Blame the shop... or courier company

RobertL
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby RobertL » Thu Jan 12, 2017 12:51 pm

Hmm - I ordered a new car rack from Velogear on Monday. I got their usual emails about the order being processed etc.

On Tuesday, I got an email saying that it had been shipped, with a link to the Australia Post tracking, and a parcel number.

So far so good...but the AusPost tracking service has been unavailable since then. Useless!

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Phil
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Phil » Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:40 pm

mikgit wrote:Don't usually have an issue with the international companies, dhl, fedex, royal mail or usps, it's once it hits our shores and and ozpost that things go south. My actual delivery guy to the door is excellent, but stuff takes like 2-3 days other county to OZ, then can take 10 days or more to get from Melb/Syd to my place in Tas. It's pretty bad, you watch the tracking and it's just ugh.
Thats my experience as well with a few different carriers.

Worst example:
I bought a TACX Bushido from Bike24, 3 days to Sydney from order, then 3.5 weeks by Australia Post to Perth. Yes its heavy, but really??
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby mikgit » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:02 pm

Yep I recenty bought some stuff from pushys, was a bit miffed as they sy if you ordr by 2pm they send that day, ordered 9pm on a Monday, expect to be shipped on Tuesday, but didnt get sent till Thursday.
Until I look at the tracking yesterday morning when due to arrive, was actually shipped Tuesday, picked up by Austpost ~3pm Tuesday, then sat in Brisbane till Thursday, arrived here on Tuesday. So took a week.
I now Tas/Launceston is the destination for all parcels in the world but 2 days in Brisbane till it got send (and then probably to Melbourne anyway), thats a bit crap.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby tcdev » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:12 pm

Our doorbell broke about 6 months ago and I am yet to find a suitable replacement. I need wireless with a good range on it as I'm generally in the office down the back and even the "long range" ones just don't work. But that's another story...

My biggest gripe is that they rarely bother knocking on the door. I suspect they see no doorbell, pull out a card, turn and run back to the van. Plenty of times my wife has been in the kitchen, specifically keeping an ear out for the door, only to find a card. We even caught a postal contractor once leaving a card without even bothering to take the package out of the van. Another time they did knock but in the 3s it took my wife to answer the door (after calling out) the guy was already in his van to make a quick getaway. She literally ran down the road on foot and caught him at the traffic lights. Hence most of the time we're either making a trip to the post office or making a call to arrange re-delivery and authorising them to leave it the next day.

A few times we've found packages on the front door step, sometimes despite clear instructions to leave it behind the side gate and once without any authorisation at all.

And yes, we have a PO BOX and our preference is for delivery there but, as you know, that's not always possible, particularly with couriers.

Have had a few things broken but the new stuff has always been replaced by the vendor. Worst case was a 2nd hand CRT via eBay which had imploded. It was part of a larger lot and - fortunately - not something I was primarily interested in so when the seller had no luck with eBay or the carrier, I simply let it slide.
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queequeg
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby queequeg » Wed Jan 18, 2017 4:20 pm

mikgit wrote:Yep I recenty bought some stuff from pushys, was a bit miffed as they sy if you ordr by 2pm they send that day, ordered 9pm on a Monday, expect to be shipped on Tuesday, but didnt get sent till Thursday.
Until I look at the tracking yesterday morning when due to arrive, was actually shipped Tuesday, picked up by Austpost ~3pm Tuesday, then sat in Brisbane till Thursday, arrived here on Tuesday. So took a week.
I now Tas/Launceston is the destination for all parcels in the world but 2 days in Brisbane till it got send (and then probably to Melbourne anyway), thats a bit crap.
I ordered from Pushys on Sunday night, Order was picked and shipped on Monday, arrived yesterday afternoon. Courier rang the doorbell, and by the time I had reached the front door 5.3 seconds later, he was already back at his van and on his way. He didn't even look at me as I picked up the parcel from the front door (where I had given instructions it could be left if nobody was home), but clearly you need to be warned, if someone is home and you have left instructions on what to do if nobody answers the door, they are not going to hang around waiting to find out. They have a tight delivery schedule so why wait?
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby mikgit » Wed Jan 18, 2017 5:25 pm

