Couriers..why do they make simple things so hard?

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Geektastic

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#173346 20-May-2015 11:18

Ordered new lens from Progear in Auckland. Sent Friday by NZ Couriers.

Is it here on Wednesday? No.

Where is it? Ah. Scan says it is in Wellington depot.

When will it be here? Err, well it may be in Palmerston North now.

Why?

They service Martinborough.

But Wellington is closer?

Yes. Or it may be in Masterton. Or it may have been handed to Post Haste to deliver to the RD post man.

But yesterday I rang and you agreed to send it to the depot in Martinborough for me to collect?

Yeah. Nah, sorry about that.

So where is it? Don't you scan things when they move?

Yeah. Nah. Sometimes. We'll have to raise an enquiry and look for it manually.

[How do these people stay in business?!]

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Geek @ Coastguard NZ
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#1308325 20-May-2015 11:20

They'll then have the results of their manual search couriered to you.....

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Geektastic

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#1308327 20-May-2015 11:21

xpd: They'll then have the results of their manual search couriered to you.....

You jest but nothing would surprise me.

With modern tech, they should know where every package is at all times, yet they seem to have no idea and worse not to care much either.

timbosan

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#1308340 20-May-2015 11:45

Having worked for a courier company (in IT) a few years ago, I was amazed at the amount of manual handling. All items (should) have a pickup scan and a delivery scan, but anything in between 'depends'. For example I remember there was a manual sorting table that couriers would use at the start of the day to manually handover to another courier servicing an area if they had picked up an item being delivered in that area. These items did not go on the sorting machine, hence had no sorting scans.

keewee01

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#1308349 20-May-2015 11:54

Dear Mr Geektastic,

We are very sorry, but the pigeon we attached the manual search results to has been shot shortly after leaving our facility. We suspect it was a disguntled customer, but we have no idea which one it was as there are so many disgruntled customers.

As this was the only copy of the manual, handwritten search results (our gestetner is currently broken and the pigeon was our last one), we've had to strap the new manual search requests to hampsters backs and send them out to our branches asking them to conduct a new manual search.

We expect all hamspters to reach those branches by tomorrow evening at the lastest, provided they have not become road kill or been preyed upon by falcons.

We would then expect return hampsters with those new search result by the COB next Monday.

Once the hampsters have been rested, we will send the new manual search results out to you by hampster, and if the gestetner has been repaired by then we will double-hampster it in the hope that at least one hampster will make it through to you.

GOOD LUCK

Kind Regards,
NZ Couriers

jamesrt

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#1308358 20-May-2015 12:05

CourierPost fail to track things too.

I ordered a thing, I was told it was being sent.

Here is a screenshot of the tracking website a couple of minutes ago:

Today's date/time circled at the top. Apparently my parcel has only been collected, not processed anywhere, and certainly not delivered.

What then, I ask myself, was the large box waiting for me at home last night???

What's the point of having a track-n-trace facility if it neither tracks nor traces???

cyberhub

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#1308385 20-May-2015 12:11

timbosan: Having worked for a courier company (in IT) a few years ago, I was amazed at the amount of manual handling. All items (should) have a pickup scan and a delivery scan, but anything in between 'depends'. For example I remember there was a manual sorting table that couriers would use at the start of the day to manually handover to another courier servicing an area if they had picked up an item being delivered in that area. These items did not go on the sorting machine, hence had no sorting scans.

Wow seems incredibly inefficient. Surely an automated sorting system would be the first thing you would get setup for a courier company?

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Jase2985

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#1308415 20-May-2015 12:30

the systems rely on someone manually scanning items thats where the issues lie

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Jaxson

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#1308422 20-May-2015 12:37

We receive a lot of packages due to working from home, and we've signed the right to leave with every company in town, and some more than once.
We still get a called by you weren't home card quite often.
Last week we went to collect and found the depot hours were now shorter than shown online and in the end it was for a $1.27 package from banggood china, that didn't have anything special about it that required a signature.

