(UPS rant) Why are courrier services in the UK so utterly incompetent

[TooNice]

Well, I wasn't going to make a thread just to expresss my disdain at the well practiced skill known as "ninja carding". Most of us probably have experienced it. Doesn't make it acceptable, but we have gotten so used to such disgrace that we no longer fuss over it.

With courrier service not offering Saturday redelivery because it is some kind of paid for privileges, and same day redelivery probably unheard of in this country, my option for receiving an urgently needed package was travel 90min by train, underground and bus to the depot, which I was assured, by the customer service over the phone, would be waiting for me between 18:30-20:00.

When I arrived at 19:25 (thanks to the woeful rush hour traffic), I was saw a very irrate customer demanding to speak with the manager (apparently, there isn't one). It turned out that he was also told that his package would be waiting for him at 19:00, but somehow the driver left it in the truck and they are unable to retrieve it so he will have to wait till Monday.

When the time came for me to speak with the staff, the still furious customer remarked that my stuff probably isn't there too. And if not for the fact that reviews for UPS on Yelp is an outstanding 1*, I might've thought he was a psychic! The staff looked into the system, disappeared for a bit and came back saying that there was no record in the system that I had requested to pick up the parcel. Right, I just randomly picked a depot that is an hour and a half away without being told to do so. Days like this make me wish that all phone conversations are automatically recorded. And much like the, still very angry, and most understandably so, other customer still in the room, I was told that the package is still in the truck and there was nothing they can do to retrieve it, so we have to wait till Monday.

After expressing my strong disgust at the disgraceful service (using non abusive language), and noting that I shouldn't even have to spend the money and time because I was ninja carded, the other 5-6 other customers also noted that they are there because the driver didn't use the buzzer. It wasn't quite a riot but people were visibly annoyed by the service too.

I didn't stay around to see if they got their packages. The staff were likely also having a bad day. But without someone to take responsibility for the abysmal service, who else could we complain to (I actually asked, and was told to call customer service, but I doubt they would be any help). And the worse part is that as a near essential service, they get to stay in business despite being poorly ran. And even though I am singling USP this time, I do not think there is any delivery service that has given at least some people a hard time.

I can make a flowchart showing the infinitely better process in Japan, but without even taking on one of, if not the most exemplary delivery service in the world, I swear that many developping country do it better than us. We are only one step beyond countries where theft of delivery goods still occur.

/fuming

(And yes I had nothing else better to do than to type a long rant during my rather long commute home)

[directhex]

The short version:

They keep all the rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish drivers, because they're so understaffed they can't afford to lose them.

[Kumagoro]

Good old reverse culture shock, it never goes away...

Pulling tissues out of the boxes gets me. You pull one out and the next one didn't come half out ready. None of that nonsense with Japanese ones. Or opening cereal boxes why do they tear here when you open them? They open no problem in Japan.

Drives me mental.

[Output]

You know what is worse than ninja carding? When the courier claims to have attempted a delivery without anyone answering, when you know for a fact that they haven't even been anywhere near whatsoever (and thus haven't even been able to leave a card).

[Spreadie]

I didn't think this needed explaining, but here you are:

Why are couriers crap? Competition.

Prices are driven down to the bare minimum in order to win contracts, that bare minimum translates right down the food chain to the pence per parcel paid to the guy driving the van, who has (lets say) 300 parcels to deliver per day. He starts off with good intentions, making the extra effort to wait a few moments longer for you to answer the door, but then the delays start mounting and he ends a day with 30 undelivered parcels because he ran out of time - he's barely making enough money to care as it is without adding another couple of hours to his day. So he has to add them to the 300 for the next day.

Pretty soon, he starts cutting the odd corner with the more time consuming deliveries to make up for the times he gets delayed during the day. He starts 'ninja carding' and just flat out claiming he left a card and marks the parcel as attempted delivery and dumps it back at the depot for someone else to sort out tomorrow.

There are countless forums where people whine - "Hermes are the worst", "UPS suck", "Fed Ex are useless" etc.. as if there is anything to differentiate between the majority of them.

