Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I was supposed to get a parcel delivered on saturday morning. I'd specifically arranged the delivery at that time, as it's about the only time in the next week or two I can be around at home. Initial City Link let me down big style.

All said and done, I'm not sure any courier company is really at it's best on a saturday (do you know different?). However, these cowboys were really pretty useless. Avoid them if you can...

So there I am, waiting at home on saturday morning. At 9.40, I notice a card has been posted through my door saying "we tried to deliver, but you were out". It was left by "Dave" at 9.20. So, I call the number and tell them that he didn't ring the doorbell, and to get him back here. They tell me that he can't come back. I then argue a bit, so the call agent passes me on to her supervisor.

I speak to this guy, and tell him that Dave didn't ring the bell. He tells me that Dave must have rung the bell, because Dave wouldn't just write out the card, because that takes longer than delivering the parcel. Essentially, I got told that I must be a bit of an idiot for not hearing the doorbell. I also get told that this delivery company can't possibly deliver this parcel, except during the week. I explain that's not convenient, which is why I had specifically arranged a saturday delivery. The supervisor was unaccommodating, unsympathetic, and had no idea of customer serivce and customer focus.

Anyway, it transpires that the inept driver, Dave, had actually been to the wrong house. My neighbour had come home to find the card, realised it was for me, and dropped it around. I call Inital back again, whereupon they contact the driver once more, and ask him what he did. Then, I get told that he's on his way back to the depot, so they'll get someone to drop it off on their way home. They took my phone number, the idea being that they'd call to confirm. They didn't call, they didn't deliver.

So, I'm now left without my parcel, and without any convenient time to get the delivery. I figure I'm going to call Inital and get them to do an 8am delivery during the week. They'd better do it, or else there'll be hell to pay... (fortunately, I'm in a good position, because the sender wants to keep me on side because I'm potentially useful to them, so I can probably get some leverage via them).

Submitted by coofercat on Sun, 2003-08-10 23:17

Comments

Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I know exactly what you mean - I'm trying to track down a package that should have been delivered 2 weeks ago and is stil out there in the ether somewhere. Apparently City Link claimed (to the company that despatchhed the package) that they had a signature for the delivery (etc etc) and that was their obligation fulfilled. Having gone around all of the houses near me to see if someone had signed on my behalf and found that this wasn't the case I reported this back the supplying company. They called back shortly after to say that City Link had in factlied about the signature and hadn't bothered to deliver at all. I'm still waiting for the package as I write...

Submitted by Tim Rose (not verified) on Wed, 2003-12-17 17:33.
Bookmarks

1 sentence; do they actually knock on your door???

Submitted by craig burgess (not verified) on Fri, 2006-02-24 17:27.
How to run a (crap) Company

Firstly, mix up the delivery address and the invoice address. This ensures your customers get a day off work as they wait in for the package that should have been delivered to the office.

Next, run a telephone help system run by machines – answering machines. Let them leave a message, and trust it gets answered. After all, machines are tireless, and less likely to forget.

Then, arrange for a representative to call the customer back the following day. If the customer doesn’t answer (for whatever reason) they obviously don’t want their package that badly. Don’t bother to call them back. Wait for them to make the next move; you’ve made your token gesture.

When the customer does eventually call back, tell them they can’t change the address on the package. If they start asking for services listed on your web site (such as the ability to specify a delivery time) tell them you don’t do it. Ignore the customers pleas that you’re offering that service, and remind them this has nothing to do with trades descriptions.

If pushed, offer to make the package available to them in your warehouse. To reduce costs, hire premises 20 miles from the nearest town, or 10 miles from the nearest bus stop, whichever is the further.

Finally, sit back and relax as your workload eases up, as the customers refuse to use you again.

The End.

Unfortunately – this really happened with Initial City Link. I’m not the first to complain about City Link, and won’t be the last. They still have not corrected their Nominated time pledge.

Copied with permission from:

http://bluedust.com/blog/?view=plink&id=278

Submitted by Steev (not verified) on Wed, 2006-11-15 00:08.
Hello Tim. Where's mycard

Hello Tim.

Where's mycard

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Wed, 2006-12-13 12:03.
your card is on the end of

your card is on the end of your tongue. Remember , the same tongue that you have used for years to lick the bosses asses, Do you know we called the night shift manager ankles ( cos he was so far up the bossses arses you could only see his ankles ) the day shift manager is yet another arselicker, and this is the problem with shitty link. The management care only about themselves, whilst the rest of the staff are so disillusioned, that they really do not care. False carding happens at EVERY branch, i should know , i worked at Swindon where the Operations manager insisted we do it, amending timed deliveries so they didnt appear late. you know why , 1 word . BONUS.
SO TO MY OLD FRIENDS AT SHITTYLINK ( ALL 3 OF YOU ). Watch your backs, you know they want you out, dont give them a reason, and i pray to god that you see sense, and find a job with a company that cares about you. Because you are'nt working for one now.
CITYLINK CUSTOMERS ; BEWARE ; the company is in freefall, and there is only 1 directive, and that is to cut costs. You wont be dealing with them this time next year. All i can say is good luck, i worked there 3 years, and it sent me certifiably mental.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 11:34.
City link managers

Not to worry all the asslickers have now got management jobs with DX watch their business hit the skids too

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2011-11-24 00:58.
city-link.or is it S***y-link

Iv now been waiting five day for a parcel to be deliverd by these cowboys.This as got to be the worst oufit or is it misfit in the uk.keep well away, your best to deliver it your self.....

Submitted by David (not verified) on Thu, 2006-12-14 17:54.
You could always use the 5

You could always use the 5 days to take an English language course and learn how to spell you dope.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Fri, 2008-02-29 18:29.
well get off you lazy ass

well get off you lazy ass and go to the shops and get it yourself instead of ordering online, oh by the way the parcel aint yours til you have signed for it so stop moaning!

Submitted by Kev@ciytlink (not verified) on Mon, 2008-06-16 12:06.
Kev - it's not about the

Kev - it's not about the parcels, it's about the fact that you and your colleagues have no interest in doing your jobs.

I notice the New Beckenham branch have taken a creative measure to avoid complaints - they've changed their phone number apparently without registering the new one.

Submitted by andrew (not verified) on Sat, 2008-08-30 09:40.
citylink

well that just goes to show the contempt for customers you lot have. we are the ones paying your wages unless you are unable to comprehend it. what would you be doing if there were no parcels to deliver? I disagree with you, if I have paid for an item it's mine. I deliver to supermarkets in a big truck, at no point does any of the stock belong to me just because its in my truck. Your attitude speaks volumes in explaining the crap reputation your company has, your customers are not the enemy, its not our fault you are on crap money. if you dont like it do something else.
For what it's worth, I don't believe the drivers are the problem, I am more inclined to think its an administrative problem with the godawful automated phone system and the people at the depot unable to manage such things as re-deliveries and sadly lacking in an appropriate attitude to customer services.

Submitted by citylink R shite (not verified) on Tue, 2008-10-28 17:00.
i have many comments for you

i have many comments for you first the parcels on our vans belong to us until you have signed for them us being citylink not the sender nor the reciever once you have signed for them they are your responsibilty! if one is lost from our van is it still yours ?????????????? or ours ?????????? second i agree that our automatic system is bad infact a waste of time (without swearing) but your note that citylink are bringing back the in depot customer service instead of robots you will hear an english (not foreign) voice . finally people order over the net and are never in to recieve the parcel again i guess this is citylinks fault and not your own !!!!!!! our policys (which i disagree) states we must get a signature and nine times out of ten we are not allowed to deliver to a neighbour! your statement that your a truck driver and not a courier speaks volumes as you may be in the transport industry but you have no idea what a multi drop driver does we have over 90 points of calls a day on averagehow many do you get 5-6 all to a manned supermarket your right customers are not the enemy but they never help !!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by steve citylink driver (not verified) on Fri, 2009-01-09 11:25.
Steve citylink, what a

Steve citylink, what a clown/idiot u are. But at least ur working for the right company to match your ability/intelligence! 1st of all, those parcels are not yours. they are in your possesion for delivery, hence your insurance, carriage of other peoples goods. You and ur company are a service provider but the service supplied is sub-standard in general, how do i know this? Unfortunately, I once had a contract to carry spillover from 1 of your depots. Ive never seen so many idiots in 1 room at the same time. And thats just the management! The drivers were even worse, bitching and back-stabbing each other, and a more un-helpful, un-obliging crew Ive never met. But then again, as the saying goes, you pay peanuts and you'll get monkey's!

Submitted by The no.1 courier (not verified) on Mon, 2010-06-21 23:44.
I work in customer care and

I work in customer care and we do care, but more often than not Consignee's you the people waiting for your delivery are so aggresive and rude even before we have tried to help, we know mistakes are made, but that does not excuse bad language and bad manners when you are calling us, we are trying to do our jobs the best we can, but honestly sometimes the way we are spoken to does not make us want to go the extra mile to help, so perhaps think about the way you speak to the operator you get through to.Also why would a driver not knock on your doors and just card you. He's had to get out of the walk toyour door, he knows he has to come back tomorrow, he does knock he really does, maybe just maybe you didn't hear him. We know we are not perfect but neither are the royal mail, dhl, home delivery etc.

Submitted by Sandra - City Link (not verified) on Tue, 2010-02-09 20:17.
but at least the royal mail

but at least the royal mail etc, are'nt getting the arse kicking on here that Citylink are .......... enough said.
by the way. Other than Kev and Sandra, have you noticed how all the pro Citylink comments are made by anonymous cowards.
I'M TIM , I WORKED FOR SHITTYLINK AT SWINDON, AND IM NOT AN ANONYMOUS COWARD.
AND I COULD TELL YOU ALL MORE HORROR STORIES THAN YOU WOULD EVER WANT TO KNOW.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 11:47.
horror stories

Ex DX employee,
All the DX staff are now living the horror story, it's happening all over again. These Shittylink morons move from one company to another failing time after time and dragging their fatally flawed management ethos with them. Do they never learn a lesson or are they so arrogant that despite all the years of disasters they still think they are right.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2011-11-24 01:05.
card/knock/doorbell/leg it?

Yes. End of the day end of the week, got to head for here there or where ever. Beat the rush hour, make another more important drop-off, etc. So do not talk shit. People are attuned to their surroundings. Footsteps down the drive-way, on stones. The Creaking Gate.(Creeeeek)

Pounding on the front door. Alarm bells going off, as in the door bell. Its quicker to have a runner hop out of the passengers seat. YOURS. Planting-oh yes, we tried to call, we tried to deliver. The only item delivered was a sneakily delivered card - on tip toes.

So when there is no result its because Porkier talks, acts, out of its arse !!! Plus gets paid for it !!! Stop ordering, stop buying, and lets deliver our own stuff. Paid peanuts? Its too much !!! What a bloody mess. Realise its easier to be truthful - true ot one self. Meet Gaad.

Submitted by Porkie pie (not verified) on Sat, 2011-10-08 03:27.
Kev, this attitude will not

Kev, this attitude will not get you any more customers. Or is that your intent , 4 collections a day can be a killer. Especially after a 2 hour lunch. BTW congratulations..

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 11:38.
Feckin USELESS CITY LINK!! How can anyone they be co crap?

How are these CITYLINK morons still in business?????

