WARNING!!! Parcelforce

supafly1982

If you do and they damage your bike (or parcel)as they did mine they will try to grease thier way out of paying up for it at every posseble oppertunity.

I ordered a bike to be collected in september, they colected it (orange 5 pro) and then they lost it, i had it booked for next day delivery, needless to say it never turned up and they had no idea where it was. When it did turn up it was late and damaged.

The site said i had to fill out a form and send it off. So thats what i done, i spent £3 on photo's, copied the reciept for the bike, added all the forms i needed to in with the claim sheet and sent it by reccorded delivery.

6 weeks pass and no reply, i had sent them 4 emails also, no reply. so Eventually i manage to get a phone number as they make this whole process very drawn out. I phoned it and the lady tries to tell me that they never got the claim, i said yes you did, no we never.......i sent it by reccorded delivery....ahh, ok lets have the code. I gave the lady the code and she replies "oh yes we did get it, we must of lost it". well how convienient! they loose the bike and now all the doccuments, good job i made copies!

So i had to do the whole thing again, copied all the papers and sent them off reccorded. I get a reply asking me to fill this and that in and a questionaire which was supposed to be sent to the guy that sold me the bike, they cant even get that right.

2 months down the line and they keep asking me for this and that hoping i dont have any of it so they can withdraw my claim. They asked if the packaging is still their for viewing.....a huge box, 2 month down the line. now ive bought a few bikes lately and flug out a few boxes so i replied no i dont think i do have the box.

I get a letter saying "We are sorry for the damage to your bike but as you have no packaging for us to view (bear in mind i sent them all the pics they needed) we can no longer process your claim and we do not owe you anything."

WRONG! they owe me the money for the late delivery as the advert stated "if we do not deliver on time, we will refund the postage costs"

This company is full of snakes, horrible little business people trying to slime their way out of coughing up for any damage at every posseble oppertunity and they are useless at their job from what ive seen with this farce.

How and ever i found the box and got in touch with them. i had to go through an appeal process and send everything to this email, they couldnt even give me the correct email address.

well today i decided enough was enough, give me my postage money back, i hate dealing with parcelfarce, so i phoned to get my postage back...the lady said you need your proof/ reciept of postage, i said is this a joke? you have my tracking number, i obviously paid for it to be posted and i lost the head saying your company are bunch of fucking arseholes who try to worm their way out of paying up. Then she hung up the phone because i swore.....no wonder i swore, nearly 3 months they have been pissing me about.

So i phoned again and spoke to someone else and they said i needed to send them my reciept of postage....they never gave me one, it was all done on line!

So they will look at their reccords for it and refund my postage.
I doubt i will ever use them again, they are the most useless courier company going, this must be how they stay afloat, not compensating people.

If you value your belongings, DONT USE PARCELFARCE!!! if you do then you MUST keep every little detail or they wont pay up.

delcol

speak to trading standards.

ilovedirt

didn't read your post, but parcelforce have terrible customer service, took me about 3 hours on the phone to parcelforce and royal mail trying to find out where a package was, going between the two because each tried to fob me off on the other. I eventually got through to a sympathetic parcelforce employee in the local depot who helped me out... It's just a case of badgering them until they actually do something about it. It shouldn't have to be, but that's life.

Stu Coops

As long as you still have the supporting documentation you say you have speak to Trading Standards cover every angle with them, write down names of people your speaking to as this commits them to contact you back and I would be very supprised if you don't get resolve as the likes of Parcelforce and Shite alike won't treat Trading Stadards with contempt like they have with you but remember their not on anyone's side only the side of what's right so you should be quids in.

Mojo_666

Wow that is unbelievable, what a bunch of twunts, hope you get it sorted.

DCR00

i wonder what the ratio of delivered to non-delivered parcels is

i understand that your situation is pretty bad, and it sounds like they are being pretty difficult about it, but im willing to bet it doesnt happen that often (as a % of how often it does)

doesnt help you tho

scale20

I have had a few ebay sales and sent bikes with parcelforce everytime. Never had an issue, however there are always a very small minority that do and it sounds like you got caught up in it.

When I have sent bikes with them I make sure that the bike inside is well and truly protected, in one instance I bubblewrapped everything and put pipe lagging on the forks. Did the sender, whoever put it in the box make any efforts to protect it from the rigours of the postal system?

I take it you bought it new from a shop online? Correct me if Im wrong but the whole thing should have been dealt with by the sending party, you notify them of the damage and then they claim against it.

Don't let it go, persue it. Trading standards is the way to go, have a look at the watchdog website too, name and shame if you can on there.

Anonymous

ParcelFarce have always sucked. Leaving cards when I've been in without knocking, saying they'd attempt another delivery but fail to do so then return item to the States when they're supposed to wait a week or so, signing for items themselves and leaving on doorstep, lost documentation when trying to get proof of delivery, their crappy depot being miles away and only open during office hours, massive duty/VAT handling fees way above what Royal Mail charge yet they're the same company, and I could go on.

