Parcels from UK - DPD

Hello, We arranged for three parcels to be sent to us from Scotland to France. They were collected on the 9th October with delivery for the 13th. Since then nothing! I’ve entered the reference we were given and the last entry is 'scanned to trunk '.

We wrote & asked what was happening but have been given the run-around, being passed from one department to the other. In frustration I wrote to the CEO who didn’t even reply!!

We have used them once I think before without trouble so I just do not understand . The sender has confirmed that they we fully labelled and had all the bar code firmly attached.

Any suggestions?
regards
Beth

Is the Sender accepting that the parcels are “lost” and willing to either refund or replace ???

“scanned to trunk”… what does that mean ?? sounds odd…

Means it has been handed over to the long distance section of the journey, usually an artic which may be doing the whole journey from the issueing hub to the French one, before being transferred to white van man for delivery (the weakest link in my opinion).

Maybe he is having trouble getting into Kent (KRAP) ? :astonished:

Scanned to trunk

never seen that particular wording before… ah well… never too old to learn something

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Neither have I, but trunk and trunker are well known terms in the haulage industry. It means a regular long distance journey which is often a there and back for the driver (though not always) merely swapping trailers at each end.

One of the best paying jobs I ever had was the night trunk for Boots from Nottingham to a depot in Bristol. Even before the completion of the motorway network which necessitated going through the centre of Birmingham, I could do it there and back in 9 hours, but paid for 12. :wink: :slightly_smiling_face:

Back home in bed for 6am, up at midday and now and again a stint on a limousine for my mate’s funeral business. :laughing:

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Hi, sender is a friend who kindly let me send parcels to her for onward transit. More & more companies I use are refusing to send direct so I’m trying to have a stock up before the end of the year!

She saw the chap who collected the parcels scan them so I don’t understand what’s happing. No one is replying to my emails which sums them up really.
regards
Beth

I’ve just had a DPD delivery go wrong. Company sent it out earlier than they were supposed to as I am on holiday, and I got a message that it had been delivered and signed for by my name. I got a neighbour to check nothing had been left, and got on to DPD and it had ‘t been signed for after all. I think sometimes the drivers are under such time pressure that if they can’t deliver straightaway they just throw the parcel away and pretend!

To cut a long story short, the only people who can track and trace a parcel are the person or company who sent it, as that’ who DPD’s contract is with. So you need to ask your friend to open a complaint.

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However it looks as though they are definitely within DPD’s network so if they go missing their responsibility.

Of course whether they cough up depends on what level of insurance was paid for (which I think is a complete and utter rip off and abrogation of the courier’s responsibility but that’s just me).

Very true, I even chased an order with a book company in the uk who told me my village didn’t even exist according to one driver! I would have been more impressed if it hadn’t been a split order (postal deals) and the first part had been delivered the previous day!
We DO live in an Impasse which until recently didn’t have a name, but at the entry to our three houses I had, but as y three different signs made up with my name and directional arrows. French deliveries are rarely a problem but like everywhere there are those lazy drivers who can’t even be bothered to call the telephone number on the delivery docket. One can only assume they don’t last long in their jobs, but they can do a lot of damage to a Company in a very short time.
Now we have a ‘proper’ address, I have just placed another order with the book supplier. We will see.

What really upsets me is that we exchanged about 10 emails initially, being passed around various departments. We were then told we have to deal with ‘DPD exports’, wrote to them - no reply. Then tried the CEO (Dwain McDonald) - no reply. Talk about customer service!
My friend is now trying from her end but I despair!

So true Norman, and as a result I wouldn’t use DHL for a pension. A very small parcel ordered from California passed without any problems through Frankfurt and Nantes to Bordeaux within a day or so, but then the lazy barstools, no less than 3 of them, refused to deliver because of no less than 3 different excuses, all invalid.

In the end I rang Bordeaux and said just come to the garage on the main road through the village and ring me, finally I got it, by going down to meet the bloke myself.

On the other side of the coin, I was tasked to deliver a dog to a hamlet in the Mayenne. The name of the road was the same on 3 different impasses, and no numbers. I walked down all three each time with my torch to search for names with no success. So I rang the number and got the info. Sadly the advice that indeed there was room to turn round with a small trailer proved to be false so I ended the saga with a 300 metre reverse in the dark. Happily one of the first improvements I made to the trailer was a pair of powerful spots hooked up to the reverse gear. :wink: :laughing:

In my experience DPD are rubbish. They send emails saying you need a code to accept delivery to give to the driver when they arrive at such and such a time on such a day. Of course they do not arrive. Some days later the parcel arrives (if you are lucky) in the mailbox or shoved behind the gate.
I will now avoid ordering stuff if it is to be shipped DPD and find another supplier who will ship Colissimo or UPS. Having used the latter heavily every day ( approx 6 shipments each day for about ten years) whilst living in the USA I can recommend them heartily.

Your friend is, I afraid, the one who has to chase this - assuming that she paid for the carriage since she is the one that has the contract with DPD - and start with the same bit of DPD that she bought the service from. Also, don’t forget, if paid by credit card she has extra protections (although that will almost certainly be limited to a refund for the parcel service if making a claim via the CC company).

I’m not totally certain why you were writing to the CEO - have you exhausted the regular customer service department’s offerings?

As I said previously - the most important question is was the parcel fully insured with DPD? It’s usually extra as cover “built in” to the basic price is rarely more than £50 and sometimes less. You will only get back the value to which you insured the contents, and DPD might make you wait to ensure it really is lost in their network.

Did it go missing on the French side or the English?

Yes, it will mean DPD’s central bit rather than the local delivery and collection arms - think of tree trunk & branches.

That said I’d expect something like “scanned t o central hub” - it does seem an odd way of putting it.

However the most important thing is that it has been scanned into the network - they can’t claim they never accepted it for transit, for instance.

I’ve tried all the ‘usual’ contacts with DPD UK, they just kept passing us around despite us sending the ‘reference’. In the end they said as it was being sent ‘internationally’ they could do no more and we had to contact dpdexports@dpd.co.uk. I wrote to them but they have not replied. That’s why I wrote to the CEO but he doesn’t reply either. Friend is trying from other end but it seems hopeless. How can you scan something and then lose it?
Out of interest we’ve never had a problem with DPD France, our house is on a small road and disappears in the summer behind trees/shrubs. They have always made every effort to find us.

I have been waiting a month for a parcel from Holland and Barrett usually very reliable peeps. Not sure if they uses DPD but La Poste has admitted losing 20,000 parcels.

I know people slag them off, but I’ve never had a problem with DPD - and we live well off the beaten track in the middle of nowhere. Had an email from them this morning saying I’ve got a delivery today (with tracking details) and it arrived 2 hours later