I bought a car component of some weight from a Stoke on Trent supplier on Thursday; somewhat disappointed that they couldnt get it delivered (from stock allegedly) until Monday but waited in all day only to chase it up at mid-day to betold that the courier claimed to have "dropped a washing machine or something on it", so a new one had to be sent out, presumably by the same company as they'd be liable to refund/replace their service charge...so I wait in all day AGAIN only to check this time with CITY LINK that all was well and they read my address correctly off their screens and confirmed that the item was out in their van for delivery today. Apparently no problem. I wait in ALL DAY - nothing arrives. I call them again to be told a COMPLETE PACK OF LIES by the call-handler alleging that they had the wrong address (XXXX St instead of XXXX Sq) but there is no XXXX St at my postcode, nowhere feckin near it. What these dickheads had done is gone to my neighbour, NOT seen my flat name anywhere - therefore guys YOU ARE AT THE WRONG BLOODY DOOR!???!???! and dropped the card there regardless!? They were right outside my door.

How THICK do you have to be to go to an address and not to see a flat identifier doorbell marked with the A/B/C etc and not to think DOH! I MUST BE IN THE WRONG PLACE, I'LL JUST DO THE INTELLIGENT THING AND EITHER ASK SOMEONE AT THE NEXT PROPERTY OR PHONE THE BLOODY CUSTOMER. ARGH!!

Be advised; Never EVER use Initial City Link.They're SHITE....It's really hard to believe that any UK courier company continues to be in business when they're so **incompetent**

Submitted by GLASGOW CUSTOMER (not verified) on Wed, 2007-01-10 10:38.
if you where in all day as

if you where in all day as you claim im guessing you would have seen the van and if he carded the wrong address how can he ask them if he is in the right place (ill let you work that one out) and now you want us to phone every customer crickey can i live in cuckoo land with you was the postcode correct again im sure the sender didnt get it wrong but what if they did ?????? was your number / name on your house clearly visable ???????? you would be suprised on how many customers order and have no name or number on there house but dont worry blame citylink

Submitted by steve citylink driver (not verified) on Fri, 2009-01-09 12:03.
steve deserves a brain

@steve citystink .most people can live in there houses without pressing their faces against their front windows 24/7. you wouldn't have to phone every customer if you delivered their parcels correctly in the first place. every paper girl/boy that our newsagent has used delivers quite a few newspapers a day, yet they seem to manage perfectly well, as does my usual postman. where do you think you're going wrong? maybe we should all live in cuckoo land (this is probably where you're delivering all the parcels).

Submitted by a person who does his job and doesn't have to blame others (not verified) on Sun, 2011-01-02 17:55.
city link are rubbish

city link delivered a card for satnav postal today, thursday.
this is 6 days after the order placed on amazon.
card does not have a tick at the 'try again some other time' box.
i called the number - no saturday delivery possible, says the automatic thingy.
i leave a message at 620pm, 40 mins b4 the place shuts - no call back.
i will have to take a train for about £2.50 return and walk for 40 mins total to get the parcel on saturday - passport 'please'.
the message is this : if you are not in the first time (because you work, you idiot) then YOU WILL COME TO OUR DEPOT TO PICK UP THE PARCEL.
we will not talk to you on the phone line number we give, so tough shit , mister customer.
it's plain to me that city link initial are totally obsessed with the profit motive - they have no interest whatsoever in the welfare of the recipient of the mail/parcel.
here's a suggestion: do not use this company for deliveries - you will be pissed off by their arrogance andcynicism.
if you are a company that delivers to customersusing city link initial you will definitely lose customers - use royal mail, they have many more depots, saturday deliveries every week.
(i do not work for royal mail).
royal mail left me a card too - for the satnav mains adaptor. i will make a detour of 250 yards total to pick this up tomorrow, friday.
i am now going to email the company who sold me the satnav - i will advise them never to use city link again.
point made?
i hope so!
gmcn

Submitted by city link are rubbish (not verified) on Fri, 2008-06-20 03:43.
Down...Down

City link is quite possibly, the worst service available. A courier believe it or not, left my package in a portable toilet rental that was abandoned on the street in front of my house...

You gotta be sh*&tin me...

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2008-09-11 21:29.
did you get your parcel im

did you get your parcel im guessing yes then job done

Submitted by steve citylink driver (not verified) on Fri, 2009-01-09 12:05.
It was probably covered in

It was probably covered in shit, so my guess is the parcel was not received in a satisfactory condition. If not a breach of company rules, then certainly a breach of ettiquette ( that means the correct way of doing things, i thought i'd save you having to find your dictionary )If the parcel was left at the nearest lamppost, does that constitute a delivery, because i know drivers at Shittylink who have done this.
I also remember 3 Christmas's ago when the theft level was at crital , and some poor consignee got his first, second, and third replacement laptops stolen. Dont beleive such a thing could happen. Ask the Vodaphone shop in Northern Wiltshire. And god alone knows how TV's can go walkies...........

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 11:55.
Thanks for the spammy link

Thanks for the spammy link drop. [2008-09-11 21:29]

Twat.

Submitted by Steve (not verified) on Mon, 2010-12-20 10:44.
Each case in isolation

whilst I understand your frustrations with regards to missing your delivery I think you need to consider your rant and the reasoning behind some of the actions:

a/ Did Amazon dispatch your delivery promptly - it is unlikely that City Link would not attempt delivery on day 1
b/ Saturday deliveries are a premium service for which the customer pays a premium rate. If City Link card you as your not in then to upgrade would mean additional cost to the customer which they would struggle to pass on to you in this circumstance (i.e. non account). Amazon would dictate the upgrade
c/ the depots have to be located somewhere and can't be within walking distance of every possible delivery point. I'm sure people who have to travel to Royal Mail depots but are next door to a City Link depot share equal frustrations with Royal Mail
d/ If you order something to be delivered to your house then it would prudent to ensure that somebody is going to be there. If you are not going to be in then I would suggest having delivered to your place of work or to an address where it can be signed for.
e/ ID is required on collection to ensure that the goods are being picked up by the correct person and to prevent anybody else attempting to collect unauthorised. If it had been issued to an opportunist thief I'm sure you would have asked the question as to why ID wasn't requested.

It's easy to cast aspersions when you don't really have an understanding of the logistics behind getting 150000 consignments a day from A to B securely and safely.

Merry Christmas

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Tue, 2008-12-09 11:40.
idiot

its not alway the delivery companys fault the cust tells us to only try twice as they won't pay for a third delivery may be you idiots should get your facts right before you try and place blame w*!kers!!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Sat, 2008-12-13 08:33.
where to start with your

where to start with your comments try being in or have it delivered to your works address!you will note on the card you received instructions with a cons number on what to do next it really is simple ! im guessing the sat nav is a present and not for yourself as why would you need one if you travel by train or are you jumping on a bandwagon yet again ps we dont have a try again some other time box hence it was not ticked

Submitted by steve citylink driver (not verified) on Fri, 2009-01-09 11:37.
do you really think that we

do you really think that we are going to turn up an not knock your door you must be the clever one in the family we hate it when nobody is in causes more work

Submitted by steve citylink driver (not verified) on Fri, 2009-01-09 11:51.
I was having a piss and in

I was having a piss and in that short time u posted the card and fucked off and refused to come back...then i had to wait all weekend coz u dont deliver on sat or sundays.........D**k heads.

Submitted by angry man (not verified) on Fri, 2009-06-12 13:58.
How was the driver supposed

How was the driver supposed to know that you were in the toilet, and why should he come back, if he was to go back to everyone that requested it then everybody elses deliveries would be delayed, but then you are to selfish to think about that, and if you want a saturday delivery them put your hand in your pocket and pay for it. So dont blame City Link for inept ability to answer your door

Submitted by Sandra - City Link (not verified) on Wed, 2010-02-10 22:05.
Yes but when you contact a

Yes but when you contact a company 30 times and cant speak to anyone to get the item sent out to you ... after a card 'has been put through the door' 2 even though you were in and NO ONE ang the door its totally taking the piss

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2010-12-16 00:50.
no they dont knock

no they dont knock

Submitted by Darrell (not verified) on Mon, 2010-01-11 14:59.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Your not alone. I ordered a gift from an online retailer a week before my Brothers birthday, to make sure I got it in time. They sent it out the next day.

Its now 3 weeks since my brothers birthday and no parcel has been delivered. On the status page it says that delivery attempt has been made 4 times "Goods out for delivery" but I have been in on all those days and have had NO delivery. The days I was not I have had no card in the dorr.

Even worse, I ordered a very expensive bit of DJ kit and found out that that store uses Inistal City Link as well! When I got the conformation e-mail saying my order had been dispatched my face sank like a ton of lead in the sea.

This company is the worse deluvery firm I have ever experience and I am still waiting for my parcels. One is 3 weeks and 5 days overdue and the other is 1 day overdue.

I dont give out much hope. I now wont use any shop that uses them as a supplier after this experience as you can't rely on them for anything.

Submitted by David (not verified) on Fri, 2003-12-19 11:27.
Bookmarks

i have purchased a designer bag from online shop nearly a month ago..i tried to get hold of the sender many times and they told me that the package has been sent on sept 15 on the present year by using the city link courier..wowwwww..i'm amaze...becasue it's almost end of the month now and i still haven't got any package from them..now i tried to get hold of the manager of the online shop where i purchased the bag and guess what? they got hold of the courier company and the lastest and the most stupid news i have ever heard in my life was ..they have delivered it in a wrong place and wrong address...i am not sure if these company drivers doesn't know how to use the map or they are just simply embiscile, moron, dumb and what ever you want to call them...this is really annoying..i nearly ended up sueing the seller because or the courier's companysnegligence...now i am no longer interested in the bag and just simply ask for the refund... i feel sorry for the seller but never with the city link courier... i hope that this comment will serve as another lesson for the city link users..

Submitted by princess (not verified) on Wed, 2006-09-27 17:11.
you neglect to mention if the

you neglect to mention if the correct address was on the package as most senders label and address it themselfs but im sure the sender didnt get it wrong or did they hang on who cares blame citylink and there drivers

Submitted by steve citylink driver (not verified) on Fri, 2009-01-09 11:54.
City Link quality problems

I've just ordered some more stuff from Ebuyer and again they are using City Link. I checked on the net to see if they are getting better and time will tell.
My experience with City Link Cardiff has been awful. We are 40 miles from the depot there and the drivers used to not bother to come out our way if it was getting towards the end on the day, they would just put in a report saying they had carded the house as no one was there. No card was ever left of course. Then when you tried to ring Cardiff, no one answered the phone, ever!

Now, I put a large notice on our gate saying " CITY LINK Deliver here" with the consignment number and leave the front door open all day with another notice on the front door.

This time, ebuyer have sent me the tracker number but it doesn't seem to be on City Link's system until many hours after it has been given to ebuyer.
I did manage in the past to speak to senior management people at the head office, you can find that number from their web site if you try hard enough.
It will be interesting to see how they do this time.

Submitted by newsstudent (not verified) on Fri, 2009-10-02 16:32.
citylink drivers

I wonder if everyone believes the senders us drivers can only deliver to the address that is given, not only that the senders always blame the couriers to save face ,the problem is that the senders don't always get the address right or send it on the day they said they did . wouldn't it be simpler to get your city link code go on the computer and track your parcel to see if the sender has sent it to the right address before making comments on us hard working lads.?????

