Couriers

[Wooly_Cow]

To be fair Martinborough is rural.

[IanW99]

...
Because - despite being exactly 3 minutes from the village centre - some numpty decreed we are 'Rural Delivery', PBT don't deliver to RD.

They handed it to the RD NZ Post guy. He 'might' deliver it tomorrow but it may well be Wednesday.
...

If you are so close to the village, couldn't you either get a PO box for the village, or use someones address that you know there and just go and pick up the mail yourself.

Ian

[petri]

The problem here is that the competent international couriers - DHL, FedEx, UPS etc - do not have ANY local presence in the NZ market: their handling of your package stops at Auckland airport.

To be fair, the couriers do that in a lot of markets.

If I order something from central Europe and it's being delivered by a courier, I don't have a clue if it's going to arrive on my door somehow or I need to pick it up at the post office, a near-by kiosk or a near-by supermarket.

[dilanium]

I don't remember what we were waiting for, but I remember once we were waiting for a courier. I stayed home, in my front room, all day. I held off going to the bathroom until my OH was home to get this. Yet they never showed. I called and asked and they said that the courier had tried and no one was home. To which I replied that someone was lying because I had been sitting in my front room with my life on hold waiting for this package.

We really needed it ASAP because we went and picked it up from the distribution centre if I remember correctly.

Wish I remembered more details but it feels like it was ages ago (even though it couldn't have been more than two years ago).

[JandM]

This is the curse of the multi-drop van man, isn't it? They're given so many addresses to cover that the service is secondary to covering the ground. It would actually probably be more efficient than this hit-and-miss set-up to tell the addressees to pick up their stuff from a local centre.

We were waiting for a package recently, with online tracking of where it had got to. 'Loaded on van' it said, one particular morning. Two hours later, it changed to 'Incorrectly addressed.' The address details were also online - spot on, including our phone number, so obviously the driver had just failed to find us, and hadn't bothered to phone for directions. M said he'd phone the local depot (this was Home Delivery Network), to tell them to tell the driver to ring, but then found that the only number publicly available was a national one, no use at all for the purpose of, we hoped, trying to nab the driver while he was still in our area. Google found us plenty of similar complaints, and, fortunately, the local number, so we did manage to get our delivery.

[Kiwi Mac]

To be fair Martinborough is rural.

Sort of. However, if you live in the 'town' then you are not 'Rural Delivery' here. Outside the town boundary you are.

We are connected to the town water supply, so IMV we cannot logically be outside the town.

We do have a PO Box in the village (it takes 3 minutes to drive to it!) but most couriers will not deliver to a PO Box address, it must be physical. Our physical address is classed as RD despite our proximity etc.

[Margarita]

I ordered a new Cell phone on Wednesday and it's coming by Courier from the North Shore I myself live in Auckland. I would have picked the thing up had I not be working the only pick up hours as it's basically a 40 min drive away.

3 days later the tracking still says in transit from Auckland to Auckland. Seriously unless Aucklands developed some huge big black hole over the past week how is it not possible to get something less than 30ks away to someone in 3 days! The last update was on 3pm Thursday and I've emailed them asking where the hell it is but haven't recived a responce.

All I can say really is Fastway Couriers are not fast and SUCK big time.

[Kiwi Mac]

I ordered a new Cell phone on Wednesday and it's coming by Courier from the North Shore I myself live in Auckland. I would have picked the thing up had I not be working the only pick up hours as it's basically a 40 min drive away.

3 days later the tracking still says in transit from Auckland to Auckland. Seriously unless Aucklands developed some huge big black hole over the past week how is it not possible to get something less than 30ks away to someone in 3 days! The last update was on 3pm Thursday and I've emailed them asking where the hell it is but haven't recived a responce.

All I can say really is Fastway Couriers are not fast and SUCK big time.

A sad but all too common situation. Firstly there are just way too many couriers. A few big, efficiently run national couriers would do a much better job.

Preferably run by a couple of ex-UPS execs who insist on US levels of customer service and work ethics.....!

[Kiwi Mac]

This is the curse of the multi-drop van man, isn't it? They're given so many addresses to cover that the service is secondary to covering the ground. It would actually probably be more efficient than this hit-and-miss set-up to tell the addressees to pick up their stuff from a local centre.

We were waiting for a package recently, with online tracking of where it had got to. 'Loaded on van' it said, one particular morning. Two hours later, it changed to 'Incorrectly addressed.' The address details were also online - spot on, including our phone number, so obviously the driver had just failed to find us, and hadn't bothered to phone for directions. M said he'd phone the local depot (this was Home Delivery Network), to tell them to tell the driver to ring, but then found that the only number publicly available was a national one, no use at all for the purpose of, we hoped, trying to nab the driver while he was still in our area. Google found us plenty of similar complaints, and, fortunately, the local number, so we did manage to get our delivery.

How come UPS, Fed Ex etc can all manage it door to door in the USA then?!

If they can do it in a population of around 400 million, it ought not to be too difficult in a population of 4 million.....

[Margarita]

A sad but all too common situation. Firstly there are just way too many couriers. A few big, efficiently run national couriers would do a much better job.

Preferably run by a couple of ex-UPS execs who insist on US levels of customer service and work ethics.....!

Oh I agree.

When I went to try and check out this company it appears to be the craziest run courier place I've ever seen. It's all franchised out so it's almost like you buy a patch and deliver the stuff within it. I can't find any one to call to try and find out where it is. Depends whether the guy from the patch is was sent in has it or the guy from the patch it's meant to be delivered in has it.