Hate them. If a company says they use PF I avoid them if at all possible and I'll never use them to send anything myself. Had a number of deliveries recently via Interlink and DPD that have been reliable and even give me an exact hour slot they will turn up with option to change. Would rather them, or even City Link. I know people moan about them but never have a problem and their depot is close and open until 8pm.

But anyway. Trading Standards, and depending on how much compensation you want, small claims court. Just serving them under the latter will usually instantly get it resolved out of court.

Whatever, don't listen to any guff about what they can't do or refuse to do according to their policy. Your rights overrule all of this and a judge will almost certainly rule in your favour.

Oh, and yeah, retailer is the first point of contact. Your contract of service to deliver the goods is with them, and they should attempt to claim.

blablablacksheep

i hate to say this to you but i have been doing business for a while and parcelforce are on my AVOID LIKE PLAGUE list, every item i sent to america or around europe was shite service and allways ended up being damaged so now allways use Royal Mail or if it exspencive UPS as they tend to get away from customs opening up my items


its sad to hear and i hope it fixed+sorted quickly as i know how fustrating it can be.

like others said Trading standards or citizens advice

cat_with_no_tail

I always use parcelforce (living where I live it's the only option).

They are a bit pricey, but I've always found them to be very good indeed. I get the impression that it depends rather on your local "branch", a bit like halfords in that respect.

Supafly, not that it makes any difference, but how late was it arriving? and when you say damaged, damaged how exactly? Just being nosey really

MountainMonster

When I moved out here to Austria, I sent a few boxes with Parcelforce on next day delivery, which took 3 weeks to get here. I sent them in those "Really Useful Boxes" you can buy in Staples, wrapped every single thing in bubble wrap, wrapped another layer of bubble wrap around the box, then taped everything up properly. When I did finally get them, which took 3 weeks because my name wasn't on the outside of the building, and said I can come to the Depot to pick things up if they just tell me where it is, which they said isn't possible they have to send to an address ( bunch of lying pricks), 2 of the boxes had the corners snapped off, my xbox was in a different box than it was before, and was smashed into pieces, and the pieces put in different boxes.

I phoned up, asked for a claim form, they said look online and when I couldn't find it, they just said tough luck. Finally got ahold of a copy of the claims form, sent everything back, they inspected the boxes as well and said it wasn't their fault things were broken, as the boxes were plastic. Granted the boxes were plastic, I had one of the huge ones strapped to my motorbike back in England full of beer, and it came off at around 60mph, not even a chip of broken plastic on them, so I know they were tough.

I then enquired about getting refunds for postage as the postage was so late ( I had paid over 300 for the boxes to be delivered next day), they refused as it was my "fault" they couldn't deliver the whole time, even thoguh I told them push the button downstairs to ring the bell for Winkler, which was written on the boxes. As far as the xbox went, among a few other more precious items, I sent everything back and never received a penny from them.

Same moral of the story as above, but my financial losses were around the 700 pound mark because of them. The box even had water and snow inside it when it got delivered.

blablablacksheep

i think the problem with boxs being damaged and issues as listed above are related to what i found when sending goods to america and such.

It seems when sending goods to europe and america my parcels were allways opened most of the time which i believe is down to customs, then parcel force did a piss poor effort in putting it back properly thus a lot of damaged goods in in-correct packages.

so whether its their "bad handling" im unsure or if it just really bad repacking after customs opens them

Bishbosh10

They're not known as Parcelfarce for nothing you know....

Rigga

Christ! Some terrible stories here, i won't be using them now that's for sure!

tattoo

I work in maintenance for Royal Mail and Parcelforce and would never send anything with Parcelforce, when they unload the trailers at the depot there is a belt conveyor that the parcels are placed onto which runs them down to a roller conveyor, the drop is about 4ft and a distance of about 10ft to the rollers. I have seen parcels thrown out the back of the trailers completely missing the conveyor and landing on the rollers, which are made of steel and covered in dents that look like the could only have been made with a hammer.

It is generally not the drivers but the night staff who are the main culprits, the parcels are loaded into cages for the drivers to load into the van, but by then the damage has already been done

delcol

tattoo wrote:

I work in maintenance for Royal Mail and Parcelforce and would never send anything with Parcelforce, when they unload the trailers at the depot there is a belt conveyor that the parcels are placed onto which runs them down to a roller conveyor, the drop is about 4ft and a distance of about 10ft to the rollers. I have seen parcels thrown out the back of the trailers completely missing the conveyor and landing on the rollers, which are made of steel and covered in dents that look like the could only have been made with a hammer.

It is generally not the drivers but the night staff who are the main culprits, the parcels are loaded into cages for the drivers to load into the van, but by then the damage has already been done

up untill a few months ago (got made redundent) i was a supervisor for one of the big parcel companies.. name of dhl, express, now trading under the yodel banner.. it was the same there. i have been walking through the warhouse and seen numpty agency staff (of the easten european varity) putting bianchi bike on the conveyor. it was obvious they would not fit talk about square peg round hole.. i would gringe watching then get crushed as they got stuck. (belt 3 ft wide parcel 4-5 ft wide) or watch when they fall 15-20 ft off the top of the rollers to the floor,..
things always went missing you would be shocked at the amount of damaged or lost items that would be left on the warhouse floor at the end of the week/month...
i guess it's just pot luck when you have something delivered in this day and age...

you do seem to get better service with the smaller companies like dpd interlink ect...

