Deeply impressive home delivery service

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

Home delivery services are grumbled about on here regularly. And rightly so in my opinion.

I have just however had the opposite experience.

Bought an item (car part) from a German supplier. They posted it on Thursday afternoon, and gave me a tracking number for their delivery company - DPD Deutschland. This tracking number seems to mean that the location of the item can be checked precisely - the date and time it arrived at each depot on the route, with the full address of the depot.

I checked the website this morning to find that it had arrived in London at 0642 this morning. I therefore expected it to be delivered to my house tomorrow ... however I have just checked the website again to discover that it had been updated again. "08.11.2010 12:06 Zustellung an: SINGH AT 49" ("Left with SINGH AT 49") - my next-door neighbours.

I can't get that level of service detail from ANY of the UK delivery companies. And certainly not at that cost - two working day shipping from Germany to the UK for EUR16 (about £14.50p).

I am deeply impressed.


Oli.

[Melman Giraffe]

zcacogp said:

Chaps,

Home delivery services are grumbled about on here regularly. And rightly so in my opinion.

I have just however had the opposite experience.

Bought an item (car part) from a German supplier. They posted it on Thursday afternoon, and gave me a tracking number for their delivery company - DPD Deutschland. This tracking number seems to mean that the location of the item can be checked precisely - the date and time it arrived at each depot on the route, with the full address of the depot.

I checked the website this morning to find that it had arrived in London at 0642 this morning. I therefore expected it to be delivered to my house tomorrow ... however I have just checked the website again to discover that it had been updated again. "08.11.2010 12:06 Zustellung an: SINGH AT 49" ("Left with SINGH AT 49") - my next-door neighbours.

I can't get that level of service detail from ANY of the UK delivery companies. And certainly not at that cost - two working day shipping from Germany to the UK for EUR16 (about £14.50p).

I am deeply impressed.


Oli.

Don't UPS do a similar thing?

[Famous Graham]

Melman Giraffe said:

zcacogp said:

Chaps,

Home delivery services are grumbled about on here regularly. And rightly so in my opinion.

I have just however had the opposite experience.

Bought an item (car part) from a German supplier. They posted it on Thursday afternoon, and gave me a tracking number for their delivery company - DPD Deutschland. This tracking number seems to mean that the location of the item can be checked precisely - the date and time it arrived at each depot on the route, with the full address of the depot.

I checked the website this morning to find that it had arrived in London at 0642 this morning. I therefore expected it to be delivered to my house tomorrow ... however I have just checked the website again to discover that it had been updated again. "08.11.2010 12:06 Zustellung an: SINGH AT 49" ("Left with SINGH AT 49") - my next-door neighbours.

I can't get that level of service detail from ANY of the UK delivery companies. And certainly not at that cost - two working day shipping from Germany to the UK for EUR16 (about £14.50p).

I am deeply impressed.


Oli.

Don't UPS do a similar thing?

I've been able to watch two pairs of jeans travel from Kansas to...a non existant address in Ireland. Then back to Kentucky, then back to Ireland, now to Tamworth, where the status says both sender and receiver have abandoned the parcel.

Really gives you an insight into a colossal cock up.

[zcacogp]

I honestly don't know.

I know that DHL doesn't. Parcelforce (Royal Mail) claim to, but their tracking information on their website is so laughably outdated as to be comical. (And significantly less than useful.)


Oli.

[Jaykaybi]

I ordered a package from the US a couple of years ago (PorterCable kit and various detailing products). Standard shipping. Ordered it on a Friday afternoon. Arrived at my place of work on Monday, at around lunchtime.

Gobsmacking quality of service!

[Famous Graham]

Jaykaybi said:

I ordered a package from the US a couple of years ago (PorterCable kit and various detailing products). Standard shipping. Ordered it on a Friday afternoon. Arrived at my place of work on Monday, at around lunchtime.

Gobsmacking quality of service!

To be fair, if UPS hadn't stuffed this up, I'd have received my jeans on Friday morning, after being ordered Tuesday morning. Not bad.

