I had the most frustrating day this week. It happened on Tuesday. I prepared 70 nametags for an event for a community bank about 40 mins drive away from me. I elected to book a courier to save me time and money in driving up there and back again. My mistake…
Those nametags were ready that morning by 9.30am for pick up.
I booked a courier at 9.15am – a service I have used other times – and was told that the pickup and delivery would be between 3-4 hours. When the courier hadn’t arrived by 12.40pm I rang them to find out where the courier was and they checked and told me that he was on his way and would be there soon. I rang again around 1.10pm and then at 1.25pm and was told he was less than 20 mins away. I told them I was going out to an appointment and the parcel would be on the front verandah for pick up.
When I returned home at 3.35pm the package was still there and I rang them yet again only to be told the courier had been there 7 mins earlier but couldn’t find my house so went away again. I demanded for him to return and he did 2 mins later while I was still on the phone to his boss. I told the courier my package had to be at my client’s premises by 5pm and no later and he told me he could do that. I rang my client to apologise for the delay and that the name badges had left my office and were on their way – they should be there before 5pm. I had to go out again and when I got back I found an email from my client timed 5.09pm to say they hadn’t yet arrived. I couldn’t believe it!
I’d spoken to the boss at least 6 or 7 times that day and each time he got on the phone to the courier to find out where he was and what he was doing. Not good.
I decided I won’t be charging my client for my time because obviously they didn’t get what they needed before the event and I know that wouldn’t have looked good for them. I’ve told the courier company that they’ve succeeded in making me look unprofessional and I am very unhappy about that and I don’t expect them to be charging me for their service, as there wasn’t any – at least not in the timeframe I was told to expect.
I’m still yet to decide what else I might do but I do believe I might have a reason for making a small claim with the small claims court as I can’t invoice my client for something they didn’t get in time and I spent over 5 hours (including the time for phone calls) in preparing the work, printing the nametags and sorting the nametags and producing the list of attendees for the event. Thank goodness I did emailed that list!
Technorati Tags: bad service,courier,unprofessional,lack of service
Kathie is the former owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.
Kylie Doak says
Hi Kathie
I just read your blog.
We have a slightly similar problem out here (rural Victoria) with the local courier. They will not deliver goods outside of our local township (10 mins from me), despite the fact that they are being paid to deliver to you!
It is common knowledge in this district that this particular courier company will not deliver beyond the township.
Fortunately we have a small supermarket/general store/post office (same business) that happily have people’s goods delivered to them and people collect from there.
However, last year I finally stood my ground with this courier company and won!! Go me!!
I had a new mobile phone coming from Telstra and was told that it would be delivered to me by courier as I would have to sign for it and provide identification. No problem so far. They told me the day that it would be delivered so I made sure that I would be home that day. No problem so far.
Then I got a phone call …
“Hi, this is *** from *** and I have a parcel here for you that you need to sign for”.
“Where are you?” I said.
“In (local town)”.
“Well, can’t you bring it to me? (knowing full well that I was about to get argued with!)
“No, we don’t deliver outside the township of ***”
“Why not?”
“We don’t get paid enough to do that”
WHAT THE?!
I told the man that this was not my problem and that Telstra had told me that my parcel would be delivered to me personally, not delivered elsewhere where I would have to make a 20 minute round trip to collect it.
He said that he was only there for a short while and that I would have to come right now and collect it.
I told him, “no way – you bring it to me”. He said he couldn’t, so I told him that I would be ringing the courier company.
So I rang Telstra and explained the situation. The girl I spoke to was horrified and had no idea that this was what was happening. The courier that Telstra uses delivered the parcel to our local courier (presumably not knowing that they do not deliver outside this township).
The girl at Telstra rang their courier first to check the details, then she rang our local courier and told them how unacceptable this was and guess what??
I received my parcel barely 10 minutes later!!
The guy was terribly unimpressed to say the least, but guess what? Not my problem!
I told him on the phone call I had with him earlier that he should see his boss about the pay problem if he felt he wasn’t being paid enough but at the end of the day, the courier company is being paid to provide a service.
I have heard from many sources that the owners of this business can be rather difficult to deal with and that it is common knowledge that this company will not deliver outside our township. Unfortunately, most people will not stand up to them which only makes the problem worse.
I understand that you need to be efficient when running a business, but excellent customer service is just as important. Too many businesses forget that and think that their customers will stick with them because there aren’t any other options (like in this case).
Word of mouth advertising is by far the best form of advertising that I know of – whether positive or negative, it is all advertising.
Anyway, just thought I’d share that with you!
Kylie Doak
Born To Type Secretarial Services
Beverly Mahone says
Kathie,
That is so unfortunate and really, NO EXCUSE. Some people just don’t understand how important customer service is and how it can impact just more than one person or business. A small claims action might be a good idea but is it worth additional time to waste on dealing with them. I would write them a nice letter, outlining my frustration and just let them know i won’t be utilizing their services again and they certainly won’t be getting any referrals from me!