I ordered a couple of goodies from Amazon this week (This Life series 1 & 2 and Seinfeld series 4) and when it was sent out I had an e-mail from Amazon saying that they had been sent out via Parcelnet.
At the time I was mildly interested as I had never heard of them. When they tried to deliver on Friday there was nobody in. They left the usual ‘we missed you’ card but instead of a number for a depot there was a mobile phone number which turned out to be the number of the actual courier.
When Jayne came home she called the number and left a message. She was called back and the chap then delivered later on the same day.
I was quite impressed as the parcel was received sooner than if it had to go back to a depot and be collected by us or a delivery arranged for another day. On the card was a slogan – ‘delivering your shopping to you’ – from which I assumed that this is a company specialising in delivering orders from online shopping firms so it was all set up for such flexibility.
I thought I would try to find out more about Parcelnet and a quick look on Google showed that either I was lucky or they have improved very recently because the internet is full of unhappy Parcelnet customers.
If I had read all these comments before receiving the goods I would have been very worried. Of course it is possible that they are suffering from the rule of thumb which says that 99% of unsatisfied customers publicise their problems while fewer than 1% of satisfied customers do the same.
The fact remains that I had a good service from Parcelnet, and I am always happy to share my good experiences as a customer.
I don’t know if providing the individual courier’s mobile number on a delivery card is their standard practise but it worked for me.
You might be interested in this post about Parcelnet from anotyher blog I read:
Interesting. I don’t know whether Parcelnet have people with regular rounds/areas.
If that is the case the quality of service is going to depend on who your local deliverer is, if so I hope we always get the same one. In theory it could work if its big enough that individual couriers have a small, well-defined area which they know well.
I did courier work for exactly one day and it was hell. I was told it would be local and in a van the size of a car. It turned out to be a large van and deliveries in Kingston, Oxted, Hampton Cout and loads of other places I had never been to, and it was a disaster. I quit before they could fire me.
I cannot complain about parcelnet, just had a delivery at 10.30am today! The estimated delivery date from Amazon was 5 April 2006 – 7 April 2006
I have to admit from reading reviews about parcelnet i was really concerned, but thought id better say my experience with them was ok and i didnt need to worry!
This just shows the comitment of the couriers to the customers – not to Parcelnet.
The mobile phone referred to will be the couriers own personal phone.
I am a courier and can tell you that Parcelnet provide the couriers with absolutely nothing and a minimal rate ‘per parcel’. So you were lucky and I guess your courier has lost money delivering your Amazon parcel.
We have not had a pey review for about 7 years and are just told to leave if we dont like it (we are classed as self employed although Parcelnet must be treading a very fine line as there is no ‘two way’ communication).
Basically, Parcelnet treat the couriers like Sh.. and were it not for some pleasant costomers to talk to, I would certainly not be doing this. Parcelnet would collapse without the couriers.
I am also a courier with them and all I can say is it’s a waste of time complaining it’s easier to quit if only parcelnets couriers would get together and put down an ultimatum, that would never happen though because there’s no back bone any more
I thought it might be something like that.
I AM INTRESTED IN BECOMING COURIER FOR YOU COULD YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ENY VACANCIES THANK YOU
I know that I am probably way out time-wise now but if anyone is a courier or has ‘ issues ‘ with Parcelnet then you maybe interested in a fairly new blog .
Site requires no sign up and has no ads .
There are some Parcelnet couriers who only get 45p for delivering a 9kg hoover , which is a tad unfair I think .
http://forum.skytower.me.uk
FYO: PARCELNET HQ
Parcelnet (HO) Ltd
Anchor House, Ingleby Rd, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD99 2XE
Tel: 01274 625625
It will take a while for the phone to be picked up..
when it is, ask for DELIVERIES
For your information, subcontracted parcelnet couriers (white van) actually get £1 per parcel. Most earn between £400 and £1200 per week. I know this for a fact.
parcels are paid at 45p you have to use your own car and pay your own petrol. i work for them .
Ive been a courier for Parcelnet for 7 years with an average round of between 50 to 120 parcels per day. 2 weeks ago I needed to cancel parcels for personal reasons and was told by field manager that she would arrange cover and await my return to work after 10 – 14 days. 8 days later the round was withdrawn. Typical of the way couriers are treated by Parcelnet !
i think we should all stick together to get a better price per parcel. i have done this job for 7 years and it has been 45p a parcel all this time petrols soured up the last year. and it is wrong we get 45p for under 10k
hi i have worked for parcelnet for 7 years and it as been the same price for a parcel 45p. and have you noticed the parcels are getting heavier and too muchin the bags. they will not put the prices up, and the petrol and cost of living is sky high, i wonder if they would do it for this price.
anyone else seen a big increase in saturday deliveries it really p’s me to get 90-100+ parcels on a saturday, never mind I get my own back by defering collections until mondays, little victories.
To Linda Bellingham:
I have never heard of parcelnet couriers getting a white van, let alone £1 a parcel!
