Thanks friend...I am one of the fortunate one's who's lease finishes soon. My sympathy goes to those that are still in the middle of one.
Another bad thing is that apparently they are going to insist on owner drivers having thier van's half flippin yellow and half green. Not on your life will they get those that actually own thier vans to have that...look at what the resale value would be...who the hell wants a half yellow and green bloody van?

Glad I am out of it.

Actually the newer livery (Been out for a couple of years) is based on a yellow van - all the green bits are actually stuck on. Idea is when its no longer used for City Link, peel off the vinyl and its just a yellow van. Unlike the old livery where the cab was painted green and getting it all one colour meant repainting the van.

Ever tried to re-sell a yellow van?? your still looking at a hell of a difference compared to if it was plain white or in our case plain silver once the livery is off.

No Thanks but like I said, it wont effect me but I do see City Link having a back lash revolt from its owner drivers over this.

Two or three of the employed drivers here are seriously think of going self-employed. In the present climate i think it's a big mistake and won't be going near it. In the long run City Link are wanting all their drivers to be self-employed i believe, something they'll only achieve by getting rid of their employed one's by hook or by crook.

I did hear the other day that management here are going to talk to those drivers, who haven't already, about changing their livery to the green and yellow. I think only two have done it so far.

If i got the tax part wrong about target then i appologise, it was here say after all, was a little pissed at time all the ranting going on over us drivers, the majority of us do our best and work hard for our money. Knowing that city link paid 17 mill for a whole lot of nothing does make you wonder i must admit though.
Totally agree with you owner drivers why should you get your vans painted our colours or even liveried up, after all there your vans, always thought magnetic signs would be a better idea.
Thanks for the English lesson by the way about my punctuation or lack of it,Mr,...: Anonymous!!!",,.; Coward"., much appreciated, i know i'm thick, but its always nice to be reminded of this fact.
I stand by the rest of what i originally said though.
Oh and minimum wage hee hee nah mate I ain't on minimum wage, I wouldn't do this job for minimum wage. I maybe thick but i ain't totally stupid.

Me either. During the franchise days a lot of depots were on different wage structures. I don't think they've equalised everybodies pay yet. I've heard some drivers moaning about the loss of the HBOS contract as they could make quite a bit every week doing them at night.

Im also a 7.5 tonne driver and the reviews are a joke, they tell you what they want too pay you and thats it, no review take it or leave it. So I can understand why you are pissed off. Van drivers are the same at our place, and they say they only want owner drivers, well they had better treat us with a bit of respect or it will bite them in the arse, and sonner rather than later.

Lets face it not all these people can be wrong, maybe some, but not all, the same as not all of us drivers are as bad as they say we are, again some maybe, but not all.
City link are a mickey mouse outfit run by mickey mouse managers, if there are any of you depot's out there with a decent manager keep hold of them, becaused once they go they'll be replaced by the useless, backstabbing bullies, who give you tasks, that unless they are incredibly stupid, must know you are going to fail at, and when you do, they penalise you for it, and then they wonder why morale is so low, and we don't want to do them any favours.
Maybe some of the above ex target people are right maybe if ex target managers are in charge it may turn things around, lets hope. I don't have much faith in the company, and wouldn't trust them any further than i could throw them.
Its a wonder they don't have a higher turn over of staff than they do, but then in the current climate, we don't have a lot of choice, after all if the employment situation was better wouldn't the majority of both us city link drivers and target drivers, leave these idiots to their own devices.
I feel sorry for you target lot, we're used to the abuse from the management, you're just starting, Good Luck!

Good grief and I thought I'd been unlucky...

We used to live in Cornwall and there we had all sorts of problems, including being told that they tried to deliver (one occasion we actually got the driver to admit he'd tried the wrong road). We have 2 dogs, both of whom have a hairline trigger when it comes to even car doors slamming across the road, let alone someone knocking at the door.

Since moving to cumbria, we've had 500 quid's worth of computer gear left in the wrong address (wrong road again and the house has only been here since the 20's) and other deliveries left in their driveway. We've had 250 quid's worth of books go missing (Citylink first claimed they left it in our porch (we don't HAVE a porch) and then claimed they left it in our shed (which is pretty unlikely since it's right round the back). Our road is clearly marked, our house did NOT have a number, but next door and the house opposite DID (so doesn't take much working out) - we had to wait for the sign to be done or we'd have had it done sooner.

I feel sorry for the honest drivers out there - we've had loads of accurate deliveries from all companies, but it seems like Citylink has more than it's fair share of dodgy drivers and/or supervisors which is letting them down. This is more than complicated by the complete lack of honesty and/or customer care by Citylink's offices.

Personally, if I was Citylink and I wanted to look after my customers and protect them from the problems they're having, I'd fit GPS logging systems to all my vans and have them log the location every 30 seconds and possibly upload that information to a central computer every hour or two, so that if their drivers haven't BEEN to an address for long enough, they'll know about it and can do something to recify the situation (starting with an apology to the customer, then perhaps looking at the GPS systems the drivers are using to find the addresses).

They need to do something, because I've told 2 online computer companies that I'll have to stop dealing with them in the future because of these problems... and this is OEM equipment that I cannot buy in the shops, before I get such a suggestion from a driver.

And, before I'm accused of being out, I've either taken the whole day off (and have the two dogs in case I'm "indisposed" and don't hear the door) or have been unemployed since moving up here and so in all day (and usually sitting 10 yards or less from the door).

And yes, Cornwall is bad - we were 50 miles from the nearest depot... making pickups out of the question. (And don't even suggest buying stuff from shops, guys... we didn't have shops that stocked most of what we needed and, if they could order it in, would take weeks and also would have charged through the nose for it). This is why we PAID for delivery, after all.

I have heard a rumour today, though, that they may have gone bust... although this is completely unsubtantiated at this time. My sympathies (if true) to all their hard working drivers and staff... and none to the drivers and office workers who really didn't care about the company.

...I probably would never have used them.

However, every delivery I have had from City Link has been bang on! deliveries when promised, cards left when not in and they have not failed a Saturday delivery yet (currently waiting for my 3rd, but I have no doubts that it will arrive before 12!

I am reading some horror stories here, and it reminds me of another courier firm with a depot in Aylesbury that are always late, rude and act like cowboys! (Interlink express)

Some of the ICL Drivers that have posted here sound like complete idiots, but there are alot of good drivers about, and my local depot is top class!

I've never had a problem receiving anything from Citylink. But i have had a problem sending things back to my work on account.

2 times they have lost the stuff i sent. I couldn't care less though as it was work crap. But that's 2 times out of about 50-60.

I haven't worked at Citylink, but i go to the Cambuslang one. The staff there are Friendly. I've spoken to a few of the head office staff, Sound very professional and again Friendly.

Only beef i have with them is that they didn't have a number for the Cambuslang Depot so they had to get it off the net, which turned out to be a duff number.

