182 comments by 2 or more people

1. Annette

   I am currently attempting to retrieve a parcel containing books I ordered from Amazon. Amazon do not mention on their Super Saver delivery info that parcels cannot be delivered on a Saturday. We’re all at work on weekdays, so are the neighbours and there’s nowhere safe to leave the parcel. I’m not allowed to receive deliveries at my work address, can’t afford a whole day off work to wait in for a parcel – so there is absolutely no way it can be delivered to me!!! The HDN depot is miles away – seems the reason its so cheap for Amazon is that its a non-delivery network. What makes me so cross is that Amazon don’t mention the no Saturday delivery rule on their website – I would never have chosen that option if I knew what hassle it was going to cause. I don’t think I’ll ever shop at Amazon again after this. I rang Amazon this afternoon and they e-mailed HDN to ask them to deliver it tomorrow (Saturday) and I have just received a call from HDN to say that they don’t deliver on Saturdays- aaaarghhhh!!!

   13 Jul 2007, 19:32

2. Deborah

   I am having problems with HDN with a different supplier – not Amazon or Argos – so I don’t believe a word of what they said above. I actually had someone stay at home all day yesterday to wait for the parcel, but it never turned up. (This is after they missed delivery twice before about 2 weeks ago). I rang them and they said the parcel had been put in the van but delivery was not attempted! Very helpful! And could I stay at home again another day! They are also now refusing to change the address as they ‘don’t do redirecting’ so it looks like it may never arrive. Why can’t they just send it with the normal post?? At least then there’s be a chance I could get it from the local post office! And it’s not even Xmas now!!

   26 Jul 2007, 10:18

3. karen

   Hello,

   I have been waiting on a parcel from Studio24 for nearly a month now. I contacted them and they told me that HDNL were supposed to deliver my parcel in June. Which i did not receive. They still have not given me a date as to when i should expect to receive my parcel, and i,m not sure who t oblame really Studio or HDNL?

   I am sick of ringing to see where my parcel is. All my details are correct and up to date on my studio account!

   26 Jul 2007, 16:45

4. karen

   Oh just to add to my above comment, it shows on HDNL tracking site that they tried to deliver my parcel twice, this is certainly not true as i am home bound at the moment and have been for the past 4 months due to personal reasons, therefore, i was in at all times, and not one card was left!! Strange!

   26 Jul 2007, 16:47

5. karen

   Do HDNL have a telephone number so i could contact them, as i cant see one on their site?

   26 Jul 2007, 16:54

6. colin

   bought monitor from this ” mail order company” 5 weeks later no monitor credit card bill to pay for monitor . no monitor. have just threatened leagal action to recover costs and initial payment.

   29 Jul 2007, 18:26

7. John Waller

   Karen – the number I have for HDNL is 0870 1545400. Note that this is a premium rate number. My experience of ringing them was not a happy one – the gentleman I spoke to was belligerent and unhelpful. Sorry not to be more help.

   29 Jul 2007, 20:54

8. lorenza

   I am so frustrated with HDNL/Amazon… HDNL has tried to deliver my parcel (two books) twice, yesterday and today with no success as they said/recorded that ‘recipient not home’ (!) the address given for delivery is my work one which they have delivered amazon purchases before so they can’t say they don’t know where to deliver surely, plus I was in at the time of their so called delivery and they have not left any card saying we tried to deliver or similar, I only know from the tracking option of my amazon account!
   what am I supposed to do to collect these books? I have been physically here all day long I have not seen one HDNL van in the vicinity so how on earth can they say that they have tried to deliver it and ‘the recipient was not home’?

   This is madness!!

   31 Jul 2007, 17:35

9. lorenza

   hello again. I finally got my parcel delivered by HDNL this morning, result! However I had to contact them myself. You can phone the 0870 number as John Walker has given above, or you can go to www.saynoto0870.com and type HDNL, find your local depo and phone them.
   I merely asked if I could have been of help in solving the situation as it was strange they did not find the building (apparently they tried to locate it and failed! it’s on the main road quite visible) and the person I spoke to was calm and polite, I gave him actual directions to get to the address, i.e. landmarks and nearby roads they could find. It seemed to have worked as they delivered my books this morning. I must admit Amazon did apologise via email about this, but was actually of no help at all.
   Hope my experience can be of help.

   01 Aug 2007, 12:08

10. william alexander smith

    i work for hdnl customers always complaing they never get their parcels they are at work we do our very best to deliver parcels some address we get are unbelievable ex park house balmedie ? no 10 park st 12 flats ? skyscrapers no access after 12 i went to pick up a parcel 1 day customer said driver did not leave card took photo of me posting the card thru letter box with my mobile and still said never got card? if not happy why not go in to town and buy the goods we work 10 hours aday maybe longer we have alife at home to

    17 Aug 2007, 19:22

11. Bobby Knutshurt

    So Hernan Rodriquez actually admits that his staff are blatantly working illegal hours infringing those laid down by the Working Time Regulations October 1998.

    Astonishing. This company seems to get worse by the minute.

    Shouldn’t they be prosecuted for working employees illegally?

    20 Aug 2007, 18:37

12. Marian Shepherd

    While my experience of HDN was through Amazon, in my case they certainly can’t fall back on the excuse of poor Amazon communications for their own appalling standards. I recently ordered a photo printer – obviously a piece of fragile electronic equipment, and far from cheap, from Amazon. I came home from work several days later to find a card through my door saying my parcel had been left ‘down the side’ of my house. I discovered that the v. large and heavy box had been dropped over a 6 foot, locked back gate on to the concrete on the other side! On calling HDN to complain, the girl who took the call said she would ‘report the driver’ as not only should he – obviously – not have thrown any kind of parcel over a high wooden fence (I suppose I should be relieved that my 6 month old puppy wasn’t in the garden standing on the other side of the gate at the time) but there was also an instruction on my particular order that a signature was required, so it should not have just been left anywhere at all. However, she said that if I wanted the parcel taken back (which I obviously did, as I wasn’t going to risk being stuck with having paid for potentially damaged electronic equipment) I’d need liaise with Amazon (who, we all know, are pretty near-impossible to speak to as everything is done on-line, and any return would be at MY expense and trouble). I’m sure you can appreciate, therefore, why the fact that the driver may or may not have not received a slapped wrist from his employer after my call that day was no comfort whatsoever in the light of the predicament they had left me in – the problem should have been wholly Home Delivery Network’s to rectify. Appalling company, and I think Amazon also needs to get its act together in using a more professional supplier (along with making its own customer services more accessible).

    21 Aug 2007, 10:47

13. JC

    I’m so cross. After several days watching my delivery on Amazon’s HDL tracking service being sent from Droitwich-Wembley-Droitwich-New Cross for no apparent reason, I am told today the driver was unable to deliver. This is to my work address, a large City of London firm with a security desk manned 24/7, a reception desk on every floor manned 8am-6pm (this was at 4.30pm) and me sitting at my desk all afternoon situated in front of the lift from which the driver would have emerged should he have actually bothered to go to the floor stated in the address specified in my order. Now I know the driver was lying – there is simply no possiblity that there was no one there to accept my delivery.

    Rant over, would someone please advise me what to do in order to either get a refund or actually see my delivery, bearing in mind I have no transport to attend the depot (or inclination to visit New Cross)?

    23 Aug 2007, 01:36

14. John Waller

    JC. I’m no lawyer, but I think the situation is that it is Amazon who you have a contract with and it is to them you should complain. In my case Amazon (eventually) gave up on the order that HDNL couldn’t deliver and sent a new order by a different courier.

    Amazon’s customer service number is 0800 2796620.

    23 Aug 2007, 07:34

15. Susan

    I have used Amazon for years and have loved their service and NEVER had an issue with them in the past…. until now! In the past all my parcels were delivered by the Royal Mail and when I was not at home I simply had to go down to my local depot on a Saturday morning and collect the parcel… no problem. This time however Amazon have used HDN (I had no idea the delivery restrictions when I ordered) and I have had weeks of endless misery dealing with them. Do they think that everyone can just take time off work and sit at home waiting for the delivery – If I had such time surely i would have just gone to the high street to buy the goods myself! I was even willing to drive all the way to their depot to collect the parcel myself (I had to suggest something as they would not waiver on a thing – including changing the delivery address!) BUT guess what – depot not open on Saturdays….. Sadly I will not be using Amazon again, until they stop using HDN! I just hope they get enough complaints for them to re-asses their current situation.

    23 Aug 2007, 12:23

16. Andrew

    I too have had difficulties with HDNL previously, following orders placed with Amazon. One order contained two hardback books, which the courier decided to leave at a delicatessen four doors from my home address. This deli only opens 10:00 to 14:00 Monday to Friday resulting in an impossible scenario for collection without taking annual leave. When I contacted Amazon and explained that I had not authorised a neighbour to accept goods on my behalf they quickly apologised and stated under the distance selling act I would be entitled to a refund. I accepted and placed two separate orders via Play.com which were delivered via Royal Mail instead.

