Advice needed, trouble with Zilla cab parcel

[swissguy]

Hi guys
Long post ahead! sorry! But advice would be greatly appreciated!!

I'm getting confused about some parcel issue with Zilla cabinets…

Almost a month ago, my cab got finished and was sent the first time with Parcelforce, EuroPriority (30-3-2010). The destination is, as you might have guessed, Switzerland...
I received no tracking number...
A week later, after complaining to Paul, he searched for it and, as he says, it was returned to the London depot without any reason and notification… the tracking number never showed up, he sent it later to me: ck001318500gb
It was then sent again with Parcelforce EuroPriority (it weirdly changed to Express 24 on its way back to London…) and this time I've got a tracking number ( ck001319507gb ) and it showed up.
This was before the volcano-thing… and the parcel made it to the international hub (10th of April) where it stayed for nine days, dead…
And after complains from me to Paul…  it moved on, but back to London… were Paul received it (20-4-2010)…
And now… after advises from a very well informed pal of Paul, who told him DHL and TNT weren't taking foreign Parcels because of the flight limitations it was shipped again with Parcelforce, again EuroPriority (21-4-2010) and as for now it made it to the international hub again (22-4-2010) and no further, even though Parcelforce states it has returned their services to normal….

Here from the original mail from Paul:

He was really good (his pal) and got everything arranged. He said DHL and TNT werent taking foreign parcels, this may be hard to stomach but he said even taking everything into acount Parcelforce would be the best. He put me in contact with one of the major acount managers and he said he would personally track it for me and booked it in himself. I told him I wasnt happy at all and may well be canceling our contract, he gave me his personal mobile number and he seemed genuinely happy to sort this out.
 
The tracking is ck090011171gb it went out yesterday and has actually got further already that it got last time[/i] ( no it didn't ! ). The chap did say it would take a couple of extra days as it would be going by road rather than by plane.
(since it still sits in the UK it could go by plane by now…)
 
I hope you are ok with this, but the strong advise I had wasto go with the acounts manager as we would be starting from scratch with DHL.

Well now… here my concerns….

The parcel once more just made it to the international hub, meaning it's still in the UK and not even has done the check-out there…
With a major account manager that booked it in himself and tracks it…. and does not bother the least with the parcel not moving any more… And I also heard nothing from Paul who should really be concerned to eventually get that parcel to me… at least that is what I would do…

And the websites of TNT and DHL both are stating that they returned to normal from April 21/22, which gives me some doubts about the state of information of Paul's pal who quote: "knows all account managers of the big couriers" and suggested him to use Parcelforce once more…

I start to get really bad feelings here and fear my cab might never make it to me and I wonder why this is…. I just can't imagine that Parcelfore is THAT bad! And the papers should be filled in right, since an account manager did it…

The other thing that bothers me, is that Paul is always very sorry and says he would keep a close eye on this one, but I never hear from him until I mail and ask questions…
I only got the notice that he had resent the parcel with Parcelforce and the tracking number AFTER I asked him what his pal had suggested him and that was one day after he had resent it.

And he had said that he would cancel his account with Parcelforce and use DHL if I would not mind… which I did NOT, as you might have guessed….

What should I do now? The cab was expected April first, which was my Birthday… Am I getting screwed? Because that is what it starts to feel like here… Or am I just too impatient??

Does anybody here had parcels sent over to the continent during this time, or received some and had similar experiences? Or has some sort of advice to me, as how I should proceed with this…
Because I NEVER had such a nightmare going on before and I had quite some parcels delivered from all over the world by now… and it just does not feel right anymore….

Long post, sorry, but I would not know how to write it shorter...

Thanks!

[Dmoney]

I've dealt with paul before and he's a nice guy.
maybe he should be following this stuff more closely and badgering parcel force himself.
I've found most delivery services in the UK to be a total pain to deal with. Making things complicated, lying about deliveries... etc.
At least you have a tracking number and you can see the parcel moving around in the postal network. Even if Paul was calling up Parcel Force every day I'd be a bit pessimistic as to how much help that would get him. Maybe shifting to DHL would have been a good idea but if he has a business account with Parcel Force there may be a few considerations I have no idea about in making a decision like that. I hope he isn't making repeat payments to ship the same item.
There may be a back log of stuff waiting for shipping. I've never heard of people having problems with Paul. A few people in here have had work done by him, or own one of his cabs.

[swissguy]

Thanks!

I know!
Actually I first heard of Zilla cabinets here and decided to order one afterwards...

It's just that somehow I seem to be cursed with cabs, that is why it bothers me even more I guess... I've been screewed by a German Cabinet-builder two years ago, made a special offer and afterwards it turned out he and his wife were both bankrupt and and just lifted me off some good money... this was after I've got a court order for them... which helped nothing as you can guess... He's still in business btw... makes you wonder.... Extremeforce if someone ever would want to buy from him... I still have a huge pile of paper at home from that...
Paul NEVER felt like that to me and his business looks serious the reviews about his stuff are good, his ebayshop is on and and and... well...
I just feel very helpless...
How can a parcel get screwed three times??
I just want my cab!  :?