Submitted by b.a (not verified) on Wed, 2008-04-16 01:16.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hmm, this is interesting.I ordered a power supply from a company called Protac.They use ICL as their carrier.The supply was delivered without me being at home - left "securely" at my rear door, in the pouring rain.A quick call to Protac said that everything was Ok, just to let the supply dry out, and everything will be ok.So I plugged it in and *bang*.The computer was burning!So I (finally, after a month of reasoning, talks with trading standards, and a meeting with my solicitor) got Protac to have a look at the computer.They took it back, repaired it for me (as a gesture of good will), and sent it back to me for delivery on thursday.Nothing came.I called them, and they said that the courier called, but I was out, so they will try again on friday.I stayed in again, for the whole of friday.Nothing came.I'm still trying to convince Protac that I have in fact been at home for all of this time, and that its just ICL that are absolutely incompetant!I have now forwarded Protac grid references, long/lat references, and am getting ready to send photographs, and directions from the couriers headquarters if necessary.The level of help I'm getting from Protac is unbelievable, but I suppose I cant complain, because they did repair the laptop (which I apparently broke) for free.It makes you wonder how these companies actually stay in business.Lets just run down in brief:
1) courier leaves goods in rain, and forge signature on Proof of Delivery
2) protac refuse to take power supply back
3) protac refuse to believe that goods were left in rain
4) protac take goods back, with intent to charge for repairs
5) they decide to waiver the cost of repair - maybe because I contacted their HQ?
6) Protac send the laptop back using ICL
7) ICL claim to come three times, and claim to be putting cards through my door.

Unbelievable.Wouldnt you have thought Protac would simply do a search, just like I did ("+initial +city +link" in google returns around about 8pages of complaints!) before they start accusing their customers of lying?

Submitted by Robbie (not verified) on Sun, 2003-12-21 23:44.
When the sender is your

When the sender is your family and you ask the depot the address its been sent to and they give you the correct address, then yes it is city links fault for not knocking on the door even though you were in!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2010-12-16 00:52.
knocking on doors

NOwe don't knock at any doors we just tip-toe past so we aint seen then take them back to the depot just to take them out the next day to do it all again..(IDIOT).. Why do people order things for next day delivery knowing full well that they are not going to be in is beyond me..

Submitted by b.a. (not verified) on Wed, 2008-04-16 01:27.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I was just trying to access Initial City Link's website and came across this page.
Here is my story:
I ordered some goods on-line and paid ?10 delivery charge
Thurs 7/10 Arrive home to find delivery failure card from ICL.
FRI 8/10 Ring ICL to arrange new delivery date since I would not be at home to receive delivery that day (apparently they try to deliver again next day automatically unless you ring)
Am told that I had already had 2 delivery attempts on 6th and 7th and that I would have to arrange with the supplier to pay an extra ?3 for a further delivery. Didn't think I'd had a delivery failure card on the Wed but couldn't be sure so accepted what they said. Having paid ?10 delivery already, I thought it was a bit steep-collecting from the depot wasn't an option.
Arrive home Fri afternoon to discover a further attempted delivery card from that afternoon!!!
Tried to ring ICL to find out what was going on but phone consatntly engaged until Mon am.
Mon 11/10 Finally get through to Customer services and am told that my goods were already on the van on Friday so they couldn't stop the delivery. When I try to explain that they omitted to mention this on Fri otherwise I could've arranged to be at home, I get told to stop shouting!! They tell me that I won't be charged the extra ?3 (big deal!) but I have to arrange with the supplier for a refund.
Thurs 14th I am waiting in anticipation of the delivery today. I really wouldn't have cared about the money -all I really wanted was an apology! The supplier of my goods did admit that they've had a lot of problems recently and will be reviewing their contarct.

Submitted by Ann (not verified) on Thu, 2004-10-14 15:54.
or maybe the fact that your

or maybe the fact that your company is in dire financial trouble, that they put more drops and collections per van, and the poor overworked driver, has to falsify records because you get given a Mercedes sprinter to drive and NOT Thunderbird 2, which is what you really need.And there are not enough hours in the day to do what you are ORDERED to do. Or maybe you dont have a life and like working from 6.30am to 8pm 5 days a week for £300 a week take home.Its only going to get harder on the driversas Shitylink keep cutting costs, and this is done by giving the delivery drivers more work, the warehouse staff less people, and the management keep breaking peoples backs because BONUS IS EVERYTHING.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 12:05.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

14/10 They haven't come-my supplier has chased them and they say my parcel is not on the van today!!! She has arranged with them to deliver before 10:30 tomorrow.

Submitted by Ann again (not verified) on Thu, 2004-10-14 17:44.
not so Shitty Link

I have a considerable amount of parcels delivered to my home address from various different parcel companies and City Link are by far and away the best. I live in a village miles the nearest town and my driver nearly always delivers anything that he has for me between 8 - 8:15am when there is always someone at home. Seemingly he delivers to me on his way to his timed deliveries as it's on his way. If he misses us he delivers on his way back to the depot which is afer 5pm and someone is again usually at home. I have used their automated service when I have been carded and its relatively straightforward. Miserable Gits at the depot though.
The reason I get good service is simply down to the driver. The lad is a star. His van is new, he's always in uniform and although he is always running to get his other deliveries done he is always funny and apart from being a Man. Utd fan i cannot fault him.
I hope someone from City Link gets to read this because I have seen a few reviews of their service online and they are usually written by the unreasonably stupid saying something stupidly unreasonable.

Well done City Link, Good Job

Submitted by ETE (not verified) on Fri, 2008-07-18 20:58.
thank you at least someone

thank you at least someone appriciates our work

Submitted by citylink driver (not verified) on Sat, 2008-11-15 13:45.
If your work is lying about

If your work is lying about trying to deliver the item 4 times (all of those times I was in) and then managing to lose, then find then SMASH the item then yes well done you

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2010-12-16 00:54.
yeah , its probably someone

yeah , its probably someone in the personnel dept.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 12:06.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I'm sorry to hear so many people have had similar problems. But, this is one of the reasons I got a website and started blogging. I find that a tiny fraction of 1% of my visitors comment, yet there are plenty on this page. I take that to be because people are moved to comment because they're so insensed by ICL.

If anyone's after a decent courier, I've had good experiences with Business Post and Churchill Express (both as a sender and receiver). The big boys, like UPS and DHL seem to be pretty good too. Even Parcelforce does a good job for one-offs. Apparently Interlink are good as well, but I don't think I've ever used them.

Submitted by coofercat on Thu, 2004-10-14 18:17.
Clearly you must be getting

Clearly you must be getting back handers from Business Post (UK Mail) if you are able to recommend them as they are anything but good, they cant be that good if they have to buy Amtraks database as a desperate measure to get business!!! sites like this only exsist as the general public like to moan and after reading all of the messages on here none of it is constructive, its just bored stupid people moaning as they have nothing better to do other than act like a bunch of sheep and jump on the band wagon, people only ever mention bad experiences and nothing in life is 100%, and im sure everyone of you who has written something negative on this website has ever made a mistake..... because we are human after all........ You talk about DHL etc as being the big boys as if City Link is a small time operation, maybe you'd be surprised to know that City Link (not inital as so many of you like to call the company) is acturally the 2nd biggest parcel carrier in the UK..... maybe not so small fry

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Mon, 2008-10-13 23:11.
misleading claim

With the City Link takeover of Target they could claim to be the second biggest UK courier. But with the botched up, ill thought, on the cheap merger of two crap couriers they must have lost 75 percent of their trade and are now small fry.

Submitted by ex city link driver (not verified) on Mon, 2011-04-18 20:36.
they also have 2 ( two ) dual

they also have 2 ( two ) dual operating systems that cannot communicate with one another. They have the Target system, and the Citylink system.
Imagine that the 2nd biggest parcel company with a computer system that dont work. Now thats not a human mistake. So , the overworked office staff and traffic controllers, have to do everything twice. They have to message both systems, so that the depots running on the target system, can view the messages and information on the citylink system, and vice versa.
The second biggest courier company with the most problems. Dont blame the staff , by and large they ARE competant people, just undervalued, underpaid, and under the heel of a mismanagement team who dont care about anything or anybody, just MONEY. They are not a caring company , and the welfare of their staff is way down on their priorities, so it's no wonder when staff get fed up, any duty of care to the customer has long been beaten out of them by management. Shittylink is rotten from the top down.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 14:13.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

i am a city link driver if you so called customers knowing you have ordered your parcels and have asked for next day delivery why dont you stay in your houses until delivered then we wont have to leave your parcels at someone elses house or at your back door in the rain or is that so hard to do even phone your supplier and see if the god damn parcel as even been sent out and stop blaming the courier we only try our best

Submitted by c ity link driver (not verified) on Sun, 2004-11-14 16:59.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Quoted By city link driver (not verified) at Sun, 2004-11-14 16:59
i am a city link driver if you so called customers knowing you have ordered your parcels and have asked for next day delivery why dont you stay in your houses until delivered then we wont have to leave your parcels at someone elses house or at your back door in the rain or is that so hard to do even phone your supplier and see if the god damn parcel as even been sent out and stop blaming the courier we only try our best
=======================================================

Try putting them on your van
My consignment arrived at delivery depot 6.30 Thursady, yet was not sent out for delivery, contacted City Link at 9.30 next day was told they did not know if it would be today (Friday) as it was not showing that it had been loaded yet.
It was delivered Friday but only 2of3 packages, contacted City Link again they said they had it at the warehouse and they would deliver the missing part of my consignment Saturday, waited in all day again..
you guest it NOT DELIVERED AGAIN.
Finally got it Monday, 5days(114hrs)on a 24hr delivery.

I also sent Computer System back to have a miner repair done, when I got it back opened the box to fine it all smashed (Case side panel, Motherboard, Graphics Card etc all smashed) though thoughtless handeling!!!

Submitted by Graham (not verified) on Sat, 2006-12-16 15:16.
i work for city link in one

i work for city link in one of our many customers if were so bad why r we the uk's no 1 courier company?u lot no nuffin! if u want ur parc's stay in n bluddi wait! our drivers work from 6.3am till 5-6pm every daay 5 days a week!

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Mon, 2007-02-05 22:57.
Used to work for them

I worked for Initial City Link for a period of about three months. I am astounded that anything ever got delivered on time, in one piece. Parcels were literally thrown about the warehouse by the loading crew, often falling onto the concrete floor. I witnessed many breakages due to throwing and often kicking the parcels; the floor manager once dropped a large box containing glass UV tanning tubes because he couldn't be bothered to put it down gently, which of course transformed it into a box of glass powder.
The drivers often returned with vans still half-full, it was common knowledge that they would never bother to wait for a door to be answered for more than a few moments. In short, they are a dreadful company. Never ever EVER use them.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2007-05-14 17:16.
I've worked there, too.

I did 5 hours in their Ashford, Kent depot last week. Never again. Appalling. The very worst place I've ever worked. Items with "Fragile" written all over them thrown and dropped, one parcel containing bottles of alcopops broken (and the unbroken bottles apparently stolen), a flat screen monitor just slung on the floor, a leather football being kicked about and not just along the ground, packages being forced into the cages so their packaging breaks, casual racism and an extremely casual attitude to health and safety (jumping onto and walking along the roller belt for instance) and all the while the shift supervisor not giving a toss. At one stage he even complained about two lads who were chatting instead of working. Why? Who's the boss? They are nothing but a load of thieves. They don't care about your parcels - I've seen it first hand, they just want your money.

