Parcel Motel Thread (post all related questions here)

Danger Fourpence

Wobbuffet wrote: »

I opened an emty locker on December 6th. I've either phoned or emailed Parcel Motel almost every day since then. They say the driver probably brought my parcel back to the depot. They say they'll look into it and get back to me in the afternoon, or later that day. I never get a call back, I just end up phoning again the next day and it's the same story. It's been ten days now and I still don't actually know where my parcel is. And it seems Parcel Motel don't know either.

It's infuriating. For a few days I was mailing them not even knowing if my mails were getting through - no auto response from their email address etc.

I checked out their webpage on package liability. It states that if there a liability you need to inform them that you're making a claim within 14 days, so if I were you I'd send a mail informing of the situation and you wish to proceed with a claim, just in case they try back out after the 14 day period. I always thought it was an excellent service but the way they're handling this is just ridiculous. I don't mind getting bad news, but no news at all is infuriating.

Polka_Dot

Funny, I haven't experienced any delays - I ordered from Amazon on Thursday evening, the parcel arrived in the parcel motel depot on Friday and I got an email yesterday to say it was ready for collection (Dublin). I do have another parcel in transit though, so hopefully that doesn't take too long.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Tenshot

Here are some recent transit times from my own PM account, delivering to Sandymount:

5. Received 15 Dec 2014, 19:51 - InTransit
4. Received 12 Dec 2014, 13:43 - Delivered 16 Dec 2014, 21:57 - 4.3 days
3. Received 09 Dec 2014, 13:37 - Delivered 11 Dec 2014, 21:39 - 2.3 days
2. Received 29 Nov 2014, 15:54 - Delivered 29 Nov 2014, 19:57 - 4 hours
1. Received 28 Nov 2014, 10:51 - Delivered 28 Nov 2014, 22:08 - 11 hours

I have two more Xmas parcels on the way at the moment, both due for delivery to PM tomorrow. Hope they make it down by next Wednesday or Santa's rep is going to take a bashing...

(My shortest delivery time so far is 2.5 hours from receipt in Newtownabbey to collection in Sandymount, back in September.)

Dodge

ivorb wrote: »

I've put hundreds of euro of business past them in the last couple months,

sounds like you're nearly solely to blame for your local backlog.

ardle1

stanley1 wrote: »

December is a mad month to be ordering online.

Exactly. And then to come on to a public forum and bash/bad mouth Parcel Motel! well it's not on, even retailers/shops order and receive all their products well in advance of December.. This happens every year(all over the World) and anyone who works in 'logistics' will tell you that.
Anyway I think Parcel Motel is absolutely fantastic, they've never let me down and have saved me a fair few €€€ in the last two years or so. I'll never know what it's like to expect a parcel a week or two before Christmas, because I hope never to be in that situation!!

firestarter51

ardle1 wrote: »

Exactly. And then to come on to a public forum and bash/bad mouth Parcel Motel! well it's not on, even retailers/shops order and receive all their products well in advance of December.. This happens every year(all over the World) and anyone who works in 'logistics' will tell you that.
Anyway I think Parcel Motel is absolutely fantastic, they've never let me down and have saved me a fair few €€€ in the last two years or so. I'll never know what it's like to expect a parcel a week or two before Christmas, because I hope never to be in that situation!!

I second that, great service by parcel motel, never let me down, asda sent my stuff with no Pm number and they were very helpful
Not had any delays using them
All courier companies are under pressure this time of year, yodel in the U.K. had to make a public apology because of the back log due to Black Friday
ParcelMotel save me money and also let me buy things that sellers wouldn't post to me otherwise

Sam Mac

What makes all these backlogs even worse, is the atrocious level of customer service and communication in general from Parcel Motel.

Will be using ParcelConnect from now on.

Danger Fourpence

ardle1 wrote: »

Exactly. And then to come on to a public forum and bash/bad mouth Parcel Motel! well it's not on, even retailers/shops order and receive all their products well in advance of December.. This happens every year(all over the World) and anyone who works in 'logistics' will tell you that.
Anyway I think Parcel Motel is absolutely fantastic, they've never let me down and have saved me a fair few €€€ in the last two years or so. I'll never know what it's like to expect a parcel a week or two before Christmas, because I hope never to be in that situation!!

