Tuesday 14 September 2010

The not so special delivery!

Last week.... I ordered a printer off Amazon and it was delivered Super Saver Delivery. The shipping company HDNL (Home delivery network limited) was in charge to delivery the parcel. You can eventually know the story by now... you wait in for hours and hours, still no parcel, you wait in another couple of hours still no parcel.

No one to tell you when your parcel will delivered or where your parcel is in transit, it would be nice to know as instead of the "will I or won't I go into town" you stay at home waiting for that lucurative parcel you ordered.

Anyway, so the parcel failed to come in the morning even though on their parcel tracking service it left gatwick depot at 9.12 am. I am not stupid, but I live in guildford and it only takes 50 minutes from here to there, so I sort of expected it to be here in the morning or early afternoon.

Still no parcel.

Ok, I might have been a bit optimistic ok, what about early afternoon 2 - 4. Yet again still no parcel. At this moment in time, you begin to get a bit frustrated, panicking that someone has taken it or they have just forgotton. Luckily for me I wasn't at work but if I had been it would have meant I would have had to take the whole day off work.

Eventually my parcel turned up at 6.30pm, the bloke dumping the parcel and leaving again. Asking if it required a signature or not, he said "no its ok". So even though they took 9 hours after they left gatwick, the parcel didn't even need a signature. What sort of customer service is that?

Browsing the internet I can see that I am not the only HDNL customer and how they are renowned for their poor customer service and delivery times here are just a few examples.

Aberquine - they failed to deliver my john lewis TV. because I lived in a flat, instead left it at the Aberdeen depot.

Review Centre - Appalling service. Failed twice so far to deliver. Cited not possible to again access to property. Yet property is open to the public with a barber's shop on site. Am convinced the driver did not bother to attempt delivery. Customer Service completely unsatisfactory merely using the 'broken record' routine stating they will attempt delivery again. "Please be available 0700 - 1900". The van isn't even loaded until after 1030!!!!

See a common problem here? Yes HDNL poor customer service record. My problem isn't with Amazon who I ordered my product from in the first place, they are only the seller and all they do is pass it on to the carrier, but my problem is with carriers and if not careful if you choose the wrong carrier your business could be at fault.

Selling the product at the right price is one thing. Making sure that the product is delivered to the customer is another as this is the overall experience and could be the downful for a review of the product in the long term.

This quote sums up this blog post, "Absolutely useless, would avoid any seller who uses them for delivery".

Have a similar issue or have had another experience with another carrier offering poor customer. I would like to here from you.

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    Thanks for sharing your experience about one of the delivery company. Courier Services are personalised services that deliver almost everything not only across the regions of a country but also to international destinations. But we must deliver our product through a reliable delivery service.

    ReplyDelete