Submitted by Richard (not verified) on Tue, 2007-10-02 01:23.
try lifting a fragile

try lifting a fragile package weighing up to 60kgs by yourself , put that on a van with 79 other parcels , and then deliver 3 storys up, try working with polish warehouse staff and possibly polish drivers , if we cant be arsed we have ways to say it was carded when it never was, we are lieing bastards but 99% of the time try our best , if you live on a farm or new built estate put some runway lights in your garden, how often do you think road maps are updated, we have had no wage rise for 7 years and dont look to be getting our bonus again , we are cheap as chips, so obviously busy , you may send pdq . even dhl but we will sometimes deliver that too much hassle for the big boys
we are cowboys and management suck, stay away ,
and if your too lazy , just refuse to help a driver breaking his back trying to hep you

Submitted by 80+ (not verified) on Fri, 2007-11-16 20:13.
I worked at City Link

I worked at City Link Cambuslang.Your comments present no more than a derisory image of what is a company trying very hard to gain public confidence.There IS ongoing Manual Handling Training in how to handle packages, there IS ongoing training as how to complete your paperwork properly, and may I add, some of the most decent guys I have ever met in my entire life.If customers are dissatisfied with what you did, then I suggest you get ONGOING training in manners and etiquette.I always found that if you were fair with a customer, then they were fair too.Your comments posted on here IN NO WAY present a fair reflection and DO NOT speak for majority.

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Sat, 2008-05-17 07:20.
city link

i work as a loader at city link and wouldnt send a building brick with them. the packages are thrown, kicked, dropped, run over by fork trucks. but then again the conditions are appaling, health and safety are none existant, managers always turning up worse the wear for drink. when you complain to head office you get victimised. so if inept management doesnt care why should the workers? go with some other courier company

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Sat, 2009-11-28 22:54.
then you obviously can't

then you obviously can't count.
Your bound to say it's only those who complain who post on this forum.
Your right. And if i was the managing director i would be appalled at the amount of critiscism this companty is getting. I mean you only have to succesfully attempt 95% of your deliveries each day, and it takes selective meanderings to achieve that. Lets say that each depot puts an average of 75 deliveries on each van. Now lets say that 10 of these are multiples, that leaves 65 deliveries, each van is out on the road for around 10 hours, you do the math, 1 every 10 mins, in some instances such as housing estates or business parks, some customers are only yards away from 1 another, it takes around 30 seconds to knock on a door, get a reply and then a signature, again do the maths. I worked for this company , and was one day asked to go out delivering after receiving no training whatsover, i was put in charge of a 1.5 tonne van, with only a rudimentary knowledge of where i was going, and an old a to z of the area. i left the depot at 10am, and was back at 3pm because that was my usual finishing time and i had kids to collect from school. With no training or help, i succesfully attempted/delivered 50 deliveries. I'll tell you the main problem , it's not the general staff, but incompetant management who place unreasonable demands on the drivers,and the warehouse staff. The office staff seem to have it easier, during my time, i noticed more bitching, backstabbing and general vindictivness behind each others backs, that it's a wonderthe office staff had any time to do any work, as the main business of each day was what the prima donna was wearing that day, and what was for tea that night, all conducted between mountains of food being shovelled down peoples mouths. I never felt so alone as when i worked there. The best solution , is to leave them to their own devices, use a reputanble delivery company who respect their staff and care for their welfare, and leave c/l to implode. To the few nice people i worked with , i have only this to say, get away while you can, you have been there long enough to see the changes, and they are NOT for the better. Good luck, you'll need it.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 14:51.
RE: dealings with city link.

I was with a man who worked at citylink for a year or so and the stories i have read on here are soooo true and much worse, at one point a massive t.v went missing, as well as the employees setting up routines so to be able to wait with each others stolen goods at petrol garages whilst the other driver takes his van back!! leaving cards at peoples homes whom were out that parcels were left in porches etc and then taking them away for themselves. Even if they lost a mega amount of parcels nothing was ever done about it, no care at all with this company, I don't know where they get the good advertising from thats on thier website but it is false!! These thieves have latest phones and latest gadgets as expensive as laptops and sit in the coffee room laughing about it. Its o.k though because we pay a small insurance that covers them!!!!

Submitted by anon (not verified) on Mon, 2008-01-21 02:01.
city link

you really should be careful who u r calling thieves. that is slandarous.

and you try working 6am to 6pm,delivering 80 odd parcels, to 80 diff adresses,and very vague addresses supplied by senders,and next day del,and you are out,and actually ask someone who works there high up the system in place for failures and how registered,monitored and fines etc are placed,98 to 99% is a very real target that we all reach,and considering the loads.....you try better.

Submitted by papa (not verified) on Wed, 2008-08-06 00:34.
98% isn't that high

If you claim to deliver 80 packages per day and you need to achieve a score of only 98% to avoid a fine then basically what you're saying is each driver may steal one package per day and be within company limits. Should he steal more then one package per day then apparently he gets a fine. Is this fine variable depending on what packages go missing? If not then it's not really a deterent to theft, more of an elaborate staff discount system.

Submitted by Bazz (not verified) on Thu, 2008-08-28 11:50.
stil a worker

unfortunatley i am still a worker for this dreaded company and if anyone who ever reads this message pass this message on to many others.DONT EVER USE THEM. theives and scandlers operate this firm, and if not them they practice for cricket constantly.

Submitted by terry1 (not verified) on Sat, 2008-06-21 20:42.
oh dear....nice bit of

oh dear....nice bit of grammar and spelling there moron.....no wonder we never get our parcels

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Tue, 2007-07-17 12:59.
at our depot, the drivers

at our depot, the drivers finish at 4pm! get your facts right you twat, i dont think some drivers even bloody bother to attempt some deliveries because they want to get home early to play golf! and i dont blame them judging by you miserable bastards!

Submitted by city link warehouse worker (not verified) on Mon, 2007-10-08 22:00.
shity link

City Link the worst company i have ever worked for ruined a perfectly good company when they accuired target express shit management kick them out.
Believe me this company are the worst AVOID.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2008-04-23 14:52.
Well my wife was in when one

Well my wife was in when one of your fellow lame excuses for a "deivlery" driver posted a "tried to deliver" note through our door not more than 2 hours ago. Then tried phoneing your (yeah right) customer services to no avail.

Heres a tip for you drivers. See the button thing? Try pushing it rather than just walk up to the door and waiting.

City link more like shi.....

Submitted by Mithaearon (not verified) on Fri, 2007-02-16 14:23.
city link

i think you are a mean person who doesn't accept there own faults, maybe your wife is deff n not heard the door bell ring looser

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Thu, 2008-03-20 13:04.
So kindly explain why when a

So kindly explain why when a parcel is marked for collection at the local depot, why does it get put on a van for delivery, house cant be found so is left with someone in the vecinity of the house and no card put through my letterbox? and then when I phone up to complain and find out where my parcel is I get told that I should have been in for delivery.

Submitted by Annoyed customer (not verified) on Fri, 2007-12-07 15:23.
staying in

How many days are you supposed to wait in for a parcel that should have been delivered the next day? Some of us actually do have to work for a living you know. And noone has even attempted a delivery yet in 5 days according to the tracking number and what exactly is the 20 minute wait to talk to a semi human about on your phones? Where is my parcel?? We don't know! It's just as well we don't wait in or we'd all starve!

Submitted by Annoyed (not verified) on Sat, 2011-09-03 23:42.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Thanks for the view from the other side. Clearly you're one of the more conscientious drivers at ICL, and I don't think included in these complaints.

As a consumer I order things from the Internet, which the vendor sends out. In most cases, the vendor will say when they're going to send stuff (up front), and will tell me the actual time of dispatch, and even the parcel number.

The problem is, I might order something assuming next day delivery, yet it only gets dispatched after that. Now of course, I won't be home (after all, I have a job to go to like everyone else). There's a double problem here - the supplier can't/won't hold dispatch until it's convenient to me, and no courier that I've ever dealt with can re-arrange delivery of something that hasn't been attempted yet. So the courier has to come to my (empty) house and leave a card - I have very little control over this. The only obvious solution is saturday deliveries (but see my original post!).

Clearly some less-scrupulous couriers and drivers get fed up with this and "do us a favour" by leaving parcels where they shouldn't. As customers, we have a problem with this because it's not what we're paying for - so we complain. ICL in particular take such complaints very badly, doing as little as they can to resolve the situation amicably. As a result, you get what you see here - lots of annoyed people.

It seems ICL need to do two things:
1) Ensure all drivers stick to the rules
2) Handle complaints better, working to resolve the situation, as opposed to bickering about it.

If both of those things happened, customers would be happy and drivers would have better jobs (because the customers they meet are happy to see them!).

Submitted by coofercat on Sun, 2004-11-14 19:20.
the delivery works 2 ways ,

the delivery works 2 ways , the customer wont spend 3 weeks at home everyday waiting for a parcel so of course they will go to work or the shops , but for us we would prefer you were home or maybe try leave safe ,you dont like safe because it could be stolen or get wet , but how about we take it away, you call for re-delivery and so does every other git who isnt home so increasing output the next day by 15 when we are already pushed to the limit, citylink do take leaveing parcels seriously and i know drivers who get trouble for this, but why spoil it for the many people who like to have there goods on time, would you like your christmas tree b christmas, your fireworks before firework night ,,
customer service do ok ,
but management are invovled in a big cover up

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Fri, 2007-11-16 20:20.
See my post dated 17 May 08.

See my post dated 17 May 08. I think you may get drift, cheers.

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on Sat, 2008-05-17 09:06.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

also if you can be bothered to put numbers on your houses or supply us with contact numbers you might just guarantee that you get your parcel on time we are not mind readers you know or we would be able to tell you the six numbers for the lottry

Submitted by another city link driver (not verified) on Sun, 2004-11-14 22:44.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

also if you can be bothered to put numbers on your houses or supply us with contact numbers you might just guarantee that you get your parcel on time we are not mind readers you know or we would be able to tell you the six numbers for the lottry

Submitted by another city link driver (not verified) on Sun, 2004-11-14 22:44.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

City Link handle thousands of parcels daily, about 97% are delivered on time. Consignor's who use City Link are aware of the services we provide, but do not relay the type of service they have choose for consignee's. Some consignor's choose to send parcels on a next day service with automatic reattempt the following day. When a card has been left on the firstattempt and the consignee is not in, it does state on the card not to call the depot as 2nd delivery will automatically be re-attempted the following day. Its no good calling the following morning as the parcel will have been scanned on to a van at 6am, which is far to late to stop the delivery, although a consignee may call when we open and request for the parcel to be stopped, it will be classed as a 2nd delivery attempt in most cases, as our contract with the consignor does not state if delivery is stopped by the consignee then its classed as a first delivery attempt. Our contract is with the consignor who is well aware of our policy. Its just not alway possible to stop a delivery & put it out at the consignee's request. As our contract is not with the consignee. A lot of consignee's ignore the instructions on the card requesting not to call as will automatically be reattempted the following day, they call City Link. Which then blocks our phone lines hence your unable to get through. We also get consignee's calling saying they have not received a card and inconversation with the consignee they slip up saying! " on the card it says etc. ". So this type of lying makes are job very hard, when someone genuine calls. Its very frustrating. Who is genuine & who is not!Sometimes Consignor's request that we leave parcels safe with a neighbour. As per our contract we have to adhere to this request. Regardless if the weather changes, which we have no control over. The Consignor is not alway honest with the consignee if there is a problem, which they have created ie despatched the parcel later than they have told the consignee, or they have told the consignee the parcel will be delivered by a certain time. They put the blame on City Link. So we take the brunt from all sides.Most of the problems are actually caused by consignor's & consignees. Most drivers are reliable, you need to understand the drivers have a deadline to meet all day long. Drivers can have 100 parcels to deliver in a day, and many collection. There has been many occasion when drivers have called to attempt a delivery and consignee's are in desposed ( nature calls / shower etc ), then consignee calls & says can you send the driver back. Considering the amount of parcels the driver has to deliver the consignee will be told this is not possible as other parcels which have not been attempted have priority. The consignee will then call City Link again, speak to another agent and tell a different story ie " i found a card on my floor, i was in all day nobody knocked my door!.

