Good service from Plastic Soldier

[Sunray]

I am building a diorama in 1/300 and ordered some buildings from a range of suppliers. All arrived within one week, with the exception of some Mainly Military items from Chiltren (now Plastic Soldier).  I contacted the firm, and was informed by Anita that it must be lost in the post as it had indeed been dispatched.   Within a few days a replacement package was delivered 1st post.

That's the sort of service that leads to repeat orders. Thanks Anita!

Sunray

[Luddite]

What, you mean all the other suppliers who managed to get your order out right first time?    

Or 'Anita' who stuffed up your first order, blamed it on the Post Office and then finally sorted your order out like it should have been in the first place?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Total Cynic.......

IanS

[Sunray]

Well, she could have...but its the first time I have had a problem with Chiltern.  Previous orders were always  prompt.   Some suppliers have so many claims of "lost in the post" that they now do recorded and charge you for it.

William Townshend (Plastic Soldier) is a well known wargamer (15mm) like many - including Leon and Dave- part of the small cottage industry that keeps our hobby alive.  Good luck to them.

Sunray out.

[Luddite]

Cynic?

Cynicism is just a matter of experience.

In any case, my point was...ah well...too opaque and poorly set out to be interpreted as intended.  I'll drop it there.

[GordonY]

As far as good service goes, just out of idle interest I ordered the new Osprey rules Dux Bellorum from Amazon about 16:30 on Friday afternoon, they arrived at about 8:30 on Saturday morning.

Not only that, if I ordered them from Osprey they were gonna be £12 + P&P, Amazon was £9 with free P&P, I count that one as a WIN

[Hertsblue]

What, you mean all the other suppliers who managed to get your order out right first time?    

Or 'Anita' who stuffed up your first order, blamed it on the Post Office and then finally sorted your order out like it should have been in the first place?

Accordong to the lady at Skytrex, they average one consignment a week lost in the post. Don't know what Pendraken's experience is?

[Sunray]

That's interesting.  Since I moved to 10mm, I have been buying a lot of N gauuge via mail order.  I have to say that many railway model suppliers
add recorded/signed for postage,  and those that don't - especially the more corporate - are harder to get refund/credits from on those few occasions when the goods don't arrive.  Obviously there are those in the hobby who will tell lies about the package not arriving, but the higher postage means that we all end up paying for their dishonesty.

I can apprecate Luddite's humour- reminds me of my days in corporate counsel and the lies we told each other to save face.  It was called PR back then.

Leon, what's your thoughts ? Are lost orders an issue?

Sunray out

[Techno]

And to a certain extent....
What are the forum members experiences of anything failing to turn up in the post ?
In eight or so years over here, I've had about half a dozen 'bits of mail' that appear to have wandered off into the ether.
Don't know about everyone else, but I hate having to complain....In case the sender thinks I'm extracting the urine and trying to get 'freebies'.

Did have one package from Amazon that hadn't arrived after a month....Put in a claim....Package re-sent....Goods arrived within two days....Along with the original order !
So where the 'you know what' had the first package been all that time ? 

Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

QRF once took 5 attempts to get some tanks to me in the 90s, it was a high student population area and the Post Office investigated, the local Postie was intercepting 'interesting' post to known student houses and helping himself.
Believe he got 3 years (I never got my tanks back, I'd have a battalion of T55s if I did!  ).

[Luddite]

I've never had an item 'lost in the post'.  Aside from criminal behaviour as Lemmy describes, its exceptionally rare for post to go missing.  It may be delayed, especially during 'Christmas pressure', but very rarely is lost.

I think companies just blame the Post Office for their service failures.  'Lost in the post' is such an easy cop out.

In general the PO does a bloody marvellous job.  You're all going to miss it when its finally gone.  Get DHL to deliver a letter from Land's End to John O'Groats for less than 50p...they'll laugh in your face.

That said, i have had all manner of problems with private parcel and courier firms, who in my experience usually fail to deliver properly.  
I once had a package actually left in my bin.    
Said it right there on the card wedged into my door; 'left in bin due to rain'.  
Trouble was, aside from being inappropriate and disgusting, it was bin collection day...
Took me 6 weeks to finally get my claim settled.  

My wife recently had an ebay purchase delivered by a well known 'yellow and green liveried' delivery firm.  IT took us two weeks of failed rediliveries and phone calls, and eventually we gave up, told them to keep it and got our money back off the seller.

We now only purchase if the seller guarantees to use the Post Office.


As to my original response...i just find it odd that the 'good service' is singled out for the one supplier who actually failed to deliver first time.  Struck me as funny is all...
 

