Sending to the UK? Don't use Australia Post

[peter.coombe]

If you are sending an instrument to the UK, use a courier, don't use Australia Post. There is nothing wrong with Australia Post, they will get your package to the UK ok but once in the UK it gets passed to Parcelforce, more accurately described as Parcelfarce. Parcelforce handle the customs clearance for Royal Mail, the UK postal service. They are actually part of Royal Mail, but a separate entity. They are absolutely bloody hopeless!! This has now happened twice, once with me and once with Graham Long. My mandolin arrived in the UK, 3 days from Bega to the UK, quite impressive. However, once in the UK it got stuck with Parcelforce. No notification to the customer nor to me about what the problem was, or even that there was a problem. Customer contacted them and was informed that the address was incorrect. WRONG, and I can prove it. More emails sent to Parcelforce to try and determine what was going on. No reply, silence. Yesterday I sent an email pleading with them to please tell my customer what he needs to do in order to get the package released. Nothing, silence again. I suggested to the customer that he contact a private customs agent. He did that and was informed by the customs agent that the package was waiting for payment of import duties. Customer has no idea how much is payable and no idea how to pay it because Parcelforce won't tell him! Bloody ridiculous. Both of us are frustrated and getting increasingly angrier. Graham's package got returned to him. I will be really pissed off if my mandolin gets sent back, it won't be my fault nor my customer's fault. Parcelfarce indeed.

[kiwigeo]

Jesus Pete that's like a scene from Yes Minister. What a nightmare and absolutely unacceptable.

[TallDad71]

On behalf of the UK I apologise Peter.

That said, ParcelForce are one of the more highly regarded courier services in the UK. Mind you we have just sold off Royal Mail to a Bulgarian billionaire. Go figure.

[kiwigeo]

"highly regarded courier services".....in Australia that's an oxymoron.

ParcelForce are one of the more highly regarded courier services in the UK.

[peter.coombe]

The latest I have heard from the customer is that Parcelfarce has informed him that the package has been delivered and can they close the case. The customer was wary of that and told them to wait until he got home. Guess what, no delivery. Australia Post tracking tells me it has not been delivered, still in transit. We did discover that Parcelfarce has entered the wrong address into their system and they were claiming that I had the wrong address on the package. I sent an email to them informing them that the address on the package is correct. They had 2 entered as the street number when on the package it says 1 which is correct. I always put my own label on the package so sent them a copy of that and checked with Australia Post and that label also has number 1. So far silence from Parcelfarce. It has a bar coded EMS label on the package from Australia Post so I don't understand how they got the street number wrong unless it was entered manually and not scanned. Why would they enter manually???? That is guaranteed to have the occasional typo. My customer has fired off an email asking them that if it had been delivered to what address had it been delivered, otherwise they were lying about delivery. I keep getting more convinced that Parcelfarce is a more accurate name for Parcelforce so that what I am using from now on. The saga continues.

[kiwigeo]

Reminds of a recent carton delivery from Melbourne. Cartage company's online tracking log showed attempted delivery at dinner time on a friday night. I was home at that time staring down the driveway from my study. The guy must have been driving an invisible truck.

I rang the carton company and they informed me the cartons would be delivered on the monday. Again the the log showed delivery had been accomplished on Monday morning....but no cartons. Later that night just as I sent off another email to the carton company I went outside and found the cartons sitting in my garage. Driver had left his truck down on the street and snuck up the driveway hoping I wouldn't notice.

[WJ Guitars]

I order a TKL 8700 guitar case from Zoundhouse in Germany about 6 weeks ago. The shipping was with DHL. It arrived in Australia and was held up in Customs Australia. I made enquiries to customs Australia, DHL and Australia Post and I was not able to find out the reason it was being held in Customs. I am of the understanding after 2 months it will be sent back to the seller.

I eventually got my $960 back through eBay.

Wayne

[peter.coombe]

Well finally looks like the problem has been resolved. As a result of my email to Parcelfarce pointing out the wrong address, they finally looked at the parcel and photographed the label. Apparently it had been classified as a "Trade" import rather than a "Private" import. Trade imports require a number from the importer, which I believe is similar to our ABN number. Once I and the customer pointed out it was a "Private" import, the wheels to clear the parcel started to turn. If only they had asked the customer for the number in the first place all this shemozzle would not have happened. Both of us pleaded with them to tell us what they needed to release the parcel. We got nothing in response. We had no idea they were waiting for this number. The customer has received a detailed set of instructions of what happens and what he should do in future. Reading through that, it basically says he should wait for them to sort it out. If he had done that, the mandolin would be boomeranging back to me! He tried that with Graham's mandolin and that is what happened. We have been unable to determine why they send Graham's mandolin back. Sigh.

I have sent music instruments all over the world over the last 30 years. USA, Canada, Hong Kong, NZ, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and the UK, and those are the ones I can remember. Never before have I come across such a mess. Occasionally there have been problems such as 7 days in LA customs during a heat wave and the case imprinted on the finish, and stuck in Italian Customs during Covid, but this one really does take the cake.

[kiwigeo]

There's always a simple solution...but there's more money to be made by turning a simple problem into a complex one.

Well finally looks like the problem has been resolved. As a result of my email to Parcelfarce pointing out the wrong address, they finally looked at the parcel and photographed the label. Apparently it had been classified as a "Trade" import rather than a "Private" import. Trade imports require a number from the importer, which I believe is similar to our ABN number. Once I and the customer pointed out it was a "Private" import, the wheels to clear the parcel started to turn. If only they had asked the customer for the number in the first place all this shemozzle would not have happened. Both of us pleaded with them to tell us what they needed to release the parcel. We got nothing in response. We had no idea they were waiting for this number. Sigh.

[peter.coombe]

Customer now has the mandolin, phew, we made it.