Couriers

[Kiwi Mac]

Is it me or are they not operating on a full deck?

I ordered some things from the USA.

They were sent from Rhode Island to here in 3 days via UPS. They were cleared from Customs in Auckland on Friday morning.

UPS don't deliver here in NZ (v annoying!) and handed the package to PBT.

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.

It has now taken longer to go from Auckland to Martinborough (near Wellington) than it took to go from New York to Auckland!

I must say that I find that level of 'service' utterly unacceptable and struggle to imagine a mindset where it would be.

Grrr!

[Duncan74]

I had the same thing many times to the UK. In once case 18 hours after order it arrived from NY into Manchester Airport. After 5 days I'd still neither received it, nor had any card, despite it being delivered to my office in the centre of Manchester and in view of the Parcel Farce sorting office. When I went to colelct it, then I was told that it had been put on the van but the driver hadn't had time to deliver it so it had been rescheduled to go out the next day. They did this 3 days running, and because it had had 3 'failed' deliveries they were about to send it back to the US. All without any contact to me.

I stopped waiting, and then just went to the parcel farce offices when things were supposed to arrive. Same happened with DHL when I was receiving some papers from NZ, and they did the same, no card left and just took the documents back to the depot 20 miles from where I live. Couldn't (re-)deliver to a town centre address where there would be someone in.

[ExitStageSouth]

In the UK I once had a parcel handed off to some local company that mixed courier work with milk delivery. They literally had bags of mail going around on milk floats. They put a card through my letter box (because milkmen no longer deliver before breakfast and I wasn't in) so I had to find the "depot" to pick it up.

When I got there I was told "Oh, it must be in there somewhere" and pointed at a load of mail just heaped up against a wall as if they expected me to look through it myself. As I wasn't expecting anything I just surmised that it was probably a catalogue or similar and left it there. It was all very bizarre.

[pcsourcepoint]

I thought UPS parcels were only handed to NZ Post, as I found out when ordering items from ebay USA. Often had to pick up my items from local PO when I was out. I would be checking/emailing about UPS/NZ Post delivery transfer/redirect policies within your area - so as to reduce/prevent it happening again.

[Kiwi Mac]

My parcel finally turned up.

It took 5 days to go from Auckland to Martinborough. That ought to take 24hrs IMV.

This not doing any work on Saturday or Sunday thing gets really annoying sometimes!

[JandM]

This stuff is really maddening. Here in the UK, I had two items arrive in the same post. One had come from Phoenix in the USA, in four days. One had come from Manchester in the UK, and had taken three weeks. I asked the post office why, and just got a shrug of the shoulders.

Then, recently, all around this area, we're getting loads of misdelivered mail - we get things in our box that are clearly addressed to someone else, and our own mail often has writing on the envelope saying things like 'NOT THIS ADDRESS - read what is written!' The man in charge of the sorting office says he's had a severe word with the postmen, but it doesn't seem to stop. The worry is that there may be some people so fed up that they bin other people's mail if it arrives at their house - I've just found out that the husband of one of my closest friends has been undergoing treatment for cancer for several weeks. She'd written and told me, and wondered why I hadn't reacted, which was for the simple reason that I never had that letter, and it makes me wonder why.

[Kiwi Mac]

The annoying thing is that I needed something sent urgently from Auckland once and Pace had it here on the same day, so I know it can be done!

I can't decide whether it is incompetence, idleness or just a complete inability to understand the concept of service.

[yslee]

Same happened with DHL when I was receiving some papers from NZ, and they did the same, no card left and just took the documents back to the depot 20 miles from where I live. Couldn't (re-)deliver to a town centre address where there would be someone in.

What? That sounds... poor. DHL should be better than that. I worked there for a couple of years and I'm pretty sure they don't let the couriers and ops guys get away with such shoddy service.

[Kiwi Mac]

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.

They then pass it to a NZ firm to deliver. Most of these are quite cowboy in their approach (anyone who has seen the hilarious comedy 'Swift & Shift' will have realised that the program is almost a documentary about NZ couriers!), don't work on weekends, don't deliver after 4pm etc etc.

On top of that, if you suffer from the "Rural Delivery" disease, many of them do not deliver to RD numbers either. They fob your package off to a THIRD courier which adds another day or two. Or 4 if the weekend gets in the way.

Or they dump it at a local 'drop off point' such as the garage and expect you to collect the package yourself from there.

This is all very annoying when you have paid US$65 to have something delivered to your door in a hurry by a massive worldwide organisation. Essentially they are letting 'Dead Eye Dick Couriers' mess with their reputation.

Pace and Courier Post are the two 'least worst' options IME. Pace are actually the only one that can get stuff from A to B in a hurry - albeit at some considerable expense. I needed a new lens for a shoot and it arrived in the dealer in Auckland only the day before I needed it. He sent it down via Pace at 0900 from Auck and I had it by 1600 same day.

Cost me $300 for the shipping though!!

[yslee]

$300?! Oh my. At least you got your lens though!