DPD - first impression...

[Grey M@a]

I wouldn't say all major couriers are having issue's. This week alone I've had 4 city link vans, 2 parcel force, 2 UPS and 1 DHL van to my address. DPD who I have a few parcels with (not with Scan though) have been nowhere near the place since the 4th December and we literally have no snow at all around here.

Tbh, I preferred City Link when Scan used them, DPD are shockingly bad, always have been, especially in my area from experience over the last few years. We used to have contracts with them and they lasted 3 months as they were appalling.

[finlay666]

Is changing back to City Link really coming up in these forums as a serious question?

For people that never had an issue with them and had good service in the area they live in, yes it is.

Issues are due to the weather, affecting ALL devilries companies

Major Retailer's have halted online order's in Scotland directly due to the weather conditions and DPD have also had to temporarily suspended deliveries in Scotland, Newcastle and York.

On what grounds did DPD have to stop deliveries? If it's because of the weather its a joke TBH as it snowed this morning, and it has barely laid 1cm

Naturally the blame will unfairly be pointed towards a courier / etailor / retailer for not delivering a parcel, however we would rather receive the feedback than not.

Actually my blame is for poor communication about the delivery issue and that you still offer premium delivery slots that simply cannot be fulfilled due to the situation. I appreciate the weather is 'bad' but isn't it best to make it clear to customers what the situation is before they order so they don't get pissed off when they find out you can't deliver on time?

Another example of the poor communication is to receive a text on Tuesday saying my Scan order will be delivered between 8am and 6pm (I received this at 3:05pm) and the order was never delivered, only half of it was delivered yesterday, the other half is apparently in limbo as it WAS on the van for delivery on the same day but is now back in the local depot.

If they even offered the option to collect direct without them needing to attempt delivery it would probably ease it off, as most people have their consignment/parcel numbers and can provide ID and collect themselves.

[sammorris]

The roads are mostly fine here, but a lot of the pavements are still coated with ice, and you know health & safety etc. etc.

With regard to scheduling, DPD have implemented by far the highest delays of any courier. However, in both the locations I have had items delivered to, before the weather conditions occurred, DPD were delivering on time, every time. Citylink well, you can forget it.

For contractual reasons, most companies can't ship with two couriers at once, and thus you have to choose one or the other. From a national average standpoint, the performance DPD is far higher than that of citylink, hence why Scan made the change. End of.

I am curious about the hour timeslot delivery however, as with CCL it's advertised as the service you receive. Scan customers seem to be suggesting whether you get it is a matter of luck, which is a little disconcerting.

[Chris P]

For people that never had an issue with them and had good service in the area they live in, yes it is.

This is why we balance out the feedback.

On what grounds did DPD have to stop deliveries? If it's because of the weather its a joke TBH as it snowed this morning, and it has barely laid 1cm

To be blunt but to the point the decision wast made from looking out of their window and looking at the wheather outside. The recent bad weather has severely impacted parcel delivery services in Scotland and the North East, in addition DPD has unprecedented volumes of parcels being shipped by our customers. The two factors combined mean that these depots now have severe delivery backlogs.


DPD are making every possible effort to deliver all the parcels they have, this has included working on the last two Saturdays and Sundays. We understand that this announcement will mean disappointment and inconvenience to our customers and we deeply regret that but we are convinced that a policy of openness and honesty regarding this matter is paramount.

DPD delivery services to the rest of the country will continue, and collections from Scotland, Newcastle and York for delivery outside of these areas will continue.
 DPD will continue to post daily updates on their website and to send detailed update bulletins to their customers as the situation changes.

Actually my blame is for poor communication about the delivery issue and that you still offer premium delivery slots that simply cannot be fulfilled due to the situation. I appreciate the weather is 'bad' but isn't it best to make it clear to customers what the situation is before they order so they don't get pissed off when they find out you can't deliver on time?

The automated e-mail confirmations and current real time situation will be out of sync, this was covered in previous threads with a response from myself. DPD are posting daily updates via their web site, plus we have information regarding severe weather warning's via the Delivery section of our web site and now on the checkout stage of the ordering process.

Please continue to check the DPD web site for the daily updates.

Regards

[finlay666]

To be blunt but to the point the decision wast made from looking out of their window and looking at the weather outside. The recent bad weather has severely impacted parcel delivery services in Scotland and the North East, in addition DPD has unprecedented volumes of parcels being shipped by our customers. The two factors combined mean that these depots now have severe delivery backlogs.


Well I'm physically in the North East, lets see how bad it is.....

To be blunt it's not that bad Chris, this is the first day it's snowed in well over a week, in fact it's still pretty warm compared to a fortnight ago when the temperature didn't get above 0 during the day (and was down as low as -14 before wind chill). For them to be days behind now means they haven't cleared their previous backlog.

DPD are making every possible effort to deliver all the parcels they have, this has included working on the last two Saturdays and Sundays. We understand that this announcement will mean disappointment and inconvenience to our customers and we deeply regret that but we are convinced that a policy of openness and honesty regarding this matter is paramount.

I totally agree, however there is no mention of this on your site from homepage to order confirmation, I had to navigate to the the delivery info for any details, why would a customer who has used the site many times use the delivery info to find out about the news of delays?