[Dmoney]

It's pretty frustrating.
Really good guys and good companies seem few and far between to me.
I guess just drop him a line again and say the package is stuck still. Ask if he can find out what the deal is or get it moving. I don't understand why it would keep going back to him.

[blue]

hello, sorry to hear you're having such trouble.  i had an issue with parcelforce recently, which isn't quite the same as yours but might give you an idea for something to try.  a parcel was sent to me from america, and after about two months it still hadn't appeared, yet the american USPS site said that delivery had been attempted in december.  that was all the information i, or the sender, could get.  i tried every courier company i could find to see if they had tried to deliver, but got nothing.  then, a tip from a friend had me phone parcelforce's depot nearest me.  and yes, they had my parcel and were about to send it back to america as it hadn't been claimed!  they never attempted delivery and never informed me that they had it, and when i went to the depot the lady there told me that this happens all the time, the department that's supposed to contact people and tell them they have duty to pay send letters very late or not at all, and parcels get returned to sender.

my suggestion would be to contact the international hub yourself and see if you can find anything out.  going by my experience, it's even possible that your cab has been back and forth to Switzerland two or three times!

[swissguy]

Hi

Thanks again for all replies!! I'm at work on not always online... my boss prefers it that way...  :lol:

Well blue...
it can not have ben to Switzerland and back yet, because there is no Parcelforce in Switzerland and at some point it has to switch to EMS to get here and thus the tracking number showed up on the Swiss side and I contacted them too... they could just tell me the same as I've got from tracking it myself and if Swiss customs had got hand on it, it certainly would NOT have gone back, ha!... and I was not able to get any information from Parcelforce... they ALWAYS tell me to contact the sender... and my spoken english is way to bad to argue...  :(  which would not really help anyway I guess... and as one tracking shows, the parcel did not leave the UK, because as soon as Paul contacted them, it was on its way back to London...

I'll probably contact Paul again this evening, but I'm afraid he's as lost as I am on this...

[swissguy]

Well

I contacted Paul yesterday evening and he was very helpful he had phoned Parcelforce already... the cab should have arrived in Switzerland on monday... but they could not say why it still was stuck in the depot, Paul is despairing and the account manager was of no help either, just telling him it probably was a backlog ... ...
We'll hear more today I hope... He will also fax me the paperwork, to see if maybe something was missing there, which I doubt!
I definitely know why you call it Parcelfarce by now... but it's not really funny to me...

[swissguy]

Believe it or not...


just got this mail from Paul...

Hi Danni,
 
This is relly looking like the parcel to never forget. I have just been on the phone to several Parcelforce people and it looks like the reson there has been a problem is that there are magnets inside the cabinet. This has never caused a problem before, and I still dont believe them about this. Swiss customs were blamed for this, Parcelforce said they didnt send it out because they knew it wouldnt get through customs.
 
Like I said I dont believe this, Im just getting in contact with DHL to find out wha they say about magnets and Swiss customs. Although I dont send a massive amount of speakers/cabinets to Switzerland I still havent heard about this before, plus Im guessing no guitarist in Switzerland has either.
 
Im not sure if the cab will be with me today or tomorrow, I cant start to explain how Ive never experienced anything like this before.
Paul

Is this serious?? Parcelforce really has people using them??

[Lew]

At-least you've got no probs getting great chocolate  :-p

[swissguy]

 :D Definitely true!!

But chocolate does not really sound great when amplified... I need a cab!!!

Will trade for chocolate!!  :P

[Lew]

Cabs don't taste that great either, tbh. Well, except the fruit and nut cabs.

[WezV]

how much trouble can the magnets actually cause roughly in the middle of a cab.   the magentic force on these things drops off really quickly which is why you can ship rare earth magnets without them sticking to the van!

[swissguy]

In my opinion, this is utter bulls**t...

Makes no sense at all!
Like, no magnets into Switzerland?? No Sir, thanks! We're fine with our chocolate! Have a nice day, I'll go sharpen my swords now and feed the cows...  :crazy2:

I think we have the biggest magnet worldwide in Switzerland (CERN) well for the biggest parts at least, so I guess we can live with those small speakers crossing our borders... 

I wonder who possibly can say such stupid things nowadays... most objects have some magnetic stuff or fields inside by now.

[38thBeatle]

I think we have the biggest magnet worldwide in Switzerland (CERN) well for the biggest parts at least, so I guess we can live with those small speakers crossing our borders... 

That'll be why then. They probably get close and then get repelled.

[swissguy]

Oh my god!!
That must be it!
I almost triggered a black hole! God Bless Parcelforce!

Geneva gone! Lake leman now covering large parts of the french speaking swiss region and going deep into France!
Whole chunks of the alps missing... jeee... !

And the headlines! Absolutely unknown Swiss bloody amateur guitarist triggers a blackhole! On the run!
I think a small controlled blackhole would be welcome in Switzerland though... we could throw our nuclear waste in it ... I guess...  8)