I have a passionate disdain for all couriers. I have been mucked around and put to more grief than I care to recall with them. There is just no possible way to make sure they do their job with any reliability or efficiency.
I remember years ago also having to have something sent from Melbourne that was Critical. I rang whatever courier company and told them 3 weeks out. My client would pay for premium service, there was just no margin for error. It really only was their advertised service, overnight but having had fun before I thought I'd be smart and take every step I could to make sure it happened.
Spoke to some customer liason person multiple times. She Contacted people right down to the line to make everyone aware of this simple but important job.
When the product was finished the day before it was due to be I thought all was well. Got picke up early, was on it's way. Got to Sydney, got a call it's landed be in your mitts in a couple of hours.
Silly me, I relaxed. Waited, then rang, yes all ok just the driver got Diverted be there soon. YA!
Couple of hours later rang back wherethafkizit? We'll check. Ummm, can't find or contact driver. And that was it. Of course never arrived. I don't mind admitting I cried. After all I went through to make it happen, they still screwed it up. Of course Client was in orbit and got onto courier co and were filled in how I had been on to them for weeks. My contact rang back and apologised so all was good with us but I was crushed.
The item was something for a big company PR event and was going to be a highlight of the evening.
Got a call on the monday morning the item and driver had been found. He got a flat tyre in the afternoon and by the time someone came to change it was past his home time and he had a headache so that's where he went for the weekend with his phone off. I cried again. WTF he could not ring me and say you'll have to come get it, I don't know. I offered to pick it up from the airport so I could take it straight to the client but no, don't allow that, has to go with one of our Drivers.
Not like you need a PHd to get into the game and that sort of mentality is exactly the neanderthal, self centred thinking I have experienced with this industry over and over.
The local Toll guy plays Knock and run. I'm sure he prefills out the cards, Rings the bell, sprints back to the truck and is gone. The other week he literally disappeared in the 15 sec it took me to get from the office to the front door. All I saw was the arse end of the van dissappearing around the corner. I could not believe he got away that frigging quick. Rang the co, told them what happened and said I wanted the guy back today as he couldn't be too far even now. Yes, will do that, terribly sorry.
2 days later comes back with another guy... or so he said. Maybe he just saw how pissed I was and didn't think it was a good idea to admit anything.
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