Tweet
'Order Generated' (longish)
Warning: Long time lurker, first time poster. Placed here because it's not a customer (that's me!), nor the retailer, that was sucky. Please move if necessary. 
Background: I play World of Warcraft. End background.
25/09/2010 - Pre-order Cataclysm Collectors Edition from play.com. I've used this company many, many times, and have always had a good service. Delivery is usually between 3 - 7 days.
05/12/2010 - Play.com posts my order. Squee! There's a shiny tracking order number and everything, so I can see where my nice, valuable order is. (Srsly: £60 now, double the price next year if I don't use the code...) The delivery company is one I've never heard of before, but I'm hopeful and expecting to get it within the week.
06/12/2010 - Delivery site, 'Hermes', says 'Order generated'. Fair enough. I know they have my package, and it shouldn't be too long before I get it.
07/12/2010 - Cataclysm has gone live. No CE, but no worries.
13/12/2010 - Delivery site is still on 'Order generated'. That page has not changed. Hm. Getting a little annoyed now.
14-18/12/2010 - Check daily to see where my game is. Still no change. Sadness. Missing out on all the shiny new stuffs.
19/12/2010 - Game arrives! Yayness! But, what's this? Delivered by a neighbour at 8pm? Note that it is snowing on this day. Poor neighbour. =(
It appears that the delivery company in question came, a week earlier, and went to the wrong house. Now, in my estate, the houses are rather packed up close together, and so to get to my house, you have to walk more than 10 feet away from the road. This was obviously too much for the driver to handle, so he just went to the first available house.
On top of that, they handed my game over without getting a signature.
No signature. The wrong address. On a rather valuable item that will become more valuable* as time goes by, as long as it's not used. On an item that was meant to be tracked and signed for to, you know, make sure that it's location is known at all times. So people know who is to blame (and who is not to blame!) if something goes missing.
If my neighbour had been less honest and not delivered the game (this has happened a lot in this area with our mail), then I would have been SOL as there would be no guarrantee that I would be able to get the CE edition again, although I would have been able to get my money back due to the company not having any kind of proof they delivered.
So, suckiness to date:
- Driver not delivering to right address.
- Driver not following procedures (getting signature) to ensure that he (or she) is doing their job right.
- Company not updating their website to reflect on what's going on with the package.
I just checked the site again for the order status. Still on 'Order generated'. I wonder if it'll ever get updated.
For those who wish to know, this is the URL of the company: http://www.hermes-europe.co.uk/
Oh, and for those who might be wondering if the driver did come to our house and found no one home (my mum and I were both at home =)), it's standard procedure to leave some kind of card to let the customer know what's going on - where the package was left (normal stuff) or where the customer could pick it up at a later date (signed stuff/large parcels).
*I keep emphasising this because in my area there are some known drug addicts/people who really would steal your mail/people who would keep your mail if the postman was being a bit of an idiot and posted it to the wrong address. Understandably, people whom I would not want anywhere near my stuff.
Background: I play World of Warcraft. End background.
25/09/2010 - Pre-order Cataclysm Collectors Edition from play.com. I've used this company many, many times, and have always had a good service. Delivery is usually between 3 - 7 days.
05/12/2010 - Play.com posts my order. Squee! There's a shiny tracking order number and everything, so I can see where my nice, valuable order is. (Srsly: £60 now, double the price next year if I don't use the code...) The delivery company is one I've never heard of before, but I'm hopeful and expecting to get it within the week.
06/12/2010 - Delivery site, 'Hermes', says 'Order generated'. Fair enough. I know they have my package, and it shouldn't be too long before I get it.
07/12/2010 - Cataclysm has gone live. No CE, but no worries.
13/12/2010 - Delivery site is still on 'Order generated'. That page has not changed. Hm. Getting a little annoyed now.
14-18/12/2010 - Check daily to see where my game is. Still no change. Sadness. Missing out on all the shiny new stuffs.
19/12/2010 - Game arrives! Yayness! But, what's this? Delivered by a neighbour at 8pm? Note that it is snowing on this day. Poor neighbour. =(
It appears that the delivery company in question came, a week earlier, and went to the wrong house. Now, in my estate, the houses are rather packed up close together, and so to get to my house, you have to walk more than 10 feet away from the road. This was obviously too much for the driver to handle, so he just went to the first available house.
On top of that, they handed my game over without getting a signature.
No signature. The wrong address. On a rather valuable item that will become more valuable* as time goes by, as long as it's not used. On an item that was meant to be tracked and signed for to, you know, make sure that it's location is known at all times. So people know who is to blame (and who is not to blame!) if something goes missing.
If my neighbour had been less honest and not delivered the game (this has happened a lot in this area with our mail), then I would have been SOL as there would be no guarrantee that I would be able to get the CE edition again, although I would have been able to get my money back due to the company not having any kind of proof they delivered.
So, suckiness to date:
- Driver not delivering to right address.
- Driver not following procedures (getting signature) to ensure that he (or she) is doing their job right.
- Company not updating their website to reflect on what's going on with the package.
I just checked the site again for the order status. Still on 'Order generated'. I wonder if it'll ever get updated.
For those who wish to know, this is the URL of the company: http://www.hermes-europe.co.uk/
Oh, and for those who might be wondering if the driver did come to our house and found no one home (my mum and I were both at home =)), it's standard procedure to leave some kind of card to let the customer know what's going on - where the package was left (normal stuff) or where the customer could pick it up at a later date (signed stuff/large parcels).
*I keep emphasising this because in my area there are some known drug addicts/people who really would steal your mail/people who would keep your mail if the postman was being a bit of an idiot and posted it to the wrong address. Understandably, people whom I would not want anywhere near my stuff.
Comment