city links bad for scan?

[andyspc]

CITY LINK - if a parcels been sent on a miss route at a depot they'll tell you its lost, when really its , lets say for example in london when its suppose to be in scotland. ive found this with city link my self. but with a company called tuffnells, they would then get a " sprinter runner " to drive from scotland to london and deliver this parcel the next day as guarentead, so every bodys happy, this service costs tuffnells around 400 pounds but they like to keep there reputation!

[Koolpc]

CityLink have been great for me. I gave the guy a bottle of wine for christmas as he has been ace!

[Lucio]

...with a company called tuffnells, they would then get a " sprinter runner " to drive from scotland to london and deliver this parcel the next day as guarentead, so every bodys happy, this service costs tuffnells around 400 pounds but they like to keep there reputation!

Do you know why they offer this service? Because they're a small, struggling carrier company that would really not be able to cope with the kind of volume Scan shipped out. The mail order company I work for looked at them 6 months back and we were shocked to hear that they hand sorted ALL their parcels still, and that their typical daily volume was 750-1,000 parcels at our local depot.

Given that we ship 150-200 parcels a day, we wondered how on earth they expected their staff to suddenly cope with an extra 20% workload in the system...


Yes, people get carrier problems, but I've yet to see solid evidence that Citylink are any worse than your other big players (DHL, UPS, FedEx, Parceline, Parcelforce or Business Post, and yes, I've worked with all bar UPS). The closest I've seen is their big system crash in the last couple of weeks, but quite frankly that could happen to anyone...

[andyspc]

i forgot to add, i work for tuffnells haydock depot which is the hub, we move some times around 14'000 to 15'000 items plus all incoming items, tuffnells take on alot of buisness other companys wohnt accept but doing so isnt so bad, its when addition things are added which are large in size and heavy in weight that it becomes harder work, weve just taken on a 500'000 pound a year contract with a company mintex for brakes are it takes an extra 10 minutes a day to throw these down the belt and have them loaded onto the correct wagons, i dont see how so many miss routes happen my self.

ummm - our branch has a belt system and over christmas having a BIGGER system fitted, simpe really , porters unload wagons and put parcels onto belt, pushers push off onto correct table going from postcode sorting and the table porters stack onto a pallet awaiting to delivere to correct destination.

also at bomfire night theres an additional 2 wagons a day ( fire works )which can hold upto 800-1000 boxes per wagon so tuffnells isnt that crap

[steffan]

I have always had great service fron Scan using City Link and the same delivery fella is always happy and friendly!

[Dalastie]

Well my first encounter with city link was when i ordered my Wacom Tablet, the guy arrived at 6:15am which was a shock but i was up so really didn't mind. Then i had a large consignment arrive from them which totaled 4 boxes, only 3 arrived and this is where i found city link to be the most god awful people to deal with.

When things go okay, city link are the best. But if your parcel somehow falls, behind and they lose a statistic you have to ride them like a donkey in the gold cup to get your package inside a month.

I've had 6 or 7 deliveries from City link, 3 arrived without a problem. The rest were either lost and found 15 times, 3 weeks late or picked up from the depot myself.

*Edit

Forgot to mention that it appears the latest one has been stolen from the depot, although they're not telling me that yet.

[Trash Man]

I've had no problems with City-Link in the last 2-3 years that I have been using them regularly.

No matter who Scan use, there will always be a small percentage of problems.

[Naggallywoo]

I've had some problems with City Link, out of the total 6 deliveries I've have from them only 1 has been on time and hassle free, now I live in North Devon, I suppose not the easiest of places to deliver to but not that hard, and I'm not exactly remote, but I don't think the accessibility of my house is the problem and City Link seem to be a on going problem for me.

My Delivery’s From City Link:

1. I ordered a motherboard, cpu and graphic card off a retailer, selected next day, and hazzar! I thought upgrades galore! Unfortunately they left the parcel with a neighbour, didn't tell me through a card and since my neighbours hate me and the fact I had no internet access (to track my parcel) it wasn't until 3 days after the delivery date that I got my parcel.

2. Again ordered some more products from the same retailer, City Link try to deliver to my back door, which is actually a flat disconnected from my house rented out by my family, it was unoccupied at the time and can be obviously seen as not being my front door, I found the card and had to instruct them to use the front door.

