YOUNG GED

Hi all

Just a qiuck cautionary tale as I'm pissed off at the moment and need to get this off my chest.

Back in late October I ordered some Scoobysport driving lights.When the delivery time on theese slipped from 10-14 days to about 4 weeks I cancelled my order and purchased something differant instead,as I wanted to improve my lighting before going round Wales following the Rally.

Low and behold on the 8th of Feb this year a set of driving lamps turn up at my house.
After telling Scoobysport of the error they asked me to return them and they would refund my card for the lights and the postage.

Off I went to the post office the next day and sent them off with Parcel Force on there insured delivery scheme, as I had already paid for them and could not get a refund unless they made it back intact.

When the credit card bill arrived last week I was surprised to see that the money had not been refunded and so rang Scoobysport to ask why and upon speaking to them was told they had recieved nothing back.

After phone calls to Parcel Force on Fri and today,it turns out the parcel made it as far as Southend but from there it has vanished into thin air!!!!!
I will now have to claim the money back off them and am due to recieve claim forms on Wed.The problem is I will now be out of pocket as I don't have the money to pay the credit card bill which is why I sent them back (much as I would have liked to put them on my car).When I asked if the compensation would include the postage and any interst the credit card incurs they said they couldn't say at this time.

So the moral is never send anything with the useless tossers at Parcel Force and if you are offered a cheap set of driving lights by somone in Essex they were probaly mine.

Chirs.

mutant_matt

And the post in general is still shagged!!!!

Matt.

GCollier

I don't think just ParcelForce are bad. I ordered an LCD projector recently, and the company were very reluctant to despatch it to me for Saturday delivery. They said they'd had quite a few go "missing" on Saturdays (skeleton staff at depots, easier to pinch goods, relatively small light box of very high value), and that claiming back on their insurance was just a pain in the neck. Luckily mine did show up.

Gary.

boomer

Chirs,

phone your credit-card company IMMEDIATELY and tell them what happened! They are jointly liable for transactions, and at the very least will put your payment "on hold". Ideally they will take things up with the merchant (Scoobysport) if they are indeed in error.

If the credit card company don't help, threaten to change to another card company (as well as contacting the Credit Card Ombudsman or whatever he is called).

mb

RichS

Just to follow on from GCollier's point.

As a motor factor, we frequently "special order" goods for customers on a next day basis.

We often have problems with carriers letting us down, which we usually have to rectify at our own cost, and we never make any promises for Saturday deliveries - too unreliable!

Rich

Mike Tuckwood

I suspect you will find this is a widespread problem, most if not all of the suppliers will have (or be having) similar problems, it's one of the reasons we use slightly more expensive couriers with greater insurance cover mostly now.


Check and make sure you had enough insurance cover, Parcel Force had us over some time back <I>(remember Sunil)</I> and we were only covered for the first £70.00. (Which we have still not yet received compensation for).

I think that passing this one back onto the supplier may be slightly unfair as you did post the items back to them... it is not their mistake.

[This message has been edited by Mike Tuckwood (edited 12 March 2001).]

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

4 wheels recently gone AWOL on the way to SS Another bloody O/night company

I'm in the Sameday Courier Market & although it costs shed loads more (for distance stuff) it gets there... (At least it does with my boys & girls )

Pays money etc

YOUNG GED

Thanks for the replies

Boomer

I rang the card company straight away and there attitude was to pay the bill if I could or claim off Parcel Force as it was them at fault.I don't know what the legal stand point is so if anyone know's please let me know.

Mike

I think your right.Although they made the initial mistake in sending them I don't think they should be in the firing line now.
On the subject of cover,the note I have says I paid for up to £250 of cover.How long have you been waiting for your money from there **** up.

I have now learn't a lesson and any company sending me something like this will now have to arrange collection themselves.As they say once bitten twice shy.

Chris

AllanB

We used ot use parcelForce or ParcelFarce as we called them but they were tewrrible. We now use ParcelLien who are far better. Forget Saturday deliveries. I had a chap waiitng all day for a Powermac to turn up. They didn't even try and deliver.

If you ever cancel an order do it in writing ( via recordfer delivery) or via email ( and get an acknowledgement) then if the goods are sent you are not liable and should be able to ask the sender to arrange collection at thier cost.


AllanB

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Allan

You been drinking or need a new keyboard???

(PS If the above post is edited, then Allan is feeling guilty )

LOL

boomer

Chris (Chirs ),

i would still chase up the Credit Card company, as they are charging you for goods that you cancelled with good reason. At the VERY LEAST, get them to suspend the debit until you get things sorted out. It is NOT appropriate for them to have an "attitude" - they ARE jointly liable, along with the merchant who erroneously sent _and_ billed you for goods that you did not want.

Maybe Scoobysport should send a strong letter to the head of Parcel Force, explaining the situation and their intention to use more reliable carriers in future!!

mb

Dave P

Complain, complain and complain again. Examples of my wifes ability to complain:

JMC Holiday from hell in Spain last October. Initial offer £150 in vouchers, uped to £150 in cash. Continued to complain, final offer £450 in vouchers or £270 in cash.

Short fried at McDonalds on a larged up meal. Manager made the mistake off laughing when my wife complained. Result free meals for 4.