    On another occasion, I ordered a large kitchen accessory from Amazon and this was despatched via HDNL. When I realised what had happened I expected the worst. This time though, delivery was attempted and a card was pushed through the door advising me redelivery would take place the next day and not to contact HDNL just yet. Of course, being at work I ended up with a second card asking me to contact the HDNL customer service team. When I telephoned, I was on hold for thirteen minutes listening to information/muzak that informed me HDNL place the customer first and that they are here to help. When I was finally connected to an individual the opening greeting was ‘Hello X speaking, what’s your reference?’. I responded and provided the reference to which I was then curtly informed ‘we’ve tried to deliver this twice and no-one was home!’. I informed the employee that he should be aware that two attempts had occurred because it was clearly policy to try twice before the customer gets chance to rearrange delivery. The employee told me ‘well, it’s not my fault I’m not the driver’. I replied ‘no-one’s being aggressive or apportioning blame I’m just stating facts not making a complaint’. I then asked when the parcel could be rescheduled and was told Saturdays were out of the question. I then explained I wouldn’t be home Monday to Friday and what were my options now? He said ‘come to the depot during working hours Monday to Friday’, to which I replied ‘if I can’t take time off to be at home to accept delivery I can’t visit a depot during working hours either’. He then told me that I could come on a Saturday morning ‘but it will be very busy, there will be a queue and we don’t have many staff here so prepare for a long wait’. Hardly putting the customer first.

    I advised the employee to send the parcel back to Amazon as they couldn’t meet my needs’ He then whinged to say this had cost them money and they would be telling Amazon that the cancellation wasn’t anything to do with them but that I had changed my mind. I told the guy that he could tell Amazon what he wanted and that I’d put them in the picture.

    When I provided feedback to Amazon on the sorry debacle they sent me a standard response to say ‘our delivery partners rarely let us down, so we were surpised that you were not satisfied on this occasion’. I don’t believe that this is factual, it’s more likely that HDNL provide the cheapest service particularly since the size/weight factor came into play with Royal Mail.

    Needless to say I avoid buying articles that involve HDNL via Amazon. The customer doesn’t come first at all. When I bought a PC from Dell, their courier delivered between 5pm and 9pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays. Dell clearly understand that most of the public aren’t around to accept deliveries during core working hours.

    27 Aug 2007, 18:15

17. Sarah newton

    You guys have to be kidding if you think Amazon in the UK is bad. I use Amazon.co.uk (let me change that to “used”) but I live in Rome. They can deliver to Italy it wasnt supposed to be a problem.

    I too have been watching the delivery tracking with utter amazement, today is the 8th time DHL have attempted to deliver to my house. Luckily for me my partner is in all day and so will certainly know if the doorbell goes. However, not once has the doorbell rung and I log onto the computer and see “delivery attempted – recipitant not at home”. Okay, this is very annoying but nothing like as annoying as Amazon themselves.

    You can not talk to this company, you have to hunt for several minutes and click thru many links in order to be able to email them about your package. I explain the situation and they come back with a stock answer like “your package will be with you soon, we are attempting to deliver” “we are so sorry blah blah”!

    Sorry my a$$! Then when you try and respond, the email bounces back because you have to use the Amazon internet email system WHICH doesnt seem to keep track of your previous conversations, so everytime you complain you are back to square one, having to explain the story again and again, and receiving the same stupid replies which are not even relevant.

    Why can’t DHL just leave a card so I can go to the postoffice if i’m “not at home”? Why? Cos they havent been to my house at all! That’s why!

    Amazon have a huge problem in Italy but they don’t care by this point, they got your money but you don’t have your product, VERY VERY poor service,

    My advise… play.com

    06 Sep 2007, 15:43

18. Mark

    I wished I had heard about HDNL before I placed my order with BT. I expected a package to arrive and when it did not turn up at the specified date, I logged onto HDNL’s website using the tracking number provided. The logs indicated they tried to deliver twice and a card was pushed through the letter box. I searched my house for the card but could not find one. At this point I thought I was going crazy and then I read the online comments and I see that I am not unique in receiving HDNL’s invisible cards.

    I queried this with the person at the end of the telephone line and I must admit I’ve had better responses talking to a brick wall. In the end, I volunteered to go to the depot to collect the package and I was told the driver will not return until after 7pm and by then all the administration staff would have left for the day and therefore this would be pointless.

    They insisted they would deliver it the next day and leave it with the neighbour and this is under the presumption the neighbour does not work. When I called HDNL, I asked them to contact the driver to see if he was in my neighbourhood and would be able to deliver within the next hour so that I can have someone wait in for a third time, the response is “we are not able to contact the driver”. I am amazed that a modern day company does not have a way of contacting its staff.

    If you have a choice in terms of delivery….DO NOT USE HDNL.

    12 Sep 2007, 16:24

19. B-man

    In the words of Johnathan Higgins from Magnum PI “OH MY GOD”

    I have just been having a little trouble with the idiots of HDNL and during searching for their website I stumbled across this site. I’m shocked, but not surprised to read all these stories. I guess all I can do is add to this HDNL nightmare thread.

    I too have been having problems.

    Day one;

    I waited in all day yesterday after noting my parcel was out for delivery. The day ends, I hear nothing. I checked their website to find they attempted to deliver the item and have carded me. Not quite sure where they delivered it to or who they carded. But I guess their not sure either.

    Day two;

    Well checked the tracking information again and looks like they tried to deliver my parcel again today, while I was in. Which makes two failed attempts, but still no card. I think it’s the tracking info that’s driving me mad; when you see “out for delivery” and then comments about how they’ve tried to deliver and carded me, you know someone is cheating the system. Maybe they are trying to turn us all into hermits that sit around the house all day waiting for something to happen that never does. It’s unbelievable how crap a courier can be and it’s across the whole company from what I’ve read so far.

    I’m racking my brain trying to think what more I could do to get hold of my parcel. Maybe I should of got up early this morning, waited outside the depot, followed the van, forced him off the road, pulled the driver from his seat, dragged him into the lay-by that he spends his day sleeping in, held him at gun point and snatched my parcel off him? haha I bet van would be empty. Maybe all the parcels are in the warehouse collecting dust.

    15 Sep 2007, 10:49

20. B-Man

    All this said I feel maybe it’s a little unfair to just moan about them and not offer solutions to help them achieve their everyday basic targets.

    so here’s my handy hints on how they can improve their service;

    1) Perhaps they could send the drivers on a learn direct course on basic reading. Then they would be able to read the delivery addresses.

    2) Maybe provide the drivers with doors that open on their vans, so they can get out and deliver parcels.

    3) Provide the drivers with maps, so they can find the locations.

    4) Explain to the drivers that they are actually employed to deliver parcels and not just drive to the Burger King driver thru and back.

    5) Employ a manager to run the depot and organise the drivers?

    6) Contract out deliveries to more competent couriers, example.. The Chuckle Brothers, Dumb and Dumber etc..

    7) Explain the mystery behind the term “carded” This means you have to actually turn up at the address and attempt to deliver, only to find the customer doesn’t answer the door. the you put a card in their letter box. Simply driving near that area and thinking about doing it, doesn’t quite work the same.

    Maybe they could put these ideas forward during their next operational planning meeting?

    I’m sure other couriers might find these suggestions an insult, but maybe the Home Delivery Network need some help and guidance.

    Having worked for a large mail order retailer, I can tell you it’s most likely that Amazon are tied into a fixed term contract for a number of years and I’m sure with the number of complaints they receive, HDNL won’t have their contract renewed when the time comes. Or maybe I’m wrong.

    either way I’m happy now I’ve vented.

    15 Sep 2007, 10:53

21. The Truth

    Formerly known as Blue Arrow, the Home Delivery Service gave itself a makeover when it’s appalling reputation made it unfeasible to continue. With the leasing of new vans and the issuing of green sweatshirts to it’s drivers HDN hoped to put the past behind them. Unfortunately the same knuckle-dragging morons are at the customer end of the operation collecting and distributing the parcels – and since the company affiliated itself with Littlewoods and began to compete in the marketplace the drivers are not happy with the extra work load. Their answer is to sabotage deliveries and make sure nobody uses them twice. Lower management would seem to be complicit in this by ignoring complaints and claims and turning a blind eye to the distress caused to an unsuspecting public.

    I run a small mail order business and have used a reputable courier firm for some years but was tempted by HDN’s low prices to make what turned out to be a false economy . From my first consignment of parcels half where not delivered and the rest where delivered to the wrong addresses. I have independent evidence that labels were removed or changed and that this was a malicious act by the collection driver after he was reprimanded for behaving in an offensive and misogynistic manner to a member of my staff.

    There is no redress with HDN, no way to claim and emails are ignored, there is no business address or contact number openly available.

    HDN will continue as long as you let them (only to reappear with different sweatshirts no doubt) so stick with a reputable established firm.

    16 Sep 2007, 20:41

22. B-man

    B-man never did get his parcel.

    He re-ordered his items and asked for the chuckle brothers to deliver instead, that way he had a fighting chance or getting his order.

    But what do we expect, you become a Home Delivery Network delivery driver because you’re not capable of doing anything else, even shelf filling is too complex. Proven fact!

    17 Sep 2007, 15:25

23. JW

    I ordered a package from Dabs 36 days ago.

    Still it has not arrived….

    HDNL actually lost my parcel for 10 days, now although they found it 12 days ago, i still havent got it!!

    These people are stupid! and dabs are worthless too.. Customer service does not exist!!

    I think i may have to cancel and order with another company as this is ridiculous, never have i had such a hard time with distance buying.

