Screwfux and ParcelFarce - what a dream team - NOT!

[Set Square]

Placed an online order with Screwfix on Sunday evening. Got an email Monday saying it would be delivered by ParcelForce on Tuesday - so far so good.

However, the email didn't give a tracking number, so I looked at Order Status on ScrewFix's website. Still said "In Progress" rather than "Despatched" - and STILL does, two days later!

Emailed Screwfix to complain that their Order Status information is not getting updated properly. [They know about it but are very slow to fix it - similar thing happened with my previous order 4 weeks ago - except that, then, I got the "Your order has been despatched email two days after the goods had *arrived*!]. Anyone else having similar problems?

Anyway, it gets worse! After another couple of email exchanges, Screwfix eventually told me the tracking number - which I should have been able to get from their website, but couldn't. Feeding this into ParcelForce's tracking system revealed that it had arrived at Coventry at midnight on Monday, and gone out for delivery early Tuesday morning. But *then* there were a couple of entries indicating that they could not locate the addressee - and could not find the address - so it had been returned to Coventry and scheduled for re-delivery. What sort of morons do they employ? I have, after all, lived in the same house, with the same address and same postcode since 1977 - yet ParcelForce can't find it!!

I even tried phoning them up to try to find out what the hell was going on. Forget it! First off, it's an 0870 number - which I object to on principle. Then it's a fully automated system with no way of getting to a real person. It told me less than I already knew - that it was last tracked at Coventry! I even tried "Request re-delivery" - but for that, you need the reference from the card which they leave when they call and find no-one in. Since they hadn't got as far as my house, I had no card!

According to ParcelForce's website, it is "Out for delivery" again - but as of 10:30 on Wednesday it still hasn't arrived - and I have no way of finding out what is happening. Grrr!

There, that feels better! Commiserations gratefully accepted!

[Rob Summers]

saynoto0870.com

for the geographical alterntives to many 0870 numbers.

Commiserations with the rest of your story!

Cheers

Rob

[smudger]

i been dealin with em 4 about 5yrs. never had a prob. except i rang them once as they had promised delivery in 2 days and it came in one, very good service. U must b very unluky. Smudge

[Tony Williams]

In article , Set Square wrote: [snip]

The 'reason' for non-delivery depends on whatever the driver told them. I've waited in for an urgent timed delivery, seen the van go down the road, only to be later told that 'there was no one in when our driver tried to deliver'....... the lying git clearly didn't find us and was trying to avoid the penalty for non-delivery within the stated time.

[Rusty]

Does your house address have a number or just a name. I guess all the delivery vans are GPS navigated these days and that software doesn't know anything except numbers. So if they're short of time......

[Set Square]

Good point. I normally do this - don't know why I didn't in this case.

[Set Square]

It has a number (no name). Haven't had any probs previously!

The parcel did eventually arrive at about 11:15 today. I asked the driver why they had not been able to find me yesterday - and got a fairly predictable response of "Not me Guv, must have been a different driver. I wasn't on this round yesterday"!

[Gel]

Use this one meant for overseas customers; nice Geordie person will assist at Normal phone rate:

0191 512 7003

I had similar problem with E bay purchase; arrived from Austria in UK quickly, then took 8 days for 25 miles from Oxford to Newbury area. Tracking showed was out several days, but we saw no parcelforce attempts or "U were out" cards. After speaking to them and declining to pay =A311.50 for Saturday del'y, they eventually del'd on the Saturday; ie 8 days after they received.

[manatbandq]

Saturday;

It seems they now will not even attempt to deliver anything from overseas that has duty owing. Whereas a few months ago you could pay the duty on delivery, you now have to wait for the letter telling you that they have a parcel. You can then ring up and pay by credit card over the phone (but not after 3:00pm on a Friday - lazy gits) or cheque by post (which adds even more delay).

The only good thing is that in the same phone call you can tell them to deliver it to your local Post Office if there's a risk of you missing the delivery. The PO will charge you 50p for the service.

MBQ

[RichardS]

Saturday;

t>he delivery. The PO will charge you 50p for the service.

yes, that's a useful service, and the 50p is well worth it if you'd otherwise have to hang around the house, take half a day off, etc.

seems to me that post office counters are missing an opportunity to offer this to other couriers.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have on occasion asked couriers to keep packages at their depots for collection, which is free. Many courier depots are open 24 hours too (although ironically those with planned provision for public access usually have limited hours for collections, and those without planned provision for public access don't mind you turning up at 1am;-).

[Owain]

It's even more annoying when you hear the gentle rustle of the "we missed you" card slipping through the letterbox, but chummy knows that if he rings the doorbell he's going to have to lie on his stomach to read the gas meter FAT IDLE SCOTTISH GAS METER READING GIT I know who he is because I had him last time and I saw him running away.

If I had been ten seconds quicker he would have been remonstrated with.

Owain

[Set Square]

That's not too bad if the depot is somewhere convenient. Most couriers delivering to the Warwick area (where I live) seem to have depots on the

*wrong* side of Coventry!

[Rod]

"Set Square" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

A couple of my old orders (something like 2 years old) are still In Progress. (Yes - they were delivered at the right time.)

It is warm feeling knowing that the order you received was actually supposed to arrive when it did. When you get the email two days later.