Posting radios

[Murphyv310]

Totally agree with you Gary.
The issue today though I really believe is our insistence of wanting things on the cheap and expecting a great service. The other thing is the rubbish pay people get for hours and hours of running around like a madman to get all that work done for a pittance. Many couriers are tracked too.

I really felt sorry for a young woman who was delivering for amazon last year, she came to my door in tears and asked what was wrong, her van had broken down and it took two hours before she got back on the road and told me that if she didn't complete the deliveries by 9pm she'd get a disciplinary warning. Now that is not the way to treat people, one thing I can assure you is commonplace in the industry.
No doubt you see the risks many delivery drivers take on the road, the pressure these guys are under is enormous, all for the neversweat bosses to add to their massive salaries at the expense of those that actually work for the companies, ie the workers drivers and warehouse operatives.

[Crackle]

Here is an example of how NOT to pack a radio, I am not even sure it was actually 2 boxes, possibly more like a large box cut down. There should have been at least 2 inches of packaging between the 2 boxes. But even then I accept that it is very difficult to guarantee a radio with a large dial glass getting there in one piece. Dial glasses on my KB radios tend to be held in place with just a few clips along the long edges.
In the case of this parcel I believe the main cause of the broken dial was the bubbles placed on the dial and the lump this caused in the outer box, something heavy probably placed on the box could push the bubbles onto the glass causing it to flex and break.

                   


But the parcel did obviously have some very rough treatment because even the tuning capacitor was broken.
   

   
   

Below is the artwork I drew for a new dial but lost interest and never completed the dial, instead I kept the radio with glued dial

  NEW_DIAL_FOR_KB_FR11_ARTWORK.pdf (Size: 30.6 KB / Downloads: 6)

Its a pity really, the radio is probably very rare, being an all battery farm receiver.
Mike

[Murphyv310]

Three things wrong there.
An old tired box that has been cut up.
Badly lacking in packing, no shock absorbing materials like decent bubble wrap or air bags.
And the FRAGILE notice. That's like a red rag to a bull.

[Beardyman]

Recently had an Ultra U930 delivered that had suffered the consequences of a determined courier, I shall mention no names but its to do with a Greek god, enough said!
The case had been smashed into about 3 large pieces with numerous shattered parts still in the packaging.
The waveband switch had been the point of impact shoving it at least 3/4 on an inch into the chassis.
Luckily the wafer switches have survived, just.
I bought the radio as the case was exceptionally good, now its looking OK having been pieced back together & filled where needed.
It'll need to be sprayed to finish it off though.
Still, it could have been worse. The packaging was, I felt, more than adequate but you can't keep a determined courier down can you?

[Murphyv310]

The thing Is though it's not always the couriers fault. The place I worked in had a conveyor belt and sometimes a parcel can get caught and of you take your eye off it an item can be damaged or even come off.
To be fair I've sent many parcels with Hermes and never had an issue, perhaps I've been fortunate and others less so. I've seen many issues with Yodel and Parcelforce. UPS are good but again I've had some damaged CPC boxes over the years with them.

[Nick]

Round our way, if the parcel is with Hermes you are very lucky indeed if it even arrives, regardless of condition. The village Facebook page is full of complaints - non-delivery, damaged, chucked over hedges, wrong addresses - been like that all year.

They are simply the worst of the worst, plus their so-called "customer service" is at best incompetent and at worst simply non-existent.

In the last three months I've had three non-deliveries out of three packages. I've lodged complaints about all three. It's taken up to three weeks for them to respond to an email (if they respond at all). None of the packages was found.

Last year I had a major row with them over a smart PDU for my workshop - a 6" long IP-enabled unit from Liebert - very expensive bit of kit normally used in the backs of datacentre cabinets.

Over many weeks they repeatedly claimed they'd delivered it. They faked photos and signatures, claimed then that I had lost it and then to cap it all, weeks later quietly delivered it back to the vendor's warehouse. They lie all the time (in my opinion).

Avoid at all costs.

Edit: as a moderator, I may have to delete my own post !!

[ppppenguin]

Some couriers will deliver to a local shop. This is potentially more reliable than direct to your house and means you don't have to be in to receive the package.

[Murphyv310]

Round our way, if the parcel is with Hermes you are very lucky indeed if it even arrives, regardless of condition. The village Facebook page is full of complaints - non-delivery, damaged, chucked over hedges, wrong addresses - been like that all year.

They are simply the worst of the worst, plus their so-called  "customer service" is at best incompetent and at worst simply non-existant.

In the last three months I've had three non-deliveries out of three packages. I've lodged complaints about all three. It's taken up to three weeks for them to respond to an email (if they respond at all). None of the packages was found.

Last year I had a major row with them over a smart PDU for my workshop - a 6" long IP-enabled unit from Liebert - very expensive bit of kit normally used in the backs of datacentre cabinets.

Over many weeks they repeatedly claimed they'd delivered it. They faked photos and signatures, claimed then that I had lost it and then to cap it all, weeks later quietly delivered it back to the vendor's warehouse. They lie all the time.

Avoid at all costs.

Edit: as a moderator, I may have to delete my own post !!

Hi Nick..
I've heard that Hermes are very variable indeed from experiences like you and myself with absolutely no issues at all. I've no idea of how good or bad their customer service is as I've never had the need to use them.
I've had more issues here with Parcelforce unfortunately.

[Radio Fixer]

Picked this up from somewhere.  Maybe that other site   

     

Gary

[Crackle]

Just for interest we have been using DHL recently if we send a parcel, which we book via Parcel monkey.  We have probably used them about 8 to 10 times in the last year. They are not the cheapest, but we have had no complaints as yet, they also give an hour time slot for delivery and collection which so far has been kept to. With other couriers we seemed to stay in all day wondering when they would come, which can be quite inconvenient if you just want to pop to the local shops. It ended up that ordering online can be convenient but stops you from going out.
Its fine using these cheep couriers but I believe you get what you pay for.


Mike