A lot better than parcel force who left my books in the rain, in the middle of the drive way as i looked at him through the living room window...I shouted WTF are you doing? And he said he didn't think i was in.

a few weeks ago the owner driver poster went up and now its come down!! surprize surprize no takers! I admit that there are lazy employed drivers but there quite a lot of hard working ones too and whilst i accept we have fewer drops the fact is that a huge majority of drops for the target guys are business addresses (this info comes from 3 target guys) Ask any drivers which part of his route is fastest and it will always be business estates and shops! also the average collections for an entire target depot per day is 60, at city link its 300. So you see it all evens up we are all getting shafted but i would definatly advise any employed driver not to go self employed, dont take it from me, the target guys (who are a good bunch where we are) have told us not too. Some of them were trying to transfer to us to get employed!

I would'nt advise anybody to become an owner driver they treat you like something on the bottom of their shoe. I heard that they are trying to convert employed drivers to owner drivers, to cut costs, and yes we do, do larger areas than citylink drivers but not so many collections as these are done by the trunkers.

"and yes we do, do larger areas than citylink drivers"

Well that's not the case here.

city link treat all of its employee's like poo. the managment are mostly. yam yam perves that don't no any thing except being twats. especially Andy rose the big Arkrite tosser

Oh aye, what depot is he at?

And again i'll say, that's not the case here.

Hello,

I'm waiting for a parcel and it says that it was delivered 2 days ago and it was signed "POSTED"

My wife is in the house all day and haven't heard or signed for anything.

How can this be?After reading all these I'm kind of scared!
I'm calling them first thing in the morning?
Should I be afraid?

Thanks,

Carlos

well its really hit the fan here!! now being made to do 100 drops plus 15 collections per day!! told if you cant do it theres the door. Nice management style!! They are trying to out the employed so that they can get in owners! They have cut us by 7 routes. they have put 7 drivers on basic money doing 9 - 5 to try to get them to hand in notice so they will leave. Constructive Dismissal anyone? And yes i know the target guys do 100+ but try 80% residentual oh and we have to get at least 75 signatures a day or else we take out even more till we get 75! Will just lead to fake signings and chucking over fences or leaving with neighbours when we shouldnt. Whats really annoying is that this whole fiasco is down to the directors cocking up the takeover but now its us paying the price!! thanks you greedy rentokil C****

32 you can only do what you can do. Some runs can handle 100+ cos of the amount of mulitple consignments for the same place. Start bringing unattempted drops back to the depot and they might look at the situation, or tell them you want to raise a grievance. And yes, threaten them with constructive dismissal.

We are going through the process of run cuts at the moment as well but as far as i can see there are no attempts to force employed drivers out. They are also looking at van sharing for the employed drivers. It all comes down to what kind oF DGM and Ops manager you have as to how these situations are handled.

With the credit crunch and the price of fuel, threat of recession etc then it's inevitable that they'll cut stuff back as far as they can and as usual it's the grunts on the ground that'll suffer the most.

Cheers 42, they are doing that shared driver thing here too. Totally see where you coming from on the multiple cons thing, they really need to assess each route rather just say every route can go out with this!! but that would take far too much planning and use of brains!!! Our branch manager is just concerned getting up the ladder so we have no hope of help here!! it was him who said do it or theres the door ( when he drove he could just about manage 60 drops!!) and thats why everyone here is p****d!. Oh and from what we have found out its business as usual at the network 2 (target) branches, no cuts there, and dont even go there with "thats cause we arent the problem" Fact is we are all losing money in every branch network 1 and 2!!

I almost cry when I see the state of City Link.

How bad has it got when you take two companies making £70m pound a year and turn it into one that is losing £50m per year. Rentokil said it would save £10m by integrating the two companies - not lose £120m.

They could have kept the two companies separate, not competed and even in a downturn, the result could not have been worse.

I feel sorry for the drivers both employed and self-employed. The roles are completely different between the two companies and it has nothing to do with the ownership method. Target had fewer small customers, was predominately B2B and competed for multiples better than for singles. Areas covered were bigger and very few residential points. City Link - Smaller area, more residential more singles more collections. Very different but it doesn't mean one had to be employed and one doesn't. A decent self employed driver at Target two years ago made a decent living. The fuel rises will not have helped or the cost of credit which has probably pushed up the price of a vehicle.

Poor management - No excuse but bought up in the Michael Cooke culture it is hardly surprising. Generally my fellow depot managers had some people skills about them (Not all of them)

IT - The root cause of the failed integration in my opinion. Our IT was years behind at Target and we never got to the stage of electronic signature capture. It took years to roll out computerised routing despite being promised it at Conference after Conference. We were promised clocking in systems which apparently worked well at the pilot depots but that got canned. So rather than getting a decent IT director for the joint companies, they put Chris" Overpromise and Never Deliver" Bale in charge. The rest as they say is history

Barbara Wilson - Don't get me started. Useless Punch & Judy lookalike

Operations were left to a man who couldn't speak English

Deloitte - What a waste of money they were

It took years to build up two great companies. It took 12 months of feeble leadership and tribalism to destroy it.

I am only still here because I trust the new management to put it right. Personally I would split the company back in two and run it like Interlink and DPD.

"Sorry to dissapoint you but target are cutting back and its left up to the owner drivers to take up the slack"

Target doesn't exist anymore mate.

Could you explain what leads you to believe that only owner drivers are taking up the slack?

I was expecting a delivery from City Link yesterday. My girlfriend was in all day but when I got home I found the dreaded card at the bottom of the stairs in my close. Our buzzer is clearly marked and functional - not to mention loud! Our flat has a name plate. Every other service I use, from Royal Mail to the local chinese take-away have no problems finding us. How could the driver have missed these? If he somehow gained access to the close he then failed to post the card securely but more likely he shoved it under the close door and a neighbour moved it to the stair. How can I be so sure? Because this is the third time on the trot that this has happened to me with City Link!!!

Surely it is more hassle to fill out a card and have to redeliver than to at least attempt a delivery? Was this done to avoid climbing a flight of stairs, to save two minutes obtaining a signature, or is it some kind of procedural scam? With the nearest depot 20 miles away surely the driver appreciates the grief that he is causing. For those who have posted here saying 'you try it' or 'I work 8-5' and other pathetic justifications I have no sympathy and I hope you get the sack. I work a full time job and, in my line of work, I wouldn't last very long if I displayed this level of incompetence. Whatever issues I have had with any of my employer I have never given less than my best - I once worked for three months for an employer who was laying me off even though I could have walked at any point.

I couldn't get this item redelivered out of office hours, I couldn't get City Link to redirect it and having contacted the sender, they couldn't instruct a redirection without incurring a charge. As I have written to head office chasing compensation I refuse to pay any more, or to undertake a 40 mile round trip to collect my item thus the only solution is to wait for the item to be returned to the sender and collect it from them - I should have done this and saved myself the bother in the first place. I paid £6 to be completely pwned by City Link for a third time. I will ensure that, unless unavoidable, I never purchase anything delivered by them again and I would urge anyone reading this thread to avoid them at all costs.

How on Earth they are still in business I have no idea!

another city link failure! When you say "my close" I take it you mean a block of flats! and not a cul de sac with some stairs attached! You are totally right it is far better for us to get rid of parcels than return them to the depot. I cant answer for your driver but it makes no sense but believe me if i get no answer at a block of flats with an intercom i dont take a card up it just goes in the main door, ive never had a problem from customers with that. city link will reattempt out of hours if its a genuine claim so there must be some other problem with your delivery! Perhaps your driver doesnt like you because he thinks your rude and arrogant...... dont know why he would think that? oh and im sure the 500 drivers who where made redundant this week would love to read your comments, yes we have bad drivers but do tar us all like it. 8-5 try 6-6 or 7-7 and some days no breaks, youve never done a job like this mate!