The complete lack of responsibility is crazy also, as the OP suggests above, they have very little knowledge of where anything is at any given point in time.
Also that sign to collect is also in their opinion a sign to say it's arrived intact and the courier did no wrong, despite the courier being gone before you've even put the package down on the table.

wasabi2k

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#1308425 20-May-2015 12:38

cyberhub:
timbosan: Having worked for a courier company (in IT) a few years ago, I was amazed at the amount of manual handling. All items (should) have a pickup scan and a delivery scan, but anything in between 'depends'. For example I remember there was a manual sorting table that couriers would use at the start of the day to manually handover to another courier servicing an area if they had picked up an item being delivered in that area. These items did not go on the sorting machine, hence had no sorting scans.

Wow seems incredibly inefficient. Surely an automated sorting system would be the first thing you would get setup for a courier company?

I imagine these are present at major distribution hubs.

Individual depots though don't seem to house a lot of tech.

clevedon

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#1308427 20-May-2015 12:39

Jase2985: the systems rely on someone manually scanning items thats where the issues lie

And also the OP's item is going through another two other delivery companies to get to an RD address as well, not just NZ Couriers.

gbwelly

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#1308439 20-May-2015 12:58

jamesrt: CourierPost fail to track things too.

I ordered a thing, I was told it was being sent.

Here is a screenshot of the tracking website a couple of minutes ago:

Today's date/time circled at the top. Apparently my parcel has only been collected, not processed anywhere, and certainly not delivered.

What then, I ask myself, was the large box waiting for me at home last night???

What's the point of having a track-n-trace facility if it neither tracks nor traces???

A friend of mine has worked in both the US and NZ as a courier. He enlightened me as to some differences. You are right, there is no tracking going on at all in NZ, only pick up and (sometimes) delivery. In between they have no idea. I experienced a surreal situation once being allowed to search for my own parcel at a courier depot in Seaview. There were cages with packages, and even some piles of things. It was a shambles. One of the couriers did however go into another room and managed to find my item so it worked out ok.

mattwnz

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#1308460 20-May-2015 13:36

Geektastic:
[How do these people stay in business?!]

As you live in the country, there is only a small population, so fewer complaints about service. The Wairarapa is even worse, as everything is so slow over there. Getting work done over there is often referred to as 'Wairarapa time', in that eventually they will get around to it. I built a house over there and the builders and subbies were just so slow, it ended up taking nearly 2 years to complete it.
If you go into some businesses, and even the council offices, it is like stepping back 20-30 years.

MikeB4

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#1308461 20-May-2015 13:37

These guys are doing something right though, in 40 years of business I could count up on one hand things that have gone astray with Couriers. I have had more stuff disappear when using NZR and the Post.

andrew027

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#1308536 20-May-2015 15:06

My courier horror story:

I ordered something from the US in late October last year, and was given a tracking number. Four days after ordering, the tracking number showed it had left the US en route to Auckland. I figured that even allowing for delays, it should be with me in Wellington within a couple of weeks at worst. It then disappeared off the radar (figuratively and literally) for months and there was no record of it arriving in New Zealand at all. In the new year I went to Auckland to visit family and got home late in the evening of 11 January to find a Card-to-Call in the pile of mail the cat-feeding lady had left on my kitchen bench. I phoned Courier Post early the following day and was told I could have the item redelivered, or collect it myself from their depot in Petone. As I was still on annual leave I opted to collect it myself and told them I'd be in before lunchtime. When I turned up at the depot on 12 January they couldn't find the item. I left my details and went to do my grocery shopping and went home and... there was a new card-to-Call in the letter box. I phoned them straight back but was told they didn't have the item at the depot - it was probably still in the driver's van and would be retruned to the depot some time later in the afternoon. I said I'd go to the depot again the following morning to pick it up. And again on 13 January they couldn't find it. I left my details again and went off to do other things. On 15 January I got a phone call to say they had the item and were holding it for me to collect. I went in later that afternoon and it still took almost 15 minutes to find.

All that for a $8 plastic iPhone 4 cover for my wife, which was broken when I opened the package and had to be returned and refunded.

richms

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#1308537 20-May-2015 15:09

I dont get why couriers dont do urban residential deliverys between 6 and 9 pm when people are actually home and would be there to sign for things.

Richard rich.ms

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