So you think it's ok to have empty parcels, or no parcel at all, show up? I've used them with a long time and had no problems. However, the first time there is a problem it's effectively being ignored. It's 10 days since I contacted PM about a stolen item and if I hadn't contacted them on a number of occasions since then there'd have been no contact at all.
I was promised faithfully that I'd have an update yesterday afternoon and it never arrived. You don't think it's ok to complain? You think I'd be posting this on boards if PM had dealt with this properly?

TequilaMockingBird

Does anyone know how they charge for an over-sized parcel? I've had two deductions of €7 for over-sized parcels and two emails/tracking numbers, I was only expecting one which I thought would cost around €20. I've a few other parcels due, but they should be regular sized.

Tommyboy87

Does anyone know of any delays for Galway College Road Topaz?

keyboard_cat

Tommyboy87 wrote: »

Does anyone know of any delays for Galway College Road Topaz?

I had a package check into my account last night for the galway newcastle parcel motel and got the text this morning

munkee

ardle1 wrote: »

Exactly. And then to come on to a public forum and bash/bad mouth Parcel Motel! well it's not on, even retailers/shops order and receive all their products well in advance of December.. This happens every year(all over the World) and anyone who works in 'logistics' will tell you that.

The reason most people are bashing Parcel Motel is because they're straight up lying on their website. They say "48 hrs for delivery" in December. Their customer agents say it's actually 72 hours at least. For many folks it has been far longer.

Also, lots of mature companies in this business can handle the volume, e.g. Amazon, Royal Mail, An Post. The likes of Amazon make it very transparent what the latest order date is for Christmas. It's not like we're living in the 1920s and have to rely on carrier pigeons and horse draw carts for delivery.

Parcel Motel fail on two counts- not being able to handle the volume, and much more importantly, not being honest about the situation with customers. I use them for speed and convenience- if they had been honest about the delays I'd just have had my parcel shipped to my home- and would have received it last Friday courtesy of Royal Mail, who somehow manage to handle Christmas deliveries without a meltdown of their system.

keyboard_cat

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

Does anyone know how they charge for an over-sized parcel? I've had two deductions of €7 for over-sized parcels and two emails/tracking numbers, I was only expecting one which I thought would cost around €20. I've a few other parcels due, but they should be regular sized.

They have a calculator on the website in the top left hand corner a purple and white euro symbol beside their facebook and twitter link just put in the dimensions and weight of the parcel

basillarkin

Tommyboy87 wrote: »

Does anyone know of any delays for Galway College Road Topaz?

I have had 3 packages delivered in the last week a day behind at the most.

timetogo

basillarkin wrote: »

I have had 3 packages delivered in the last week a day behind at the most.

I've one in the depot since the 9th.
Got on to them yesterday using Twitter. It's not lost. Said it might be here by Friday.

I found twitter to be the best way to contact them. Emails were ignored.

Itsdacraic

This is the first I've heard of the delay. Placed an amazon order on Monday to Antrim and then onto Limerick. It's due to be delivered to PM Antrim on Thursday. What are the chances of them having it in Limerick before Christmas? Does the "48 hour delay" include weekends?

neasyerac

Ordered online on monday from the UK, got delivered to NI PM depot yesterday morning and my package was in it's motel at 10 today. I was a bit worried after reading some of the comments on here that it could take up to a week or so but was relieved that they got it to me in 24 hours. I collected it in the Clonmel motel by the way so it must not be as congested as other motels.

TequilaMockingBird

keyboard_cat wrote: »

They have a calculator on the website in the top left hand corner a purple and white euro symbol beside their facebook and twitter link just put in the dimensions and weight of the parcel

I know. I'm wondering why they've taken 2x€7 for one parcel.

Gadgetman496

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

I know. I'm wondering why they've taken 2x€7 for one parcel.

You say one parcel but was it one item you ordered? Could the supplier have split delivery into 2 packages?