Submitted by city link customer service operative (not verified) on Wed, 2004-12-01 22:58.
city link in the Cambridge area

I read the comments by the anonymous city link customer services operative (actually I have spent a lot of time on 2 failed deliveries trying to speak or email customer services without any success whatsoever.However, here below is the text of what I have attempted to send tonight.

text starts

The above job (FLP 12993) was due to be delivered here today from Total PDA.I tracked it on the Internet and saw that it was loaded on to a van for delivery here at something like 0700 this morning.

The next entry on your website claimed that "the recipient refused to accept the delivery" at 1444.I take great exception to that claim as I was here and waiting all day and nothing appeared and nobody called.

I cannot write this off as a one-off aberration as exactly the same thing happened on the only other occasion a supplier has tried to use City Link to deliver to me.On that occasion too, I waited home having checked on line that the goods were loaded on a van for delivery here.Once again I waited all day for nothing to happen and a downright lie (cannot remember what it was; something like tried to deliver but nobody was home) to be posted on your website.

Please expain

1 What is going on?
2 When do I get delivery?
3 Why I should ever do business in future with anyone who uses City Link as theircourier?

I shall be copying this e-mail to Total PDA and to Google Checkout

JKW
text ends

2 points to emphasise:

1The tracking entry on the website has changed since I first read the 1444 entry for my consignment.At the time it said specifically that "the recipient refused to accept it"it now says "returned to branch after unsuccessful delivery attempt"

2.This is an exact repeat (apart from the exact form of lie used) of my only other experience of City Link

3.I can absolutely guarantee that no card was left on either occasion.The name and number of my house is on a large pottery plaque on the wall beside the entrance

JKW

Submitted by John Walters (not verified) on Sat, 2007-05-26 00:08.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

City Link do operate and appalling service. An attempt was made to deliver goods to my home on the 7th of December. I was at work and unable to take delivery. I called Initial City Link it was90 minutes before anyone answered. I wanted to arrange adifferent time or delivery address. I was unable to do either. I was told that they would try to deliver the goods the next day. I said I would not be in but they tried anyway. I arranged to pick up the parcel from their depot some 16 miles from my home on Saturday 11th.
When I arrived I found a queue of around 25 people some of whom has been waiting for over an hour. It was 10.45. The card stated that the depot was open until 12 noon. After a wait of about 20 minutes a man took the cards off all of the people who were waiting and disappeared again. After a further wait of 20 minutes A man brought out half of my order and told me that I had already signed for the other half. I explained that this was not so. He then told everyone who had arrived since our cards were taken that they would not take any more cards. It was 11.25 he said that they closed at 11.30. These people then stormed into the warehouse.
A further 30 minutes passed, the police arrived as the warehouse staff had locked the customers in the warehouse and were refusing to let them out. The press and the TV crews arrived but my parcel did not.
The chap dealing with me cmae back and told me that my parcel was on a van and was being delivered to my house! This despite their earlier assertions that they made no deliveries on a Saturday. However, he did not know which van it was on and could not, therefore, contact the driver.
Eventually at 12.40 he agreed to hand over the parcel he did have, with an agreement that they would deliver my other parcel on Monday 13th and guess what? leave it with a neighbour!
I suspect that my parcel is lost. So many people refused to take their parcels because parts of their orders were missing.
Chaos reigned in Gateshead today and I will never again use a compnay that uses Initial City Link for their deliveries.
FREE THE GATESHEAD 15

Submitted by Janet (not verified) on Sat, 2004-12-11 16:47.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Sorry to hear you got caught up in all that, Janet - Hope it gets sorted soon. Let us know if you see anything in the press about the Gateshead 15 (web links would be great, but paper's good too).

Meanwhile, take a look at The UK High Street - rafts of similarly unhappy people.

Submitted by coofercat on Sat, 2004-12-11 17:40.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)
Submitted by Laura (not verified) on Thu, 2004-12-23 15:45.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

The collection service is no better. ICL have been booked on two occasions so far and have turned up on neither. I`ve wasted a total of 15 hours so far! Today at 4pm I was the next call on the drivers list, he`d got stuck in traffic. Hell of a delay! It`s 9pm now!!

Submitted by K (not verified) on Wed, 2004-12-29 22:11.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Why dont you all use a good company like Lynx Express Where the drivers are always on the ball,good natured,funny,and extremely good looking

Submitted by Lynx Express Driver (not verified) on Tue, 2005-01-04 22:46.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

God, Have you lot got nothing better to do then moan... If you have doubt about courier companys then have your items collected from the depots, thats if you have any friends that will go out of their way for you?

Submitted by honest Dan (not verified) on Wed, 2005-01-12 16:23.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

why dont you get your parceles sent to your place of employment

Submitted by j (not verified) on Sun, 2005-01-23 20:29.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

you lot are all very sad just cause you stupid and cant hear the door you ring up and complain to the customer services its not there fault you didnt get to the door in time. maybe use a nicer tone and they will be more likely to help you. Ir you make up crappy stories we aint going to help get a life people and order parcels to your work where you are in!!!! doesnt take much brains

Submitted by a city lik worker (not verified) on Fri, 2005-02-04 18:32.
late delivery

maybe we cant have it delivered to work because the service we use will only let it be delivered to the address in which the credit/debit card is addressed to you moron. and instead of siting on ya arse why not get out and do some of these deliveries in stead of being a pratt

Submitted by pissed off customer (not verified) on Fri, 2006-11-24 18:16.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

i work for this company and put up with all your bull ALL DAY! it doesnt take a genius to work out that if you are at full time work to maybe get parcels delivered to your works address, and please read the card before you ring!! it would help......thanks you thick people

Submitted by a cso (not verified) on Fri, 2005-02-04 18:37.
typical attitude

TYPICAL shittylink attitude. enough said.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 14:59.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hi, whilst you can always seem to find plenty of complaints about a company (any company not just ICL), where are all the positive comments? What about the customers that have used ICL yearupon year? What about the mult-million pound contracts that ICL hold?

With over 70 branches nationwide, in addition to the international services that we issue, surely we must be better than some of these opinions show......

I work in an accounts department, and as you can probably imagine, when a customer receives an invoice which they feel is incorrect (due to late/failed delivery, loss of goods etc) their first port of call is to us, who should agree to credit the invoice there and then, without looking into the history of the consignment, and without knowing anything at all about what has happened. Approximately half of the enquiries that we get about delivery charges, are due to the customer doing something wrong (incorrect postcode, not supplying contact details etc).

The opinions on this thread are totally one-sided. Unfortunately nobody is perfect, and everybody makes mistakes (funnily enough even ICL employees), but to say that the service that we offer is crap after just one delivery is ludacris.

You should seek the opinions of regular City Link customers before flying off of the handle with comments like these.

Submitted by ICL Employee (not verified) on Sat, 2005-03-12 01:44.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Thank you for that last comment. It demonstrates to me that there are some people in ICL who really do have the sort of skills and dedication to make ICL a good company. You have also brought some constructive balance to the proceedings.

If I may gently interject some redress though. Whilst many of us are very frustrated and hence less than balanced in our views, there are underlying problems that ICL seem to do badly at resolving.

As rational people, I'm sure all disgruntled ICL users can accept mistakes do happen (of course, we'd all rather they didn't happen to us!). It is how those mistakes are handled that counts, and I think the vast majority of the above can be attributed to that, as opposed to "core-service".

In my particular case, the initial mistake was hardly the crime of the century. However, ICL's handling of that mistake was attrocious. Even so much as a friendly, sympathetic tone when talking to me would have helped a great deal. Better still, accepting the mistake and working to resolve it with minimum fuss. However, I got neither, and was even made to accept responsibility for ICL's failings!

In the case of people really not being at home, or incorrectly addressed items, again we users expect ICL (who are a courier, after all) to be able to deal with these things. Each case is different, but some basic principles of trying to keep the customer's interests at heart may help. From these comments, it would appear that some drivers are better than others. Certainly, ICL do deliver a great many items without issue. For the (shall we say?) 1% that are a problem, ICL need to improve. People such as yourself clearly have the sort of attitude that the company needs more of.

Whilst we customers do make mistakes, we shouldn't be chastised for it. The old addage of "the customer is always right" is a broadly good one, and worth remembering. If a customer makes a mistake, one should realise that it was the supplier who allowed the customer to do so. The idea being to put the customer into an environment where the customer cannot really do anything that would cause the supplier to appear to perform badly. This is "customer service", which we Brits are not inherently good at, but the most important thing a company does, nonetheless.

Submitted by coofercat on Sat, 2005-03-12 18:46.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I believe this is all bull i get people all day i make the effort against traffic accidents etc to get to your houses ontime and when i get there you sre not home even though you know your delivery is coming. So i have to leave a card which delays me more. We really do try our hardest but if people are not in or dont hear the door what can we do? Also i delivered to a few places which are not in the map book or are spelt incorrectly and we try to contact you peolpe but no contact number has been left so we cant find u. if u know u r not going to be home then tell city link we can leave with a neighbour and we will otherwise we cannot do this unless u tell us too before we attempt to deliver a not eon the door is not acceptable

Submitted by citylink driver (not verified) on Tue, 2005-03-15 22:52.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I cannot believe how petty all of you are over a parcel. If you want something that desperate then go and buy it in a bloody shop. I have had many dealings with city link and if they dont get you in the first time they will try again the next day. what more do you want them to do? All the couriers try there best to deliver as they only will have to come back to your address, so its in there interests to deliver your life saving parcel!!!!!! Go and try the other companies out there, trust me they are not as good as city link.
REMEMBER THEY ARE DELIVERING A PARCEL NOT A LIVER,KIDNEY OR HEART!!!! Lets keep it in perspective people

Submitted by s kerr (not verified) on Wed, 2005-03-16 21:41.
Yeah, let's keep it in

Yeah, let's keep it in perspective I've just had three days off work (unpaid) waiting for my delivery which I still haven't received! Talking to "Customer Services" is an exercise in patience and I'm getting really p***ed off now!!

Submitted by Brad the Impaler (not verified) on Tue, 2007-11-20 21:18.
City Link (London South)

Thanks for redressing the balance. In fact we do deliver items which are used to remove Hearts, kidney, etc etc..... The fact is that over 98% of our deliveries are successful, we make aproximately 14,000 wasted delivery attempts per day to address's where we have to leave a card - this does not represent the best use of our time!!!!!If we did not make these 14,000 wasted trips think of the extra capacity we as a carrier would have and the positive impact this would have.
We always try to exceed expectation but if you are part of the 2% then sorry and we hope we can do it better the next time!I see a lot of these comments in email form from my customers and it is the exception that we deal with not the norm, in fact the customer who sent this link to me receives 99.5% success week in week out and are happy with the service we give them.The key to there success is that they understand it is a two way deal, we work together to ensure we all get the job done - that's when it works!

Submitted by Frankie (Manager CL) (not verified) on Wed, 2007-12-12 19:23.
Total Rubbish

Most things I order online aren't available in shops so I have to buy them online. I had a parcel due to come on wednesday, it's not friday soon to be saturday and still no sign of it. It was in birmingham on tuesday and is not even in oldham near manchester yet. Disgraceful.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2010-01-08 18:36.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Thanks for the reminder - very true.

Now feeling a bit petty, but - If you need a parcel... make a choice.

PS. Thanks to everyone who helped make this page listed nineth if you search for "initial city link" on Google.

