Orange Prestige: a cautionary tale about couriers

[EnCee]

Late last year I bought an Orange Prestige frame (1993 I believe; metallic purple colour) and some brand new Stridsland "Barnacle" forks and I sent them both from London to Preston for media blasting and powder coating. However the items never arrived at their destination and, about six weeks later, the courier has now delcared the package lost.

This is a cautionary tale about couriers and shipping intermediaries. I compared courier quotations using various comparison sites. I found the best price was using UPS via ParcelHero. My lessons learned which may be useful for others:

* If you book through an intermediary such as ParcelHero and something goes wrong, be aware the carrier (UPS in my case) may not deal directly with you. The carrier's customer is the intermediary, not you. If you have complaints or want information, the carrier may say you need to go through the intermediary (very tedious in the case of ParcelHero, e.g. they have no phone number).

* Pay attention to the intermediary's limits of liability. In the case of ParcelHero, if you do not purchase the relatively expensive "additional parcel protection" the stated maximum compensation for lost or damaged parcels is GBP 50 (and if you choose EVRi as the carrier there is no protection at all unless you purchase the additional protection).

* Take multiple photos of the parcel and its contents so that if the parcel goes missing there is a better chance it will be found. If you make a claim for compensation, you will need to provide serial numbers where relevant so also make a note of those and take a photo.

All in all, I am kicking myself I did not pay a bit extra. Next time, I will think more carefully about booking directly with the carrier and purchasing additional cover for loss or damage.

If anyone comes across a purple 19 inch Orange Prestige frame with serial number A3030291, with or without black Stridsland Barnacle forks, I'd be interested to know!

 

[Tootyred]

Sorry to hear that. Tbh, i lost a parcel though parcel2go a few years back, not much value, but the pain in getting my money back was shocking.

I now use parcel force direct and have a sign in account, which is slightly cheaper.....they also lost a parcel (I've probably sent a few hundred in the last couple of year) but the compensation was a doddle in comparison.....even got an apology email.
Yes....its £2 or 3 more expensive than evri on a pair of wheels, but its insured off the bat and they don't sem to get the same abuse.

Probably another example of getting what you pay for.

 

[Frankenorange]

From personal experience; do not use Evri(formerly Hermes) to send and, if you can choose, ask a seller to not use them. They are the same cowboy company just with a new name.

DPD were pretty good but they seem worse now. We know one if their drivers and he told us that, due to all the RM strikes, the workload went up ALOT and found out all the lazy drivers.
These lazy drivers do not actually attempt to deliver and just say the address doesnt exist, or nobody answrs the door etc, so the package just goes back to sender, or ends up in pallet sales. This is happening alot in rabbit warren like housing estates.

 

[dyna-ti]

On DPD.
Had one of their vans suddenly come out a junction without stopping or even slowing down. Clear give way, and if I'd been 10 seconds quicker, he'd have killed me.
Speed was easily 30mph and this is a built up area, short narrow roads, with a big main road through the middle. Barstard just blasted straight through.
Its unusual there was no car passing at that time because it is pretty busy and a main bus route.

Left me totally shocked. Any passing car would have been obliterated, cyclists would not have stood a chance.

I'd like to complain but unfortunately who to ?. DPD is hard enough to get on to, so for a serious complaint i will have to go through email but I expect any answer of they wouldnt know which driver exactly it is- though they could place a van of theirs in any area at a specific time.

So be careful out there.

 

[Frankenorange]

I don't know if it is actually possible to talk to a human at DPD to complain.

One good thing about DPD is their vans are all tracked and if you use the DPD app you can track your parcel and see a drivers name. The latter isn't always correct though!

The tracking does mean that if you did have an accident with one of their vans an insurance company/the po-po would be able to get that tracking info which will include speed, location, history etc.

 

[EnCee]

In an unexpected development, the frame and forks were delivered about two months after UPS collected them from me. It seems the box was delivered to the wrong address and sat there for several weeks before being redirected to the correct address. The labels were all intact but the box had been opened. There's nothing on UPS tracking about any of this, but at least I have not lost the frame and forks.

 

[racecarjohnny]

I've been looking for the right opportunity to share this bike shipping story with the forum and I think this thread is a good spot. Like most of us, I buy vintage mtb things and I sell them too. Packaging and trusted delivery are very important. A few weeks ago I sold two beautiful Klein frame sets to the same ebay buyer. I had a brand new, great condition Salsa XL Fat Bike box and decided to put both frames in the large box. Covered every inch of the bikes with pipe insulation/bubble wrap and added some additional cardboard layers inside the box too. I joked with others before that after I pack a bike that you could drop the box out of an airplane and it would come out ok. Little did I know that it would get tested. I always use Bikeflights (UPS), had great luck shipping bikes throughout the US and Europe, never had an issue. Following the delivery on eBay showed multiple days of delays due to customer not being available at time of delivery. It caught my attention but had not heard from the buyer yet so I forgot about it. About a week later I get this note from the buyer:

"Crazy story, but I wanted to touch base with you. After a few days of arguing with UPS about where the bike frames where, I was getting nowhere. I run a commercial store. Always open same hours every day for 28 years. That was the delivery address. Got a UPS truck through every day as usual around lunch time, drivers had nothing. Called UPS customer service daily and they kept up with the “business was closed, couldn't deliver BS. Nobody I talked to was helpful or seemed to even care. Monday, around 3PM, I get a call from the DOT (Dept of transportation-in charge of road upkeep) that they had a package removed from the road with our name on it! They had found this in the middle of the road somewhere! I sent one of my employees to retrieve the package and it looked sad. I slid the whole mess of cardboard, packing material, parts into the back of my truck, shut door and vowed to wait until the next day to take a look. Tuesday morning, I started gently removing pipe wrap, cable ties, tape, etc. and the first frame looked really good. I kept going and frame #2 looked great, also. Thanks to your careful attention to wrapping these two beautiful frames, somehow it all came out okay. I just wanted to share this crazy story with you, since you are part of it. Thank you"

We ended at a truck driver must have left the door open and during transportation and the box flew out into the ditch. (half snow, half water and it snowed again on it before it was found)

It was a stark reminder to make sure whether you are buying or selling, that the packaging and shipping is key to it being worth it. I always pay for the insurance too just in case. Thought you all would get a kick out of this. Photo below of the two Klein frames

 

[al-onestare]

Wow, the fact they were in one piece is incredible. What a lucky escape!