This is where my television that went missing went !! This will hopefully make other drivers think twice !

A RING of delivery crooks stole hi-tech goods for more than two months before their employer alerted police. Three employees of delivery firm City Link took computers, televisions and other goods that they should have delivered to homes in South Wales. Cardiff Crown Court was told that for two and a half months the crooks peddled their illicitly obtained goods on auction website eBay at knockdown prices. One raked in more than £10,000 by selling more than 60 different items through the website. In total, it is believed more than £30,000 worth of items went missing. Detective Sergeant Mike Yeo, of Roath CID, said detectives had been called in by delivery firm City Link, which has a base at Portmanmoor Road Industrial Estate, Splott, Cardiff. Det Sgt Yeo said: “They were stealing all sorts of things: plasma-screen televisions, iPods, computers, hi-tech equipment, even a Dyson cleaner.” It is believed the stolen goods were loaded onto delivery driver Paul Golding’s van and he delivered them to the homes of the other two men, Vincent Smith, 38, of Greenway Road, Rumney, Cardiff, and Joseph Stephens, 45, of Glyn Eidw, Pentwyn, Cardiff.
Between April 13 and June 3, 2007, some 61 items were stolen and sold on the popular auction website eBay for around £10,000, a fraction of their full value.

Night-time supervisor Smith was jailed for nine months after he pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and one count of theft, with 24 offences taken into consideration.

Driver Golding, 42, of Chesterton Road, Llanrumney, Cardiff, was jailed for six months after pleading guilty to 15 counts of theft.

Fellow City Link employee Stephens was also jailed for six months after admitting five counts of theft.

i worked for intial city link in west london heston branch and the managment there was a complete disgarace,they never looked out for there workers,just themselves so they can get a bigger bonus at the end of year. parcels where going missing lefth right and center only to find out that the management at the time was behind it all. INTIAL CITY LINK IS FULL OF CROOKS DECIEVING THE PUBLIC

First point, citylink bought target express to make them better , but who really bought out who because citylink have gone from a ok fast moveing computer system to joining a line every morning to put up with dick managers who dont listen to us , dick managers who cant answer the phone to us when we try and find the customer, dick managers who never reply when we ask for a customers phone number. Drivers from Target will always be from target and citylink guys will always stick together but we all see what a fuck up the men at the top of the buisness are to make money makeing compmnays into loss makeing compnays and the butt of comments on this website,
Now we are loseing millions every month and they cant afford drivers anymore expect your delayed parcel to take even longer from now on,

We have been using CityLink for about 5 years to deliver wine and tinned food. We would make the following points:

1. Having used NCN Express and Amtrak (both now bust), we can say that CityLink is probably no worse than the rest. About 95% of what we send out arrives without problems.

2. A lot depends on your local depot and delivery driver. Some depots are awful and we tend to send via Royal Mail to these areas.

3. You can increase the chances of receiving your goods by giving directions and instructions to the consignor. If you KNOW that your house is hard to find give directions and/or your phone number. (Note that the consignor won't give out your phone number unless you give permission). If you may be out when your items arrive give alternative instructions to leave with a neighbour or safe in a porch, greenhouse, garage etc. Or even better have it delivered to your work or possibly your local Post Office if they will do that for you.
MAKE IT AS DIFFICULT AS POSSIBLE FOR THE COURIER TO FAIL TO DELIVER!

4. We always chase up failed deliveries as this is where CityLink is weak. If they don't get it right first time things can go very wrong afterwards. There is no doubt that drivers will claim to have left a card or claim that they can't find the house when they have actually made no attempt to deliver (this happens particularly on Friday afternoons). However they can be caught out as they have to report the colour of your front door and often guess wrong.

5. If you can't get anywhere with your local depot, go back to the company you bought from and make it their problem. But first off MAKE IT AS DIFFICULT AS POSSIBLE FOR THE COURIER TO FAIL TO DELIVER by following the steps at point 3 above.

i've taken the plunge with ebuyer and for a pretty penny mind you. i will update on how bad this fiasco is (hehe, presuming there is one). i am waiting in my front room with a clear view of the front of my house as the delivery date is today, so, either they deliver it (and everything is hunky dory), they don't deliver at all... OR the most delightful of the 3 for a burly man like myself; grab the courier as he tries to make a runner after carding me!

i'll see you soon!

90 drops over 2 towns 15 miles apart is so fun 15 hour days.... i might not die? oh well safe in the knowlage im saving the company money i can now look forward to my 2 days off oh wait they bug me every 5 mins to work saturday ... 9 hours for 50 quid wooo hoo only thing that stops me unactioning is the thought of the poor people who have waited in all day for medical goods or taken the day off work unpaid for there kids birthday prezzie ... hopefully the ignorent warehouse staff havnt smashed it up.... or sent it to the wrong depot or stole it..i hate to say this about a company i once enjoyed working for but what a bunch of cowboys we have become!

or is that just here in scotland?

"only thing that stops me unactioning is the thought of the poor people who have waited in all day for medical goods or taken the day off work unpaid for there kids birthday prezzie"

Listen pal there are more people who know they've got a package coming and they don't bother their arse about it and expect you to leave it for them. Then they have the cheek to phone up and complain about the fact that we don't deliver in the evening when they'll be at home.

I hate the public with a passion!

Also, you should go back to the depot with the one's you can't manage. Whoever does the routing will soon get the message.

What depot are you?

90 drops over 2 towns!!

Its the same in london, and we are being badgered for saturdays now too! and im with 42, "i know i will order shit off the internet with express delivery next day" and even better i will fuck off out and get a card left, then i wont bother to read the card and let it be re attempted next day, and then fuck off out again, then ring up and complain!!

Most organizations only care about the bottomline. If companies like Amazon see that there sales are impacted by the use of City-Link they will change the courier service. We all have the right to walk away from any organization using City-Link and all the comments on this site indicate that it is a big problem. The city-link employees are delusional enough to believe that the majority of their customers are lying idiots. I say vote with your feet people and let’s make this bunch of charlatans redundant.

I orderd a parcel for friday yet i was up at 6:00-6:30 all morning waiting for the parcel and i come on the net to check where the parcel is and i finally come across the information saying that i was carded..... NOW OMFG! who in there right mind says they carded some one when they never even touched the buzzer!!, that f****in thing is loud enough to wake the DEAD half way across the plannet! FFS! Who ever it is i would love to meet them and ask what actions they did when posting my parcel!... coz u sure as hell never left any card with concierge! and we also have video feed so if he lies about ringing out buzzer that guy will lose his job... heck he should lose it anyways for being so incompitent... or stealing the damn thing..

After checking this place out i will never use city_*******_link again...

Drivers dont post the parcels because...

