Strong views on topical issues
City Link - Possibly the worst courier company in the world!
19Jun2008 Filed under: Crazy Customer Service Author: JTOne of my colleagues at work was expecting a delivery from City Link which he had arranged to have delivered to our work village as he knew he wouldn’t be home. Our office has a manned reception from 8am to 5:30pm and as it happened we both didn’t leave the office until 6:30pm. When returning home he looked at the parcel tracking service to discover the message “Delivery Failed at 10:49am”. How does a courier fail to deliver to a office unit with a fully managed reception and a buzz directly into our office unit?
I have also had similar problems with City Link and think it’s time they sort there act out! I’ve had numerous deliveries going missing but two in particular come to mind which I’ll quickly share with you.
City Link Delivery No. 1:One of my clients ordered some promotional literature which we were printing. Unfortunately, the client was unable to pick the literature up in time before the conference they were attending. Therefore, as a business with good customer service I arranged the literature to be delivered to the conference via City Link for a pre 9am delivery. To my horror City Link didn’t deliver the parcel until 5pm after the conference had finished although I paid for this special pre 9am service. Therefore my client went through out the entire conference without leaflets and business cards. So what did City Link do to compensate my client you might ask? Absolutely nothing!!
City Link Delivery No. 2: We were dispatching a set of flyers to one of our client’s which hadn’t arrived on the day expected. After checking their online tracking system I discovered the parcel apparently had been delivered. To cut a long story short, we discovered the flyers had been delivered to the wrong address and to the wrong company. City Link’s reaction was the most interesting I’ve ever experienced, they said because the flyers had been signed for they were considered delivered and out of their control. After much arguing and slagging off a dozen City Link employees they reluctantly recollected the flyers. As a result my client refused to pay for the flyers as the whole job was delivered a week late. To make matters worse, again City Link refused to accept the mistake and nothing was offered to myself or my client; not even an apology.
After some investigation and conversations we have discovered numerous businesses in the region have been experiencing similar problems. As a result our business has been moved to FedEx and TNT which seems to be working very well.
JT’s Judgement: “City Link are incompetence idiots who fail to deliver every time which is bad considering they are a courier company!”
I’d be interested in hearing from anyone having similar problems. Lets see if we can get the message through!
5 Responses to “City Link - Possibly the worst courier company in the world!”
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About JT
JT is an entrepreneur from Newcastle upon Tyne, UK who is keen to voice his opinions about things that upset him on a daily basis during the process of running his businesses. If you’re looking for someone to discuss and host debate about topical issues that are annoying you please feel free to get in touch and propose a topic for the blog.
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Gavin
June 19th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I’ve not had any good experience with them either. I have mostly used DHL, Fedex and UPS throughout my time using couriers but CityLink took the absolute biscuit one day.
They managed to deliver 11 out of 12 parcels as they forgot to load one on to the van. They were in the SAME consignment, so how the hell they managed it I’ve got no idea.
Richard
June 19th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
What can I say? Would it be fair for me to cast judgement on such matters?
You’re damn bloody right it would because I was the idiot left waiting for the parcel they failed inconceivably to deliver as Justin mentioned above. I could leave it there but I’m not going to. Have I got a chip on my shoulder? Abso-frickin-lutely!
The first painfully humiliating experience I had with CityLink went like this:
I ordered some goods from an online store. It was my first order from them so they said it would have to be delivered to my home address. So I arrange especially to work from home that day to wait in for the ominously vague delivery time estimates of anywhere between 8am and 6.30pm - fabulous! Guess what? 6.30 comes around like a bad smell and so - already slightly infuriated - I go and take a look around the house to check that they haven’t miraculously managed to ninja their crappy little note through my front letterbox without me hearing. (I didn’t play any music all day long so I could hear them - I love music and this was additional sacrifice). Nothing. A few profanities popped into my mind as I started stomping through my house to my kitchen at the back of the house. On my way there, in the corner of my eye I could see a little white slip laying damply stuck to the ground in my back yard. You can imagine right?
Nobody in their right mind would even think about delivering to my back door. It’s in a private yard and there’s no god damn letterbox! The postman doesn’t use it. My friends don’t use it. The neighbours don’t use it. The bloody cat doesn’t even use it so why should CityLink? They are a bunch of morons - that’s why.
I now have the pleasure of trying to re-arrange another delivery time with them. I’m wetting my pants with anticipation.
admin
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I’m pleased to hear that I’m not the only one having problems with City Link. As I mentioned in the original blog post there are too many stories with City Link to mention but good to see others sharing their experiences.
James May
June 25th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I used TNT and they always delivered on time. Good rant though. CityLink do have a bad reputation.
May I suggest BT as the next topic!
JT
June 25th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Touch wood we’ve not had anymore problems since switching to TNT so long may that service continue. I’ll make sure BT get put to the top of the list as one of the next topics.