Is something wrong with courier services today?
I thought of this topic when i read about a fellow indiblogger @Raahila say that she has not yet been delivered her Dove hamper. I wrote to her: "Check with the courier company... ie, if you know which courier was hired to deliver the hamper to you."
Courier services now are extremely unreliable... have had a couple of packets undelivered, not-delivered, delivered at the wrong address.... I was even delivered an 'emptied' packet with the gift gone... a book sent by blogadda for review was delivered to a wrong address... do some investigation.
Hope we all write some blog posts on the sad state of courier services today...
Lets share our courier experiences here in this forum.
Pramod ji, I investigated how these courier services work... and I don't mean the ones at the top of the list. i do include couriers like DTDC etc.
DTDC, for instance, has franchises all over Delhi for their designated areas... these franchises in turn have out-sourced their deliveries... the delivery out-source simply means that the franchisee can give you no information if you call him up. The last person in this chain is the delivery boy who is invariably some desperate teenager who can neither read properly nor is aware of any rules and regulations. You can understand the problems associated.
Even the tracking systems of most couriers are there only on paper and hardly help.
DTDC is crap now. Same goes for that blue dart express. TNT works so far touch wood. Whenever I get stuff from Taiwan I always insist on DHL (only guys how to handle goods marked "marketing material/media sample". DTDC local courier, hardware worth 1.50L. fully destroyed. Notebook from banglaore, screen protected with foam entire casing has thick styrofoam cover: bezel cracked, keyboard dented, and scren is damaged. I never had issues with DHL and TNT. Forum members confirmed that many in DHL steal the package if its of higher value but value of product not mentioned properly.
Agreed! I had bought a DSLR wirth 27000 from ebay. Proper address and phone no. on package. When the delivery guy came to deliver, I was not at home The morons in DTDC (if i remember correctly) didn't even bother to call me. He just handed over the parcel to my neighbour. Thankfully the guy is honest and gave me the package when I came home that night. I've had this experience quite a few times with DTDC. worst company ever. It's useless to talk to anyone on phone. Emails are even more waste of time.
On the other hand, Blue Dart seems more professional
"YES" courier service from Gurgaon came to my house when I was not there and denied delivering the LAKME gift hamper to my neighbor and did not even call me. Such a lousy courier service. When I tried to track am getting Ghaziabads number and they say no office in Gurgaon and they cant trace if if i dont know the city from which i got or the reference id etc. I gave indi/lakme reference and my address . He hung up in a irritable voice saying they cant trace. Disgusting it is. Even previously I didnt get my gift and none bothered about my ramblings here.. Then it was not sent at all and now I guess I misssed by that much
I guess I should stop submitting or rather expecting gifts from a competition.....I wonder IF YES courier service said a big NO to me and stole my package!
feeels really BAD
situation is grave. And this hinders the growth of E-commerce in India. This is why Consumers prefer COD(cash on delivery)but E-commerce companies hardly gain when payment is done through COD mode as many a times consumers change their mind and deny the payment and as a result goods are delivered back to the e-commerce company which unnecessarily pays the courier and insurance charges.
I really felt odd when BD guy inquired about the contents of the Dove parcel.
Till now,no Castrol tee and Lakme hamper.
what I fear is,what these courier guys shall do while delivering Melbourne limited edition flash drives?
To put a restrain on courier companies I shall reiterate the remedy discussed in the following thread.
http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=13925
There were only 168 and 242 valid entries for castrol and Lakme contests respectively; yet there are dozens of non-recepients.
Any takers?
Well, I have got the Tees as well as the helmet for the Castrol contest... but yes, the Lakme hampers for my entries is still not there. So quite possibly it is the courier system that is playing the mischief here.
This reminds me... I haven't got the Rs 1000/- voucher won in the Expedia contest yet... and some have, so again, it is possibly the courier that is responsible.
Hope indiblogger officials take note...
There was a time I received this system worth more a lakh for evaluation from Bangalore. It was broken in pieces. Then recently I got an aluminum casing. That too was broken in pieces- both beyond repair. I wanted to do notebook reviews but considering a lot of tech reviewers have said that they ended up receiving units that are damaged during shipping AND it wasn't really worth it, I ditched it. Out of handful of notebooks and netbook I tested, 1 netbook and 1 notebook had a crack frame.
You don't have a strong consumer law. We don't have those who will reinforce strong law either. People will pass the buck rather than taking responsibility. You can't do anything since people's thinking and approach towards others even for money is ignorant at best. Heck there are people who rather give better service to a white guy over us even if we are paying customers. Sadly, that's what people in mass have reduced themselves into.
Something isseriously wrong with India's courier services... and the ;ocal couriers are the worst.
I'd like to inform inditeam that:
1. Of the two Lakme hampers, only one has been received. I suspect the other one has been hijacked by the courier guys.
2. The Rs 1000/- voucher won in the Expedia contest isn't yet received.
3. The pen-drive for the Melbourne contest isn't yet received.
They are doing good jobs- they make us believe in destiny.
They remind us the famous verse from Gita- "karmanye va....."- Just keep on working and don't expect returns.
A new phrase could be generated- ‘Indibloggers distributes and courierwala steals’
Those who don't believe in god may be at least reminded of God's presence and wish.
Those who has seen Jim Carrey’s 'The Cable Guy' may suggest ‘The Indian Courierwala' as a title to be filmed upon.
I took solace when I learnt Castrol tee losing color and I wish I could communicate courierwala- “ lucky chap! Every time you wash your (or my ?) tee you shall get a feeling of wearing an altogether new tee with different colour.” (Do you remember bleeding madras?)
NB: a satire but every pun intended. 
