Delivery services – goods arriving damaged.

[Ewan Chrystal]

Happens to me all the time

[Michael Kalisperas]

Sorry to hear this but have to admit have also had the same in recent months.

[Gary Birch]

quote Phill Fenton:

Once again delivery service companies are becoming the bane of my life. A few weeks ago I ordered a magnetic dri wipe board for a customer – it arrived damaged. The supplier sent out another which arrived today – even more damaged than the first one. Can’t just be bad luck surely? There’s something far wrong with the system.

We buy a fair few whiteboards and it is a lottery whether the arrive damaged. We find boardsdirect.co.uk best as their boards are packaged better than most. We have a stock of the damaged ones (as they are never collected) which we will use ourselves or offer to some customers at a reduced price.

I have an order at the minute with Stock displays which I am going to collect as I we don’t have the time for damaged goods.

If you look in the back of a couriers van in the morning it is unbelievable they manage to find anything as the parcels have obviously just been thrown in. Seeing that is surprising that you ever receive a parcel that in undamaged.

I agree…. very frustrating!

[David Hammond]

We ordered 16 white boards for a job, and used a local company (adboards) so were delivered on their own van. Not much help if it’s a small order or you’re miles away as I doubt they’d deliver in their own van around the UK? Might be worth asking?

[Phill Fenton]

City link went under at christmas time because they couldn’t make a profit at the low prices they needed to charge to remain "competitive". There must be a market for a premier delivery company that charges a premium rate for a quality service. Instead we have a dumbing down of the parcel delivery market which results in the trashy service we are now seeing.

[Nigel Pugh]

20yrs ago I used to work for a parcel company, the amount of deliveries you had to do (without breaking the speed limit) was getting absurd back then, my delivery area used to be on average 30-40 drops then about 20 collections, nowadays you can see easily 100 drops.

I agree with what you say Phill regarding a premium rate, but I think next day delivery should be forgotten and just have a 2 day or 3 day service.

Nigel

[Michael Kalisperas]

I was going to say that only one company I have never ever had a problem with. Never held an account with them but use them for cash orders. I have been meaning to set an account with them and use them more often and this company I speak of as being the best is the company Nigel above works for. Seriously Grafytip has been really professional every time I’ve used them.
I will make sure I use more as I grow my one man set up as I return to the business.

[Michael Kalisperas]

Grafityp oops not Grafytip

[David Hammond]

There are a few dedicated couriers who do same or next day service. Trouble is they won’t carry anything but your consignment and charge per mile.

Unless one of the big players tries a premium service I doubt anyone will stump up the cash for the infrastructure for a nationwide service. Many couriers seem to be going down the lines of delivering to stores etc for collection at your convenience… great for consumers but not for busineses.

[Vincent Francis]

Couriers are the bane of most companies.

In fairness, we ship out most of our work by them, except high value goods when I would never trust them. The insurance they provide is a bit of a joke. We shipped out 4 brass menu box’s & the courier dropped the box, so much so that 3 of them had to be remade. I managed to get some compensation out of them, but not nearly as much as we would have liked.

We heavily package now, although more expensive to sent out, in the long term its cheaper than having to remake something again. Let alone the hassle it causes clients, and the cost and the delay. There is no other real economical way which is always a problem.