    Muppets

    25 Sep 2007, 15:15

24. garry

    Hdn is the shittest company.i have worked fr them and they dont care about their customers or employers.they loose your parcels and blame the customers.dont ever order anything from amazon,argos,next,john lewis,studios,royal tgp-dutch post,they del from loads of companys,just dont understand why/how companies actually employ them.the worst company they deliver for and you definately have problems,if you order from BT!!!!!Drivas never knock on your knock,its like their employed to play knock a door run!!!!they get 40p commision aswell!!!utter rubbish!

    05 Oct 2007, 12:17

25. Anna

    Oh my God!!!! I am currently waiting & waiting for a parcel to be delivered from Wallis.co.uk by HDNL. I am tracking the parcel since this morning when it was loaded on their van at New Cross Depot at 7 am!
    This is after paying Wallis an extra sum for’Express Next Day Delivery’ & as I ordered it on the Wednesday I expected it on Thursday. It is now 3.30pm Friday & I finish at 4pm on a Friday. I have now had to leave messages with our security at the office to take in the parcel should it arrive. Who knows – maybe it will be here when I get back to work on the Monday but I am not holding my breath. So much for ‘Express Next Day Delivery’. Will keep this site informed.

    05 Oct 2007, 15:35

26. Anna

    Well, no sooner had I finished my comment (no 25) when MY PARCEL ARRIVED!!!! So, really I can’t complain about HDNL.

    05 Oct 2007, 15:45

27. Peter

    Ive just ordered a samsung LCD TV from amazon and ive just found it that HDNL are going to deliver it, Ive got my fingers crossed that theres no problems because the TV has cost me alot of money.

    07 Oct 2007, 14:55

28. Frustrated Amazon Customer

    I ordered 4 university books from Amazon for my daughter and arranged delivery to her halls address. Checking on the tracking website, it says “Delivery attempted – recipient not home”. My daughter was IN her study at the time it says the driver attempted delivery, so the driver has clearly lied.

    08 Oct 2007, 22:50

29. stuart

    My parcel has been delivered, except i was in all day yesterday and i don’t have my package. Amazon have said to check with my neighbours but the 3 next to me are all vacant just now. Apparently the website tracking says no-one signed for the package, how reckless is that to have an expensive package delivered without a signature? Their leaving themselves open to fraudulent chargebacks.

    09 Oct 2007, 12:34

30. Rob

    Item was dispatched on time just as Amazon said but instead of the usual Royal Mail my package was delt with HDN who i had never heard of (i put this down to the current strike). I rushed home early from work in case my package was returned to the depot and i would need to collect however the delivery card stated the item was at the “Rear” of my house. Now how the f**k can it be at the “Rear” when the only way to get to the rear of my house is either 1. through the front door. 2. climb over the roof. 3. climb through about 5 neighbours gardens.

    I haven’t bothered contacting HDN as my guess that they are cowboys has only been confirmed by the previous posts on here. Im am currently awaiting on Amazon’s reply. p.s. my item ordered is quite rare and the average delivery time on Amazon is 6 weeks so my guess is that it will be appearing on Ebay shortly on some HDN’s staffs account.

    09 Oct 2007, 22:45

31. Ainga

    I just got home to find External hard drive, I ordered from Amazon outside my front door. It was left there by HDN. Right on the front door steps my house visible to all walking past on the street. Guess, I was very lucky to have got home in time. I appreciate there is a royal mail strike, but that doesn’t excuse this kind of stupidity. From reading the rest of the comments I guess, this kind of stupidity is common from HDN. I wrote Amazon a strong email and am waiting for their reply. I wouldn’t buy from Amazon if this is kind of delivery I could expect for expensive electronics from them.

    17 Oct 2007, 19:16

32. BT Broadband customer

    We ordered BT Broadband weeks ago – our Home Hub still hasn’t arrived! According to Home Delivery Network they have tried to deliver twice – and the parcel was “refused” – somewhat surprising as we were out at work and so there was no-one here to refuse it. As it was “refused” they didn’t leave a card. I wonder whether they have tried to deliver it at all! The person I spoke to at HDN was very unhelpful, kept saying “you will have to contact BT, thank you, good bye…” and refused to tell me her surname… basically just trying to end the call without solving the problem… I don’t know how companies get away with providing customer service like this.

    20 Oct 2007, 10:28

33. Mark Weston

    For 2 weeks i waited for delivery of a TV from Amazon costing me £700+, the first delivery attempt was made without calling me (which Amazon stated they would), and on a completely different day to the “estimated delivery date” on Amazons site. The next day i waited for a re-delivery which was the estimated date set by amazon and nothing, on their tracking though it stated that delivery was made on this day and not the previous. After a lot of calling around we finally got around to arranging re-delivery for the following week, on the day arranged i again waiting in and nothing. On calling the coimpany i found out that there had been a problem and the parcel had been taken off the van, they were meant to call me the night before to inform me which they didn’t. After a lot of fuss it was obvious that the parcel had been lost or damaged in someway and they were stalling for time, they even attempted to offer me a bigger tv with lower specs than the one i’d ordered. After cancelling the order through amazon i then went into Curries, picked up my tv and had it home that night up and running. A week later i get a buzz on my door, the original tv is here for delivery!!! after sending it back i receive many calls through-out the day from the delivery company asking me whether i’d received it or not, this is after my money had been returned into my account by amazon.

    For big items DO NOT USE AMAZON if this delivery company is involved, it may cost that little bit more but being able to walk into a store with the item and that peace of mind is worth the cost.

    22 Oct 2007, 13:59

34. JillW

    HDN are rubbish, I have just got home having had an email that an Amazon order shipped, I checked the tracking and apparently it had been delivered and left with a neighbour. After trying all 3 neighbours – nothing – except that the man next door said he saw a delivery man attempt to deliver something to my house and then take it back to the van. So why, on HDN’s website, iis it showing the item as delivered?! Aaargh. And of course, as so many people have stated, I can’t find a phone number anywhere for them.

    30 Oct 2007, 19:53

35. Tracy Adams

    I am utterly sick of HDNL I have ordered two items though different online stores and neither have been delivered. The first instance was from Dorothy Perkins and when I tracked the order to see that there had been several attempts to deliver the parcel. I know this to be untrue as my mother was at the premises everyday!

    And, the most recent instance was when I ordered from Topshop. Again I tracked the order to see that it had been delivered! I was surprised seeing as I had not received a card or anything. Following investigations from Topshop HDNL said it had been left with a neighbour. Now almost 20 days later after many phone calls and emails. HDNL say it has in fact been stolen.

    I believe they are inadequate and clearly have security problems. This is too suspicious to happen to me twice at 2 different addresses!!!

    31 Oct 2007, 17:31

36. ian

    Dated 1st November 2007

    I have to agree with everyone here who thinks HDNL are the most rubbish company on the planet.

    I was expecting from BT their BT vision. I received a letter from BT to say that the item would be delivered on 18th October 2007 anytime up to 5.30pm.

    Your ahead of me here, It did not arrive. No card, nothing. I ring BT, their records show it has NOT been delivered also. BT cannot ring HDNL, even though they are the ones that pay them the money to do the job, I have to phone HDNL. For the record their number is 0870 154 5400.

    I ring HDNL, they have not got an item to deliver to me. So I go back to BT, HDNL have it, it is in their possession. I forget all about it.

    On 26th I ring BT again. Their records show it was delivered on 23rd. Neither my wife nor I were in the house that day. No box behind the bins, not left with neighbours, no card, nothing.

    So I am told to phone HDNL, their records do not show a delivery. I push for more detail, based on what BT had told me. They then say that it was a paper delivery, but it was not signed for, I know that, they will speak to the driver.

    Following day I get a call back, the item was damaged and returned to BT. So what happens now, HDNL will get the item re-ordered and sent to me on the 31st October.

    My wife spent the whole day at home, they can deliver anytime up to 7pm, unlike the BT leaflet that says 5.30pm. Your ahead of me again. Nothing.

    At 2pm that day my wife phones HDNL and is told by a member of staff who’s name she gets that the item is on the van. Liar.

    At 6.45pm I ring BT, they have no record of the item being reordered. As far as they are concerned the item was delivered on 23rd and they have no record of my phone call of 26th saying it was never received. HDNL cannot re-order BT have to do that.

    After 7pm I ring HDNL. They have no record of delivering the item today. According to their records the item was damaged and sent back to BT. (who claim the item has not been sent back). There was no reorder, they cannot do that I have to with BT.

    Why am I doing all the work??

    They were never going to deliver anything to us on 31st. They like BT also have no record of any other phone calls we made to them other then the initial call. When I supply them with names of staff I am asked which office or team they work in.

    For a company that has staff that do not give you their name, but then how many companies due these days, it helps when you cannot blame anyone. Anonymity is great in the UK, was not me culture.

    How am I supposed to know they had different teams/offices. So the named person is still in the office and lo she did not speak to anyone today about a BT order. But then they have no record on screen of any calls subsequent to the initial one.

    Now I am livid and ready to dump BT and put my phone and internet with anyone else.

    I make one more call to BT, with a member of staff who cannot help me as there are no managers. He promises to call me the following day after he has spoken to a manager.

    No call, so my wife calls BT, Michael was not in the office. Liar, so she speaks to another guy who has got a manager to speak to and they agree to send by royal mail special delivery.

    Parcel expected in 5 days.

    I am not holding my breath.

    As for the comments of other people that all delivery companies are the same, they are not. I have never had a problem with any other delivery company who have delivered, been unable to or rearranged delivery or pick-up from their premises, when we both worked full time.