Royal mail screwed up redirecting our mail. Initial offer 4 first class stamps. Upped to a full refund of redirection costs of £24.

Tesco direct have paid us almost £100 in lieu of poor service.

and many more. I have suggested she sets up her own company complaining on behalf of others she's that good.

Holiday from hell in Devon. After lots of complaining and threats refund of 50% and £50 expenses.

Tips, first letter polite, second letter not so polite, third copy your solicitor then they know you mean business, fourth threaten with watchdog and press but normally the solictor works ok.

Dave

The Zohan

Yep
We had similar problems with PF.
We dispatch all sorts of stuff around the UK and Europe - the only reliable carriers we have found are Interlink and TNT

Pete Croney

Chris

I was out yesterday and have only just found out about this.

I've asked Tony to credit your card immediately.

Please can you send us a cheque when Parcel Force reimburse you.

We stopped using Parcel Force some years ago. They were losing or damaging at least 1 in 10 of our packages. I withheld payment as the value of pending insurance claims far exceeded their bill. The insurance claims were almost all rejected for one technicality or another and they threatened to take me to court for the outstanding bill. My solicitor advised me to pay up, so I told Parcel Force I would send them 3 cheques.

About 4 months later, they wrote to me saying that one of the cheques had been lost in their internal post between two depots and could I send a replacement!!!!

I should have told them to put a claim into their insurers

Its my opinion that anyone using this carrier is better off throwing their packages into the sea and hoping the tide will get them to their destination.

robski

LOL at Pete C.

Classic.

robski

YOUNG GED

Hi Pete

Pete you are a top bloke and have just saved me much aggro with the credit card company.
Thanks for the help,you should be held up to others as an example of good customer service.
I will send the cheque as soon as I recieve the refund.
P.S. I'll send it via pigeon post as this is probably the safest way.

Boomer

Thank you for pointing out I can't spell my own name (bloody spellchecker).
Prior to pete's post I'd rang up the card company and was told that interset would build on the unpaid amount,and would hopefully be refunded later when the whole thing was resolved.Not the ideal solution but better than nothing.

Thanks again everyone for the replies and Scoobysport for your help.

Chris

andy hs

It comforts me slightly to see other people have grief with undelivered items.
I some while ago bought a steering wheel from Grade A Components and after a lot of problems found it impossible to fit. So rang Grade A and said I would return it as they had said if I was not happy with it they would give me a refund on to my visacard.

I returned it by Parcel Force with enhanced compensation, after 3 weeks I still had not seen the refund on my statements so I rang Grade A who said they had never received it.

I then got onto Parcel Force who backtracked the parcel and was told they had delivered it three days after I had sent it at 12.53pm but that no signiture on receiving it was required with that service.

I got on to Grade A with this news but was still told it had definitly not arrived.

I rang visacard immediatley and was told to get it in writing from Grade A that they would refund the money on receipt of the goods,which eventually they did.

I then sent this with all the documents as I was told to Visacard who replied that as the parcel was lost between Parcel Force and Grade A that I should take the matter up with them.

So now I have no steering wheel and am over £100 in debt to the credit card.

It amazes me that Parcel Force can have a service of delivery where compensation is offered but no signiture on receipt is required.Therefore all the delivery man has to do is write a date and time and could take the parcels himself.

I have sent my cut up visacard back telling them I want my account closed.

Andy.

Moz

I ran a mail order business for some years and had my fair share of complications with parcel farce, recently I was able to enjoy their services once again when I bought some headlamps of the bbs. P/farce managed to break them and withold compensation.
I have never had any problems either inland or overseas with UPS and you can track your parcel on the internet and see who has signed for it every step of the way.

DrEvil

Top marks to Pete Croney, nice one

Young Ged - sorry to hear about this, reminds me of similar probs with SecuriCrap... Not gonna bore you with the details, but needless to say Pete Croney's comments just about cover it, same sort of probs.

JoeyDeacon

Talking about Securicrap one of my friends works for them (Programmer not deliveries!!)

Anyway they regularly have sales open to staff of all the stuff that they fail to deliver. In the past they have been selling DVDs for £5, Dreamcasts for £50 and sony CD Writers for £25. He even managed to get a Nokia 7110 phone for £8.

Apparently they have LOADS of undelivered stuff at these sales.

[This message has been edited by JoeyDeacon (edited 14 March 2001).]

RichS

WHAT ????!!!!!!!!!

DrEvil

JoeyD - I'm not surprised, especially as at times they don't bother to try to deliver, then tell the supplier that it has been

AllanB

I was steaming drunk on the 12th, had trouble seeing the keyboard.

The company I work for is one of the largest parcel senders in the UK. We have used most overnight freight companies , ParcelForce..crap, Securicor..err even worse and staff very unhelpful. NCN , don't even go there, weterminated thier contract after a few weeks !! ParcelLine seem to be about the best out there at a reasonable cost. Just watch out for the Croydon depot which is a bit iffy and a black hole for expensive bits of IT kit.


AllanB

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Allan

Please mail me off-line with a precis of your experience with all types/companies of Overnight service. Don't worry, I'm SameDay

Puff

(PS I'm lagered tonite as I've been crowing ( ) over my recent victory )