A very dissapointing first time courier experience.

[ophidianman]

I advertised for a courier a couple of weeks ago to take an order up North for me. I received a swift reply from a company saying they could do the delivery stating.....

"We can do your collection and delivery on February 13th for £65"

E mails were exchanged and the delivery arranged. I was told everyone would be informed of approximate collection and delivery times later in the week. By Friday (12th) I had received no info so sent an email asking for the approx collection time to be texted to me as I would be out on the road. I later got a text informing me the collection would be approx 1900 hrs that day (12th).

Lynne didn't knock of work until 1900 and I was still on the road so the collection / delivery had to be cancelled much to my annoyance and that of our customer.

We were all expecting collection / delivery on the 13th as stated in the original contact from the courier. Am I wrong or correct in being miffed about this???

[Ferret1959]

If it was me doing the job you certainly wouldn't be posting this thread.

I have never let anyone down.

Sorry to hear you were messed about, hopefully the courier in question will reply with an explanation.

[tarantulabarn]

I think maybe the whole story should be posted on here

I will say up front, the courier in question was me.

After seeing your post on the 1st, I sent you a pm with a quote saying we could do the job on the Saturday.

On the 7th, you got around to acknowledging my PM by asking if we could still do the job. By that date, we had been booked to do enough jobs to fill around two days. in the week it took you to reply, our work load had increased and what I had offered, was no longer possible, but the only change would be the collection would need to be late on the Friday night.

I replied, asking for your email address so we could send you the booking form.

On the 7th you returned the collection form to us, which was incomplete, as it did not contain the buyers full details and so we could not confirm this until you sorted it.

On the 8th we sent a reminder, to which you replied on the 9th stating you hadn’t got it yet but would by the end of the day.

Despite us telling you we needed the full and correct delivery address in order to correctly route the job, and despite letting you know bookings were closing that eve at 6pm, and posting this on the forum, it wasn’t until 9 pm that night, after we had routed everything, that you replied stating that you still had not been able to contact the buyer, that she had not yet paid and that you were starting to think maybe she was a ‘timewaster’ – your words, not mine !

In that 9pm email you supplied two phone numbers, which I rang and got to talk to your customer right away with no problems. In this call I confirmed her address details so I could route it.

I then emailed you to let you know I had made contact with your buyer, and that I had got your buyers address details myself.

Your reply was that you still had not had contact or payment so put it on hold and only pencil it in.

It was only at 13.49 on the 10th, that you finally confirmed that you did indeed want us to do the job. After we had called all the other customers with times.

We could not expect 28 others to change plans simply because you had problems getting your deal concluded.

I attempted to contact you by phone to advise you of the collection and delivery times, but had no reply, so text the info as you requested.

You than rang me and started cussing and f’ing at me, demanding the job happen on the Saturday. I tried to explain the situation again, but you were unwilling to even listen.

There was then a further conversation with Lynne, who at no time was willing to compromise and insisted that the job was done on the Saturday or she ‘would spread s@@@ all over the internet.’

Now, the unfortunate thing is that we were running a little late, and were in Romsey in havant around 19.00, as two well known breeders can confirm. With that in mind, it would have been a simple case of you allowing the collection a little later that night, plenty of time for both of you to get back, as you were some 2 hours closer than us when you called, and we still had collections to do.

I am afraid that this is a simple case of you not supplying the correct details, not confirming the job in time and then expecting everyone to change plans because you managed to conclude your deal

We try to accommodate all requests, which is why we need cut off times to complete run sheets and confirm approximate timings with people but sometimes things don’t go quite to plan, and the mark of a good service is how that is recovered.

In fact one customer had her buyer pull out, found another and we were able to rearrange things to allow for that change because everyone involved knew they had to be a little accomodating.

We completed many jobs between 8 am on Friday and 5 am on Sunday, some well to plan, others not. Snow, rain, traffic, unpacked animals etc.

Cleaning 4 or 5 snakes that had defecated can add 30 mins to the welfare checks alone.

Your job could and would have been collected after 9pm but you were not looking for a compromise, just a confrontation.

[Ferret1959]

Just a thought for the benefit of snakes and couriers.
I would be best not to feed a snake if it's know to be in transit a few days after.
It would hurt it if it's fed late.

[vonnie]

I just wanted to add here that I am one of the customers who had animals delivered on this run.

I received confirmation of the estimated delivery time days beforehand, and another call when they were 10 minutes away. My animals had been transported carefully and at the correct temperature.

I am a very happy customer and would gladly recommend this courier, and intend to use them again. I'm sure others will say the same.

[Luca Brasi]

Originally Posted by Ferret1959

Just a thought for the benefit of snakes and couriers.
I would be best not to feed a snake if it's know to be in transit a few days after.
It would hurt it if it's fed late.

I'd have hoped anyone responsible for the sale of an animal would know that!

[Ferret1959]

Originally Posted by Luca Brasi

I'd have hoped anyone responsible for the sale of an animal would know that!

No not all.

But some times people sell at short notice so it can't be helped.

[RubbleUK]

I was one of the collection customers on this run with 3 snakes being collected for 2 of my buyers. These collections were arranged 2 days before and on the day of collection (Friday 12th Feb) and I must say, I cannot fault the service and communication I received from Steve. I contacted him shortly before the scheduled collection time (17:30) to confirm his progress and was advised of a delay due to weather and traffic (not surprising at 17:30 on a Friday!) and a new collection time was agreed (19:00). He turned up 15 minutes before the new time (18:45) but as I already had the animals bagged and labelled with the recipients' addresses, he was here for barely a minute.

Communication is key in these situations and if anyone is using a courier, I recommend that they provide full details (name, address, contact number, RFUK user name, email address) up front and let the courier do what they do best, logistics. Having the animals properly bagged (to facilitate easy welfare checks) and labelled with the recipients' name and address makes life easier for everyone too.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Steve for helping me provide a great service to my buyers and I will have no hesitation in both recommending and using Steve again.

[sundia]

sounds to me as if the OP couldnt get their deal sorted in time and was looking for someone to blame

to tarantulabarn - this post has definitely not put me off ur service if i ever needed courier in the future and im sure its the same for many people

its quite pathetic them saying they will spread bad word about u all aver the internet.

[cornmorphs]

Originally Posted by Luca Brasi

I'd have hoped anyone responsible for the sale of an animal would know that!

so would I, but unfortunately its not the way.