    HDNL are the worst, and any company that uses them risks damaging their own reputation by association.

    01 Nov 2007, 21:41

37. Ian

    Lets put things into perspective here shall we. HDNL Southampton depot deliver around 120,000 parcels a week (non-peak). I’ve worked for the company since 1993 and in all that time i’ve had around 20 complaints against me. Not all of them were justified complaints either. Now the depot i work at has one of the best performance records in the country. You do from time to time get a bad driver, but they tend not to last long. Also in peak periods the depot employ agency drivers to cover the excess intake of parcels. Now i’ll be the first to admit that the majority of agency drivers
    are absolutley useless. Saying that HDNL is the only company to behave like this is just naive.
    Believe me, the Southampton depot certainly does put the customer first. We as drivers are only supposed to attempt a parcel twice. Now that in itself is something the Post office doesn’t do. I’ve had parcels that took me upto 4 attempts to deliver because the customer was not at home when they stated that they would be.
    In regards to the BT parcels, i personally can tell you that there must be a problem from the BT end of things as the majority of brought back parcels from the drivers are BT parcels. They all reqiure a signature and like many of you have already mentioned, your neighbours work aswell. This doesn’t leave the driver with much of an option now does it.
    If like some of you have stated that you waited in and there was no card left, i can only appologise as that seems likely the delivery was not attempted. Sometimes the cards get placed in the letterbox and slip inside a newspaper or flyers that were sticking in the letterbox. i’m not making excuses but it has happened.

    I’ll end this defence of HDNL (actually it’s a defence of the majority of excellent drivers in the company which are spoiled by the odd bad apple) by saying only yesterday i deliverd a parcel to a customer and she was not happy that the parcel was a day early…...sometimes you just can’t win…

    03 Nov 2007, 22:07

38. red robbo

    I concur with Ian 37. Most of the whinges on here seem to be; I have ordered something online knowing that I wil not be home to receive it yet it is the fault of the delivery company when I do not get my goods.

    There of course some legitimate complaints. There is no excuse for being passed from pillar to post on a premium rate telephone. Nor is there any excuse for someone claiming to have attempted the delivery when they have not. There are times when trying to get into flats and the customer is not home that we simply cannot get through the main door and subsequently cannot leave a call card. Similarly in businesses we are instructed as drivers to go to reception only as the amount of time we are allocated for each delivery does not account for roaming around tower blocks looking for people at work.

    There are times when we work on saturday but these tend to be in November and December when we are busiest. If we were to work every Satruday this would add to the cost of delivery and people would probably then complain about that.

    I have to say that I have some sympathy for agency workers and other temporary staff who predominantly are brought in at the last minute and essentially set up for failure. Neither they or we (employed drivers) are living sat navs. You have to learn routes the hard way and that takes time and as Hernadez said earlier this situation is not helped by badly addressed parcels which unfortunately are not limited to Amazon, BT is equally responsible and delays caused by these issues affect the rest of the drivers deliveries.

    I seem to spend a lot of time on the phone (at my own expense) trying to resolve address queries while there are sometimes upwards of 180 parcels in the van waiting to be delivered in a finite amount of time.

    Sure, like all companies we do have some cretins in the network and the rest of us (the majority) who try to do a good job in sometimes extremely difficult circumstances sometimes screw up. Who among is not human? For the future, you could assist us and subsequently yourselves if when you next order try to give further delivery advice such as where the goods can be left in your absence remembering of course that some goods require a signature at the point of delivery. This will in most cases be printed on the parcel.

    Like Ian said sometimes you just can’t win

    04 Nov 2007, 16:06

39. Simon

    The problem with HDNL isn’t just that they seem to be incompetent.

    Even if they deliver your parcel on time, for most working people it will be when they are at work. If it won’t fit through the letterbox, they will only attempt to redeliver it once. Then they might leave it on your doorstep or, alternatively, they will keep it sitting at their depot for 5 weeks before returning it to the sender.

    Now, I don’t like the first option at all. The problem with the second option is that they only have 58 depots – so the nearest depot is likely to be miles from your home (my ‘local’ depot is a 90-minute round trip).

    The Post Office, for all their faults, will leave a card and tell you that your parcel is at your local sorting office, meaning not usually very much effort to pick it up. Frankly, I am now refusing to buy from anybody that uses HDNL – including Amazon, who I used to were the bee’s knees. Shame.

    09 Nov 2007, 17:25

40. sarah

    I have ordered a sale item at topshop. The item was supposed to be delivered at my office: canary wharf, 40ppl working there, a guy ONLY for the post. HDN said they tried to deliver the item 3 times and was refused. they didn’t call me on my mobile, they didn send an email, they didn’t leave a note. after a month, I check on the topshop site where my item was: appearently was on a container in new cross.After 2 hours of online research (I didnt call scotland yeard, but almost) I have found the address for HDN: I went there: dodgy place, rented vans.ppl working there:very rude. anyway. they claimed they returned the package to arcadia group around the 20th of october. once again:thanks for letting me know. Today I call topshop:lovely guy at customer service. My sale item:gone. sold out. He called everywhere: no shop is storing that item anymore. I was drooling on that expensive jacket since march 2007.
    I complained with topshop. Why dont they stop using that horrible company?they would do nothing about that. So now I am going to contact Which and the customer association and I am going to hunt HDN down! I have lost my jacket on sale for them. I am not going to loose my rights as well. What happen is Unacceptable and they are incompetent idiots.
    we should all complain to companies that use that horrible delivery service.

    10 Nov 2007, 16:08

41. Simon

    After cancelling an item that was due to be shipped by HDN Ltd, I made a complaint to Amazon saying that I would not use their services if they continued to ship via this awful company. This was the reply:

    _________________________________________________

    “Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk with your comments on our
    choice of delivery service.

    We always appreciate customer input on how we can improve our service
    to our customers.

    Please note that your items were dispatched in this way by our
    automated process to provide a faster and more efficient service.

    We do take full responsibility for any errors made during delivery;
    if any of our carriers were to lose or damage a package, we would of
    course replace it at no extra expense to you.

    However, we are also aware that our choice of delivery services
    reflects on our business as a whole, and we appreciate your feedback.

    Your comments will be passed on to the appropriate department in our
    company for consideration.”

    _________________________________________________

    I also note there is an on-line petition asking Amazon to stop using HDN. You can sign it here:

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nohdnl/index.html

    10 Nov 2007, 17:17

42. Bob

    YOU FUCKING IDIOTS. DON’T ORDER PARCELS IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE AT HOME TO RECIEVE THEM. QUITE FUCKING SIMPLE. THANK YOU

    11 Nov 2007, 13:10

43. Simon

    That’s ridiculous. We are not even told when the items will be delivered. If you have to work for a living how can you organise a delivery such that you are at home seeing as they don’t deliver out of normal working hours?

    Your proposed solution seems to be to ask people who work to stop using internet shopping but our solution is to presuade internet suppliers to use carriers who are more flexible about when they deliver or who offer the facility to arrange collection from a local depot!

    11 Nov 2007, 13:46

44. Keith

    HDNL website indicates that it has been delivered, it doesnt say i wasn’t here or anything. Just plainly says delivery is complete! Ive been waiting in for the whole weekend except to pop out to the shops. I can’t be having this, I have an exam tomorrow I needed my package! They’ve got 24 minutes then was told to call them back after 6.

    What a joke.

    Im pissed off

    12 Nov 2007, 17:35

45. John Waller

    Good luck Keith. I’m waiting for a package from Amazon that should have been here by today for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow. The only thing is I’m not sure it’s HDNL delivering it (or rather, not delivering it) – it just shows up as “Super Saver Delivery carrier” on the Amazon website.

    Helpful.

    12 Nov 2007, 18:06

46. Ian

    @ John walker, i don’t mean to sound rude, but if your buying a gift for your daughters birthday and the item doesn’t arive you only have yourself to blame. When buying gifts for special occasions it’s common sense to order the item well in advance. Or maybe even go out and buy it from a shop.

    @ Simon, You do realise that Amazon have a contract obligation with HDNL. They can’t just simply stop using HDNL. That petition is pointless.

    Today is tuesday and i have delivered 99% of my Amazon parcels. I had about 20 on monday and 25 today (obviously this doesn’t include the other 230 parcels from other companies). I had to return one to the depot as it required a signature and both neighbours were not at home.
    The moral of this is that it’s not solely HDNLs fault. It’s the customers fault. How hard would it be to have the parcel delivered to a friends or another family members house. If you work all day and have no neighbours in to take the parcel for you then it’s entirely the customers fault.

    To be honest i’m getting a little tired of this whining. There are drivers at my depot that start at 7am and don’t return back to the depot until 6pm. They also have lives and homes to go back to but you people think we should just sit in our vans until you all return home from work. Like i already mentioned, it’s upto the customer to make the arrangements. If your not going to be in between 9am and 5pm, don’t order anything that requires a signature. If you live in flats, don’t order anything period.

    I’ll let you all into a liittle secret. It’s getting harder to deliver parcels. With unfriendly neighbours refusing to take parcels in and both home owners working full time it’s frustrating at times. I would also like to point out that your HDNL bashing wont harm the company one bit. But in the long run it could mean the loss of jobs for the drivers. Now if that’s your intentions then carry on but i’ll end by saying your pretty sad for complaining about a parcel that never arrived. Just order another one you shmucks, it’s not like you lost any money..

