On 14/03/2014 12:17, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Graeme Wall wrote:

Cost and the buyer rather than the sender is the one who experiences the
problems. For me the main annoyances are the need to put yourself under
virtual house arrest when expecting a delivery and it still doesn't come,
the inability to put together a decent flat delivery service (some of
them
don't even know how to buzz the reception or phone the number supplied),
the
failure to come at the times stated, the remote depots that are hard to
reach on public transport and have terrible opening hours, the
ludicrously
excessive requirements for ID and proof of address when you can get in,
the
premium rate phone numbers and the fines sent to senders because the firm
is
incompetent.

Fines sent to senders, who by?

It was a few years ago now so I forget which one it was, but I had placed an
order online and awaited delivery in a period when I was generally based at
home in a flat overlooking our main gate. The next I know I get an email
from the sender stating the courier would fine them if the package wasn't
collected.

Never heard that one before. Sounds a quick way to lose a contract. My
answer would have been tough and I'm cancelling the order.


I was especially annoyed as the depot is in Beckton at the far end of the
borough which lacks good direct non-car transport links from here - in those
days it was either train&tube&DLR or an awkward combination of buses - and
when I got there they nearly didn't give me the package because I had
limited proof of address because all the utilities are paid either online or
through the rent. They had never left a card - and I specifically asked at
our reception - and I question whether the package had ever even been driven
up here.


I have problems with proof of address as most of the utility bills are
in my wife's name!

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail