In the last 5 months I have been a loyal user of City-Link Express courier service when I ship in my products for Penny’s Online Shop. Up until this month, I found that the service was reliable and it did fulfill its promise of pretty fast delivery. Well, within the stipulated time given, I would say. Sometimes, they would surprise me with a phone call on the day they deliver my parcel to give me a heads up. I liked that on top of the online tracker that I can use to monitor the status of my parcel.
Then sometime early this month I encountered the first bad service. I was dropped a yellow card in the mailbox which means that the parcel was delivered but there was no one around to sign for it. The message was that they would make a second attempt to deliver which is fine.
I called up and spoke to a guy and asked if they can deliver it to another address, and he said yes. He took down the address I gave him and it was agreed the parcel would be re-sent the next day. Hours later, a lady from the company called and said that they can’t deliver to the new address without the consent of the shipper.
So I said that’s fine. Since I had the day off, I thought maybe I can spare some time to go over to their office to collect it. But since I was out and didn’t have access to internet, I asked this lady whether she could kindly send me a text message to give me the address of their office. I asked this of her because she used a mobile phone to call and I thought she could possibly send me an SMS too.
She quite rudely told me this: “No, I will not text you anything”
I was quite shocked at the way she replied and I asked why not. She then responded “I will not use my personal phone to text you the address”. By then I was so agitated with her. It was not just what she said but also how she sounded. Not a friendly tone at all and more like reprimanding me for being stupid. Well, that’s what she made me feel.
So when she gave me that response, I said “Oh yeah? Then it’s quite funny that you’re now using your personal mobile phone to call me!” to which she responded “No, this is something called a company line”.
Hello??! Couldn’t she then text me using that company mobile line?! She was telling a lie somewhere in between all that conversation and I no longer knew what’s true and what’s not. In the end I told her I have no time to talk to her and she can freaking go do whatever she wanted to do and I didn’t hesitate to tell her how unhappy I was.
Then recently I again had another restock for my stocks and I used them again. This time, I tracked the parcel closely and going by the tracker, the parcel should have been delivered yesterday. I even called in the morning to talk to someone and he confirmed that my parcel has been despatched to be delivered to me. He said it should reach me before 2pm, failing which at worst it will be by 5pm the same day.
The entire day not a single parcel came for me. And this time, there was no yellow note either. Today a lady called up from the office and said they will send the parcel tomorrow and asked if I would be home. I said no, unless they can deliver before 9am to which she said is impossible.
I took the opportunity to ask her why the parcel didn’t arrive yesterday since it was confirmed to be despatched to be delivered. She gave me a totally unacceptabled answer – she said her driver did go out to send to me, but he couldn’t find my place. What kind of crap is that?! I asked her how come the other times for so many months they didn’t have a problem and she said maybe it’s the driver’s problem. Then she asked if my address is a house or some metal buildings. I don’t really know how to respond to such funny conversations.
Anyway, I didn’t have time to argue with such nonsense so I told her by hook or by crook I need the parcel to reach me by Monday and she said she’ll arrange it. Minutes later, she called again and said “Tomorrow you’re not in meh?”. I already said I will be out by 9 and won’t be around for the weekend. Then she said “Not even a maid?”
I said no and told her that she just has to make sure I get my parcel by Monday. She then answered me “But our driver went to your place yesterday, you weren’t there.” Did you spot another lie right there? In the first call she said her driver couldn’t find my place!!
I told her that if they had come and there was no one home, there should’ve been a yellow card dropped in my mailbox and I told her I found none. She insisted there was one and said “Are you sure?”
My God. I was really boiling hot at all the lies and told her that I checked for that yellow card until this very morning before leaving for work. Only then did she back down and say she’ll work on getting the parcel to me by Monday.
How many lies do they intend to tell their customers? I don’t think I want to use them again in my future transactions. Cut the lies and deliver your promise!