Submitted by coofercat on Thu, 2005-03-17 13:13.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I think the attitude of the Initial City Link staff in these reviews speaks volumes!

Submitted by Martin (not verified) on Fri, 2005-03-18 14:47.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I am a city link driver, I'm not suprised by the comments posted here, but there is another side, as well as trying our best to deliver parcels to the clients on time, we have to put up with our supervisors,who with any concern or query we are greeted with a shower of abuse and drive around in vans with warning lights flashing on the dashboard all day, I've evenhad to buy replacement lightbulbs when ive only had one headlight for three weeks out of my own pocket,because i was told "tough we aint got none" and when i fitted it in the high street i found it hadn't blown it had been robbed when i was off work.so spare us some thought pls

Submitted by Hixxy (not verified) on Sat, 2005-03-26 21:34.
see my earlier ( many )

see my earlier ( many ) postings regarding the many failings of those c/l employees who are management whores. I've said it before and i'll say it again, the management do not care one jot about the general staff at each depot. Their only concern is that they will be coming into work the next day. In fact it has led to incidents where staff with contagious illness'es and doctors notes , have been threatened with disciplinary action, because they have been unfortunate enough to have had two prior periods ( anything from 1 day upwards ) of sickness over a rolling 18 month period. And you wonder why the staff dont care, it's because the company dont care for the staff.

Submitted by tim (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 15:09.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

At least you folks have it easy in London and can get to a depot if required. Here in Cornwall our nearest City Link depot is in the next county and so, for some of us, it's a 200 mile round trip to collect our parcels. (and after paying to have them delivered too ... that sucks big time) And yes, City Link are total crap.

I've had dealings with them and they were terrible; they once left a digital camera valued at several hundred pounds under a bush in mygarden...without getting a signature for it. They then dropped a note through my door to say they'd done this but it was on full view to all passers by (as I have a glass front door). Thankfully the camera wasn't removed by anyone else (but that's not the issue).

I work in IT Support and so lots of us buy our hardware on the net, which is then delivered by City Link. Ask any of the folks here about City Link service and it's all bad comments about them. Our advice: check with the company you are intending to purchase from, if they intgend to use City Link tell them why you won't buy the goods from them and go to a company that deals with reputable couriers. Hoefully this way we can persuade the suppliers to change couriers, or get City Link to be a reasonable company to deal with.

Submitted by Cornwall Cats (not verified) on Thu, 2005-03-31 14:24.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I suspect satisfied customers don't bother to e-mail.Just to even things up I ordered a fan, the wrong one as it happens, and then reordered.So two deliveries, unlucky "Dave" missed me both times, but returned the same day both times.On the other hand I am very angry that the Post Office "lost" the Amazing Blondel CD I ordered over via ebay - the seller refunded me - much rather have the CD...still waiting...

Submitted by Roland Fox (not verified) on Thu, 2005-03-31 23:07.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I am amused by the fact that all the comments by the City Link drivers show a complete lack of grammar and a poor standard of spelling. Is it surprising that the City Link service is so poor when standards are this low?

As for having parcels sent to work, a lot of sellers will not do this due to security concerns. They will only deliver to the address that the credit card is registered to.

Submitted by Peter Jesslo (not verified) on Tue, 2005-04-05 00:38.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Business Post, City Link, Parcel Force all used without problem, Lynx forget it absolutely useless, failed delivery because road closed 50yds from my house, there are two roads that lead to my house only one closed, alternate route 400yds away clear as a bell on any A_Z which all other couriers managed to find, he could have asked the guys working on the roadworks.

Even after advising of the correct route around the roadworks still failed to deliver.

Submitted by Lynx are the worst (not verified) on Tue, 2005-04-05 14:03.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

To follow up on my previous posting: we did _eventually_ get our delivery but only after much annoyance and several days late.

Last night I arrived home to find a message on our answer machine from the company supplying the goods and they admitted that the service City Link offer is "poor".So, it isn't just the recipients who think that the service Sh*tty Link offer is any good.

Submitted by Cornwall Cats (not verified) on Wed, 2005-04-06 10:49.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I think the problem may lie in the consignor not telling the consignee when the parcel is due to arrive - if we don't know when it's coming then we can hardly take time off work, can we?It's all down to communication (or the lack of it.)I'm lucky in that I have a neighbour who will take parcels in for me, so I always provide my consignor with her address (if they will accept one, which not all of them will).

And incidentally, reading this thread, are ALL City Link drivers called "Dave"? :)

Submitted by Cornish Kitty (not verified) on Wed, 2005-04-06 17:41.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hmmmm. Am now worried.
Received the "We have a parcel for you" through my door yesterday- amazingly signed by Dave!
Apparently this was the second note, tho' nobdy recalls seeing one from the day before. Couldn't have been in as, (a) like lots of you others I work, (b) I wasn't actually expecting a parcel- it was really a small package that in my view could have been sent in the post (c) didn't know who the courier was (d) didn't know when it would arrive
Anyway, as soon as I could I phoned them to say 'It'll be a waste of your time delivering tomorrow 'cos there'll be nobody there' (thinking this was the first note- as it was!). Sadly, as soon as I could meant after 6pm (work!)... nobody answered, no ansaphone, not even muzak i.e. no means of communicating with them. Also, of course, no e-mail address to write to
Phoned at 8AM this morning. Phone answered v quickly, but it took a long time to harangue them into trying a Friday delivery when m'good lady wife will be in. They can't change delivery schedules, & there seemed to be a sort of 'The computer says no' mentality. Hopefully, there will be a delivery tomorrow (I'll report back!), as I refuse to do a round trip of 16 miles & spend over an hour to their depot to get what is mine- & I hear what Cornish Kitty is saying! (200 miles!!! outrageous!)
Anyhow, this is not a whinge at the depot staff or customer support or drivers, who are mainly trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities (tho' some of these seem to be remarkably paranoid & dismissive of their customers from their comments!). It is with the operational strucures of the company, who appear to have devised their systems for their, not the customer's convenience- Coofer Cat is absolutely right. & Cornish Kitty is also right to say that it's all down to communication (or the lack of it)
There is a nice little website that prints the work e-mails of the chief execs of a number of companies so people can complain right to the top. Currently ICL is not on it, but if I dig it out, I'll place it there & also copy it here. I think s/he needs to be shaken up a bit
Keep up the good work!

Submitted by Philby (not verified) on Thu, 2005-04-07 23:41.
dave, get your finger out,

dave, get your finger out, your giveing us all a bad name ,, are you a polish immigrant driver

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Fri, 2007-11-16 20:34.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Update.

10 days after failed delivery still no parcel.

8 phone calls and 8 promises of it will be with you tomorrow, words fail me as to the ineptitude of this company.

Submitted by Lynx are the worst (not verified) on Fri, 2005-04-08 01:37.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Well, they said they'd deilver... & they did! So well done to the depot. However, the delivery was because they decided to override their system- the system is still inflexible & producer orientated, so the new MD will be getting a bit of a lecture on customer focus in operations management

Submitted by Philby (not verified) on Fri, 2005-04-08 21:07.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Firstly, let me say that unless youve ever done multidrop work you have NO idea how daunting it can be, in at 6am, scan 100+ items, get loaded after sorting into a run, then dash out to do 9am/10am drops then double round to start your normal drops. as someone said, why do you people order stuff and make sure your OUT? a driver ICL probably gets 5 minutes per drop allowed, so your poor addresses, incorrect phone numbers and wonky postcodes cost time he/she hasnt got. and please note, delivery means to your door, not upstairs,round the back door, down the basement, and we do NOT take responsibilty for the CONTENTS of a package, we deiliver the PACKAGE, please sign "unchecked" if your bothered, but dont keep the driver on site 30 minutes openeing boxes....."oh, what is it?" "how the *%*^ should i konw missus, you ordered it"

Submitted by an owner driver with a parcels firm (not verified) on Mon, 2005-05-02 20:35.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Well, our main supplier uses ICL - we place orders roughly every other day. With around 50% of our orders we end up being credited the carriage back because ICL didn't turn up on the day they were supposed to. This is delivery to business premises there is *always* somebody here 9 - 5:30 we've even checked CCTV on days they didn't arrive in the past.

I am attempting to persuade our supplier to use a different delivery company - never have any problems with TNT!

Submitted by support (not verified) on Wed, 2005-05-04 14:29.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!! I work in city-link man, and I have to agree nobody seem to give a crap about much round here..... apart from maybe an odd payrise... isn't that pretty much how it works all over??

Submitted by FREDBLOGGS (not verified) on Fri, 2005-05-06 01:11.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

hello i am an IT company in cornwall and i have had the same problems as the rest of you ...you feel like strangling the delivery man when you see him i have found one way to make sure you get your delivery on time when you first order you product ask them who their designated delivery company is and if you could have the order number they will be giving them, this is the order number supplied to the delivery company by the suppiler, the ask how long it take to get your product to the delivery depot and finally if they have any kind of online tracking system. if the time to get the product to the depot is 2 days wait to 2 days and view their online tracking system if the product has be shipped and is with them it will show what time they got it and when, where etc then give them a call direct at the depot with your consignment number order number and ask what time it is due out to you and if you could give the driver your number so when he is near you home,place of work etc to call you to make sure you know he is coming or basically so the person driving the truck can find you and knows your waiting for him they have to give the driver the number because you have requested it normally the dont bother to give the drivers any information so you have to push them into it and all being well you shouldnt have a problem and the good thing is when the driver calls you he will call yo of his mobile dial 1471 and write down his number so the next time you have somthing delivered from the same company you have the drivers mobile number to check where he is as the same drivers have more or less the same routes cool hey

Submitted by epoch IT compnay (not verified) on Mon, 2005-05-09 10:24.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Interesting reading the comments about Initial City Link, and even more interesting, and revealing, reading the replies from their employees. Yes they may well be trying their best, but their best is just not good enough. I run a business which turns over 30 million pounds a year, and if I treated customers the way ICL do, I wouldn't expect to be able to continue trading. If ICL are trading as successfully as they purport to be, there can only be one reason. They must be cheap, and we all know what that means, don't we Mr. Ratner? I'll stick with a good company, namely TNT. Reply to FREDBLOGGS: no it isn't how things work all over! Try getting a job with a reputable company next time. Anyone gets the Chairman's phone number, count me in!

Submitted by Giles Isaac (not verified) on Mon, 2005-05-09 17:13.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

hi there would it not be easier if you could see where your parcel is at any one point during collection to delivery, interlink express has the complete real time tracking and will tell you by email when the goods have been despatched allowing you to be ready to accept the goods also they will delivery your parcels by three got to be better than icl...give it a try

Submitted by steve brown (not verified) on Wed, 2005-05-18 19:41.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

re: steve brown.

This information IS available at the city link website.Although by law we are only allowed to give precise information on the whereabouts of each parcel to the consigner (sender).I am also a city link customer aswell as a driver.I have never had any problems with them collecting/delivering parcels for me in 3 years.You must remember however that there are millions of parcels being handled by all courier firms every day, its impossible for them all to go smoothly!

Submitted by Yet Another City Link Driver (not verified) on Mon, 2005-05-23 00:27.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

just to agree with fredbloggs, most drivers dont give a crap because they get paid crap and spoken to like crap, how much aggro does someone take for ?6 an hour. If your a subbie you just lose too much in a day if you have to arse about with incorrect or incomplete addresses hence the reason we dont hang about.if you want a reliable firm for sameday or overnight packages try "dmc express". i recently left this firm so this isn't an advert for my personal gain but they are very very good at what they do because they value their reputation.