[Techno]

Ah....
Don't get me wrong L
Like you....I think the dear old PO does a super job...Especially when you consider the volume of items they carry every day..
It's inevitable that some letter/packages go astray. (E.g.....Sorting machines occasionally chew something up, and there's not enough information left on the remains to have a decent go at delivering it.....Had a couple of times over here, where that's happened..but there HAS been enough of the addy for it to be delivered in a re-sealed pack.)

I agree....If/when it goes, we'll be very sorry !

Cheers - Phil.

[sebigboss79]

I've never had an item 'lost in the post'.  Aside from criminal behaviour as Lemmy describes, its exceptionally rare for post to go missing.  It may be delayed, especially during 'Christmas pressure', but very rarely is lost.

I think companies just blame the Post Office for their service failures.  'Lost in the post' is such an easy cop out.

In general the PO does a bloody marvellous job.  You're all going to miss it when its finally gone.  Get DHL to deliver a letter from Land's End to John O'Groats for less than 50p...they'll laugh in your face.

That said, i have had all manner of problems with private parcel and courier firms, who in my experience usually fail to deliver properly.  
I once had a package actually left in my bin.    
Said it right there on the card wedged into my door; 'left in bin due to rain'.  
Trouble was, aside from being inappropriate and disgusting, it was bin collection day...
Took me 6 weeks to finally get my claim settled.  

My wife recently had an ebay purchase delivered by a well known 'yellow and green liveried' delivery firm.  IT took us two weeks of failed rediliveries and phone calls, and eventually we gave up, told them to keep it and got our money back off the seller.

We now only purchase if the seller guarantees to use the Post Office.


As to my original response...i just find it odd that the 'good service' is singled out for the one supplier who actually failed to deliver first time.  Struck me as funny is all...
 

Thats quite a point me thinks.


I had NO trouble whatsoever with Pendraken but I also order tons of stuff all over the market.

GW hast and W-land have hit the monkey a few times. EG: Ordered 2 items at GW, sent one, charged me postage and claimed the other item was not available. Ended up I got the said item from somewhere else and told GW to shove their stuff "there" ....still have to collect postage from me (4 years now)

W-land sent me a parcel twice and although I told them they never got back to me or charged me....

Some garage kit sellers needed 2 attempts (on 3 occasions) to deliver goods worth around 100 Dollars each time.

A well known UK based company tried to fob me off not posting my stuff. I said "lawyer" and "lawsuit" I had my refund the same day.

What really bothers me about this is not that stuff gets "lost". It is for one that companies still ride cheap by not using insurance and/or initially refuse to refund you etc. It is their job to get the stuff to you - if they can't not your problem or any cost for you but how many of their customers are actually informed enough and ready to "pull through" with a lawsuit. It is this kind of attitude riding chances that makes me sick. Not to mention it DOES lead to legal action and NO follow up orders from my side.

All in all my experience is that you have to fight for your rights (paypal being the worst actually - unless you "know the rules") but I have not been burned (yet).
Limiting my purchases to reliable sellers should keep my safe in future.

[Leon]

In the UK, it's very rare that we get something going missing, only a couple that I can remember in the last few years.  The last one was a letter to Techno earlier this year!

Internationally though, it does happen more often, although nowhere near the 1 per week quoted from Skytrex above, which is quite surprising.  I'd have to go through the file to check, but I think it could be somewhere around 1 every 4-6 weeks, maybe slightly less than that.  It tends to be to the same places usually, and some of them do still turn up a long time later. 

The worst destination is Italy unfortunately, where several have just disappeared off the face of the earth.  When we've resent new packages though, those tend to arrive OK.  The other problems are US/Australian packages which get redirected as Surface for whatever reason.  These can take anywhere from 4-10 weeks to arrive, by which point we've usually recast them and sent them out again. 

We've just had one to Australia for about £90 worth, which hadn't arrived after a month, so we recast and resent, and then that one hadn't arrived after another month.  Just as we were about to send a third package by courier, the first one turned up with a Surface note on it.  I'm still waiting to hear whether the second one arrives with a similar sticker.

[mart678]

Ref lost in the post

I used to work for Royal Mail(all hail the great cuthulu) my office was in Pembroke Dock in Wales, we used to get letters for:
Pembroke: Bermuda
Pembroke: Ontario
Pembroke: Massachussets(appologies if I spelt this on wrong)
Pembroke pines: North Carolina
Pembroke: Malta
I had one letter which was posted in Chicago,Marked Not New Zealand,Not Dubai and I added Not Wales as it was clearly addressed to Pemboke Bemuda so it circumnavigated the world we had post for any where in the world with Pembroke in it!!!!
Regards
Martin an ex postie now reformed