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Why we need a Regulator and Ombudsman for the Courier and Delivery Service Sector

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TrueBlueTerrier
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Why we need a Regulator and Ombudsman for the Courier and Delivery Service Sector

Post by TrueBlueTerrier »

https://www.affino.com/blogs/my-blog--s ... ice-sector

For my alter-ego Guitar Pedal X persona and website/blog I have a lot of dealings with courier companies local and international - as I get guitar effects pedals sent to me regularly from all corners of the world.

I have had so many issues with couriers over the years - particularly Parcelforce and Royal Mail - and I was surprised when seeking further help and assistance that there is Zero regulation or consumer protection for that sector - no regulator and no ombudsman that the public can seek out to address / redress a delivery grievance! Meaning you are entirely at the mercy of those courier’s non-existent customer service protocols.

I recently covered my grievances with the food home delivery sector which is part and parcel of the same thing and similarly uncontrolled and unregulated. So this is something of an endemic problem where governance is not up to speed with where the markets have evolved to.

I’ve raised the issue a number of times on this blog about the ’Death of Customer Service’, where modern companies try to lose you in a cycle of non-executive third party call centre services, which are nothing more than disjointed note-taking operations that then forward your ’inquiry’ into some generic email box abyss - largely with zero follow-up action or resolution.

There are largely no ’Ticketing Systems’ or proper CRM resolution systems being deployed here, and these ’Customer Services’ are seemingly engineered to simply keep customers at bay and hold them in a quagmire of empty promises and inactivity.

The Royal Mail Incident

Royal Mail has promised to ring me back on countless occasions - they almost never do! Some Parcelforce operatives have stood by their commitments - while the support rendered by both is typically negligible. I'm often befuddled when speaking to these representatives at how they have no idea where my package has gotten to - despite it being part of a fully tracked service! I've had a written apology from the chief executive of the Royal Mail - promising to make amends - which then never materialised.

I detailed in my piece on the 'Death of UK Customer Service' of an instance where Post Office Counters refused to hand over a package that I had paid fees on - as it was still showing as unpaid on their system - while I had receipts and a Payment Reference to prove that the payment had most definitively been made to Royal Mail.

The package was literally sat on the other side of the glass and they refused to call a supervisor or manager to check properly on the status and validity of my claim.

I had been at the Post Office Counter with all my receipts and payment references - and they point blank refused to hand over the package or check with anyone else. In fact they pulled the shutters down on me while telling me to go home and ring customer services! Can you imagine being at a business premises and being told to go home to contact customer services! In any case that was the incident that got me my letter of apology from the chief executive - while similar sorts of instances have been all too regular occurrences since.

The problem being that Royal Mail is now made up of 3 different companies - all with different systems - which often fail to sync up properly - meaning occasionally a lag of 24 hours or more - very occasionally up to a week!

There's been numerous occasions too where payment has been made - but status has not updated - so even though the charges have been paid - the package has not been released for delivery - this has happened innumerable times and continues to happen - albeit more sporadically recently. Generally the Royal Mail customer service staff are unhelpful and obtuse in the extreme - the number of times I've been told just to wait and see what will happen - without any indication of timing - is really quite extraordinary.

I deal a lot with Royal Mail, Parcelforce, DHL, FedEx, TNT and UPS in particular for those international packages - and they were all abysmally poor on customer service to begin with - while Covid and the 'B' word have given them an excuse to be even worse.

The UPS Incident

The latest episode sees my ordering a pedal from Germany - where the wrong product was delivered - some sort of admin error on the despatch end. I obviously paid customs fees in expectation that I was getting what I ordered and was surprised to find the contents of the package not at all what was confirmed and paid for. The shipper quickly owned up to their mistake and arranged for a doorstep pickup - where I handed over the re-addressed return package alongside two copies of the customs forms that the shipper had provided - which I had of course signed.

The UPS courier picks up the package, checks the forms etc. - and that's it I think - job done! Yet around 2 and a half months later the package is handed back to me on my doorstep after somehow being sent back from Frankfurt with an entirely new shipping label.

I left it for a few days while pondering on said mystery - when suddenly a UPS bill arrived demanding that I pay the customs charges for the returned package! I responded immediately - copying in the original shipper at the time - and stating that I had carried out all my legal duties - had already paid customs duties on the package the first time around and was not liable in any way for anything that had ensued - my duties has been wholly properly dispensed in full accordance with the law.

When enquiring as to how and why the package had been returned from Frankfurt two and half months later - I was first told that "the address labels must have come off the box". I then responded with "how would they know to return the package to me if all the labels had come off?"

They then replied it was actually probably more likely that the customs forms were missing - where two copies had very evidently been handed over and checked at my doorstep - and how did the package get to Frankfurt in the first place if all the documentation was missing? If such was the case - why did they then not check in with the original shipper and organiser - based just a little way down the road from them outside Stuttgart? Surely their duty was to the originating shipper and client?

Over a month of correspondence followed - first with the team in the UK, and then someone from Credit Control in Germany - they were able to offer me no answers. And each time I thought the matter resolved and closed - only to find I was incurring late payment fees and further bills. Then the final insult was that the demand was handed over to a debt collection agency!

I tried approximately 30 times to get through to the number provided - to no avail. I became so exhausted by the whole episode that I finally just paid the inflated amount - in hard protest - just to end the turmoil. While there still seems to be no recourse to proper action or justice - or even answers! As far as I'm concerned UPS messed up and made me pay for their mistakes. They have never offered any answers as to the timeline of what happened and why. And I still consider them fraudulent and rogue for having levied Double Customs Charges off me in that manner - but there seems little I can do about it apart from expose their shady practices!

Obviously all of this is caused by the 'B' word to a large degree - as I would not be dealing with any of this nonsense had the former open status prevailed. The current UK administration has very deliberately throttled our ability to do business with Europe - and we're all much worse off for it...

Need for Change

Surely it's in the public's interest to have properly regulated and accountable delivery services - with proper facilities for actual genuine customer service and proper issue tracking and resolution.

Where most companies used to have Customer Services departments - they nowadays rather just have 'Sales Retention' annexes to their sales teams - and all 'Customer Services' issues are simply farmed off to third party call centres which do nothing to deal with or resovle the actual issues - they're just interference really...

The Royal Mail system is notoriously poor - there is no informing you of where you are in the queue - and the call waiting service frequently cuts out - often when switching to an available operator. Surely this can't continue in this manner indefinitely. Where are the consumer watchdogs and advocates on this? We have never been more reliant on delivery services and things are already spiralling out of control.

I suffer delivery issues nearly every week - one way or another. And with all the fantastic modern technology at our disposal - I'm totally astonished by just how bad things are.

It's not just the courier companies - HRMC has been known to make rogue decisions too - and that operation really is impossible to get through to. The HMRC has an even worse customer service infrastructure than the couriers - how did it get this bad? And why is nothing being done about it?

We must all work together to make these services more functional and more answerable to consumers - by all means petition your MP and help us make a change for good!
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