1: they wanna get to the end of there shift as quickly as possible.
2: the rout is not ordinary for them.
3: they dont like to go into residential areas.
4: they dont like to go into a lift.
5: the time it takes to get theu the front door up the lift and carrying multiple packages.
6: destination is more than 30ft walk away from van. {getting bored with job huh?}

if you wanna complain that its the persons fault for staying in all day waiting for the buzzer to go and end up checking the internet to see that they have been carded with out a card in sight or delivery man on camera attempting to use the buzzer then i suggest you get your facts right, your ment to be providing a service, not slacking about which ever way you wish and bitching back at us consumers who are pissed off with you delivery men who come up with selfish excuses just because your getting slacky at your job.

I was in all day waiting for you puppet force to come ringing my buzzer but no!!!! you just wanted to card me.. how slack is that..

whats your excuse?...
1: (it wernt on my rout.) how can it not be on your rout if its in your damn van?.
Most like you forgot your damn rout drove right past it and thought f*** it... ill card all the addresses down that road because of my incompitence.

"Drivers dont post the parcels because..."

Drivers don't post parcels because the majority of them won't fit through the letterbox. Have you ever tried to post a hoover through one?

As for the rest of your post, i'm sorry but i don't understand your particular brand of English.

I have to say that we are lucky with the management here in Edinburgh. The DGM and nightshift manager are Target, DM and dayshift are City Link and mostly they seem to know what's required to run a successful depot. We've been told by head office that we must be doing at least 60 drops per van, inevitably this has led to run cuts and some drivers not being happy about getting a few extra drops. However none us are told "if you're not happy you know where the door is".

Another thing that, certainly the City Link drivers hate, is the fact that we are now forced to carry pallets in our vans. Some of these are huge and if you've only got a small van can take up a lot of valuable space. Especially when you've already loaded your van and you find out that the last pallett off the last trunk is yours!

When people are sitting @ home waiting for you to knock the door then they expect you to KNOCK IT!.

All the drivers here now are being forced out by owner drivers. Have just learnt that employed drivers are being taken off there routes and replaced with owner drivers and then being forced into just earning the basic wage with no overtime in an attempt to force them to leave so they dont have to make them redundant! spread this around as this will happen in every depot and once again we have been told if we dont like it theres the door!! I think its a closed shop here and we are not sure if its happening else where, a few threatning notices suddenly disappeared when human resources turned up?

"All the drivers here now are being forced out by owner drivers."

That's not hapening here.....yet!

I can think of only three employed drivers that have went self-employed, everybody else seems happy to stay employed.

Petra Cech is apparently paying us a visit next week so maybe some of the guys will corner him and ask some searching questions.

Citylink are cowboys who are fast running out of money, it wont be long now until the cowboys are off the ranch, could also be referred to as monkeys who couldnt give a shit, if you want to know why your parcel hasnt been delivered dont ask us because we are trained monkeys and were trained to lie, also dont be put off by our high price pre 9am deliverys i actively encourage you to pay extra, you know why, we can rarely deliver by 9am due to depots being miles out of town, dont worry test us for a 9am delivery if it doesnt arrive by 9am you get a free delivery and double money back, and many pod,s are fake , criminal outfit believe me,

These monkeys support racists , sexual pests and have no worrys about putting out a long time driver in favour of a union member because they run scared ,

this company couldnt help a old lady across a road

I have regulary seen packages kicked about in the warehouse and parcels thrown on the floor, citylink are fast becomeing bankrupt and are led by idiots throughout the company, first the ceo who bought all the citylink depots so he could employ self employed drivers ( who are only in a hurry to finish and get home get money for nothing , whereas a citylink driver with a little pride will try to help a customer because returning to your house doesnt cost us extra fuel) citylink have saveings to makejust a shame there starting with saveing time with the customers

"These monkeys support racists , sexual pests and have no worrys about putting out a long time driver in favour of a union member because they run scared"

Care to explain that one citystink?

"who are only in a hurry to finish and get home get money for nothing"

Hear ya there 44. When they're asked to stay on a little longer, for whatever reason, they mostly refuse.

Please join my Facebook group and tell all your friends. Put pressure on companies to offer at least one alternative to City Link Initial.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34749297707

If you ever had something delivered by Initial City Link, odds are that it was a negative experience. Initial City Link can't do what seems to be no problem for other couriers. Causing irritation and aggravation to consumers.
One forum thread I came across sums up Initial City Link:

> Zero customer focus
> Zero accountability
> Zero support
> Zero improvements

But the blame resides in both the courier and the retailer. It has become pointless to complain to Initial City Link therefore consumers have to put pressure on retailers.

What you can do:

DON'T BUY if a retailer solely uses Initial City Link for shipping

DON'T BUY if a retailer doesn't offer you a choice of couriers

CANCEL YOUR ORDER if there is a failed delivery which is not your fault. Go and order elsewhere with a reliable courier.

TELL YOUR RETAILER why you won't buy from them anymore. Insist on a choice of delivery options. Come back to them once they do.

You can post your personal experience with Initial City Link but usually it's the same story over and over again. 'Attempted' deliveries which never happened, 'lost' delivery cards, 'unfulfilled' deliveries, unhelpful and rude staff and Initial City Links great company policy which serves as an excuse for everything.

[rest of comment removed because it's not relevant here and a bit too much like spam for my liking - Coofer Cat]

we know that the 3 knobs that took over a few years ago really cocked up, are you shocked, TNT and Post office got rid of them. They came here to sort this company out and make one of the best up and coming parcel firms better. did they do it no, not by a long shot. every body body at the city link hub knew they could not do it because they had no time for the the custumers. all they wanted to do was make a name for them selfs.
in this job the customers come first and we must all remember that, they did not. but we the workers can put this place back on the map, and back to were it was years ago. we all want to keep our jobs in these times, earn good money and give good services. at the city link hub trunk drivers are been got rid of for stupid reasons, just to save money, and so are you van drivers at the branchs. we all do a roll, but the lads in the warehouse and van drivers are the ones that the public see and deal with. we need you lads to stick fast and show the cocks at the top that we keep the place going not them at the top, but us. come on lads i been here 12 years i want to be here another 12.

"If you ever had something delivered by Initial City Link, odds are that it was a negative experience."

Utter utter rubbish!

I go out five days a week and deliver about 99% of the packages on my van. The remaining 1% are carded cos the person ain't in.

To all the idiots slagging off icl take a long look at all other so called carriers and they are not that much better; ok we have had a few problems but all seem to be sorted,been with company 16 years now and i can say we have turned it round keep up the good work LADS were all in the same boat.

all of these comment blogs paint an unrealistic picture. does anyone here realy think that people who get their parcel in good order when they expect it waste their time coming on here to say that, no!

i work for city link and our depot delivers about ten thousand parcels a week, of those parcels only about 10% are NOT delivered first time. the problem is that if there is a problem delivering a parcel that problem is usualy something that causes a lot of follow on problems causing the distress seen here on this page.
i can't honestly say that there aren't problems, and that sometimes driver do not do their job properly, what i can say is that at least in the depot where i work that any driver caught doing this(and we DO check) is disciplined, and if it is found to be something serious such as falsifying paperwork then that driver is sacked.

as to people bitching about times well i don't know why it says on the website that we do that, i have only noticed that tonight and i'l be bringing it up on monday, but if you want your parcel hand delivered, by the pope, at 11.5 minutes past 3pm then YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!!!! don't use a cheap delivery service and expect gold plated service

At City Link we take all feedback and issues seriously. Please call Sarah Hudson on 01276 606622 or email Sarah.Hudson@City-Link.co.uk to ensure that we are able to address your issues or concerns. Our business hours are Monday to Friday 8.30 - 17.30.