Submitted by yet another courier (not verified) on Mon, 2005-06-20 20:52.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I sub- contract for the Worlds' best,T.N.T, and employ 6 drivers on same day contracts. I have contracted for most of the 'big players' in the past and in support of all those companies and their drivers, i would like to add this. It is of no benefit for the driver to not deliver. He will probably end up with that same consignment 2 days later. House Names. If you must have one, put it on view especially for dark evenings. A description of your property would also help. Flats. If your flat no. is 6a, how about making sure that it is marked clearly on the array of buttons downstairs. Contact numbers. Most drivers do not get a mobile phone allowance but will make a call if the no. is supplied. Bear that in mind when expecting a delivery.Have your phone vacant. Finally. It takes a lot less time to deliver your parcel than it does to write out a card. We don't go to the trouble of locating your house just to drop a card through.Bear this in mind when you find a card on your mat.

Submitted by Gerry Smith (not verified) on Thu, 2005-07-07 02:54.
And yet...I have heard the

And yet...I have heard the van pull up, got my keys, gone downstairs to find them shoving the card through the letterbox, which had obviously been pre-written!Opened the door to a shame-faced courier who got the bollocking of a lifetime since he couldn't possibly have tried knocking.

It's not like I've had problems with them once, it's every single parcel I've ever had sent using them.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Fri, 2007-03-16 17:35.
of course not

It's with great conviction my friends and i believe that City Link vans are actually empty of all parcels and only carry large stacks of the "attempted delivery" cards.

We also have concluded that many City Link drivers have the TDCL (Tactical Delivery Card Launcher) which allows drivers to target letter boxes from up to 300 feet, on drive-by of the target property. The TCDL feeds from the rear compartment allowing a GPS based system to allocate appropriate cards without driver intervention, filling them out appropriately.

Portable Versions are known to have been developed, allowing access to Flats, and other premises that do not have doors facing the road. These addresses are known on the City Link databases, and the Covert Card Squad (Covert Card Squad) use the Portable TDCL to silently deploy the card.

This all adds to the grand conspiracy that City Link actually want you do go to the depot to pick up the packages as usage of the TCDL means a single driver can carpet a entire county in 3 hours (ever wondered why you rarely see City Link vans after lunch, and why you all have delivery cards from "Dave"?), allowing City Link to reduce costs.

Submitted by corrodedmonkee (not verified) on Wed, 2007-04-04 15:20.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

ICL have not failed me yet as AMTRAK have several times. ICL's own branded packaging is particularly good.

Submitted by robsnorth (not verified) on Thu, 2005-07-07 12:48.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Couldn't help but add my ha'penny worth, as I have been completely unable for the past 90 minutes to:
1. Access the ICL tracker site - times out with both Firefox and IE.
2. Access the ICL homepage - times out with both Firefox and IE.
3. Get a reply from the 0870 number - it ends with "the person has hung up" after ringing continuously for 3 or more minutes. I have tried this several times.
4. Get a reply from my local ICL depot; it's ringing continuously with no reply. I have tried this several times.

The clincher for me is the poor atttitude and educational standard of the drivers from the company who have contributed to this blog, and also the comment on the RMT Union website regarding the pay cuts and disputes that have marred employee relations within this company.

Still, I hope today is a one-off, and those customers who have had a normal hassle-free delivery are in the majority.

Well, back to the phone....

Submitted by Ladi Williams (not verified) on Sat, 2005-07-23 14:17.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Seems like I'm not on my own. Like Ladi I have been trying their website all day without any response. I am waiting for a package that they picked up last night (I have their own tracking reference) for delivery this morning. No delivery and no tracking info.

I see that they had RMT union problems in May this year, maybe they have closed down or been shut down.

Submitted by Ron Simons (not verified) on Sat, 2005-07-23 19:14.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Nope, they're all at sea!. Don't expect too much for a while ;-)

PS. I'd say their website is having problems, as opposed to it disappearing entirely. I'd guess it'll be back on Monday. No idea about their phones though (isn't that normal service? - sorry, couldn't resist)

Submitted by coofercat on Sat, 2005-07-23 21:18.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Please try to bear in mind the following:
1. Drivers have up to 70 drops and 10 collections to do in a day (about 8 hours)
2. Drivers do not have time to spend hours hunting for addresses such as Ms. Smith, Anytown. And thats all the information on the parcel..
3. If you get a "yellow card" and your not going to be in the next day it helps everyone if you can phone the depot. That way the driver does not waste time going back to your house the next day.
4. If we are COLLECTING from you, it is very helpful if you can have the goods ready and packed when we arrive - we do not offer a packing service and we dont have time to wait while you look for a box. The driver is well within company policy to refuse items not suitably packed.
5. Please, dont leave your dog in the garden when your expecting a delivery - we dont know that "he wont touch you" or "hes only playing". (And if he bites the driver, expect the driver to refuse to deliver to you)
6. WE DO NOT I repeat NOT accept notes on doors asking for the parcel to be left without a signature ON OUR SHEETS. Only the sender can give us permission to leave goods without a signature.
7. The job is NOT easy - we have a high driver turnover.
8. We are NOT the postie. We do NOT live with you. We cannot know where every house is. So please, do not tell the driver "The postie knows where we are" or "Some other courier finds us no bother"

Submitted by Stressed City Link Driver (not verified) on Sun, 2005-07-24 00:14.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Worst couriers ever.
Rude depot staff. Nobody ever answers the phone.
Liars (I have proof).
JUST AVOID these useless cowboys.

Submitted by Hacked off punter (not verified) on Mon, 2005-08-15 00:44.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

My past three experiences of trying to recieve a delivery from CityLink have all resulted in me taking a 1.5 hour roundtrip to collect a parcel I paid to have delivered. They are the most unhelpful, inflexible and difficult company to deal with. Its not the drivers faults, its the company. They wont leave with a neighbour, change the address even a few doors away without charge, their offices are open only during the day when most other people are also at work (can't collect on any day but a Saturday then), they wont even ring the driver and get even a guess as to when they might be in the same town.... All other delivery companies will at least make an effort. I will NEVER knowingly deal with them again and hope that this message helps at least one other person avoid them at all costs.

Submitted by Nigel (not verified) on Wed, 2005-08-17 11:27.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Lynx Express are the worst carrier we have ever tried.
In September last year we moved our business to another Croydon local company... in November their service started to be really bad (missed delivery dates, lost parcels, false excuses), that's when they told us that they stopped using Parcelforce and were now using Lynx... but don't worry it will improve... the same company we were trying to stay away from.
10 months later, still the same crap delivery service.
We've now been using A to Z Courriers for nearly a month without a single parcel being delivered late, what a change and a saving for us who do not have to handle any customers angry calls anymore !

Submitted by JP (not verified) on Fri, 2005-08-19 10:58.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

i feel sorry for the drivers of city link , parcel force et al. I worked in the city link warehouse in the evenings part time for a few weeks for some extra dosh, all the drivers start early in the morning and worked late in the evening all for not much money. I have driven for parcel force, by god that is a crap job with a crap system. I can understand customer frustration with them, as basically it is pot luck when you get your parcel. You turn up in the morning and get given a couple of cages brimming with parcels and then load your van to bursting and then drive round all day on your own getting really hacked off trying to find some bloody cottage down the end of some road, then you can't find the bloody parcel in amongst all the mounds in the back of the shite iveco van with no radio. most of the time people are out which is frustrrating cos youve got to have another go tomorrow. Then just to please you more you get the guy from the depot ringing you up late on in the afternoon telling you to collect from some place that's not on the map or completely atr the other end of the area you've been delivering to. with this haphazard system i can see no point in sending the parcel 24 hour as the chances are the driver wont have time to deliver it. Add to this 1970's style industrial relations and a nationalized industry feel to the depot( low morale, loads of people off sick etc) and this place really is a sack of shit. basically though multidrop courier driver for anyone is a crap job.

Submitted by richie boyo (not verified) on Tue, 2005-08-23 01:41.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hi, read the comments with great interest , especially as I am an Initial City Link Sales Manager. Our customer base ranges from small ad/hoc accounts to accounts spending millions. Having worked for the company for eight years I consider my knowledge of this business to be bang up to date. Whilst our network isnt without problems and clealry Initial City Link do have certain training issues through out the company to address its equally as important for people to fully understand the delivery process. Has anyone for one moment actually equated the costs in re-delivery through people not being home to accept their ordered goods. With regard to our drivers quickly knocking on a door and quickly driving away , well thats ridicculous beleive me they do not have time to play 'knock and run' in their working day. Now in my experience most, yes most of these mistakes in terms of delivery information, correct address's etc lies with the consignor. I would however agree that in my experience you can be sure the problem will be further compounded. Most probable cause is the fact that we only gaurantee the first delivery attempt if the address is bad or no - one is home then our priority has to be where we now have another paying customer. I beleive its an education process that has to take place with the consignor. Historically give a carrier the parcel then its now their problem. How wrong can that be, it has to be the responsiblity of the consignor that delivery information is correct and indeed some one is home to accept the goods, of course we will work with them to achieve and have all sorts of I.T innovations for this to happen. We all want the delivery to happen first time,and a good buying experience. The implication to us financially not doing this is massive and after allwe are in business to make profit. We are not perfect I'm afraid but then who is, some of the comments on this site are purile and not at all constructive. Have a good life all !!!

Submitted by Anon (not verified) on Mon, 2005-09-05 23:11.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hello All,
I just put CITY LINKinto the search engine to see what itcame up with,and bless my soul , was I surprised at all the vitriolic comments .
I work for I.C.L as a driver and just thought that I would add my view on the subject .
Lets face it , if everyone communicated details as they should, life would be a lot easier, parcels would be delivered on time every time. People are not robots and mistakes are made , address detailsare misheard down the phone , and numbers mistaken ondelivery notes, the number of times that seven has been put down as elevenon my notes is uncanny .

Does any one really think that a driver is going to drive to an address and not put a card through the door ?.
I?m certainly not going to make my job any harder than it already needs to be. On a number of occasions I have been back to an address 3 or more times on the same day to deliver a parcel , every one delivered is one less to do tomorrow. We are not allowed to leave parcels with neighbours and notes on doors giving instructions to deliver to alternative addressesare not accepted either. In case of fraud.

I have used my own phone on numerous occasions to leave messages on answer machines of people who are not in , you would be amazed at the number of people who phone me back if I leave my own mobile no ..A lot easier than waiting till tomorrow if its your latest gadget or mobile phone your expecting. I don?t get a call allowance its done at my own expense to make my working day easier .
How much service do you thinkyour?2.50 delivery chargeentitles you to ?. Most people seem to think it entitles them to the driver trailing their 25 kilo printer up 4 flights of narrow stairs ,plugging it in and doing 8 hours copying for them.

Unfortunately you are not going to get too many people who will take the time to write in good comments as it does not make for entertaining reading .
If you simply must have your goodies make sure someone is at home ,or specify an alternative address to the consignorwhen you order your items , as others point out ,why not have it delivered to your work address ?.

I get into work at 7 am and go home at 6 pm and frequentlyhave to go without breakso that every delivery is at least attempted , every one not attempted incurs a fine for the delivery depot. Parcels often arrive at their destination in better condition than they arrived at depot , due to poor packaging , which ICL staff make good .
Remember for every 1 dissatisfied consignee, there are20 more who are more than happy with the service they receive.
I go into work frequently when I suffer aches and pains ,because I cannot afford to forego theattendance bonus that I will lose for just one days work missed, I bend over backwards all the time for people who simply do not deserve it andget little thanks for a job well done.
The number of times I?ve heard the old chestnut sDo I have to sign for it ?The postman knows where we are ! And my personal favouriteIs it ticking ? . My wordit makes it all worthwhile.