    13 Nov 2007, 19:47

47. mook

    @Ian, HDNL shouldn’t have taken on such a massive contract as the one you have with Amazon, if they haven’t got the manpower and infrastructure to cope with the demands. My dealings with HDNL have been disastrous in the past, and I hope Amazon give your company the boot ASAP.

    14 Nov 2007, 20:06

48. pauld

    Ian – I think the problem lies not with the drivers, and any driver bashing is pointless and inflammatory. However, I think there is a large issue with the way HDN operate. A package I had ordered was ‘not delivered’ and a card put through my letterbox. When I phoned to organise redelivery I was asked if this was my first or second card, when I answered first I was told that they were unable to do anything until a second attempt had been made, despite my protestations that it was pointless and no-one would be in. So anyway, second delivery failed and I ring back up. Can I organise delivery outside of normal working hours. No. Can it be delivered on a Saturday. No. Can I collect from a depot. Yes, 200 miles away. So No. Can I have it redirected to a work address. No. So can I actually have my parcel ‘delivered’? No.

    Like it or not this is NOT customer service and like it or not that is what you should be providing. There are certain industries that need to operate outside of normal working hours and delivery is unfortunately one of them. HDN appears to lie in every single one of it’s initials. I can’t receive my parcel at Home because of your ridiculous time policies. I can’t therefore get my Delivery. And Network? What chuffing network. A handful of main depots spread thinly, ‘supported’ by drivers in their own cars that means parcels are unobtainable and easily lost.

    I realise there are problems for the drivers, but the main one seems to be your companies blatant disregard for the customer, or in providing any flexibility whatesoever. So contracts with Amazon, Dabs etc. or not, I think you keep breach it like this you’ll soon be out of a job alright, and it won’t be the fault of the customers.

    15 Nov 2007, 10:02

49. John Waller

    To Ian (comment 46), with all due respect, I’m mystified. Why do I have “only myself to blame” when an online-retailer doesn’t fulfill their end of the deal? I did order it “well in advance” (Oct 28th), there was someone home to receive it, I don’t live in the Orkneys and the delivery estimate from Amazon was clear – 12th November. It’s now the 15th and it still hasn’t turned up.

    For the record, the courier in this case is TNT, not HDNL – not that I care particularly, it’s just another order that Amazon has failed to deliver.

    15 Nov 2007, 10:38

50. roger

    Pauld, If you order a parcel and it was attempted to be deliverd at your house on two occasions knowing that you wern’t going to be in then may i ask, why did you order anything? I would say that trying to deliver something twice is pretty reasonable and it’s your own stupid fault if you’re not in to recieve your parcel.
    Not only that but you could leave a note on the door telling which neighbour the driver could leave your parcel with.
    Personally if i order something and i miss the delivery i accept that it’s my fault. It seems that the only people on these sites are the kind of idiots that are complaining that they didn’t recieve their parcel because they wern’t at home. Seems like a simple solution to me. Don’t order things, get off your arse and go to the shops yourself.
    Do you know how much of the drivers time you waste for not being at home?
    Amazon accounts for a pathetic amount of parcels that we deliver yet people are only complaining about Amazon. we deliver goods for lots of other companies so this tells me that there must be some sort of problem between the two companies.
    As for your depot being 200 miles away that justs make you sound like even more of an idiot.
    Would you want to work saturdays? no you probably wouldn’t.

    16 Nov 2007, 18:03

51. Jo

    Over the past week I have had two “deliveries” from HDNL, one for Boots which was kindly chucked over our garden fence to sit in the rain for a few hours, the other from M&S which was simply left outside the front door of my work address (it was delivered on a Saturday!!!) with a note posted through the door letting me know that the parcel had been unsecurely left outside the very same door. Fortunately, in both cases, nothing was damaged or missing, but surely this cannot be HDNL company policy and had I been the dishonest type could easily have said that I never received either package.

    20 Nov 2007, 10:05

52. George

    b-man, you’ve proved you know f all about what you are saying, I bet your sitting in your lovely home with no sign displayed as to what number you are, no batteries in the door bell, tv on the tv on so loud you cant hear the door being knocked on. cause believe me you dont have a personal driver each. If your not in we wont wait.

    21 Nov 2007, 16:05

53. Pam

    Very interesting. I’ve been reading these posts both critical and supportive. Apparently I had my Amazon package delivered last Thursay at a quarter to five in the afternoon. It was ‘left on the doorstep’. Well, let’s see. I was in. I had returned from the school run by 3.30. We would have been downstairs doing homework, making tea, whatever. Next door my neighbours (who are doing a renovation) would have been clearing up for the day, in and out. They don’t remember any delivery vans or personnel. Suggesting there was a possibility that I didn’t hear a knock on the door, their door was wide open and there were people milling around. So my digibox has been delivered somewhere, but not anywhere nearby. I’ve contacted Amazon, I’d really like to talk to the driver who services this small community: ‘What colour door, describe the location?’ Etc. I’m not ready to call the premium rate number (I tried that site) and no number for the depot is listed. Amazon has had hundreds of pounds from me the last couple of years. All but one delivery (previously) was perfectly satisfactory. The last time there was a problem I was able to trace and retreive the package myself, it had been delivered to one of my neighbours and their cleaner had taken it home without looking at the addressee.

    Delivery personnel at HDNL might be worked hard. I’m sorry. What do I do? Always tick the ‘First Class’ box and deny them business? They were fantasticly prompt at delivering my package (the day before the estimate) but where?

    I’ve just received a reply from Amazon and they are sending the order again, which is great. However, it’s not good for their accounts if parcels are being left at wrong addresses.

    Good luck everyone.

    22 Nov 2007, 20:20

54. James

    This delivery company that plaster ‘Putting the Customer 1st’ all over it’s website have just told me that my parcel has gone ‘missing’ from their Wembley depot, now I didn’t order a robot that can teleport into space or cloak itself so I guess that means one of their hard working and loyal staff nicked it!!

    I did manged to talk to them on the phone though using this number: 0151 290 8512, emailing the MD also works
    Blackwood, Walter [Walter.Blackwood@hdnl.co.uk]

    23 Nov 2007, 13:23

55. Alwyn

    Disgusted. Day 1 :- order made- order sent by Amazon. Day 2 The driver attempted to deliver to the wrong address a day earlier than HDNL predicted but the same day as Amazon quoted (These were the same). I ofcourse did not get a card. Day 3 card found in my letter box stating second attempt at delivery !! but I was in !!! Phoned premium number got cut off. Phoned again they could not hear me rang off. Phoned again I told a rather uninterested woman that it would be better for me to collect the parcel. She said I could not collect it before 11 next day and I wqas to wait for a phone call. Day 4 Checked internet another attempted delivery on the afternoon of day 3 No card here. Must agin have been the wrong address. Day 4 pm no phone call could not find the depot number. I decided to go and collect parcel. On arriving no message had been received by DNHL Sheffield from my indifferent telephonist but the parcel was found and is now in my possession. Phew! ould have been very very efficient if the driver had tried the RIGHT ADDRESS on the first day.

    23 Nov 2007, 15:52

56. marcus

    Im a driver for HDNL and Im not sure what you lot are on about! Yesterday I had a parcel that needed signing for, the customer and their neighbours were not in so I left a card (the first card). The customer phoned the number on the card and asked for it to be delivered to an alternative address the next day, the next morning as I load I am handed a sheet with the new delivery details and I delivered it to the new address that same day.
    I also carded another parcel that day for the first time and recieved information on which neighbour would be in to sign for it. Yet another problem free delivery!

    23 Nov 2007, 18:45

57. Zoe bardy

    I would like to add to the HDNL crap service campaign, I ordered a TV from Amazon an they sent me an email to say it had been handed to their courier and i would get a call from them within 48 hors to arrange a delivery time, well I had no phone call and they attempted delivery anyway and there was no one home so they left me card saying they had attempted deliveryas previously arranged !!!!!! What a cheecj, i then called the number and explained and asked for re delivery and you would think I had asked them to put a man on the moon.

    The attampted delivery was 21/11/07 and the next day they thought they might offer me was 29/11/07 if this was possible but they would not know untill 27/011/07 Isaid this was not good enough in this day and age and that if Amazon had used a reputable company such as royal mail a re delivery would be possible the following day, I then got a load of abuse about how I dont know the law about how many hour a driver is allowed to drive for…............ and actually I do as my husband is driver and informsme it does not take 9 days to return from Newcastle to Bolton and back again!!!!.

    In the end I cancelled my order with Amazon after severeal more phone calls between Amazon and HDNL and went to the shop and purchased my TV.

    THERE ISTILL ALOT TO BESAID FOR GOING INTO A STORE AND BUYING FROM SOMEONE FACE TO FACE.