I wish….
If Parcelnet did have to fund its own fleet and pay a decent wage, then delivery rates would be double what they currently are if the fatcats were to still maintain their profits (and I’m not referring to the couriers who are paid a pittance).
I need my parcel and not sure who to contact if i wish to collect it
To nadia above ^ how about contacting Parcelnet?
What the heck is going on with these Parcelnet comments on this post? It’s taken on a life of it’s own!
You should see my server logs. Half the hits I get are from people searching for Parcelnet!
Wake up and smell the coffee folks!
I am a Parcelnet courier and all I can say is visit http://www.parcelforum.co.uk to learn the TRUTH about this company and it’s couriers. Libel laws forbid me to say more!
webtrekker
Hi there.
For all people and parcelnet fans.
THIS JOB IS SH.T. I’m working night shifts, so i’m sorting all parcels, its hard job, they talking to you as you are fuc…ing slave, and couriers, i just feel sorry for their 45p which is REAL TRUE and because they as self empl… , they have to use own car and pay everything. Parcelnet is maybe good for fuc.ing office job, but you have to be real and good as..licker to get there. Driver do fu.k all and always complaining.
good day, i’m glad they closing that sh.t soon. good luck with parcels from parcelnet, sometimes they play footbal with them, sometime is raining to them, real fun, for anybody.
Linda Bellingham, Are you really the well paid actress we see on tele who knows for a fact that couriers get £1200 per week?
Hahaha! It’s very true. I’ve delivered for them for 7 years now. 2001 = 45p a parcel/ 2008 = still 45p a parcel! The only bonus you get from Parcelnet is the cellotape, and sometimes that’s s**t!
Parcelnet can be terrible actually. I was charged for an item which never arrived, yet Parcelnet claimed to have delivered it. They didn’t leave a delivery note, didn’t leave it with a neighbour (and neither should they unless isntructed to do so) were not held accountable for this. I wouldn’t use them.
Been a courier 10 years. Totally agree we are treated like dirt. Had umpteen Field managers, ( current one is always “driving or in a meeting so cant take any details right now!”) We have absolutely no voice and it’s true the pay has never gone up since I started. I would love to get all couriers together In order to force the issues with the top people. One day strikes on a weekly basis might make them sit up!
i have been a courier for one home shopping delivery company or another for the past 10 yrs.the last 12 months i have worked for parcelnet.couriers are pai 55p per parcel delivered if you have to pick up own parcels from depot.we are indeed slave labour but being a single parent i have no other option for work except being a courier for parcelnet. we do not get allowances for petrol or use of own phone or indeed being available for 12 hours a day taking phone calls. the price per parcel hasnt changed for at least 10 yrs but petrol has doubled.. no wonder we are always broke..
Re; Lotte comment.
Sub contracted couriers are individual companies that parcelnet contract to help them, normally at short notice, when a private courier can’t turn out that day to do his or her round. These are the people who get paid £1 per parcel. Depending on your area the Parcelnet rate will vary from 45p for a city round to 85p for a country round. It’s a cut throat business so its not surprising that parcelnet have not increased courier rates.
ive been workin for parcelnet for best part of twenty years !yip, very cut throat business, but my motto is as long as i keep deliverin theyll keep bringin them !…….payment rates avnt changed for years but has got alot busier , credit crunch not affectin me, earnin more every month i must like sumthin about this work !
While I have great sympathy for the couriers at Parcelnet, I have just had an argument with a retailer I ordered from and who used them for delivery. Seems the Parcelnet courier forged my signature when they found out I was not there and left the parcel on the doorstep of a busy block of flats….so who knows where it is now. Because there is a signature the retailer is arguing that I received the parcel and I am struggling to get my money back or goods redelivered.
But if they get 45p a parcel and no lee-way for expenses the courier (although wrongly) probably thought he could take the chance. I think I will be ringing the Parcelnet headquarters…………….
I have been working for parcelnet for just over a year now and it worked out at less than min wage
so i started looking for somthing i could do while i did my parcels and i came across this uk company looking for people part time so i check them out and now i make more money from my parcelnet customers than i get per parcel….
It’s not for everyone but check it out http://www.4yearcareer.co.uk
A Parcelnet courier put a “sorry we missed you on” card through my letterbox Saturday morning, and all it had written on it was: ‘Back Door’ under the printed heading “your parcel has been left at”.
When I went to check there was nothing there, so all I’m wondering is – Who stole it??
I had only been gone from the house less than 10 minutes.
parcel force have stolen my parcel!! The parcelnet guy just knocked at my door with my parcel but i had just got out the shower and was naked so i missed the door but he left a note saying “parcel is in wendy house” i dont have a wendy house and i hunted around outside for ages there is no parel! Its a disgrace. I saw the guy drive off when i opened the door (in my towel) and there was no parcel and no one could of robbed it. The simple fact is he stole it. Iv been ringing and ringing them all morning and no one’s answered. Iv emailed them but had no responce. Im so so angry
Guys it isnt just about the money its being a mum and being there if kids poorly not havning to pay childminding costs we could all strike but htere is plenty out there who will want our jobs and lets face it we are all slack some times. but so are lots of companies some times when we have been doing the job for so long we forget how we should be doing it think about the positives
I’m a parcelnet courier and can’t help wondering what planet Linda Bellingham is living on ??? £1200 per week plus a van, are you crazy ??? I earn £1200 per month, no van !!
