Ranting about Delivery Companies

Today I feel the need for a rant, grab popcorn and take a seat.

Why are delivery companies all so terrible?

Copyright: ragnarocks / 123RF Stock Photo

I'm not going to single one out because every one I have ever had contact with has at some point done something stupid.

• I've had a laptop left on the doorstep in plain view of the street (in a box clearly identified as a new laptop!). 
• I've had a box thrown over a wall, a box containing 12 glass bottles of traditional beers, a box that then lay, smashed and sad in the rain for a WEEK because no card was left and so no one know the parcel was there. 
• I've had parcels left under car wheels. 
• Boxes left in empty recycling bins, again with no note. 
• Numerous parcels undelivered or left with neighbours but no note left to tell me.
• I once rang to chase the delivery of a new mobile phone to be told it had been signed for the previous day and that then mysteriously was delivered one day later...no signature required.

And that brings me to today's rant. DD ordered some presents for her friends from a well known online retailer, but from a seller there, not the well known online retailer itself, 4 days after the latest delivery date she emailed to ask where the gifts were, to be told they had been delivered and signed for, two weeks earlier!

No one in the house had seen this parcel, we checked with neighbours, we searched around the house, (no point in checking the bins as they had been emptied twice since the delivery date!) nothing. I contacted the company. 'Nothing to do with us' they said 'it's been delivered, we have signed delivery proof'. I asked to see the signature. The signature is barely even a line, it's a stroke of a pen and bears no resemblance at all to any of the signatures of the occupants of the house, in fact even the dog would make a clearer signature. I told the seller this. They replied that the driver had also filled int he name of the signer (my surname) and 'he couldn't have known that unless the signatory told him' ... erm...surely the name is ON THE PARCEL! Of course the driver can know the name to fill in!
Maybe he was busy and planned to come back later, maybe he got home and realised he missed the parcel and meant to do it the next day and forgot, maybe he called at the wrong house and some weird stranger claimed our gift? I don't know, but the parcel is not here and someone somewhere is lying.

I spoke to the delivery company in this case and they were helpful but said that it is up to the seller to query deliveries, not me, and that if there is a problem the seller needs to claim from them. So I am stuck in the middle, DD has paid, we have received nothing, the seller claims it's delivered, the delivery company can't help.

What is the point of a signature if it's not a signature that matches yours? I think it's about time that the delivery world caught up - what about a digital PIN, a number generated by the delivery company and not known to the driver, but emailed to the recipient so that they can key it in on delivery?

Currently I'm still fuming, arguing with a seller on a well known online retailer website and threatening to open a claim with the well known online retailer to get our money back.

Update : Well know online retailer have a good claims procedure and have refunded DD. So Yay! for them.

Do tell me about your delivery nightmares. I know you must have some....

I'm so sure you have a tale to tell - I've switched blog comments back on!