There appears to be 5 years worth of issues or concerns posted above. Think you may have to extend your business hours to work through the backlog!!

HEAD OFFICE AS IF YOU CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And do you really think any driver is going to be emailing you and give away his/her I.D! . Oh know i forgot that email is just for customers as you couldnt give a crap about the drivers!! And yes it is relevant as if you had satisfied drivers you would probably have better customer service. still as Jason keeps telling us by March we will all be replaced with owner drivers any way!!!. Top Branch Manager he is so good for morale!!!!! I think not!!!!!

"by March we will all be replaced with owner drivers any way!!!. "

Well one way of getting rid of some of the employed drivers is to no longer let them have the vans to and from work.

This will happen sooner rather than later.

Believe me it will.

Oh another round of redundancies today.... DTS s have been given there marching orders just before Christmas!! What a lovely thing to do, I certainly wont be emailing you as there is nothing you can tell me that i dont already know. After christmas when the work drops off you will be making more drivers redundant, you can justify this by showing a drop off in work at that time, then when the work load increases again by march you can then get in more self employed drivers, then again when the work load decreases during summer around the publishing of the q2 results more drivers will be laid off, again justified by the work load drop off. Then same as before, work increases and self employed come in. Ive seen a sensitive internal memo, city link predicts it should be able to be totally self employed by march 2010 or sooner. Ms hudson i really do believe that issues are listened to and taken seriously but that does not mean that once a plan is put into place that it will be altered.

Hi

Just found this thread so I thought I would post what happened to me today.

I spent all day in the house waiting for a TV to be delivered. The time ticked on and nothing, so I rang City link at 3pm, they tried the local depot and no answer. This went on and on and after 7 phone calls to City Link I got to speak to a Lady called Tracy, who took my number and called me back. She said that the Driver got called back to the depot and my package wont be delivered. So I arranged with her to get this delivered on Sat.

Now I check my Tracking page and I see it has been set as Correctly delivered and signed for!

all I can say is WTF.

This is a print of my city link tracking page

City Link Job No Search

Current Status: These goods have been successfully delivered.

Customer Reference: **** Scheduled Delivery Date: 02/12/08

POD Date: POD Time: POD Signature:
02/12/08 13:35 brown

Tracking History
17:29 Monday, December 1, 2008 On route to delivery branch
03:52 Tuesday, December 2, 2008 Arrived at Delivery Branch
07:40 Tuesday, December 2, 2008 Goods loaded onto a van
19:12 Tuesday, December 2, 2008 Delivery point closed (Carded)
19:54 Tuesday, December 2, 2008 Goods Delivered

"At City Link we take all feedback and issues seriously. Please call Sarah Hudson on 01276 606622 or email Sarah.Hudson@City-Link.co.uk to ensure that we are able to address your issues or concerns. Our business hours are Monday to Friday 8.30 - 17.30."

Please if this really is somebody working within then stop posting this bullshit, if it is somebody taking the piss then enough is enough.

This company is by far the worst i have had the misfortune of dealing with them before and now stear well clear of anyone that uses them. Their customer service staff are rude unhelpfull couldnt care less and bland on the phone. The company goes out of its way not to deliver, i have dogs that bark as soon as someone knocks the door even if i havent heard they alert me , but not with City link they manage to put cards through the door without alerting anyone. Also i have found a city link card for myself in my neighbours garden???. Unfortunatley like alot of other courier companies tthey do not go out of their way to ensure you get the service you have paid for. They only attempt delivery twice and after that expect you to hike miles to pick it up at your cost. They refuse to change address so you can recieve it at work and they wont leave it in a safe place as a signiture is always required and lastly they dont leave it with a neighbour because aparently they have had cases where neighbours refuse to hand over the goods to the rightfull owner. My Branch is the Gatwick depot they really are useless and as i say i wont deal with anyone that uses them.

"Only attempt delivery twice" - Like most couriers - carded on day 1 it clearly states "you MUST phone this evening" if you will not be available tomorrow.

"Refuse to change address" - City Link have been instructed to deliver to the address given - why order it to be delivered to that address if you know your going to be at work?? Couldnt you just ask for delivery to your work address when you place the order?? City Link take the instructions from the person SENDING the parcel.

"Signature is always required" - Senders have to explicitly state if they want goods left safe - imagine if the driver left something safe and you didnt receive it and then you were told "We left it safe like you wanted, not our responsibility"

"Dont leave it with a neighbour" - Again, depends on the instructions from the senders and also if your neighbours are actually in when the driver tries them.

City Link will be pleased to do any of the above if authorised by the senders - please remember, its who you order the goods from that give City Link the instructions for delivery. If you want any or all of the above done then you need to tell the people who are SENDING the goods.

Every company has it's bad eggs. I'm sure that each person reading this comment has encountered the willfully lazy, the stupid, the jobsworth in their place of employment.

To the City-Link drivers who have posted here: surrounding the minority of your colleagues who fall into the category I mentioned above in a screen of barely legible denials and plain-old insults of the customers does nothing for your company's reputation. If you're unable to see that every company makes mistakes and that this is frequently caused by incompetent staff then I'd like to suggest that perhaps YOU are the willfully lazy/stupid/jobsworth and that this is why you are so quick to resort to insults and denials when confronted with the problems your company exhibits sometimes.

For the record, I have had a number of parcels delivered by the City-Link Wigan depot. I've never had any problems. Good job to you guys at the Wigan depot.

Lets get one thing straight City Link dont give a toss about anybody but themselves, Alot of the the replys like WIGAN BRANCH MANAGER are always defending the company, because they are the company we all know they read this blog, It goes too show with sarah hudson still defending the company.

I build computers as a spare time business. I stopped ordering parts from companies that used CityLink a couple of years ago due to the appalling delivery service (e.g. recorded as 'carded' when no delivery attempted and no card left - failure to collect returns as scheduled, rude and abusive staff etc ...etc... etc). Just recently,I reluctantly ordered from e-buyer again with the general expectation of having to trug down to the depot to collect the parcel as I had no faith that Citylink would even attempt to deliver it. I was utterly shocked when they arrived at my door the next day, and delivered. They driver also smiled and wished me a 'merry christmas' and I reciprocated. I was utterly stunned. Since then, they have done it again on three occasions ! To say I am flabbergasted would be an understatement as they also collected a return - again as scheduled. Credit where credit is due !

I would love to know what has happened at the Maidstone depot to achieve this phenomenal turnaround? How come I am getting a service now when I never had one before? If this keeps up, I may even be recommending them, and I never thought I would say that in a million years.

There seems to be a lot of noise on the blog! Its amazing!

Seems like everyone is going through heaps of change in what is generally turbulent times anyway! I can only imagine that this is why there is so much negitivity floating around.

For those employees who seem so desperate to slag off the firm they are working for, perhaps you should remeber the old saying "the grass is not always greener on the other side" and consider the fact that with things the way they are at the minute, those of us who have work are lucky and perhaps should therefore be thankful towards their employer.

