INSPIRED BY REAL EVENTS: Sarah was expecting a dress that she’d ordered online. But the doorbell remained strangely quiet: not even a knock on the door to punctuate the growing silence. Time passed. Sarah’s doubts grew. Until she couldn’t bear the wait any longer. She ran outside and searched her back yard until she found a scribbled note on an envelope saying that the postman had put the parcel in the recycling bin. By the time that Sarah had left the house and found the note, the bin men had collected and emptied the bin. It then took two months to try and get compensation!
Does Sarah’s ordeal awaken any suppressed memories? Nightmares are never welcome, and our industry can be plagued by the types of postage catastrophes that can have you waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. In the Halloween spirit, here are some real-life delivery-themed horror stories.
The person who ordered some flowers for a friend, and the courier couldn’t get past the high gates at the driveway, so they threw the flowers – which were in a box – over the wall. The customer found them a day later, soggy and rotten from the rain.
The chap who worked in theatre who needed a Samurai sword for a production. A friend let him borrow one – an original 1915 antique – and sent it via registered post. The Royal Mail website said it had been delivered the next day but it didn’t arrive until two days later. When it did turn up he heard a knock on the door and when he went to answer the post, a man was getting back into his van and the sword was left on the door step, waiting for anyone to pick it up. He never learnt who signed for it and still worries about what would have happened if the sword had fallen into the wrong hands.
The man who caught the postman writing a ‘sorry you were not in’ letter on two occasions. Twice he called the complaints department but then caught him twice more, after which he admitted that it took too long to deliver to flats so he just wrote cards and left them at the entrance.
The lady whose partner ordered a laptop for her as a Christmas present, who then waited eagerly for a surprise gift that never came. A few days before Christmas, her friend noticed a small slip of paper on the porch that read “package in green bin”. She went outside to her compost bin, opened the lid, and found the package on top of a mound of sticks, mud and worms!
A recent study revealed that 26% of respondents would stop buying from a company if they were not happy with the delivery firm used. Losing business over a problem which is not caused by you is certainly the worst way for it to happen.
Nobody sets out to make mistakes, but obviously inexperience, laziness and incompetence can lead to such horror scenarios.
Fortunately, at Spicer International, our wealth of experience, combined with a diligent, thorough approach (not forgetting our total commitment to customer satisfaction), ensures that from our side of the delivery process, the nightmares can be largely kept at bay.
If you enjoyed this blog then you can keep up to date with news, humour, client showcases, tips and special offers via our regular newsletter!