    24 Nov 2007, 16:03

58. red

    FAO Pam/James!!
    I AM ONE OF THE “Delivery personnel at HDNL that might be worked hard”
    I am a “hard working and loyal staff” member!
    I DO NOT “nick” from my employers!
    We have agency drivers employed at all our depots, not all of them are good/honest drivers, BUT some of them do care about there temp. job!!
    So maybe (james) you should be more carefull with your words & maybe both & all the other people complaining on this and other websites think before you start tapping that keyboard!
    Also people get your facts right- Amazon CANNOT give you a date when your parcel will be delivered, they should say it will be 2-3 days NO EXACT DAY!!(so dont blame us when its early/late/incorrectly address,which they often are)
    So DO NOT blame us drivers for Amazon mis-information!!
    BTW WTF does “a day earlier than HDNL predicted but the same day as Amazon quoted (These were the same)” mean?!
    Also Alwyn- Google HDNL Sheffield.
    It seems you havnt got the common sense to do that but you & many more are quick to come onto this web-side & drone on about how bad our company is!!!!
    Sorry if im a bit sharp with people on here but all us drivers seem to get is people complaining, the likes of you only have something to say when things go wrong!

    24 Nov 2007, 19:11

59. red

    FAO 48pauld
    Wrong! part of the problem DOES lie with the drivers, (a very small part)

    Right! a large issue with the way HDN operate.
    Whoever you spoke to was wrong! additional information could have been forwarded to the depot/driver!(YES “Can I have it redirected to a work address”)

    As for Saturday deliveries we only deliver on Saturdays at our busy times of the year.

    I know that NONE of our depots are 200 miles away from from any of our delivery rounds!

    Right “this is NOT customer service and like it or not that is what you should be providing”

    “I realise there are problems for the drivers, but the main one seems to be your companies blatant disregard for the customer, or in providing any flexibility whatesoever. So contracts with Amazon, Dabs etc. or not”

    Nuff said

    24 Nov 2007, 20:01

60. red

    BTW 48pauld
    “A handful of main depots spread thinly, ‘supported’ by drivers in their own cars that means parcels are unobtainable and easily lost”

    Wrong! We have good coverage for ALL our delivery depots/rounds!

    Wrong! ALL OUR DRIVERS use branded company vans!

    Rant over

    24 Nov 2007, 20:17

61. red

    FAO 47Mook
    1,How do u know its a massive contract
    2,How do you know we haven’t got the manpower and infrastructure to cope with the demands.
    DONT POST if you dont know what you are talking about!!!!

    24 Nov 2007, 21:04

62. Ripley33

    I’ve just waited in all day for HDN to turn up after speaking to a girl with all the charm of a dead shark in their Yate depot. Yate is about as handy to get to as Katmandu from Bristol where I live. I used to just pop round the corner to pick my stuff up from the Royal Mail depot.

    I couldn’t quite believe that they couldn’t give me an (am) or (pm) delivery time. I was prepared to take off half a day from work, but I’ve now taken a days annual leave and its been a total waste. I’ve emailed Amazon to tell them of my woes and to ask for a refund, although I won’t hold my breath. I’ll just buy my stuff from a shop in future…its less hassel.

    27 Nov 2007, 20:08

63. red

    FAO 62Ripley33
    Thats not a problem with HDN as a company! That problem lies with the person that you spoke to on the other end of the phone.
    We work on a ‘track & trace system’ it aint perfect, but im sure she could have told you AM or PM!
    The only reasons I can think of that she couldnt tel you would have been
    1) Security reasons
    2) Regular driver was not on his run for a few days(temp driver coverage)
    You should direct your complaint to the Yate depot (in writing) or-

    Managing Director walter.blackwood@hdnl

    Customer services Elaine.Boyle@hdnl.

    Hope this helps

    27 Nov 2007, 22:58

64. Hamid Sirhan

    I don’t think HDN can blame this completely on Amazon. When I’ve ordered things through Amazon (and plenty of other places like e-bay, overclockersUK etc.) I’ve not really encountered any problems with Parcelforce, Royal Mail or any other postal company (aside from HDN). In the past 10 years, I’ve had one Amazon package missing in the post (Royal Mail, Amazon sent a new one almost immediately after I complained) and a few LoveFilm discs go missing in the post. My biggest grievances thus far have come from HDN.

    Just a couple of weeks ago I ordered a load of books from Amazon, expecting them to arrive with plenty of time to peruse them for revision. The order is dispatched timely, and as expected I receive a card in my post. I receive another one the next day. All fine, as I wasn’t home. I phoned the number on the card and asked to pick it up from their depot, rather than arrange a new delivery. I was told that my package would be held at the depot and that I should wait until I receive a call from them before picking it up. Two days later and still no call, I called again. The person I spoke to said it was strange that they hadn’t phoned me because they could see the note on the system and said that it would be sorted out. I asked if I could just go and pick it up and was told that I had to wait for their call. After receiving no call the next day I gave them another call .They guy I spoke to said that the package was being returned to Amazon and that he had no record on the system of my previous calls.

    I will never use HDN again.

    01 Jan 2008, 00:07

65. GMAN

    I work at HDNL and have done for the past 3 years and what you don’t understand is that you will find that the majority of the time it is the company you have ordered the goods from that is the problem. We get constant calls into our department from end customer who have got the number from our Commercial Client (Amazon, Argos BT etc) when they haven’t even despatched the goods to us. If you look on the internet and you only see a data received scan this actually means that our company (hdnl) have never received the parcel therefore not our fault if this hasn’t been delivered. I look at all these emails stating how bad our company is and considering we deliver over 1 million parcels a week this is a very, very small minority of the parcels we deliver. We have a inhouse online system which all (and i mean all) our commercial clients have access to and they can liase direct with the depot to chase your delivery as this is our company policy. Therefore we would suggest you contact the senders of the parcel to chase your delivery and they will get information back from the depot. Thanks for reading this

    24 Jan 2008, 18:47

66. ragingmadness

    How do you know you didn’t get a card the 1st time and that the upi number wasn’t written on that. As you have a communial entrance maybe somebody else picked it up. Oh its easy i turn the key open the door to my HOUSE and walk outside.

    26 Jan 2008, 23:00

67. daftlad

    hdn left a parcel in my wood bunker and shoved a card through the door telling me where it had been put. Went to get it and wow it had gone! I don’t understand why they would do this unless they have specific instructions from the customer telling them to do it. So my parcel gets knicked. Arcadia group refunded me. What I would like to know is are the drivers on franchises? and are they paid per parcel delivered? If they are paid per parcel delivered I think that answers alot of the complaints on this forum. Less time spent actually trying to deliver means more parcels delivered. Amazon are pathetic. Royal Mail might not be the service it used to be (thanks to the government) but if i order off Amazon I always pay more for 1st class delivery.

    03 Feb 2008, 13:10

68. dawn

    I’m waiting for a delivery from Amazon, I didn’t know it would be delivered by HDNL until I got the dispatch email from amazon, with the delivery date being an estimate. HDNL has (apparently) tried to deliver twice according to their tracking site, which says that i have been ‘carded’ twice. However, no cards have appeared in my letter box. Now because my crystal ball is broken it’s not possible for me to call the number on the invisible card to find out where my parcel is, and no phone number is available on their website. After reading all the posts on this site I don’t think i’ll waste my time calling them, mostly because the HDNL staff who have posted here, apart from having very poor skills in the English language, sound like very rude people and obviously haven’t ever had the misfortune of being on the receving end of such a bad service. I now don’t expect to receive this parcel as it seems that HDNL don’t do what they say they’re doing (i.e. no cards left). I think will just get my money back from Amazon for non delivery and go and shop with a company that doesn’t use this courier. It’s very disappointing as Amazon used to provide a great service, but now their use of this company has lost them another customer.

    06 Feb 2008, 19:36

69. Voice of Reason

    HDNL are pathetic. How can they claim it’s all amazon’s fault, when Royal Mail manage to deliver our items with none of the p¡ss-poor cock-ups that are a regular occurence when HDNL get involved?

    07 Feb 2008, 21:25

70. Rivvyrover

    I was expecting an order from Amazon and realised I would be out today (Tuesday) on a long arranged trip, no problem I thought I’ll phone HDNL and arrange delivery for Wednesday, what a surprise, they don’t have a contact number or email address.
    I saw on the website that if they couldn’t deliver they would call again the next day so I thought I’d be OK,I’ve just got back and found a card behind the door which said ‘Backgate’
    The item in question is a printer scanner and it’s been dropped or (thrown) over the gate,I can’t decide whether to open it or send it straight back to Amazon.
    I think I’ll open it as I haven’t signed for it, if it’s damaged I can return and buy from Play.com for the same price.

    13 Feb 2008, 00:15

71. Gooner71

    I ordered a Playstation 3 package and a couple of other bits totaling around £370. On their website Amazon said they’d be splitting the order in two and the estimated delivery tme for both was yesterday 11th Feb. I saw on the website that my Playstation had been delivered by HDNL – it had been left outside my front door which is a few yards away from the street. Lucilky my wife had left work early and 4 hours later it was still there. However HDNL hadn’t delivered the other parcel (had games and discs in) and their website said they’d deliver that tomorrow.

    Checked the website today and it said HDNL had delivered. Got home several hours later and no parcel. Phoned HDNL and they said to me that as no one was in they’d left it on the doorstep, I pointed out that it looked likes it’s been pinched then. They took my number and said they’d speak to the driver and call right back but they didn’t. I now have a PS3 that I can’t really use (don’t need to play dvd’s on it either) and am deeply regretting not using HMV especially as they’ve just cut the package dels by £30….. Funny thing is that it was a toss up between Amazon and HMV who both have good deals on but unfortunately Amazon won out….. :o( I know where to go next time though!