All I can say is that I have been getting City Link deliveries for years and personally have never had a problem.

I did all my shopping on line this Christmas and most of it was delivered by City Link with no issue.

Whats going on round the country City Link peeps? 5 drivers been told this week to look elsewhere for a job in our South Midlands branch. Is this the way subbies are being brought in, or has the panic button been hit? Getting contradictorary information....."Thanks for helping in a successful and record breaking Christmas period", then 2 weeks into january drivers are been shown the exit door!! City Link celebrate their 40th birthday this year, that's where life is supposed to begin...or maybe it's the beginning of the end?!

We have a recruitment ban at the moment....unless of course you're an owner driver. Whatever City Link say they'd love to get rid of the employed drivers in order to save themselves hundreds of thousands a year. However a lot of our vans still have a few years lease on them, you could get rid of the driver but not the van.

I thought I would add my own experience's with City Link unfortunatley they are not good I have had many problems with City Link concerning non delivery's and collection's. I am not saying that all drivers are bad as there are good and bad in all company's. I have had to take City Link to court through the small claim's court 4 time's now in the last year alone with my latest case just being resolved they lost each time. You can raise a case through the Good's and Service's act this act states that if a company fails to attend an apointment with you without good reason then they are liable for your loss of earning's for that day I will breifly outline below what the basic case should be.

1. You must notify City Link that you are taking time off from work for that day and you will raise a claim against them if they fail to complete the service booked.

2. They may try and claim their Term's and Conditions exempt them from this it is not the case as unreasonable term's and conditions are not legally binding.

3. You would of course need to cover yourself if you take this course of action in that make sure you were available on day of the service being booked and that you contact City Link and request compensation first which they of course would either ignore or they make misleading statement's requesting time as a delaying tactic.

4. You can start the claim online at money claim website you will have to pay the fee's to begin with. City Link will more than likely as my own personal experience try and delay the proceeding's by filing acknowledgement of service and slipping in a crappy defence to force a hearing you would have to pay the hearing fee of course.

5. If a hearing is forced then they will have to appear in your local court on the hearing date but I will warn you that this can take abou 5 month's from begining to end.

to be blunt this is a very bad company they lie and try and make themselves to be above the law but they should be made to apologise in the only way they seem to understand through their wallet's as they would do nothing for you for free customers should be the same. I just recently had a discussion with one of their solicitors not a very bright individual who seemed to think he could ignore the court order that I have and did not like it all when I stated that I would have the order enforced through ballif's.

In short I would advise making honest financial claims against this company as it may be the only way to get them to start paying attention to their customer's and providing the most basic of services that they are being paid for as good manners cost nothing but this company seem to believe that all common standards do not apply to them.

Also one thing I will point out that the good's and services act covers lost and damaged good's as well.

Citylink - bloody awful delivery company; never heard anyone I know say a good word about them.
Unfortunately when you order something over the net, you are not pre-warned that they use this 'courier'.
This week's plan, get off the van, walk to the front door, fill out card and leave.. no knocking/ringing bell, etc.. probably saves the driver loads of time in his day.
Great plan, they don't have to worry about getting stuff off the van at all - you end up (in frustration) having to collect it from the local CityLink hub - which in itself is usually a nightmare - (last time, quarter of an hour to find a parcel(!) in their own warehouse).

grow up you people should stop moaning if you order parcels and are not in to recieve them then it is your problem not ours we dont know when you r in we aint bloody mind readers. if you work then go into town at the weekends and buy things from SHOPS like people did back in the day. if you moan about so called "stealth deliveries" then you need to take a look at some of our drivers, they couldn't do stealth you could prob hear them a mile off. stealth deliveries make me laugh when ever i hear that, you people chat shit get off you fat lazy arses if you hear the door bell get up and answer it dont phone up bout 2 hours later "oh hello, yes your driver seems to have used his invisabilty cloak, and not knocked, i was looking out the window for him all day but i didnt see him". well look harder cause he def went to your address. its not in the drivers interest to "stealth card" people or just go to the door and write out a card without knocking, that achieves nothing on their part cause they will have to take it out for delivery again the next day.

you can say we are the worst all you want at the end of the day we do get your parcels to you maybe they are a day or two late but thats your fault for ordering stuff off the internet and then not being home for delivery.

anyway thanks for reading hope it clears things up for you xxxxx

bring back target

I had a 42" LCD TV delivered last week. Everything seemed fine but when I turned it on I noticed the whole screen was cracked! Then I examined the box and notice something which looked like a "punch" in the upper corner of the box...
I'm expecting a new TV tomorrow. IF they even give it to me tomorrow I really hope it is not broken, or I swear to god I will go to their service depot and shoot them point blank.

I used to work for Citylink and understand the arguments from each side, but at the end of the day the drivers are asked to do lots more than a normal heart can stand in a day.

For this reason we crammed stuff in our vans upside down, bent, fucked and who cares right?

As long as we got out there, made some effort and got 90% of the parcels done then it was home time.

The company that really takes the biscuit and the cake and all the pies is NIGHT FRIGHT, who have succesfully ruined every single order of uPVC window sills we've ordered. We even got tyre marks on the last two. some fucker had just seen them on the depot floor and just drove over them.

Well done Night Fright this award is for you !

how come this argument is still going on after five years?!

i used to be an employee of city link and i think its time to put the record straight. firstly the parcel doesnt and never does belong to city link, it belongs to the sender for who city link are a representative of until a customer has signed for it so the comment that it belongs to city link until its signed for is completely incorrect. secondly city link have a new policy in place which is, to make as many employed drivers who have worked hard for them over the years and who were willing to do the job to the best of their ability redundant and employ what they like to call owner drivers. these drivers are treated like dirt and are given no formal training ( unlike the now redundant ex employed drivers ) and are then sent out onto the road with impossible amounts of work to do. and to cap it all off most of these owner drivers are foreign nationals with only a slight comprehension of the english language. city link was in my opinion one of the best courier companies in britain but now it is being run by the inept managers from a company which lets be honest city link had bought out because it wasnt being run correctly ( i.e the management team is mostly from target which city link bought to stop them going under ) if any one wants the opinion of someone who has seen the workings of city link from the inside ( and who isnt trying to kiss ass ) then i really would avoid city link at all costs and take your business else where where ever possible

To all you people that think you are hard done by. For one thing i have better things to do than drive all the way to your house and not ring the bell but spend a minute or two writing a card out !! . The amount of times i have driven for 20 Min's into the depths of Cornwall to attempt a delivery just to find the cons is out , and when returning on the second day , they reply with "i didn't think it would be here the next day" WHAT DO YOU THINK NEXT DAY SERVICE MEANS YOU RETARDS. i am paid to do a job on behalf of the sender and until you sign for that parcel , you legally have no rights over that parcel , and if you are expecting a parcel listen out for the door or at least a big yellow and green van (that you can't miss ) pulling up outside . just do me a favour and don't make us hard working drivers come back over the old , driver didn't knock scam or he got the wrong house , at the end of the day why would we make ourselves more work by having to come to some twats house twice when we can get rid of it the 1st time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently they're all franchised out to bidders and then they can set their own rules.

I know for a FACT that Slough branch employees were getting around £80 basic LESS than drivers in the Hayes branch, so it all depends on the managers there.

