from enhanced compensation. Guitars and brass instruments are particularly prone to damage and should be packed very carefully, in a hard case." Does this mean if the enhanced compensation is not paid out if the item is lost ?

m_c · September 18

I've witnessed how PF load their lorries, and I wouldn't be sending anything fragile with them!

I worked for RM for a year, and for a commercial company, they really have no idea how to run a company.
The part I worked for, were decades behind the private sector for functioning efficiently, and from what I seen, that was the case throughout the company. There was pretty much a top to bottom attitude against change, and any changes they did manage were always half hearted and generally made things worse.

kmajor · September 19

Last time I bought a guitar it was delivered by Parcelforce. I received an email from them to tell me the guitar was going to be delivered and approximately what time. I was away from home and used the link on the delivery email to have the guitar delivered to my local post office so I could pick it up and received a confirmation to say that would be done.
On arriving home later that day the guitar was waiting beside my front door, only about 5 mtrs from a public road and there for everyone to see. On checking my security camera it had been there for about 7 hours.

kmajor · September 19

Under the UK's Consumer Rights Act 2015, couriers are legally required to perform services with "reasonable care and skill," meaning they must work to the standards of a competent professional in their trade.

I recently read online about someone successfully taking a courier to a small claims court for full compensation for an item that got damaged during transit using photos of the package at time of picking up and at time of delivery it was obviously not handled in a caring or skilful way.
If sending anything I always take photos of the item when being packed and the packing prior to dropping of with the courier. I ask the receiver to check the packing when received.
Haven't had any issues to date but would consider the small claims court route if I felt the courier did comply with their obligations under the Consumer Rights Act.

Kittyfrisk · September 19

Had notification on the 17th regarding an online order I made, advising the items had been collected by Parcelforce for delivery by Express24 (24 hour guaranteed delivery according to the website). No problem.

Email from Parcelforce yesterday (18th), advising delivery would be on the 19th between 10:15am and 14:15pm. Fine.

Checked the order status at 09.42am today & the parcel was apparently still in Coventry... I'm in Durham!

Yet another email from Parcelforce today at 11.56am stating delivery would now between 09:40am and 15:40pm...
I know, it's a minor niggle as I'll likely be around most of the day, but what admin system would allow messages to be generated with such glaring logical errors included? Or maybe they can now deliver items in the past? Cool...

Aaaand like an American baseball player sliding into a base for a home run, it arrived at 14.10pm, just within the original time estimate

Followed by three (3) emails advising me that the delivery had arrived & wanting feedback...

I'm happy its here safe, but they aren't half a shabby operation.

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