^ah no, my delivery guy is excellent, it's the getting it to him thats the problem.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Mulger bill » Wed Jan 18, 2017 7:12 pm

Auspost are great for flinging cards into the box as they zip by. Had one pull up at the gate as I was working in the shed not 5m away and by the time I'd walked up the card was in the box and he had one leg in the van. It took ages to work out how to use the eSignature machine that day...
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby tcdev » Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:35 pm

Mulger bill wrote:It took ages to work out how to use the eSignature machine that day...
:twisted:
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Zippy7 » Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:28 pm

DHL have been pretty good to me so far, Aussie Post is always a mixed bag, some couriers are absolutely rubbish, but the seller is also to blame.
eg. Optus refuse to send to a Parcel Locker, but the courier did not knock/ring doorbell, so carded and dropped the item at the Aussie Post mail distro centre (not local to me). I would've preferred the parcel locker at my local post office - walking distance and allows me to collect when convenient to me.
But yes, the shop needs to care about the delivery options too.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby biker jk » Wed Feb 08, 2017 1:18 pm

Australia Post CEO, Ahmed Fahour, highest paid postal executive on the planet, $5.6 million. Absolutely outrageous. No wonder Australia Post wanted to hide its excecutives remuneration.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-08/a ... rs/8251028

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-08/a ... ll/8250764

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Velt » Thu Feb 16, 2017 1:25 pm

Question: If the tracking for an item I've ordered has stalled for a while, should I be contacting the courier or contacting the seller?

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby RonK » Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:10 pm

Unless the delivery is significantly overdue, just be patient.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby AUbicycles » Thu Feb 16, 2017 6:43 pm

RonK wrote:Unless the delivery is significantly overdue, just be patient.
But plans!

As shoppers we go along with the information or guides provided and when the delivery is past due then it does have an impact. A while back I had tyres on order for an event and they didn't come - it was the third bike store that had the tyres and they were not new (but not used), they pulled them off a pre-assembled bike and charged full retail which was over double the online price from an Australian online retailer.

A good scenario however - and where the entire logistics process can improve is that delivery info / status is checked by the retailer and if the delivery has not arrived - then the retailer does two things. Firstly they inform the customer that the delivery is taking longer than planned and they are following up. Secondly, they actually follow-up and enquire with the shipping company to determine the cause.

This empowers the customer, though the order is not there, they are informed and also know that the online shop is working in their interests rather than shifting and ignoring a problem.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby RonK » Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:15 pm

AUbicycles wrote:
RonK wrote:Unless the delivery is significantly overdue, just be patient.
But plans!

As shoppers we go along with the information or guides provided and when the delivery is past due then it does have an impact.
Just because the tracking has not been updated does not mean the delivery is overdue.

Checking the tracking several times a day is counter productive.

And I've never encountered an online retailer who specifies delivery to the exact day.

If you don't place a timely order and end up having a nervous wait, who is to blame for that?

And will stressing about it and trying to contact the merchant or carrier get the goods to you any quicker? In all likelyhood the answer is no.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby AUbicycles » Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:18 am

Yes yes yes.. order on time and don't go overboard. If you order and the expected delivery is two weeks but a month has passed, something is amiss.

A smart retailer will provide solutions before a customer even notices a problem.

This approach of being proactive and continuously evaluating and improving the entire delivery chain is what separates the great shops from the average ones - and it pays off with time spent preventing problems now saved from fixing them.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Velt » Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:44 am

Yes but the question still hasn't been answered. In that situation, who is the point of contact?

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby RonK » Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:47 am

Velt wrote:Yes but the question still hasn't been answered. In that situation, who is the point of contact?
Who has the goods, and should know where they are?
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Velt » Fri Feb 17, 2017 11:54 am

RonK wrote:
Velt wrote:Yes but the question still hasn't been answered. In that situation, who is the point of contact?
Who has the goods, and should know where they are?
Where does responsibility on the part of the retailer end? When they post, or when I receive?

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby RonK » Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:21 pm

Most retailers will assist if the goods do not arrive, but I don't believe they are "responsible".

And if you didn't insure the goods, chances are the carrier won't accept resonsibilty either.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby AUbicycles » Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:32 pm

It is a good question regarding the 'point of contact'.