Ours was a obviously some sort of c***

Hello

I found this blog through reading the City Link magazine this morning. There was a quote in it from here bumming us up for good service, so i googled coofercat and found this place.

"All those managers are doing now is wrecking peoples lives by getting rid of citylink drivers"

I work at a regional level and am privvy to things that others are not. The one thing that alarms me at the moment is that allegedly City Link depot managers are getting rid of employed drivers through the disciplinary procedure, whereas before these drivers would be 're-educated' and keep their job. The benefits of this are that they can either get other drivers to take up the slack or take on a self employed driver, who at the end of the day costs considerably less than an employed one.

There are too many conflicts between employed and self employed drivers and i was never convinced this was going to work at driver level

Some good drivers have already lost their jobs through this.....unwritten policy.

We've also had, some complaints here about preferential treatment given to self employed drivers.

I hope you understand that i can't give my name as i would probably find myself in the dole queue like some of these drivers..

I read this blog from time to time and am horrified to learn that this Fat Cat attitude that has our great nation on its knees has reached City Link. Although I don't work for the business I hava great deal of colleagues that do and am disappointed that the hard working and grafting staff like drivers and depot operational staff have had their pay frozen and the rest of the "paper shufflers" at management level are earning bucket loads in bonuses.

Please explain - if a company makes losses how come there are bonuses given out? Surely the whole point of earning a bonus should mean that the company is profitable? or am i just being stoopid!!

As for Camberley - is that closing down?? Surely not as thats where the "Head Honchos" are??!!

Awaiting some clarity.............I may be some time!

i used to work for shitty link and all i got was trouble and grief off customers. every morning i would arrive at the depot to load my van id find my usual cages and start loading, once loaded i would find that i had 10 -15 parcels missing from my workload. the problem was i would then spend the next hour going around the other 50 vans in the depot asking if they had my parcels, city link need to stop employing polish/pakistani/arab workers who can hardly read any english to sort the parcels on the night shift. i delivered 80 - 120 drops a day and it was always my fault as far as the depot was concerned if any parcels werent in my loading bay, the regular collections i had every day loved it when i had the run as i would show up when required and all collections would have been done, after i left the company last year city link lost all the contracts for the run i did as the driver never showed up, not only that when i left city link said they overpaid me by £800 it actually ended up as they had owed me £900 as they had been swindling me out of my overtime pay every month. the drivers are under alot of pressure and always bear the brunt of problems off customers and the depot. please take it easy on the drivers as it is not always their fault there is some decent drivers working for them its just pot luck as to whether city link put an incompetent driver on ur area or not.

Comments in this thread purporting to be from Citylink employees confirm what I've believed all along: that they employ illiterate, lazy idiots who have ended up driving their vans, working at their depots or manning their phones because they're too thick to get a job at a decent outfit.

I absolutely loathe Citylink, they're the most dishonest, useless bastards in their field. Avoid like the plague.

Always northern morons answering the phone, thick as pigshit

CITY LINK IN NORTHERN IRELAND CANT EVEN DO A NEXT DAY SERVICE... SO THEY TELL ME THAT IT WILL BE DELIVERED ON MONDAY, WHEN NO-ONE WILL BE HERE!!! AS WE ARE ALL AWAY, I PHONE THEM TELLING THEM THAT I NEED THE PARCEL TODAY, AS IM GOING AWAY TODAY!!!! BUT THEY HUNG UP ON ME THREE TIMES, NEVER EVER EVER EVER GET A PACKAGE DELIEVED BY CITY LINK THEY ARE SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :@:@:@:@:@

Well first off reading through the comments on this the replies from City Link employees speak volumes, they seem to forget that we, the customers, pay good money to have an item delivered to us by a certain date, this is what's commonly known as a service, and once money has been exchanged you are legally obliged to uphold your end of the deal, it's not a case of "you'll get it when I get there" I'm afraid. Also you seem to think that there's no way on earth that you could get it wrong and it has to be the customers fault, well I've been told I've had a card when there's been no card and I've had an item delivered to an area with the postcode PL25 how on earth that got mixed up with TR1 is beyond me. The customer service, while English as you pointed out (does that make a difference? Is there some casual racism coming through there?) are rude, I had one telling me it was possible for a city link van to go from Truro, Cornwall to Okehampton, Devon in 15 minutes and as a result despite the fact the driver was apparantly at my house 15 minutes before hand he couldn't make it back before 5pm (This at 3pm)and then hung up on me without even offering to reschedule delivery. And now as I wait for a delivery I can no longer track my parcel as apparantly somehow City Link have managed to let another parcel go out with the same consignment number and it brings up a page asking for my postcode to sort one from the other, only when I put my postcode in I end up at the page asking for my postcode again forming a massive loop, so I can't even tell if they've screwed up again I just have to sit and hope it gets to my house this time and if it doesn't another day off wasted. It seems every time I deal with this company I end up having problems..............

Regards,
Coombes.

they will probably put another target moron in his place. citylink network 1 branch staff are gradually being replaced by target staff after having to re apply for their own job and guess what, whose doing the interviewing for the job, yes ex target managers, also not to mention the network 1 trunk drivers who are being treated so bad and putting ridiculous runs on the shift to make them quit then redundancy will not have to be paid, all to fit in with the big plan of replacing them with subcontractors isnt there a law against this.....

This is the man that said...

"This isn’t some accountant-led project to get back to profitability by cutting the overheads down to size. Quite the opposite."

Stuart Godman Says

Absolute bollocks!

Some depots are cutting runs during the day and putting them out in the evening as it's cheaper to pay a driver x amount per drop than it is to employ him and his van during the day. The driver that's cut during the day isn't usually the one that goes out and does the evening run. Of course these customers have no way of knowing that their package won't arrive between nine and five thirty.

i am ashamed to say i have been with citylink for 4 years , i still only get 2p more than the national minimum wage and yet am constantly given more and more onto my workload because of lay-offs/costcutting. the way citylink managers and so called "supervisors" treat their employees is an absolute disgrace.

How can you justify bonuses while your company makes losses and your employees suffer?.

only now have citylink started to look at customer care with all this new citylink legend bo**ocks , try giving us a wage increase an maybe you'll see us starting to care about our work again.

Just answered the door to City Link with our lovely new £1500 Philips TV we ordered from Richer Sounds. Refused it. All the tape had been cut open. Who has been pawing it? The Driver (to his credit) said they would probably tape it up and redeliver it to me, so I wrote down the serial number and phoned Richer Sounds to say I won't accept that set.

If it was open when it was picked up by CL, then why not refuse it themselves? If they opened it - well, hardly inconsistant with this thread (years now) is it? I don't know who opened it, but I'm not accepting a premium TV that has been 'messed with'.

Very upset (the driver did wait while I phoned my other half - and he did recommend I refuse it, so I can't fault him).

yep the bullying goes on at our depot too! br32 by the way. cant wait to do this survey and see it brushed under the carpet!! January cant come too soon when the few of us that are left get made redundant. I hope the entire board of directors die a slow and painful death from cancer. Seems a horrible thing to say but its a disgrace the way they sacked all those drivers and replaced them with owner drivers, claiming its down to a drop in profits then paid themselves 6 million in bonuses.

any network 1 employees who are the original city link need to join the rmt union who are still the recognised union for citylink so we can stand up to targat express

I last posted to this forum a couple years back when City Link deliveries from the Aylseford Depot where shambolic - phantom carding, Saturday deliveries not turning up when you have paid for them, collections not happening, rude drivers etc. I build IT systems and use courier deliveries a lot. For a couple of years I avoided ordering from anyone that compelled me to use City link like the plague and spent two relatively trouble free years with the likes of Parcel Force, UPS etc.