MountainMonster

delcol wrote:

tattoo wrote:

I work in maintenance for Royal Mail and Parcelforce and would never send anything with Parcelforce, when they unload the trailers at the depot there is a belt conveyor that the parcels are placed onto which runs them down to a roller conveyor, the drop is about 4ft and a distance of about 10ft to the rollers. I have seen parcels thrown out the back of the trailers completely missing the conveyor and landing on the rollers, which are made of steel and covered in dents that look like the could only have been made with a hammer.

It is generally not the drivers but the night staff who are the main culprits, the parcels are loaded into cages for the drivers to load into the van, but by then the damage has already been done

up untill a few months ago (got made redundent) i was a supervisor for one of the big parcel companies.. name of dhl, express, now trading under the yodel banner.. it was the same there. i have been walking through the warhouse and seen numpty agency staff (of the easten european varity) putting bianchi bike on the conveyor. it was obvious they would not fit talk about square peg round hole.. i would gringe watching then get crushed as they got stuck. (belt 3 ft wide parcel 4-5 ft wide) or watch when they fall 15-20 ft off the top of the rollers to the floor,..
things always went missing you would be shocked at the amount of damaged or lost items that would be left on the warhouse floor at the end of the week/month...
i guess it's just pot luck when you have something delivered in this day and age...

you do seem to get better service with the smaller companies like dpd interlink ect...

Why when the people are getting paid are they allowed to do this then? Surely there should be some sort of reprimand for people who just throw things around not caring if anything breaks? Especially considering the customer is paying ALOT of cash to have even small unbreakable things sent now?

That's like having a moving company you paid to move your house start throwing all your stuff randomly in the back of the truck, you will ask them to leave and give you your cash back in that case.

delcol

MountainMonster wrote:

delcol wrote:

tattoo wrote:

I work in maintenance for Royal Mail and Parcelforce and would never send anything with Parcelforce, when they unload the trailers at the depot there is a belt conveyor that the parcels are placed onto which runs them down to a roller conveyor, the drop is about 4ft and a distance of about 10ft to the rollers. I have seen parcels thrown out the back of the trailers completely missing the conveyor and landing on the rollers, which are made of steel and covered in dents that look like the could only have been made with a hammer.

It is generally not the drivers but the night staff who are the main culprits, the parcels are loaded into cages for the drivers to load into the van, but by then the damage has already been done

up untill a few months ago (got made redundent) i was a supervisor for one of the big parcel companies.. name of dhl, express, now trading under the yodel banner.. it was the same there. i have been walking through the warhouse and seen numpty agency staff (of the easten european varity) putting bianchi bike on the conveyor. it was obvious they would not fit talk about square peg round hole.. i would gringe watching then get crushed as they got stuck. (belt 3 ft wide parcel 4-5 ft wide) or watch when they fall 15-20 ft off the top of the rollers to the floor,..
things always went missing you would be shocked at the amount of damaged or lost items that would be left on the warhouse floor at the end of the week/month...
i guess it's just pot luck when you have something delivered in this day and age...

you do seem to get better service with the smaller companies like dpd interlink ect...

Why when the people are getting paid are they allowed to do this then? Surely there should be some sort of reprimand for people who just throw things around not caring if anything breaks? Especially considering the customer is paying ALOT of cash to have even small unbreakable things sent now?

That's like having a moving company you paid to move your house start throwing all your stuff randomly in the back of the truck, you will ask them to leave and give you your cash back in that case.

true and i often thougt this my self.. and would often be heard screaming at the numpties. to leave bikes on the trailer and have them taken off by a forklift..
but having been in the delivery game for the last 13 years and starting at the bottom of the chain as a unloarder. no matter what the item is to you it's just another box, and when you (not you personally you as a team) have around 65,000 parcels to clear in 8 hours, it all boils down to time, especially when you on a bonus system for performance....
in this day and age the delivery companies like dhl royalmail ect struggle to make proffit so they try to cram as much as they can into their trailers to minimise their overheads... i imagine they all do it..
personally if i had to send anything i would use a smaller comapany who hopefully take more care,, as they want he buisness...
i could spend hours giving examples of horror stories from the inside....

GhostBoy

I wish I had read this before ordering my new bike. I ordered my bike through chain reaction cycles and they use parcelforce. I'm dreading whats going to come now.

delcol

you will probably find it will be fine.. not every single parcel get damaged.....

GhostBoy

delcol wrote:

you will probably find it will be fine.. not every single parcel get damaged.....

I hope so

DCR00

i just got my handlebars off eBay delivered by Parcelforce

in one piece and delivered in one day

dmorton

To the original poster/thread starter:

If you paid by credit card for the service of delivering the bike then the credit card company are equally liable as Parcelfarce, section 75 of Consumer Credit Act act I think... might get more out of them than PF. It's not the same for debit cards unfortunately.