3. Tried to deliver to my back door again, left a card (but I didn't find that 2 days after) and thankfully they dropped it off with a neighbour. But I didn't get it until two days afterward as the recorded signature was 'unreadable' on the tracking page, hence me thinking at the time someone (at City Link) had lost my parcel and signed the form.

4. Second city Link delivery from Scan (the first one was the only City Link delivery on time) was supposed to be on the Friday before Christmas just gone, but due to a apparent server crash and it being so close to Christmas and no doubt loads of parcels needing to be deliver, in the sprit of Christmas; forgiveness and all, I gave them a break, however what annoys me is that they said on the online tracking thing that they did try to deliver and that they left a card, something which they clearly didn't.

5. Third deliver from Scan ordered on the Monday of this week and thanks to the busy bees of Scan it was dispatched early afternoon the day after boxing day (Thursday), it arrived at the City Link Depot early on Friday morning and was packing into the van in good time, however at 6:30 pm I had still not received anything, so I rang them up and asked if it were possible that there was till time to deliver my parcel, unfortunately not, sorry, was the reply, which left me a bit miffed, and the fact that they can't put it on the Saturday delivery, but at least they were honest.


Now sorry for the long post but I think it is all relevant to valuing the service of City Link to Scan, City Link have improved, but in my area at least, the time of their delivery service leaves much to be desired when using normal next day, now I realise that in any business there will be problems and mistakes, and it will happen regardless, but if they were to introduce more vans onto my area, if the drivers used common sense and if they could ring to say that I won't be receiving my parcel because they've run out of time , it would be much appreciated.

In City Link’s defence when I have in cases, contacted their offices on the phone they have been polite, honest and try to get things sorted quickly, I just wish it wouldn't reach that stage.


But in all honesty Thanks for the Great service Scan.

[staffsMike]

All my deliveries come before 9am when using scans free delivery which is perfect for me.

The drivers are always pleasent and apologetic if anything has gone wrong which is very rare in these parts.

All Delivery companies are rubbish from time to time. City link are the least of the evils imo and I believe have actually won awards in the last few years for being the best in the UK.

[TooNice]

Citylink used to be pretty bad for me (in Aberdeen), but have been fine the last couple of times.

DHL used to be fine for me, but didn't do too well this month.

I don't get many parcels from Interlink, but they are the most consistent for me (in a good way).

[pauldarkside]

No matter who Scan use, there will always be a small percentage of problems.

Yep, that's the problem. When things go wrong people are more vocal since they've got something that needs attention, and it can be off-putting stumbling over those negatives. You don't often hear about the good experiences enough.

I've had negative experiences with a fair few companies, including Scan and City Link, but most things get sorted out in the end. I keep going back as their still pretty darn good at what they do. Mistakes happen - we're all trying to do the best we can (well, most of us)

[pauldarkside]

Oh, and to the OP; it sounds more like you're touting for business; i.e. publicity on behalf of the company you work for. Are you on commission?

[hovick]

Citylink claimed they left a card for me twice now, both times no card. Girl on the phone would always say "driver is running a bit late today! dont worry, you will recieve it within the next 15 mins." Haha. Was complete rubbish, had to go and pick it up from local depot. Citylink really suck ass.

[Cornholio]

My local city link suck eggs, refuse to buy anything from anywhere that uses them now as i have had too many problems to list, i love the " but we left you a card " excuse when ive clearly been in all day waiting for the thing. This thread will just get closed much like any other sh1ttylink threads that have been posted, scan are too deep in with them i think. All scan have to do is post them, they don't seem to bothered that numerous people have problems with citylink although i greatly suggest its something reviewing in 2008. Or maybe even having the option of selecting a courier at checkout.

[SHare]

Nummerous? Its a handful. Of all the parcels they post how many complaints do they get? Some areas Citylink suck and the rest they are fine. Every courier will be the same so one thats great for you could be dreadful for someone else, its a balancing act and the fact that citylink are the major courier for most of the large e-tailers says alot.

[Cornholio]

Nummerous? Its a handful. Of all the parcels they post how many complaints do they get? Some areas Citylink suck and the rest they are fine. Every courier will be the same so one thats great for you could be dreadful for someone else, its a balancing act and the fact that citylink are the major courier for most of the large e-tailers says alot.

Point taken, suppose you can't brand the whole herd for one cattles bad milk.