I hope my spelling and grammar are up to scrutinyfor all those pedantic ( Look it up ) people with nothing better to worry about than the inconvenience of having to make a phone callor insult people whoafter all , like every one else are just trying to do their job.

In perfect world there would be no war, peace would reign in the middle east , and I ?d be married to Linda Lusardi. Wars rage around the globe , peace is generations away in the middle east and I don?t get to cuddle up to Linda every night ( mores the pity ).

Regards Allan( ICL driver working in Barnsley South Yorkshire )

Submitted by Allan (not verified) on Sat, 2005-09-10 22:15.
Well i had fun reading the

Well i had fun reading the comments . i lived with a City Link driver . I used to get calls at 1 in the afternoon just before his little 2 hour sleep before collections !!!!!!!! Work hard no they are all lying cheating Theives and the amount of stuff nicked from the Rotherham Depot is unreal the drivers laugh at the amount of stuff they steal . And yes if they can leave a card they will at every oppurtunity .

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Mon, 2007-10-08 19:40.
Well Allan, you are by far

Well Allan, you are by far the most educated delivery driver i have corresponded with.
Just one question. Show me the proof to back up your claim that out of 21 consignees, that 20 are happy.
By the way , have you ever had a manager ring you prior to a 10.30 or 12 noon delivery and ask you not to use your scanner because you will be a minute or two late.
I have, and it's called fraud. Just thought i'd open up another can of worms

Submitted by fraudbuster (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-27 15:27.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

What if?
Anybody within the Rentokill/Inital City Link company wanted & paid for a delivery, would you suffer the non delivery (twice) no carding involved? or would you blame the ignorant staff? I think the anwer is obvious, you pay and you expect delivery. Please stop blaming each other because u are only winding people like me up, stop taking on deliveries you can't possibly make and give me the name of your manager LOL! I have had enough bullshitt from your office to last me a life time! The sad thing is that I have had enough your company seems to think that ballshit works & that has been taken personally by me as I hate to be treated as a MORON. Whilst I have to take it out onsomeone the driver is not my target whom which I have time for ( Why card an address when they only have to come back the next day) I would like to meet the two people who have blatently lied to me. Great "Wait until 12.00 then report it as missing" Forgot to mention that the 'phones are not answered after 12.00, Very Clever! NOT. I will never use a company if they use ICL!

Submitted by Nick (not verified) on Sun, 2005-09-18 02:49.
Carded

The drivers sometimes don't even bother to attempt a delivery and just say that you were carded even if no card was given. I wasted three days for my delivery of a £120 graphics card and now I have to waste more time travelling the hour journey to the depot. What is the point of paying for delivery if they don't deliver?

Submitted by Noor (not verified) on Mon, 2008-10-27 23:40.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

This is now laughable, having waited in for two day's, City Link have now informed that there was no reply at my address and that I was "carded". The only problem is that I have cctv cameras and was in fact painting the outside of my house, guess what, no card & I am fed up with the F,U attitude of the support (lol) staff. I will post further, but I guess they will return my parcel to the sender stating "Unable to Deliver". Enough is enough.

Submitted by Nick (not verified) on Tue, 2005-09-20 13:05.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hi to all you drivers! I never said that your job was easy and I no you are not going to card an address without reason, but my question is this:- Why have a lying driver from Wimbeldon state that he has carded, without a card? My goods will now be sent back to the supplier after 5 days, Do you Allen think that fair?

Submitted by nick (not verified) on Tue, 2005-09-20 13:42.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

yes, u incompetant ICL drivers, some times you will attempt to deliver and find that we are not at home. You may be amazed to realise that we have contacted your crappy little in advance to advise them of this, but they dont tell you. By the way...isnt that what you are paid for?

Submitted by paul (not verified) on Wed, 2005-09-21 16:07.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

bought an item of ebay, it was sent via ICL.
Like most of the country, I was at work during delivery times. I get home and find a yellow card through the letterbox.
I read the instructions and decided I'd rather collect the parcel from their depot (gatwick, I work pretty close to it) as it was more convienient. So I phone up and am told by an automated voice to leave a message specifiying my consigment number and what I would like to do.
So I left a message saying that I would much prefer to collect the following day and could they ring me back to confirm receipt of my answerphone message, leaving my mobile number.
No call back and I turn up in the morning (just after 8am) only to be told that my parcel had just gone out in the van.
I'm annoyed because no one obviously took much notice of the message I left leaving me to question that particular service.
I don't mind the drivers as they tend to be the last call, and I'd rather my package be left round the back or with a neighbour than the pissant procedural crap I had to go through only to get nowhere.
So my rant is with the people in the office who don't do their jobs and also various courier's stupid policy of making commercial deliveries during work hours and then making it sound like its your fault for not being indoors.

Submitted by Carlo (not verified) on Thu, 2005-09-22 01:12.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I have been chasing Initial City Link for ?500 since June 2005, as they damaged a rather expensive TV stand I was having delivered to one of my customers. I have since submitted two lots of paper work, and visited the Gatwick Branch twice, I have to make 17 calls to Gatwick, and their Head office, and I called today Sept 23 only to be told the paper work for my claim has still not gone through and the Gatwick depot were unaware of the claim !! My next step is to contact the trading standards dept, and my Solicitor, I would think twice about usuing this carrier.

Submitted by simon maher (not verified) on Fri, 2005-09-23 01:21.
serves you right for being

serves you right for being too cheap in the first place to pay for a decent service

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Fri, 2007-11-16 20:37.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Some insider info from an ex-post office manager:
First of all let me refute some of the points made by people who should really know better.
The Citylink sales manager above stating that drivers don't play knock and run and don't have the time. Well my experience with Royal Mail would say otherwise and how it happens is this - (this is a for instance) Monday morning, Dave1 rings in sick so a stand-in is found. The stand-in may be a late night sorter who's been on shift all night and is knackered from his long hours. It may be raining or cold, so the stand-in sorts his parcels according to the ones he knows he will be able to get rid of ie. Businesses.
Householder?s parcels will get a quickly scribbled note through their door that, believe me, is a lot quicker to deliver than knocking on a door and waiting for someone to answer. The issue of redelivery isn't an issue with the stand-in because even if Dave1 is sick again tomorrow, he's not going to be doing the round anyway because he knows that there's going to be twice as many parcels as there would be normally because he hasn't bothered delivering them.

Another point: Postcodes don't matter at all and are only used for sorting purposes. Any delivery driver who blames a customer for a missing postcode is talking through his arse and should be questioned as to his professionalism.

Point 3: Having a courier complaining that he can't find an address is an issue of training and not the customers fault. People live where they live and pay a fee for the delivery of their parcel. It isn't stipulated that a customer must live in a terraced street and work from the front door and live in an area the driver knows. Of course the problem here lies solely with the company and their training programmes. If they don't train their driver or give them the tools necessary to help them with their jobs, then that can and will be seen as a bad level of service, and drivers moaning about the customer are just plain wrong. You as a courier have an obligation to know the area you deliver to. If you can't find a farm or a cottage it's because you're not very good at your job or you haven't been trained properly. That's your problem, as someone attempting to make money out of people using a service you supply. You have ideal conditions and not-ideal conditions. You have to take the harder jobs with the tougher ones as in all walks of life.

"Don't order parcels if you're not going to be in."
Trouble with that is many people don't realise just how inflexible the ICL system is until it's too late. They will only deliver between certain times. Certainly won't give you a time slot. Won't deliver to an alternate address without the sender?s permission. Ignore notes posted on the inside of the door. Won't re-deliver on a Saturday. Depots are usually miles away. And this all assumes the customer was aware that the courier used was ICL and that their reputation as 'bloody useless' was well known. I certainly won't use ICL knowingly but unfortunately some of the firms I use do. I don't find this out sometimes until it's too late.

Whilst I understand the frustration of the drivers who've expressed an opinion above; what you should all take account of and realise is that even though the sender is the person you have the contract with, the person you are delivering to is the one who's actually paying your wages in 9 out of 10 instances.
The customer can't live in the wrong place and you can't complain if your system has already taken the money and agreed to deliver.

Also, there are some good drivers and bad drivers, regardless of what you say. There is also a fair amount of theft, as you would expect from companies using large volumes of temporary and agency staff. You don't hear about them because they very rarely prosecute except in the absolute worst cases. The bad publicity is seen as far worse than doing the right thing for the customer. When your parcel disappears, I would venture that in 9 out of 10 cases it?s been robbed by an employee of the firm you paid to deliver it.

From my experience ICL have deteriorated badly over the last two years. That is down to managerial incompetence, increased competition and a total disregard of the need for training.

Saying you have contract worth millions is also not a great endorsement - it just show's that enough people use you because you may be cheaper than some competetitors in certain areas. Those contracts are ultimately driven by the customers of the people who contract you to deliver their goods. If the people who pay the wage of both supplier and courier decide you are not up to the job, no amount of blame laying will save those million pound contracts and before you know it you'll have no contracts and no jobs.

Initial city-link are, in my experience, the single worst courier company in the uk at this moment in time. Instead of coming on message boards like this trying to blame the customer, you should be looking at ways you can improve as a company, because if you don't, you won't be in business for very much longer.

And a final bit of advice for those drivers who believe the customer is at fault and that the world owes them a living. Get another job!

Submitted by PeterA (not verified) on Mon, 2005-09-26 20:55.
pissed off minimum wage citylink driver

management again, a driver who has been good at his job for years could suddenly be thrown in somewhere they dont know, just so the new guy can get it easy but he is also learning so has to check a map on every delivery therefore not delivering so much, may not deliver some parcels that day, may need to get a collection , collections are worth more money to us then a delivery so we dont really care we can cover it up and visit you tomorrow, but we cant leave it unattended,thats not right , so we just pretend we have ben there ... FACT FACT FACT

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on Fri, 2007-11-16 20:43.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

I have had no problem with ICL,until now,40/50 deliveries a year always on time,until now, dont let me down ICL or i will be back.

Submitted by Thomas A (not verified) on Mon, 2005-10-03 13:32.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

all parcel companys take on to much work and can't cope with the amount .there are plenty to go round

Submitted by lynx express driver (not verified) on Tue, 2005-10-04 01:53.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

Hi,

We have used several companies in the past 20 years. We found city link to be a good courier. They haven't lost anything.

Their drivers are friendly and even wait when we are late getting the packages ready.

Raj
http://www.techno-mart.co.uk

Submitted by Raj (not verified) on Wed, 2005-10-05 15:36.
Rant: Initial City Link (London South branch)

ICL assume the consignee knows a package is due. How about surprise presents for birthdays?? Not all packages are ordered by the people at the delivery address! The stupid insulting yellow card shoved into letter boxes shows no detail whatsover.. no delivery name, address, contact number.. and nothing about who sent it. The card may be for someone else, there is no way of telling. The office hours may not be the delivery hours, it does not state. I tracked my package at 0530 this morning through the joke ICL website and see it was loaded into a van yesterday morning! The card was left the day before. I am unsure who sent the parcel or, indeed, if it is really for me, but when I find out, I will ensure they don't use el-cheepo, shoddy sh*tty link again. As for Raj at Techno-Mart.. he is sending out goods he is selling and I bet he lets his customers know about the impending delivery.

Submitted by Still Waiting... (not verified) on Thu, 2005-10-06 06:46.