DPD delivery services to the rest of the country will continue, and collections from Scotland, Newcastle and York for delivery outside of these areas will continue.
 DPD will continue to post daily updates on their website and to send detailed update bulletins to their customers as the situation changes.

Thats good, it's just a shame deliveries to those areas are on at least a 3 day delay currently due to the 'hazardous weather conditions'.

The whole thing with communication is I shouldn't have to keep check a 3rd party site before I order, the information should be clearly provided on the retailers site, as it is on many other websites

[JimmyBoy]

Chris maybe you didn't read my post but my parcel got from you to my nearest depo in a day and there is no snow or ice anywhere in-between my address or their depo so weather doesn't come into it. Incompetence does.

[sammorris]

Or backlogs.

[Grey M@a]

Chris maybe you didn't read my post but my parcel got from you to my nearest depo in a day and there is no snow or ice anywhere in-between my address or their depo so weather doesn't come into it. Incompetence does.

Try being up here in the North East Jimmy, the weather is so bad that all couriers can make deliveries and DPD seem to think the "bad weather conditions" means no deliveries to my area. If I take a look outside the window here at work, the weather is so bad, I mean we all know that rain is dangerous for deliveries. The parcel may get wet or something

As I said, I've had UPS, DHL, Parcel Force and City Link to my address in this weather and the bad snow, even when we had around 14 inches of snow on the roads. They still came, DPD however still have parcels from the 4th December. I even asked if I could drive the 14 miles to their depot to pick it up to be told I couldn't as I didn't have a card.... really now, DPD are bad now and they were bad when they were ParcelLine all those years ago.

[Chris P]

finlay666

however there is no mention of this on your site from homepage to order confirmation

plus we have information regarding severe weather warning's via the Delivery section of our web site and now on the checkout stage of the ordering process.

, which is before the order confirmation). Delivery information via a Delivery link also seemed logical, which is why the information is also, but not only. listed there.

EDIT: We do have these updates on our homepage as well - Via the news section
http://www.scan.co.uk/News/Scan ?

the information should be clearly provided on the retailers site, as it is on many other websites

plus we have information regarding severe weather warning's via the Delivery section of our web site and now on the checkout stage of the ordering process.. Delivery information via a Delivery link also seemed logical, which is why the information is also, but not only. listed there

.

[Chris P]

Chris maybe you didn't read my post but my parcel got from you to my nearest depo in a day and there is no snow or ice anywhere in-between my address or their depo so weather doesn't come into it. Incompetence does.

FW: Chris P

The recent bad weather has severely impacted parcel delivery services in Scotland and the North East, in addition DPD has unprecedented volumes of parcels being shipped by our customers. The two factors combined mean that these depots now have severe delivery backlogs.


[DavidM]

finlay666
We do have these updates on our homepage as well - Via the news section
http://www.scan.co.uk/News/Scan ?

.

Also available with RSS feed of course

[inigiomontoya79]

FW: Chris P

Severe delivery backlogs are fine, i understand that. but when i do half their job for them and go and pick it up for the rest of my parcels journey!? and get refused due to them not being able to find it at their depo. why would that not be the simplest thing. Everything is numbered, barcoded and scanned. Grey M@a is spot on, DPD is incompetent. no logistics used at all.

and i would assume DPD as a courier would pride themselves on logistics.

[sammorris]

I've already explained, that's bad and a complaint should be filed, but this has happened how many times? It happens almost every time with citylink, to a large proportion of the population.

[JimmyBoy]

I've already explained, that's bad and a complaint should be filed, but this has happened how many times? It happens almost every time with citylink, to a large proportion of the population.

I think maybe its time to agree their all as bad as eachother

[sammorris]

In this environment maybe. Once the backlogs from the bad weather have gone, I will resume judgement, as so far, DPD have a 100% success rate with me, something shared only by their partner company interlink, and DHL (though I hear this is unusual). However, DHL are off the list as they subcontract some jobs to interparcel, who are ghastly. Parcelforce, UPS and Citylink all have blemished or severely blemished records. The only other company with a spotless record was Target, but 1 out of 1 successes isn't much to go on, and they're now absorbed by citylink, so as the saying goes "that's the end of that".

[finlay666]

Chris, as the post to me seemed to get messed up with quotes.

Fair enough it says now that deliveries are suspended to the 3 cities, however it fails to mention the delays to any other place due to backlogs caused by the drivers aversion to a slight dusting of snow or when it's a little chilly outside.


The news section isn't much better, in fact to be honest it's a joke from the homepage. Your latest feed on your site according to the homepage is from November for why people love scan, not one of the 'latest news sections' actually mention the delays without having to go into more detail for them

I see:
"Scan wins Custom PC Best Retailer & Service 2010 Award - 15/11/2010"
not anything delivery-delay news related

No customer should have to go 2 levels down into a site where the user can only navigate to the page from the homepage to see the news on the delays.

Like many repeat customers I have my favourite set to the today only section, so don't even use the landing page. A small red banner explaining there are numerous delays wouldnt hurt (and the warning wasnt there when I placed my order on Friday obviously)

I do agree "Delivery info" is a suitable place to put information, not news that could be order critical, it's something I would expect to see anywhere on the site as if I placed an order now to say Carlisle, the only knowledge of any delays is from the warning on the basket. Do you trawl the delivery info of every site each time you place an order to see if a little drizzle has caused a 3 day backlog? I don't think so.