I have the most rural round you could imagine, driving up the steepest hills on the side of small mountains, (The Clee Hill actually) crawling through the recent snow, down the narrowist of lanes/dirtracks, plummeting on black ice down banks and all for £1 per parcel in my own little Clio, no help at all with petrol costs !! Get your facts right madam !!!
i would like to know what planet linda is on, cuckoo land i think
just a quick question i have a rural round and some of the farm tracks are not suitable for a car i green card some of the really bad ones just wondered if i am the only courier to do this
hi jean no your not i used to do rural areas and they can be a night mare, i used to go up farm tracks and into the woods, for 65p a parcel, karen does the area now. i used to have to go over the dual carriage way dot
Shocking. A very unprofessional service.
One once had an unpleasant experience as a motorcycle courier..
these couriers have to use there own cars pay for all repairs and put fuel in some farm traks are disgusting i dont blame you better to deliver 10 parcels and still have roadworthy car than risk going up these tracks with one parcel nimrod
i have been a courier for 9 years and the price of delivering a parcel as never gone up from 45p. and now this new company is taking over, anybody who got there welcome pack will have received the booklet from hermes, notice no thanks to us just that they will still have the friendly couriers. just hope we get a payrise from hermes lol. and how much are we getting for picking these special parcels up, not 45p i hope. and another thing i think it,s crap we deliver a parcel and when we have to carry forward we dont get paid but we have done our job. and not being able to leave it in recycling bags. they do not make our job easy do they, the bags are getting heavy as well, these so called next brochures we are delivering for 30p are next catalogues and we are wasting our time saying anything as they will differ and say they are.
You’ve got some bottle to have stuck it for 9 years you deserve a medal and nine pay rises, I am also a courier with parcelnet and have been in transport and logistics management for some 20 odd years and it’s one of the most disorgonised companies i have had the pleasure of working for area managers what a joke the sooner all you couriers out there come together the better get some respect and back bone you lot
I’m a courier for them and our parcel volumes have been going down a lot, credit crunch I suppose. I just worked out what I have earned last month before tax (and after deducting fuel costs). £2.66 per hour.
Thanks Herpes.
And still they pay us late and still they expect more for nothing, like the pathetic leaflets they wanted us to deliver for free. I have another job otherwise I would be up a creek without a paddle right now and I dont think me or my partner will be with this outfit for much longer.
after reading all these comments, i would like to know who i need to speak to as iam a owner driver and would to offer my services to you. thankyou john
I am an ex parcelnet courier as I only lasted a week before jacking it in. I slogged my guts out for the week and ended up with just over £150 and that was before deductions of tax and insurance and not to mention petrol costs. It’s a shi*t job and no one is denying it but one thing I would like to say is that it is not the customers fault that couriers are not paid enough. I am awaiting a Next delivery today and requested before 1pm. It is now 2.30pm and nothing has arrived. I was waiting on swimsuits for my daughters to take them swimming and now I can’t as they have not arrived. The last 2 times I asked for an after 1pm delivery and what do you know, he arrived at 10.10am and 9.50am. It seems that whatever I request, I get the opposite. Should I infact state I want a pm delivery if I want am in future? Plus after my experience whilst working for them it doesn’t exactly leave me with a good impression. I was taken on a round by another courier before I started and if the customer was not at home she advised I should just leave in the customers blue bin. If they had no blue recycle bin she even put parcels into the rubbish bin. She would then lie and put on the manifest that the parcel was in a shed for example. Also I saw her forge a signature as a customer was not in and she didn’t want to come back but the package said must have signature. She handed it to a neighbour and signed for it herself. I really got the impression that the couriers could not care less about the customers. I understand the money is terrible, I appreciate the job is a nightmare but no one forces you to do it. It’s your choice if you continue to work for 45p a parcel. The customer should not be treated so unfairly and with such disregard just because you feel like you are getting a raw deal. Why should a customers parcel be left in a dodgy place or thrown around? They have ordered an item in good faith and like myself I have paid £3.50 for delivery and expect it to be delivered safe and on time. It certainly is not my fault that only 45p of my £3.50 goes to the courier. I couldn’t sit in a job for 10 years without a pay increase but have the cheek to complain about it. I left as I was not willing to put up with it. If everyone did the same then they would need to review the pay. But we have all these people on here who just moan about it but after 10 years they are still there???? Doesn’t make sense to me.
So, did you you decide against closing this for new comments….
I think I shall do that – there was a narrow margin in favour.
Just don’t interpret it as your comment being the last straw 🙂