Is there anything I can do on the US side of this situation? I’m truely heartbroken about the pram, as I spent quite a bit on it for my son born in March, and I would like him to have it before he turns 1!

I didn’t deal with Charlton depot so I can’t comment on them, but the depot in north London wasn’t overly helpful; it took several phone calls, several choruses of “yes it’s in the country; no it isn’t in the country; it’s in the US; it’s been shipped; it hasn’t been shipped; it’ll be with you tomorrow; tomorrow; next week; I don’t know when” before my parcel turned up. From the point that the USPS handed it over to Parcelforce (2 days or so after picking the parcel up from my friend), it took nearly a month to get it into the country and to my house. On the other hand, I sent a return parcel via DHL and it got there in 3 days, door to door.

Still, we’ve both learnt our lesson, and won’t use Parcelforce again.

I won a antique clock on E Bay seller chose to use Parcel Force Economy International to South Africa . Parcel sent 1/9/07 still no parcel it never reached the custom office here 26 Feb 08. I thought we were third world..

Parcel Force what a joke a guy with roller skates would have been more effective.

As mentioned on the last occasion my parcel said it that there was an attempted delivery of the parcel, but I had been in all day and knew there had been no delivery, so when I chased by phone to see where it was no one could tell me anything about it and then to top it all off, it was delivered 3 hours later that day. When I asked the delivery driver about them trying to deliver it the day before he told me that they had only just recieved the package that morning, yet when I telephoned in the morning at the depot it came from they told me it wasn’t on their computer.

I massive lack of communication at parcel force seems to be very evident, they then question why people get upset about their service, and it seems to me we all have a very good reason for doing so, I just wish that someone would set up a business very similar to the royal mail but with a really good customer service support, it does not take a genius to provide such a service and I think at times the royal mail should be shut down or either give up the job and give it to someone else, they inflate charges, complain for pay rises, but how do you warrant such things when they can’t get it right.

For all of you waiting for your delivery, good luck because you will need a lot of it like me.

I originally got a nice letter from someone called Vicki Thomas who said

We are a large Electrical Distributors and distribute 10,000 products around the UK everyday and also dispatch Internationally.

In the 20 years of dealing with the Mail Order side of our company I have used just about every major carrier there is .. and have had good and bad experiences with all of them.

Couriers seem to go through phases of being good … but as soon as they have ‘staff issues’, depots that are understaffed or managed badly or your hit a peak time like Christmas, invariably the problems begin.

A lack on investment in a Carriers infrastructure or development of IT seems to cause a lot of problems too.

We started our Mail Order side using budget couriers like Parceline / Securicor, etc .. but after a year or so the amount of problems with non deliveries and damage in transit meant we had to look towards using a dearer and supposedly more quality Courier like DHL.

Sure the amount of deliveries arriving on time improved and the damage was less … but customers were upset with having to pay high carriage charges to have goods delivered.

So, begrudingly .. I looked to Parcelforce.

And I have to say, for the volume we are sending out via them everyday ( 1000 + ) the amount of problems with have with them are minimal.

BUT … and here is a big BUT … We have the added bonus of being a premium account for Parcelforce and that means we have a special hotline to ring, should a parcel go astray and that team will pull out all the stops to track down where the parcel is and get it delivered a.s.a.p.

Not all Companies using Parcelforce have this and when placing a Mail Order on-line, it may be worth asking the question as to what they will do for you should teh parcel go astray ( I hear horror stories everyday of Companies putting the onus on the customer to find out where his parcel is .. we are not like that )

Our Company having the benfit of a special Parcelforce team makes a lot of difference, instead of the good ol’ days of us having to use their awful automated Customer Services number ( hanging on the phone for 15 minutes +, wading your way through a selection process … and ultimately never knowing when they would phone you back, if at all )

So far all UK and Scottish deliveries are going well … but as for International .. you can forget using Parcelforce .. disaster.

We receive a LOT of orders from the USa and when we have sent parcels out using either ( cheap ) Royal Mail or ( dearer ) Parcelforce all seems to be going OK this end .. but once the parcel reaches America, it gets intergrated into the US postal service and from there you have no tracking and more importantly .. no idea when the parcel will get there.

So I stopped all of that and approached DHL for quotes.

Now the tracking from UPS and delivery speed is excellent, but wow they are EXPENSIVE .. this is a key issue if the value of the item you are ordering is not that expensive … it would hardly make it worthwhile to order.

So I use International Logistics Group ( ILG – 01444 237 123 ) who are a freight forwarder and offer competitive rates for sending parcels Internationally via UPS.

They have an online facility to price up what it will cost to send ( once you input DIMS / Weight of Parcel / country of destination ) and offer a tracking facility for the parcel too.

Cheaper for us than to try and use DHL or UPS direct.

So .. in conclusion .. if you are dealing with any on-line Mail Order company it may be worth asking them what would happen should the parcel go astray .. think about using a freight forwarder for International Shipping which will help keep the costs down but still give you access to a quality carrier.

The U.S.P.S I find to be very good and on the ball… however when it leaves the U.S.A the flight must be by pigeon as it seems to avoid all tracking notes!!

I have a package that shows leaving Cape Foreign Center N.J. on December 24 th at 5.35 am…. and nothing since… perhaps it went to Santa and he has marked it for delivery Xmas 2008… oh the joys.. you save a little buying in the U.S.A. even with the tax and duty added here in the U.K. but once you add the cost of calling, emailing and the hassle Parcelforce put you through..is it worth it???

Perhaps Parcelforce should have a simple D.I.Y service so we can all go to our local depot and rummage through the piles of undelivered and unscanned items they must have.. perhaps the scanning rate of 2 parcels every hour needs to be improved.. the joys of living in the U.K.!

guess mine is in the queue behind Vik :-(

I’m on the point of giving up ever seeing it.

I’m never again doing business with a seller who uses ParcelForce.

I have previously ordered and received the same items from the USA to Australia via US Postal Service and it cost the equivalent of 20 pounds. Sending the same items from Australia to the UK via Australia Post would cost the equivalent of 32 pounds. What a rip off by ParcelForce.

I cannot comment on the ParcelForce standard of service as I decided not to get the item from the UK due to the ridiculous shipping cost. I will buy from USA when it becomes available. ParcelForce is losing UK retailers international business due to these exorbitant shipping costs.