    13 Feb 2008, 01:46

72. skippy

    I’ve been reading all these comments about amazon and hdnl and have to say that they all made me wuite nervous about purchasing my brand new ipod and seaker/docking station. Now I use amazon a lot and have never had any problems they even sent me something via hdnl before and no problems there. So monday at 1pm ish i decided amazon were giving the best price on the items I wanted and so I ordered them. Not long after I received and email saying they’dbeen dispatched and would be delivered by hdnl and so whilst looking how to track my parcel stumbled upon these reviews and well honestly grew rather anxious. It seems however my fears have proven unfounded because at 8.45am this morning I recieved my brand new ipod and speaker in perfect order (i think). Considering amazon said it probably wouldn’t be dispatched untill today i’m very pleased with the service received.

    The only problem I had was the loading time for hdnl website is awful it’sso slow I thought i’d accidentally click dial up instead of broadband!!

    I suppose I’m trying to say to anyone reading these is that things are not always that bad I suspect for every complaint about both these companies there are probably at least 1 or more peole who are satisfied with the service.

    Well done amazon and well done hdnl.

    13 Feb 2008, 12:06

73. Rivvyrover

    Skippy – Glad to hear about your HDNL delivery, but if they are doorstepping parcels and dropping them over back gates it’s not really acceptable.
    As I posted previously, my scanner was dropped over the back gate, at least a 4ft drop and I’m not very pleased, even though I’ve tried it this morning and it’s working perfectly.
    If I order any delicate/fragile equipment in future I won’t be using Amazon’s free delivery service.

    13 Feb 2008, 12:48

74. Andie

    My experience of HDNL is pretty much following the same lines as everyone elses. I have been expecting a delivery from M&S for the past few days. I left the house yesterday morning (Tuesday) to find an empty M&S box sitting on my doorstep. I checked the tracking info for the parcel and it said it had been delivered on Monday afternoon. I was in on Monday – no one knocked on my door, no card was put through and no parcel appeared to have been delivered. It’s an absolute joke – so I’m left thinking that either the HDNL driver nicked it or he just left it in plain view for some other random person to nick. Unbelievable! M&S have been good about it though, theyre sending another parcel out straight away…lets see if this one arrives in one piece…

    13 Feb 2008, 13:07

75. Rudeboy

    Having recently left HDNL after 3 years there are a few points to make, firstly the majority of drivers are good honest lads (and lady’s). However the piss poor administration that runs the company are penny pinching shits, the amount of pressure being put on drivers to deliver parcels is pathetic, the management do not give a toss about people not being in, the drivers are fully aware that the majority of people are not going to be in when they call so are told to try the neighbours, however on occasions drivers have to make the decision wether to card the customer or leave the parcel somewhere. If they card to many customers in a day they get shit when they get back, day after day, so eventually they start leaving them, behind bins, over gates in bushes wherever they can. Then when parcels go missing they start getting more shit from the management, its a viscious cirlce and it gets to you. My daily target was 156 !, thats 10 hours everyday, non stop no dinner, no break. If 70% of people were in the day would be easier, the drivers could afford more time to individual cases. If you failed to deliver your target you get shit, deliver them wrong you get shit, lose them you get shit, damage them you get shit.
    HDNL don’t give a toss about the customer, the drivers do, they deliver to the same customers day in day out and many of them have a good relationship with there customers, admitadly there are a few assholes who don’t care, but you get them everywhere.
    In reguards to AMAZON we were told ALL amazon were POD (Proof Of Delivery) reguardless wether Amazon said they were or not, so they should all be signed for reguardless, if a driver leaves it anywhere then HDNL are at fault not amazon.(apart from using HDNL in the first place)
    We have to leave parcels, and parcels will go missing (funny how many dissapear from ‘safe’ places, but when you have another 155 parcels / collections to do you don’t worry about whats wrong until the next day, when it all starts again!

    Nice bunch of lad + lady’s, but dickheads running a company that has no future

    19 Feb 2008, 22:32

76. Rudeboy

    Just so your aware HDNL delivers for the following:
    Argos
    Boots
    Arcadia
    ELC
    BT
    M & S (including ‘fresh’ flowers’)
    Next Flowers
    Tesco
    Amazon
    Studio Cards
    Dabs
    & many other’s

    19 Feb 2008, 23:11

77. driver

    rudeboy’s right you just cant win you get shit from the min you walk in / untill you clock out. people have no idea what sort of company this is and what they expect you to do . you wonder why parcels are dropped over gates etc its the company’s fault because they make rounds that big and targets so high it would be midnight before you finished(if you didn’t cut corners) and i two hope it has no future (so all of u keep up the good work and get rid of this sweat shop)

    20 Feb 2008, 23:25

78. Rivvyrover

    I hope the above companies are reading these comments.

    21 Feb 2008, 12:49

79. More than a little annoyed

    The comments above from the employee of HDNL are all well good…. lumping the blame at the feet of amazon but as I have recently had what can only be described as a horrific experience with this company relating to a parcel I was expecting from GUS, I feel that maybe it would be worth considering if this really is Amazons fault as the common donomintaor here appears to be HDNL.

    Having had problem with them twice now, once with Amazon and once with GUS I have decied that going forwards before ordering anything over the net I will ask who the delivery company are and if it is HDNL I will take my business elsewhere making it very clear to the supplier exactly why. This is frankly one of the worst companies I have ever had to deal with and I can honestly say that I would rather not have most things than have to go through this again.

    21 Feb 2008, 15:42

80. TeeKay

    I ordered two duvets from Amazon. They both left Amazon in HDNL’s ‘capable hands’ together. One went to the Reading depot and got delivered without problem the next day. The other went to the Wembley depot where it was logged as mis-sorted and returned to Droitwich. It has ping-ponged backwards and forwards between the Wembley depot and Droitwich 6 times so far and is no doubt on its way back to Wembley as we speak.

    Amazon cs were actually very good and sent two notes to HDNL to send it to Reading but HDNL obviously ignored them, and now they have given me a refund and asked HDNL to return it to them.

    Being one duvet down and my third daughter also wanting a new duvet I then ordered two more duvets from Amazon. Guess what …

    I ordered two duvets from Amazon. They both left Amazon in HDNL’s ‘capable hands’ together. One went to the Reading depot and got delivered without problem the next day. The other went to the Wembley depot where it was logged as mis-sorted and returned to Droitwich. (repetition of first paragraph intentional)

    I spoke to amazon CS and told them I was having sleepless nights over this – but they didn’t get my humour. Anyway, I now have 2 duvets and the other one is probably arriving back in Droitwich any time soon. I expect it will be back in Wembley tomorrow, but who knows they might both get sent to Reading tomorrow in which case i’ll have four duvets.

    I am absolutely amazed how a package can be mis-sorted 6 times without the system generating some sort of alert that something has gone wrong. If I could contact HDNL I’d certainly suggest they review their system but alas they don’t seem to want anyone to talk to them.

    21 Feb 2008, 21:31

81. Rudeboy

    Just to clarify the above points, as an ex – driver i am not blaming amazon at all, this is HDNL taking on a contract way above thier capability, this combined with shite equipment, crap management and overworked drivers mean thier slogan ‘Putiing the customer first’ is laughable.

    22 Feb 2008, 12:10

82. perplexed

    23/02/2008 18:13:37 Mitcham Depot Unable to Deliver Held

    What does that mean? I paid for a Saturday delivery, waited in all day, checking the HDNL tracker and at around 9pm that entry shows up.

    23 Feb 2008, 21:42

83. J Carter - South Wales

    I’ve just read all these comments on HDNL and must say I’m a little nervous now about my Samsung 40” large TV coming from Amazon this week 25th – 28th (Monday-Thursday), its bad enough Amazon use CityLink in my area (South Wales UK) whom have never delivered anything on time (no pre 9am’s or pre 12 noon’s), and now I read about all this serious issues with HDNL.

    I’m not happy about having to pay Amazon an extra £29.99 for this delivery service. I can remember how bad Blue arrow (HDNL’s previous company name) some years back.

    I’ll still hope hope for a timely delivery and end to the matter, there is always hope, isn’t there!.

    24 Feb 2008, 22:01

84. Joanne

    I have been waiting 5 days so far for my parcel ordered from Dorothy Perkins. I gave my work address hoping that I wouldn’t miss the delivery, rather than taking time off work.
    On Friday I followed the tracking system online, telling me the parcel was on its way!! Awesome- or so i thought!!
    I waited at work until 5:30 on a Friday night, no delivery, no note left, no phone call to tell me they couldn’t find the place. The tracking system now says address not found…even though it’s quite a large office in the center of town.
    So I now go onto there website to try and contact them to give them directions…..and no number to call. So there “contact us” link is pretty fecking usless really!!
    Thankfully a kind soul has left the number on this page…thank you!!
    So I have given them directions to my office….do they not have sat nav systems? Or even a map?!!!
    Although Dorothy Perkins claim deliveries will be re-attempted on the next working day (today Monday) I have been told by the very unhelpfull “customer service” dept it will not be re-attempted until tomorrow..maybe!! Fingers crossed but I’m not holding out any hope…I’m not expecting to receive my parcel now after reading the above comments….I will keep you informed!!

    25 Feb 2008, 13:15

85. perplexed

    My order now says it was delivered today at 13.49. Strangley thats 2 mins after an email from Dabs replying to my complaint. So HDNL, where is it? I’ve told DABS I wan’t a refund and I’ve emailed Watchdog.