[TuxRacer]

Melman Giraffe said:

Don't UPS do a similar thing?

Yeah, quite a few of us watched our MacBook Airs go Shanghai -> Korea -> Kazakhstan -> Poland -> Germany -> a UK airport -> delivery address. I knew from UPS that mine was in reception before the girl on the desk had sent the email out.

[Stupidlikeafox]

Germans, innit. They're good at that sort of stuff.

[Puggit]

zcacogp said:

I honestly don't know.

I know that DHL doesn't. Parcelforce (Royal Mail) claim to, but their tracking information on their website is so laughably outdated as to be comical. (And significantly less than useful.)


Oli.

I posted a thread last week where my ParcelFarce item was loaded on the van at the local depot 30 mins before it arrived at the depot!

[Hugo a Gogo]

the old Parceline is owned by (and rebranded as) DPD

[paprika]

Trust me , this is completely the norm within the EU...

[zcacogp]

paprika said:

Trust me , this is completely the norm within the EU...

That is what I fear. Once again, we are light years behind that which our continental cousins expect as 'normal'.


Oli.

[Jasandjules]

We placed an order with a retailer at 4pm Sunday. The product arrived 9.30 Monday morning. I still don't know how they did it.

But as for the tracking every depot etc, we've had stuff delivered which did this, I think it was UPS.

[Chrisgr31]

I wonder how much longer this tracking ability will last. After all they think Al Quieda (sp) were tracking those bombs so they could blow the plane up in mid-air!

[Nickyboy]

Melman Giraffe said:

zcacogp said:

Chaps,

Home delivery services are grumbled about on here regularly. And rightly so in my opinion.

I have just however had the opposite experience.

Bought an item (car part) from a German supplier. They posted it on Thursday afternoon, and gave me a tracking number for their delivery company - DPD Deutschland. This tracking number seems to mean that the location of the item can be checked precisely - the date and time it arrived at each depot on the route, with the full address of the depot.

I checked the website this morning to find that it had arrived in London at 0642 this morning. I therefore expected it to be delivered to my house tomorrow ... however I have just checked the website again to discover that it had been updated again. "08.11.2010 12:06 Zustellung an: SINGH AT 49" ("Left with SINGH AT 49") - my next-door neighbours.

I can't get that level of service detail from ANY of the UK delivery companies. And certainly not at that cost - two working day shipping from Germany to the UK for EUR16 (about £14.50p).

I am deeply impressed.


Oli.

Don't UPS do a similar thing?

Ordered a new hard drive at 5pm yesterday, yes yesterday. Got it via UPS at 7:40am this morning!

UPS do spend millions on their tracking system for the reason that people want to know when it arrives sometimes to the minute.

[Sleepy nic]

Stupidlikeafox said:

Germans, innit. They're good at that sort of stuff.

[maser_spyder]

I've ordered something from Belgium in the past, at around 2pm, it was here the next day about midday. I was very impressed.

We ship a lot out to Europe, and the one single place that gives us a huge amount of hassle is Belgium. DHL just can't seem to get their heads around the place.

We've had stuff end up in Nice, Lille, Bordeaux, Paris, all very clearly addressed to somewhere in Belgium.

I've no idea what foxes them about the place, it's very odd.

So, my message to DHL is this;

Belgium is just above France, but before the Netherlands. You can't miss it.

[RSGulp]

Ordered a new Macbook Pro from Comet Online at 11am on a Saturday - got a huge discount through wife's Employee Benefits Scheme.

Selected a delivery slot for next day Sunday morning(!). Received an email to confirm.

Recieved a text message at 9am Sunday to say delivery in 30 mins.

Packaged arrived at my house at 9.30am.

[shouldbworking]

DPD are awesome. 4 wheels, from the Netherlands to Somerset. 2 days, £31.

[hyperblue]

Umm pretty much every decent courier does this? Had the same from UPS, Fedex, DHL etc etc...