Trademes book a courier failed

[nzoomed]

Booked a courier pickup at my door today for an item i sold.
The driver called me asking where the parcel was I told them right outside on my doorstep and I didnt see any van outside. 
He asks if he had the right address and quoted me the destination address!
He then told me that there has been issues with their system, so would be interested to hear from any who have had similar issues. 
This was with fast way.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I got a note yesterday from Aramex telling me they attempted a pick up of a trade I won on Sunday, but the parcel was not available. They were attempting to contact the sender. Nothing since from Aramex or seller.

Might be more of the same issue - the seller has excellent feedback and is not a newbie...

[king1]

The one time I tried to send something with it they didn't turn up at all - that was Aramex...

[harm_less]

Aramex are a compromised service provider. We have been advised that one of our (Wellington based) trade customers has had Aramex refuse to accept a roll of fabric (about 20kgs) because Rural Delivery wouldn't deliver an item of this size to our physical address.

We've had similar rolls of fabric delivered here by our trusty RD contractor to complete CourierPost, DHL and NZ Couriers carriage so I can only assume NZ Post (Rural Delivery) have some sort of issue with Aramex. We're working around the issue by getting Aramex to deliver to our local NZ Couriers depot (our own courier provider) and we'll uplift it from there.

In a previous life we used Fastways for deliveries of items from our BOP orchard and their level of service ran hot and cold from region to region. A symptom of them being a franchisee based provider with differing management from one area to another I suspect.

In regard to this thread I far prefer to nominate and deal with our own courier company than deal through a third party such as Trade Me, particularly as TM continues to decline.

[nzoomed]

I got a note yesterday from Aramex telling me they attempted a pick up of a trade I won on Sunday, but the parcel was not available. They were attempting to contact the sender. Nothing since from Aramex or seller.

Might be more of the same issue - the seller has excellent feedback and is not a newbie...

Sounds exactly like the same issue to me.

The one time I tried to send something with it they didn't turn up at all - that was Aramex...

Yes I've had issues with Aramex in the past where pickups have never happened.
Last time I had if happen they said their drivers were overloaded, I had to wait at least a couple of days for them to come!

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I have only had issues with Aramex during holiday breaks when the local team were replaced by temps. This latest business is North Shore sender to North Shore delivery, so I suspect the issue is not Aramex, but TMs 'upgrade'. Which in my experience has been a series of stuff ups.

[harm_less]

A 'comedy or errors' has happened in regard to a power tool I purchased and paid for on Monday from a Trade Me seller in Auckland.

After no follow-up in regard to dispatch and tracking I emailed him on Thursday. He responded by promising to provide tracking info that evening. The Aramex tracking link arrived late on Thursday, with it drawing a blank in their system as apparently booking had only just been made (via Trade Me) and collection was scheduled for Friday.

End of Friday no collection showing despite Aramex telling me that it was due to be picked up before day's end. As a result of the pitiful performance I demanded a full refund from the seller today so I could buy elsewhere. He is refusing as claims that Trade Me have already taken payment for the shipping and this isn't able to be refunded. 

I replied with a blistering appraisal of his level of service and am now awaiting the item starting its journey on Monday (1 week after purchase!). This little tosser will learn that denying refund for the sake of a courier charge (non-refundable?) will cost him a well worded red face feedback.

Our own customers receive their purchases the day following receipt of payment nationwide (+ a day for rural). It's laggards like this (plus Aramex's service) that give online buying a bad rap.

[Agent_24]

I only ever had delays and problems trying to use the TradeMe courier service, both with Fastway and NZ Post.

I refuse to use it ever again.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

And I as a seller have only had good experiences, but I really believe that is because of my local guys, who are fantastic, both Aramex and NZ Post. To the extent I get waves and toots from them when we cross paths out and about. The personal touch certainly works, for me! I have even used the TM system as a buyer, when my seller wasn't confident about the system, and had no problems.

But I am not buying or selling rolls of fabric, or high value items. I don't trust TM that much lol...

[Agent_24]

And I as a seller have only had good experiences, but I really believe that is because of my local guys, who are fantastic, both Aramex and NZ Post. To the extent I get waves and toots from them when we cross paths out and about. The personal touch certainly works, for me! I have even used the TM system as a buyer, when my seller wasn't confident about the system, and had no problems.

But I am not buying or selling rolls of fabric, or high value items. I don't trust TM that much lol...

You're lucky then. I suspect it does come down to the local driver, and clearly mine were hopeless.

I had one courier guy tell me he couldn't find the parcel in the letterbox. Well, duh, it was a parcel 3x larger than (our quite large already) letterbox. But you enter the dimensions into TradeMe's calculator so they knew it was a big one, and yet the courier was either never told this, or never bothered to read, I don't know.

[harm_less]

And I as a seller have only had good experiences, but I really believe that is because of my local guys, who are fantastic, both Aramex and NZ Post. To the extent I get waves and toots from them when we cross paths out and about. The personal touch certainly works, for me! I have even used the TM system as a buyer, when my seller wasn't confident about the system, and had no problems.

But I am not buying or selling rolls of fabric, or high value items. I don't trust TM that much lol...

You're lucky then. I suspect it does come down to the local driver, and clearly mine were hopeless.

I had one courier guy tell me he couldn't find the parcel in the letterbox. Well, duh, it was a parcel 3x larger than (our quite large already) letterbox. But you enter the dimensions into TradeMe's calculator so they knew it was a big one, and yet the courier was either never told this, or never bothered to read, I don't know.

That suggests to me that TM's shipping system just doesn't work and is not user friendly. We deal direct with our courier service provider (NZ Couriers) so can easily contact them to rectify items 'lost' in transit with dispatch possible within an hour of an order being placed in many cases. NZC aren't without their shortcomings but direct contact allows us to keep our finger on delivery progress which seems to be in contrast with the convoluted and error prone service that TM/Aramex/NZ Post offer. The numpties at TM are clueless, that is providing you can actually get a response from them and I suspect they use these communication shortcomings to their advantage to avoid remedying many customers' issues.