I have. They failed to deliver at all the only time they were used. Others have had similar experiences.
Royal Mail usually leave the parcel in the bin and fail to ring the doorbell. Sometimes they don't even leave a card either. If they do take it back to the depot, it's miles away.
IIRC it's about 60 miles for me.
The problem is that, usually, it's the retailer that chooses the couriers. Few give you a good range of choice. The retailer will usually choose the cheapest which is why we still have this issue.
There's only one collect+return shop near me and, the only time I attempted to use it, their machine was broken for weeks. I haven't bothered trying it again.
I prefer to know which courier they're going to use before I commit to the purchase. That said, the last delivery from Amazon was by an anonymous outfit with no indication of their name on the packaging
In message , Mark writes
I don't think it is as simple as that, otherwise we would have a simple race to the bottom, and we wouldn't have things like DPD's 1 hour slot etc..
Some friends of ours run a couple of online retail businesses. When delivery goes wrong it's usually a PITA for them, as they get a grumpy customer giving them a hard time, they will normally resend the item straight away if it's not clear that the item will be delivered ASAP. Then they have to deal with the couriers to sort out the missing parcel etc.
I think plenty of retailers realise that the delivery is an integral part of their service, and that's it's not just a case of the cheapest
I can't recall any parcels being delivered to me with a 1 hour slot. The best is morning or afternoon and that's rare.
I believe there is a race to the bottom for *some* companies. Probably mainly large companies who can afford to annoy some of their customers.
I guess these are small companies/niche markets.
In message , Mark writes
It seems pretty much the standard service that DPD do now, and it works very well (see other comments in the thread re DPD).
Well, yes I guess there always will be. Lots of people only shop on price, and to an extent you get what you pay for.
On Friday 18 October 2013 16:17 chris French wrote in uk.d-i-y:
I think Amazon's problem is they make it impossible to ring up and give anyone a hard time.
To be balanced though, it is also Amazon that are pioneering lockers.
What I *really* want though is a:
1) Deliver to home; 2) if that fails on day 1, card me and drop the package at the nominated Collect+ store.At least until our village gets a Collect+ store. One of our pubs would be a good candidate - lots of room and quite - but having to have the PayPal terminal is a complication.
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