TequilaMockingBird

gadgetman496 wrote: »

You say one parcel but was it one item you ordered? Could the supplier have split delivery into 2 packages?

I hope not - it's a telly!

I'm expecting other parcels, but they shouldn't be over-sized. I hope it's not someone else's over-sized parcel. Will soon find out (I hope).

PinkFly

So parcel motel received my bookpeople order this morning. Check my parcel motel account and it says the package is ' with customer' from 930 this morning! Is their system a little hay wired too as well as backlogged?

I don't care how long I'm waiting for it tbh once i get it before Xmas. Anyone know if Drogheda is bad with delays?

Itsdacraic

So is the problem moreso related to congested Motels in certain areas as opposed to all dispatches from their warehouse?

timetogo

Itsdacraic wrote: »

So is the problem moreso related to congested Motels in certain areas as opposed to all dispatches from their warehouse?

Probably. The problem is you won't know if your motel has congestion until your parcel doesn't move.

ivorb

Parcel Motel used to be great. But its not good enough to say 'oh its December, nothing we can do'. Not for a logistics company. I'm now waiting 7 days for a parcel. I've received 3 later parcels since, so this one is lost, but PM don't want to know.

Things Parcel Motel should be doing:

Allow people to collect parcels from the depot.
Allow upgrade to deliver parcels to home address (for small fee)
Combine parcels going to the same customer.
Put an estimated date of delivery for each parcel (based on what's happening at each motel).
Tell people a realistic date of last-arrival in Belfast for delivery before Xmas (probably today's date unfortunately).
Refund customers on a sliding scale based on how long they've had to wait.
Put a dedicated team in place to find lost parcels and process claims before Xmas.
Get the MD of Nightline to email all Parcel Motel customers to apologise. Update them on a daily basis as to the situation, and make some commitments about delivery.

timetogo

ivorb wrote: »

Parcel Motel used to be great. But its not good enough to say 'oh its December, nothing we can do'. Not for a logistics company. I'm now waiting 7 days for a parcel. I've received 3 later parcels since, so this one is lost, but PM don't want to know.

I had 2 parcels arrive after one that's been sitting in the depot for a week. So I thought it was lost too. I tweeted their account and the guy checked it up. He said it should be with me by Friday. So all is not lost.

I think they respond to the tweets as they're public. Emailing is no use.

I agree with your other points.

That putting multiple packages into one box is a great idea and shouldn't be too hard to implement. They'd lose a few quid but keep more customers and they'd have people posting here that they're brilliant.

They're going to have disastrous PR if parcels are still in depot on the 25th.

RandomUsername

Tommyboy87 wrote:

Does anyone know of any delays for Galway College Road Topaz?

I'm waiting for a package that was despatched from the UK on the 6th and another on the 7th although they did contact me yesterday saying they received a parcel without a pm id.

Danger Fourpence

ivorb wrote: »

Parcel Motel used to be great. But its not good enough to say 'oh its December, nothing we can do'. Not for a logistics company. I'm now waiting 7 days for a parcel. I've received 3 later parcels since, so this one is lost, but PM don't want to know.

Things Parcel Motel should be doing:

Allow people to collect parcels from the depot.
Allow upgrade to deliver parcels to home address (for small fee)
Combine parcels going to the same customer.
Put an estimated date of delivery for each parcel (based on what's happening at each motel).
Tell people a realistic date of last-arrival in Belfast for delivery before Xmas (probably today's date unfortunately).
Refund customers on a sliding scale based on how long they've had to wait.
Put a dedicated team in place to find lost parcels and process claims before Xmas.
Get the MD of Nightline to email all Parcel Motel customers to apologise. Update them on a daily basis as to the situation, and make some commitments about delivery.

First things first; COMMUNICATE!

joujoujou

Checked in - yesterday @ 10:28. Stored in motel - today @ 13:11. Sligo. Not bad.

Gran Hermano

I've had two parcels for collection over last couple of weeks, south Dublin locker.
Both took 48 hours longer than normal (based on previous orders) between check in with Belfast and arrival in locker.
No time saving using PM anymore. I'll be avoiding using in future, especially at busy times.
Increase in price and decrease in service.... No thanks!