From the customer perspective, in the ideal situation then they only deal with the retailer. The retailer would take on responsibility for any chase-up (while the customer remains informed about the status).

In reality - the retailer has passed it over and likes to refer the customer across - if there is a delay or errors, then the customer has to deal with the shipping company and it can be a real pain. I understand that the retailer has limited information and control - however they still contract the shipping company and putting themselves as the point of contact and resolving customer issues is good customer service.
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby CycloTron » Mon Feb 20, 2017 10:15 am

I've unfortunately had recent experience with failed deliveries of orders, one each from Merlin, c r c & PBK. Forgive me for the lengthy post.

With Merlin, the frustration was that even though it had been >6 weeks since dispatch, they steadfastly refused to investigate, stating that they had no control over how long it takes to get to Oz, clear customs blah, blah, blah. I finally tracked down the number of the local forwarding company, who promptly informed me that they needed my invoice as Merlin had erroneously stated the price as >$1,000 AUD (they included VAT). I forwarded the invoice and it arrived 3 days later. Meanwhile, Merlin decides belatedly to launch an investigation, after I had received the order...

With c r c the issue is with Couriers Please (surprise, surprise). Even though they use SkyNet (apparently killer Terminators sort their parcels), the final local delivery is often carried out by Couriers Please, who lost my parcel and spent 2 weeks "investigating", with drivers who refused to answer calls from head office :roll: Anyway, an email to c r c resulted in a prompt response, with SkyNet now taking over the investigation of where the parcel has gone. We'll see how this one goes, hopefully Couriers Please will be vaporised by a time warp device.

With PBK, I've contacted both the local forwarding company (same as the Merlin one - DAI post) who is now looking into it, and PBK. Hopefully the local company can be as helpful as with the Merlin order last time, as PBK refused to look into it even though the delivery window had well and truly passed and I also know from experience that it's already been twice as long as PBK orders usually take to arrive at my door. To add insult to injury, I received an email from PBK over the weekend asking me to review my purchase :x It may have been an automated email but this is the sort of thing that turns people off a company...

So it depends on who you purchase from and who the delivery company is, how helpful they are when things go wrong. I do note that both c r c and PBK state on their website that their general policy is to replace orders that fail to arrive.

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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby Patt0 » Tue Feb 21, 2017 2:23 pm

Yesterday, 20/02/17, I received some bearings that I bought off ebay on 09/11/16. They were post marked 09/11/16 :shock: The replacements sent 20/01/17 arrived 31/01/17. Also got two items, tracking shows arrived in AU 28 & 30/12/16 and they have yet to arrive. :roll:
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby mikgit » Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:39 am

well today,i got something from JensonUSA, ordered on monday sent on tuesday arrived in OZ on wednesday, got to me bit after 9 this morning through austpost. Gobsmacked!
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby mikgit » Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:45 am

CycloTron wrote:I've unfortunately had recent experience with failed deliveries of orders, one each from Merlin, c r c & PBK. Forgive me for the lengthy post.

etc etc
It's interesting, all my orders c r c, wiggle, merlin all end up getting delivered by startrack, so no matter if its posted dhl, fedex or and of the uk postal services, end result is star track..maybe thats a tassie thing?
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Re: Blame the shop... or courier company

Postby CycloTron » Fri Feb 24, 2017 11:36 am

mikgit wrote:
CycloTron wrote:I've unfortunately had recent experience with failed deliveries of orders, one each from Merlin, c r c & PBK. Forgive me for the lengthy post.

etc etc
It's interesting, all my orders c r c, wiggle, merlin all end up getting delivered by startrack, so no matter if its posted dhl, fedex or and of the uk postal services, end result is star track..maybe thats a tassie thing?
That's lucky for you! I've had quite good experiences with StarTrack as well (even after Auspost bought them out).

I find that in my neck of the woods, Trakpak ends up with a forwarding company (DAI) who sends via Auspost, SkyNet uses Couriers Please, and the rest (Royal Mail, Deutsche Post, USPS) seem to be a direct handover to Auspost (and this, in fact, seems to be the most reliable).

I've had the opportunity to visit many of the sorting facilities of various couriers (including Auspost, StarTrack, TNT etc.) in the course of my work and StarTrack at that time was far and away the slickest, most efficient outfit of the lot.

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