It came by DPD, who are pretty good at this. In fact the whole ordering and delivery process was very impressive.
I ordered yesterday at 2pm from the exploding kittens web site, and the order seems to be handled by Blackbox. I got confirmation email right away. At 17:30 DPD emailed to say delivery would be today. At 07:46 they emailed to say it would be between 08:18 and 09:18.
All very efficient and impressive I have to say.
At 8am a huge white van turns up and parks across the drive. The driver spends 5 minutes faffing about while we watch from the door. He sorts his paperwork, cleans the cab out, and goes to throw a rubbish bag in our skip but catches sight of us watching and changes his mind sharpish. He then says that as he is early the item won't "scan".
He literally spends 18 minutes on the drive (good job nobody had to get off the drive, but I guess he would have moved). At 08:18 he walks over with the parcel.
I am figuratively at a loss for words!!!
P.S. I order something else yesterday (from UK) which is coming by UPS. Oddly the tracking shows it was shipped 3 hours before I ordered it!
I think DPD is my favourite courier. You can track the drivers whereabouts on their website, you can see where you are in the queue of parcels they have to deliver, and they inform you if there has been a delay.
ReplyDeleteThey have only missed their estimated time for a parcel they were delivering me once, and they updated me that would be the case long before the actual window.
It makes a stark comparison to other couriers, particularly Hermes and Yodel. I've had them claim that parcels had been delivered, when they clearly hadn't. They are then delivered a couple of days later, presumably when the courier can be bothered to head to our house.
DPD are great with telling you when they will turn up, however, yes, if they are early then the computer says "no".
ReplyDeleteI have had a bizarre scenario with 2 parcels being delivered with DPD where the computer said the first one was allowed at 10:20 and the second at 10:22, the courier arrived at 10:19 and we had to wait so he could scan the first one, then we had to chat for 2 minutes so he could scan the second one.
I can see why they do this. It prevents the drivers turning up before the agreed delivery time, and leaving a note through the door saying you were out. It also stops this gained time being knocked on to further deliveries. The supermarket home delivery folk do the same. I've had a Tesco driver sit outside our house for 10 minutes waiting for the delivery window to open.
DeleteWhile I don't see anything too bad with this, its clear they can improve things. They should be allowed to make a delivery before the allotted window, but not allow a failed delivery before it.
Indeed, as you say it would be better if the computer did not allow them to record "carded" before the time, but did allow signed for delivery before time.
DeleteExploding Kittens is a great game - I've had many fun times with it. I hope you have the explicit version :)
ReplyDeleteOf course - plan to play it this weekend for first time.
DeleteLOL, all your kittenz is mine!
DeleteSo what would have occurred had your driver been caught in unexpected traffic and not arrived until, say, 9:20? Presumably he wouldn't have the authority to change the 1 hour window so would have to return your game to the depot? Even so, a rare and minor inconvenience when set against how good they are for all the reasons mentioned by Dave.
ReplyDeleteI ordered a new set of golf clubs online last Thursday lunchtime. Within a couple of hours DPD emailed to advise delivery the next day, with a tracking link. That was too efficient as I'd planned to be playing golf the next day but it was simple to self amend the date on their website to Tuesday, when I knew I'd be at home for certain. On Sunday evening their website even allowed me to change the date again for Monday, after a change of plans and it duely arrived within the 1 hour window notified on Monday morning. The process was like a breath of fresh air compared to all previous experiences, including with DPD, in the past. Other couriers won't even advise whether AM or PM.
My only real problem with DPD was when, at 10.03am, they announced a one hour window starting at 10.03am and immediately rang the bell. Which isn't exactly useful for making any plans. (I assume that this is what they do if they're in traffic, as in T Fenn's hypothetical case - don't announce the window until they're entirely sure they can make it because they're already outside.)
ReplyDeleteUnusual for them to let you know the window so late, I use them a lot and always know by 8.45 as I ring my neighbour from work to give him the heads up
DeleteThe DPD driver around where I live even comes back later during his round if I didn't answer the door first time, they also take a picture of your front door to prove they've been. Can't fault their service, it's the way all couriers should be
ReplyDeleteDPD have only gone wrong for me once - they lost a light tube. Apart from that time, they are brilliant. However, they should indeed be allowed to "succeed" before the window (not fail, though).
ReplyDeleteI've had a couple of occasions where my local DPD driver arrived too early for his delivery slot. On both I let him remove the barcode label from the package and take it away with him so that he could scan it later, once the system would permit him to.
ReplyDelete