I ordered some track and light fittings from TLC (
I can't recommend TLC enough. And I have no other relationship with them.
R.
Not bad, I've had stuff arrive from the south in not much longer than it would take you to drive it.
Didn't think there where any bridges closed between Carlisle and Keswick. If you are on the south side of Derwent it might be trickier.
That might help, more staff/trucks/planes on but as yet not the peak of demand.
TLC just handed it over to Parcel Force. Aren't they the ones that should be getting the credit for quick delivery?
ability to deliver 50% of the time isnt much of a recommendation
I've found this to be quite common with several suppliers, except that we're in a rather more remote part of Cumbria where the delivery vans usually arrive in the early afternoon.
I get the impression suppliers fall into one of two camps regarding free delivery. Some of them deliberately delay free delivery dispatch to encourage people to pay extra if they really want next day delivery, the others just normally dispatch the goods the same day but have the option to leave it over 'til tomorrow if they're too busy. When once the parcel is in the hands of the courier company it gets the same treatment regardless, except that the local depot will prioritise "before xx:00 am" deliveries [1] - the last thing the courier firms would want to do is to spend money on storing packages to add a day or two's delay for a slower service.
[1] I've often wondered what happens to the more expensive "before 10:00 am" deliveries round here, I doubt if any courier vans ever reach this neck of the woods before then.
I'm surprised they use Parcelforce. My experience of them is very bad.
I ordered some small electronic parts via the net from Digikey - a US supplier. Couldn't find them from a UK one. They arrived within 36 hours of my placing the order - all the way from the US. And with a P&P charge under double of what I'd expect from a UK firm for similar.
Fundamentally, I think they could probably do it, but would have to completely re-organise their route to do so.
I once had my work post me something special delivery (to ensure it arrived that day), and my postman appeared, early, at about 12.57pm having legged it from his van to my front door!
On the flip-side, I no longer order from CPC to my home, as last time I did so, just before last Christmas, UPS spent a week failing to even attempt to deliver to me. Each time the status update on the tracking web-site was incorrect - stuff like "invalid address", "no-one in", etc. I'm in mid-Wales and my local UPS office is, I think Liverpool, so I'm guessing no-one could be arsed to come all this way.
Oh and while I'm at it, I once ordered a mattress with next day delivery, along with a mattress protector. At about 4pm the deliver van arrived with just a mattress protector. I moaned at the delivery driver about the missing mattress, and then got on the phone to the mattress supplier to complain. The driver turned up again at just after 6pm having driven back to Telford, "the depot magically having found this king size mattress hiding in the corner" and being sent back to deliver it that day. In this instance I'm guessing the depot decided not to dispatch the mattress cos it would have taken up the entire van, and then got a rollicking from the supplier.
TLC are weird...
The local outlet is very helpful (special order Hager RCBOs and stuff) and decent prices for the most part.
But they can be *very* slow and intermittent.
eg Order some MK stuff, then hear weeks of excuses about "it hasn't come in" and "the distributors are being random".
I'll generally now but what they have in stock and internet the rest - in my book, it's the shopkeeper's job to chase crappy suppliers (or find new ones), not mine.
I do stress that they have been very helpful, but I find chasing people wears thin after a while...
If I buy something from Farnell or RS or Rapid it's here in 1-2 days every time and that's the way it should be.
Another Cumbrian uk.d-i-y'er! Which bit of remote Cumbria are you in Mike? I'm up near Alston, North Pennines. 20+ miles from Carlisle, Penrith or Hexham. Middle of the big white bit (as there is nothing but fells) on road maps...
They vary round here, anything from 1000 to 1600 not often later as they'd not get back to their depot before 1700. We do get excellent service out here I guess 'cause if they fail to deliver they know they'll only have to come back out and being an hour each way it messes up the more area contained deliveries. We also have regular drivers, the UPS one has been doing this round for years.
Yep I think that as well, send when ready and if it arrives early if gives the customer a good feeling...
I think with the bigger couriers it's all done by automated systems rather than blokes reading labels and dropping stuff. It would be simple enough for "lower class" stuff to be held at depots along route if a connection between depots got full. Otherwise it sails through, as you say holding stuff with no good eason isn't in their interest.
Why dont you try it? I'd be surprised if they didn't succeed, even if they have to do a special run.
I presume you meant " to ensure it arrived next day"
How is 12:57 PM Early? SD should be delivered by 13:00 Hrs unless you pay extra for before 09:00 Hrs delivery
How is it late?
Which is even later.
I find Parcel Farce OK within the UK but their handling of imports that require customs clearance leaves a lot to be desired compared to, say, FedEx.
MBQ
I didn't suggest it was either early or late
But not "late" if it arrives by the required time limit !!
You are right, I was probably his first delivery, and by now he knows that the Ouse Bridge etc. is closed.
Yes, and I wrote to them to say so - they come in for a lot of stick, and here is isn't deserved. But the supplier has to choose a delivery agent, I've had some bad ones. One lot said they used PF and another, and I asked for PF, but got the other - said company isn't used here any more.
R.
This is 100%. Where did you get 50%?
R.
Yes.
I meant that 12.57pm was earlier than usual for the post to arrive.
Aaah I see...dunno how your post works but ours usually arrives near to half past midday ..Anything by SD usually comes by seperate delivery...usually the van that delivers parcels ...presumably as there is no guarantee that the footman will be able to deliver by the
13:00 Hrs deadline .
We always get our (Royal Mail) parcels and special delivery along with the normal post from the regular postie, as we don't have a footman (middle of nowhere).
We're about 30 minutes drive from Oswestry and the post vans all set off from the sorting office there at about 7am. I'm guessing we're the end of the line (we're certainly the last house in the last postcode in this direction served by this sorting office).
Sedbergh which, despite being only 5 miles away from the M6, is effectively much more remote than the OP's Keswick in that remarkably few people understand where it is and it's not on the main road to anywhere in particular. It's not helped by the anomaly of being in the Yorkshire Dales National Park despite being in the county of Cumbria (which many people equate to the Lake district).
Now that's really remote. We kept travelling between Tyneside and Sedbergh about once a week for a couple of years before finally moving here and Alston was on one of the two routes we used.
I've never needed anything urgently enough to be worth spending the extra to put it to the test.
In message , TheOldFellow writes
I ordered parts to make a grid switch and a twin fluorescent light from TLC at the end of November. Eventually cancelled the grid switch and called in at Edmunsons and picked it up over the counter. The fluorescent light fitting arrived today at 17:00.
I can't recommend TLC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Give them their due they did keep me informed by email of the progress, or lack of it, of the order.
In message , TheOldFellow writes
I had that today
Someone phoned me this morning to say what an excellent service I'd provided as they phoned up at half past four and it arrived in Edinburgh at 8:30 the next morning
I explained to him that while we do our best, the reason I got his circuit board out that late was because there was a traffic jam in Watford following an accident and he just happened to be on the run that the courier did in his area at that time of the morning
So, credit where credit is due - with the courier
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