GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

chris French · 02-02-2009, 12:34 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In message , Charlie
Pridham writes
In article ,
says...
In message , Charlie
Pridham wrote
In article ,
says...
In message , Keith
wrote
Anyone tried Webbs Direct, and what did they think about it.

Avoid if they don't have a (physical) address on the web site.
Avoid if they don't have a contact phone number
Avoid if they don't offer next day delivery 7 days a week. (with the
better companies on the Net you can order 10pm and get delivery next day
at 9am.
Avoid if they use Parcel Force to deliver.

Whats wrong with parcel force? I find them very reliable

They are not called parcel farce without reason.

You may find that when they rationalise their delivery hubs in your area
you may have a round trip of 80 miles or more to the local depot to pick
up parcels which they will not leave with neighbours etc. I live in a
small town of around 200,000 people but parcel force feel the need to
centralise their delivery hubs much further away. The reason for having
fewer bases is due to falling trade as more people find them
inconvenient. They are the dinosaurs of the delivery trade.

On average, I receive one package a week and the ones I have most
trouble actually getting in my hands are those delivered by parcel
force. I tend not to do any repeat business with firms who use parcel
force as their courier.

Well my hub is plymouth but I have never had to go there!
1st they will try 3 times for a delivery/signature often allowing you to
phone and book a time,
2nd they will leave parcel without signature as directed by the customer
if that's indicated at booking time,
3rd if all else fails they leave it at your local post office.
They are certainly not perfect, but they are no worse in my experiance
than all the others,

Everyone seems to have their favourite courier they don't like. They
only have to mess it up for you a couple of times and that's it (I find
Home delivery Network and UPS generally the most useless FWIW)

For me PF is fine, we live opposite the PO and the PF van stops in the
early evening to pickup from them, if he has missed us earlier in the
day he will generally try us again if it looks like we are in.

Favourite is City Link as the depot is relatively near and we often
seems to be near the beginning of a route so get the deliveries first
thing, driver always seems to the same as well so he knows where to
leave stuff safely out of the way if he can.

--
Chris French