[Bluecube]

To be fair, the DPD drivers that deliver to my area are a great bunch. Seems to be the same faces too so they must be reasonably happy with their job. When I'm not in, they know there's a place to leave parcels which they regularly make use of. On the other hand iPostParcels are hopeless... It all seems to boil down to how well a particular franchise is run.

[Phage]

I've always found Sergei from DPD to be excellent.
Our local Hermes driver was arrested. We now have a new one.

[Spreadie]

I deliberately left out DPD because they used to deliver my stock to me twice a week, every week without fail. I can't recall ever having had a bad experience with them.

[Lanky123]

Seems to me that the local delivery drivers (and local managers above them) for each courier make or break the service. Possibly there's half a business idea in a service/website which maps complaints for each courier by postcode so you can track where the idiots are. Some e-tailers might find it useful to minimise complaints by automatically switching between a couple of different couriers based on destination. It would certainly give some of the couriers an incentive to buck their ideas up.

[kalniel]

Sadly DPD have let me down too quite a few times - late in the day I often get a 'unable to find address' which is complete rubbish, then when delivered the next day the package always looks very beaten up.

[Lucio]

The couriers are all crap because they're treated like crap by companies too intent of squeezing ever growing profits out of the business year on year. It's a nasty trick of the system that we direct the blame onto the workers rather than onto the structures which create the circumstances.

Yes, there's a level of individual responsibility for the driver, but if you've got 100 drops to do, you're feeling under the weather but couldn't phone in sick for fear of losing your job, you're going to do poorly at your work.

The last comment, about how Customer Services won't do anything, yes, in your individual case, you're right, they probably can't do anything other than offer a token appology or a minor goodwill gesture (like free Saturday re-delivery), but if enough people register their dissatifisaction, then there's a chance that the business will change

[Xlucine]

Yes, there's a level of individual responsibility for the driver, but if you've got 100 drops to do, you're feeling under the weather but couldn't phone in sick for fear of losing your job, you're going to do poorly at your work.

This point bears repeating - most delivery drivers are self-employed contractors, not employees. So if they are sick, as well as losing their wages they get charged a fee - for dpd, it's £150/day:
https://www.theguardian.com/business...-to-find-cover

[Phage]

That is horrendous. This is why I rant about the Labour Party supporting the trains going on srike and doing doing (visibly) eff all for the Uber drivers and couriers.

[Splash]

When you have a race to the bottom this is sadly what you get - we all want the lowest prices, and the service suffers for that.

[badass]

I didn't think this needed explaining, but here you are:

Why are couriers crap? Competition.<snip>

Competition isn't the root cause. The parameters by which they are measured by are. Since customers are more likely to simply complain but put up with the shoddy service, there is no incentive for the suppliers to negotiate slightly more expensive contracts where the courier is paid per successful delivery with a large hit for customer complaints and damages parcels then the service would improve.

[TooNice]

Well today someone did deliver. I was quite worried because the tracking system said that the package left the depot at 06:00, but it only reached me around 17:00.

When the driver came, he said there was duty to be paid, but after telling him that I already paid last week, and gave him the confirmation code, he apologised and said that his "crap company" do not update them on anything. Normally I wouldn't really approve employees making such comment about their employer in front of a customer, but this time I had to mention that I did receive an unimpressive service last week. Since he probed for more details I gave him an abridged version (not wanting to waste his time) and he was quite sympathetic and apologetic and recommended that I filed a complaint because it wasn't acceptable to waste my time like that.

My impression is that the company is just badly managed.

I am not sure if the fact that Tokyo being more densely populated than London mean that depot generally do not be as far and as such (re)delivery can be done faster, but every service from their equivalent of Royal Mail and private courier often allow you to pick 3-4 hour timeslot by default (so you aren't stuck waiting from morning to evening), and offers free same day redelivery if you contact them by 5 or 6PM. And in the case of redelivery, the driver often call 20min in advance to check that it is fine for them to arrive (I suppose that it also ensures that they do not waste a trip too, so it is win-win). And it is not like the service is more expensive either.

Now, I am not expecting that, even half as good would be an improvement from my recent experience (at the very least, customer service, depot and driver communication should be improved).