Recently I tested the water with City Link again to see if anyting has improved. It appears that it has, deliveries are now reliable, they turn on the day arranged - I am certainly not getting the same problems that I used to have with delivery 'attempts being recorded on-line when no delivery was attempted. I have no qualms about using them now.

I am reading all the compliants here about 'Target' and staff being sacked. All I can say is that from a customer's perspective whatever 'medicine' is being administered it appears to be working, at least in my area. Even the attitude of the drivers appears to have changed - no more rudeness. Maybe what is happening is necessary. Maybe the management had to get rid of all the deadwood, time-wasters, serial complainers and jobsworths in order to bring in staff that actually want to work. Whatever the reason it is certainly appears to be working so they have my full support.

im an owner driver and i work hard as fuck every day 6-530 non stop, no break no dinner, nothing. Now lets put a few things straight, no1 the customer, why the hell would we card you and run off when it would be quicker, easier to get you to sign and deliver the thing. this means 1 of our 150 parcels is off the van(now easier to find others) and means we dont have to go back to your house the next day, to wait 5 mins to get your lazy none working arses to the door.

No2 employed drivers, whinge whinge whinge, go buy your selves a van of your own and then you wont be made redundant will you, but this change will also mean you get another post code and another 30 cons, so join up or shut up.

no3 some nob posted that where illiterate, thick and can only get a job delivering parcels in vans well bet my pay cheque pisses all over yours at the end of the month mate, so you go wear a suit and earn 20k ya chump.

once proud city link driver.... excellent blog! and as for self employed!!!! At br32 they get paid £145 a day by the time you have paid for the van, insurance, fuel, tax etc you dont get that much plus you cant take holidays or go sick. Yeah i really really think it would be a great idea to go self employed!!!! but as i know so far none of the the self employed drivers at ours have paid a single penny in tax! most of the drivers are from abroad so they will just jump if the get caught any way!! and its the employed drivers who are constantly covering for useless self employed drivers!

Once proud city link driver, well said.
Have been a driver for city link for not far short of 10 years now, and the company is going from bad to worse for its employees.
Can I just inform the owner driver, and employed drivers, that, as far as lunch breaks are concerned, you are not supposed to be driving for more than 10 hrs a day and getting in and out of the van delivering parcels does not constitute a break, and, you are not supposed to be on duty for more than 11 hrs a day. City link drivers you are not paid for the 1 hr lunch that is in your contract, you are effectively giving this company 1 hr of your unpaid time per day.
They can't keep giving us un-achievable amounts of work, in our set working hours, and expect us to put more unpaid hours in to get them out of the shit they've created, by not only getting rid of staff, and effectively putting that extra work on to the rest of us that are left, but adding extra madcap schemes, like, taking pictures of customers front doors when they're not home, which apparently then gets put on the web site, I wonder how many customers are aware of that. I also wonder how network 2 drivers get on with that, as the network 2 drivers in my area DON'T take the scanners out with them, hmmmm funny how they can get away with it, but city link drivers can't, must be a Target thing.
The bosses are constantly threatening disciplinary action for everything we do, and everything we don't agree with, even when they've not followed they're own procedures. They call themselves Managers, huh! they haven't got a clue.
C'mon city link drivers take your hours lunch a day, you won't get any better thought of by not doing so, in fact those so called managers will just laugh all the more at you, before finally sacking us all, NOT redundancy, oh no, they haven't even got the decency for that. They won't be happy until every last one of us employed drivers have gone, and they're just left with owner drivers.

shares down to 96 no mug will buy us ,only one that might is target!!!!

Last time I commented on this board was a few years back.

We are still with City Link. Still very happy with the service.

City link deliver repaired laptops back to our customers for us. We send a few laptops almost every day. Over a period of about 10 years they have only lost ONE laptop, which is an amazing achievement.

Our driver is still cheerful, polite and patient - definitely a credit to City Link.

Raj

Laptop Repair London

I hear that Rentokill are planning to sell CityLink to a private equity company in 2010. Maybe they can turn it around.

The only reason Citylink are making such huge losses is due to lost business on account of their appalling customer service standards and the Tsunami of customer complaints that inevitably follows any decision by a company to use them. I notice that since Amazon started using Citylink their customers have initiated an 'unoffical' forum dedicated to complaints about CityLink - they never had such a forum when Amazon used Parcelforce because they never experienced the level of sh*t they get from Citylink. Its full of the usual stuff - deliveries not turning up when they have been paid for, 'phantom carding' , lost/nicked goods, abusive drivers. permanently engaged/ringing telephones. All the stuff we customers have come to expect over the years.

They need to do what I always did, don't complain to Citylink (deaf ears) complain to the supplier and eventually you will get a result (they'll stop using them).

After a 2 year pay freeze we are still not getting a pay rise for 2010.
What a great company to work for.

another 6 million shared out to managers before christmas is what i heared thats our pay rise!!!!!

it wouldnt surprise me, whats all this ive heard all the wednesbury hub staff getting laid off, is city link closing down.

i earn more than you na na na naar.
city link is going all subbies for the reason that as far as van drivers go we are obviously a tad cleverer as we get paid 3 times what u get, obviously been cleverer means less head scratching and more delivering= bigger profits .yeah van and insurance = expenses 1500 insurance 10000 25000 on a van but you just concentrate on squashing these debts early and when you pull in the region of 850 a week dont take that long to achieve mines all paid up its just straight wages now,have a look at the reg on your van because that represents the clock on your job il wager with you, citylink dont renew any vehicle leasing this time round. 55 ailing body, i dont think so mate.sitting in an office getting zero exercise equals bad health,light exercise 10 hours a day equals a fit 55 year old. dont reply with your middle aged borisms, like i said SIGN UP OR SHUT UP.

and old boy i dont think so im 25 pal

The worst thing city link ever did was buy target, before this city link was making profit year after year without the help of subbies.all subbies can do is say na na na naar we earn more than you. you wouldnt be earning as much as you do if it wasnt for us network 1 van drivers, oh and some of us work 12 hours a day while the subbies are rushing home for tea.

WHAT A LOVELY CARING COMPANY (JOKE) THEY DONT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE CUSTOMER ONLY THE MONEY THEY ARE MAKING IF I EVER HAVE TO SEND A PARCEL I SURE AS FUCK WONT USE CITY LINK AS THEY ARE A BUNCH OF LYING SCUMBAGS THEY HAVE AN EXCUSE FOR EVERY OCCASION IT MUST BE COMPULSORY TO BE ABLE TO LIE BEFORE YOU CAN GET A JOB WITH CITY LINK STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY THEY ARE BAD NEWS IF THEY DELIVERED NEWSPAPERS YOU WOULD GET THEM A WEEK OR TWO LATE BUNCH OF PRATS