    25 Feb 2008, 19:51

86. Joanne

    So result my item was finally delivered, even if I did have to run outside the office arms waving as the delivery van drove past AGAIN missing my office.
    I have made a complaint to Dorothy Perkins who without arguement fully refunded my postage costs…I’m guessing theve heard a similar story like mine before!!
    So moral of the story is…HDNL Shit, Dorothy Perkins Good….I won’t be ordering from any retailer who deals with HDNL again.

    26 Feb 2008, 14:36

87. Brian Robinson

    I can understand delay problems about the delays to delivery of parcels in the lead up to Christmas due to the sheer quantity involved. What are Home Delivery Network Ltd excuses in February? and what is their reason about ‘Carry over’ where
    parcels arrive at the nearest depot for van delivery,but are then retained at that depot for sometimes many days! Also why is HDNL the only courier service which has no telephone communication for their customers. And yet they have the ‘Gall’ to
    use ’ WE CARE FOR CUSTOMERS’ on the home page of their website. I personally am now advisising Amazon that I will not be making any further purchases while they are using this Company.

    28 Feb 2008, 08:44

88. J Carter

    Well my delivery did turn up on time. HDNL did call Monday 25th in the afternoon and give me a a delivery slot of Weds 27th between 7am and 9:45am using a 2 man delivery service cos of the large TV. I did hassle Amazon to make sure they kept to this slot.

    So this time I have no complaints.

    28 Feb 2008, 16:14

89. Darren

    Had problems with HDS , thye lied and said I had to pick up from depot miles away, complained to amazon instant refund, well done amazon but wont be using again until back to royal mail

    02 Mar 2008, 21:36

90. Ian Hart

    HDNL also deliver for Orange and Sit-up( bid tv, speed auction and price drop) and I live in a block of flats. I ordered a phone from orange which HDNL failed to deliver 4 attempts it was sent back to orange.Had to be reordered which HDNL managed to deliver.With bid-UP they have now clocked up 40+ failed delivies and 2 successfull ones. I have now seen them in action.The driver pressed my inter-com and was back in his van before it stopped ringing.Avoid them like the plague sit-up customer care are even worse.I have never had a problem with Amazon however

    12 Mar 2008, 13:24

91. driver

    your driver will be well happy now (40+ fails says it all what his he suposed to do wait there untill you come home ?)
    and instead of watching them, get up off your arse and answer the door

    13 Mar 2008, 16:47

92. driver

    Anonymous, 4th February, 2008 [not in5ane member, x.x.21.136]
    Reply to A HOLE no 1.Obviously you are a manager with hdnl with a reply i got or you are the biggest arseholer of a driver i know sorry thats not correct ALIVO the biggest arseholer i know?.Of course certain drivers can earn 25/30k as you stated but are these not zone drivers or may i say drivers that get looked after by managers[ie]getting to take the cream of other peoples rounds?.As you said it is a very competetive market out there i do agree but HDNL are very much at the bottom of this market as no one gives a shit except yourself and of course top arseholer? alivo?.Also you stated to let this manager aware of him being a arseholer why would i do that when he knows himself hes one and all the guys know this also,its a bit embarrassing watching a grown man lick ass just to get himself up another rung of the ladder,well at least you know who it is now if this is not you already alivo?.I would also like to see these managers take out a 10 hour target out on a round to see how they would get on because to hear them in the morning they are great and they could do it no probs yea right?If you have any other comment to make just leave it and i will get back 2 you on the matter?. bye bye A HOLE no 1.

    brfc forever, 4th February, 2008 [not in5ane member, x.x.21.136]
    SORRY THE COMMENTS ABOVE ARE FROM BRFC FOREVER

    Anonymous, 14th February, 2008 [not in5ane member, x.x.21.8]
    I worked at the blackburn depot and have to say i agree with a lot of the comments you stated but you forgot one. When the managers have there morning meetings it not about parcels,broughtbacks,etc.etc,it is usually about who can we SACK now,or at least make the drivers life hell till he cracks and jacks it in or they try and stitch a missing parcel on you and then sack you,Or put you on a round that no other man in the right mind would do.If your face does not fit in you f****d its only a matter of time and your history
    Anonymous, 12th January, 2008 [not in5ane member, x.x.123.233]
    You don’t work at the beehive, do you? I can tell. not working too hard isn’t an option for us; the harder we work, they harder they expect us to work. It’s a 21st Century company being run according to 19th Century principles. They didn’t even know about the Working Time Directive until we, the warehouse staff, told them. We get the general impression that they’d like us to work 24/7, and never mind little things like eating, sleeping, crapping or looking after the kids. No, those things don’t matter to them. NOTHING matters to them except the job. Believe.anon, 11th October, 2007 [not in5ane member, x.x.149.238]
    worst company i have ever worked for expect 55 hours work for 39 hours pay. bonus scheme sucks. customers deserve a far better service I found most customers willing to put up with this poor service quite surprising really you all deserve a medal. I have now been sacked since raising issues surrounding poor service, damaged goods, wrong goods all of which refelect in bonus when you the customer rightly refuse to accept delivery + excessive hours etc no name supplied as still waiting payments due

    fjc, 12th October, 2007 [not in5ane member, x.x.121.90]
    yeah your spot on , your better off out of it mate , ive never looked back since leaving and i wouldnt go back if my life depended on it

    this is from people who work there

    http://www.in5ane.com/blogs/in5ane/33204 (there’s alot more)

    13 Mar 2008, 23:31

93. a

    Unfortunately I am a manager at HDNL. I can honestly say that I have never worked for such a bunch of bigotted, aggressive, self opinionated – brain dead **s in my life. They wouldn’t know customer service skills if it bit them on the arse. They offer no staff training, career paths, investment or support. They just recruit bigger nob heads (usually from Parceline)to bully the staff out of a job. Believe me the first opportunity my colleagues and I get we are gone. If the drivers had any sense they would as well. As for the customers – your better off getting your parcels delivered by “Steptoe & Son”

    15 Mar 2008, 08:15

94. cass

    o my god ive just sent a application form for a job at hdnl hopefully its hdnl that are delivering it and it wont get there!!!!!!!!!

    23 Mar 2008, 15:51

95. Alistair

    I’m having problems with Home Delivery Network & it’s nothing to do with Amazon.

    I buy plenty over the net and have never had a major problem with couriers until I came across HDN.

    I’ve now waited over 2 weeks for a desk fan to be sent from England to Glasgow. According to their site they tried to deliver it 3 times last week and left a card each time. I haven’t even got one card. Also the fan is apparently in a depot 30 miles from me & they asked me can I pick it up! Can’t they transfer it to the Glasgow depot – apparently it’s against company policy! And to speak to them I have to phone the seller, they contact HDN, then I have to wait for HDN to phone me!

    I’m surprised to hear Amazon now uses such an awful courier. No phone number or email on HDN’s website – no wonder – they would be overwhelmed by complaints.

    26 Mar 2008, 11:38

96. Tony B

    I ordered from Amazon a TV on 15th Dec 2007, after several false alarms I was given a date for delivery of 26th March 08. I tried tracking the order to find this was not possible with HDN so tried their website for a phone number, this was after reading most of the above horrifying stories. With trepidation I rang the Avon depot on the 26th and was informed by a very pleasant young lady that in actual fact the TV would be picked up around 3pm that day and delivered on the 27th. True to her word it arrived at 2pm so to be quite honest I have received better results from HDN than I had from Amazon.
    Am I just lucky or do we get a far better service from HDN in Wiltshire and surrounding areas than elsewhere.

    27 Mar 2008, 14:48

97. Helen

    I ordered some items from Coast during the easter bank holiday weekend so appreciated there would be a few days delay in receiving them. Coast e-mailed me on Tues to let me know my items were on there way! Excellent I thought. There was an attempted delivery on Weds and a card was left in my letter box with absolutely no information on it except the date. I therefore phoned the customer service number on the card 0844 8111816 and spoke to a very pleasant and helpful lady. She explained they would try to deliver again on Thurs and then return it to the depot, as I am at work all day I requested it be left at the depot (new cross) and I would pick it up. This was fine, she said she would let the depot know and get them to phone me asap. I then check the tracker this morning to find my parcel has been “loaded on to vehicle” at 7am. I came home early from work in the hope I would be in for the delivery however the 2nd card is already in my letter box, again with no info whatsoever apart from the date and “collect from depot” written on it. Unless I had checked on the Coast website to follow up the order and found the tracking facility I would have no idea who HDNL were or what depot my parcel might be at. I phoned the customer services again and spoke to again a pleasant lady who apologised that the depot had not followed orders and messaged them to contact me as soon as the parcel is returned so that I may pick it up. I won’t hold my breath!!

    The best bit is I have only ended up on this site as I was searching for the New Cross depot address as Customer Services do not hold the full address, ridiculous!

    Just thought I would add my rant and a truthful account of preceedings after having to trawl through all the others to find the depot address, (thank you Greg (no. 66)).

    In conclusion, if I didn’t work and had been at home all day HDNL would have probably provided a very efficient service (although reading these comments the driver may have run off b4 I had a chance to answer the intercom if he realised I was in the top floor flat) however even with me trying to be helpful and pick the parcel up myself doing the work for them and saving them a trip they have still managed to mess up which after reading these comments comes as no surprise whatsoever.

    28 Mar 2008, 15:27

98. a

    http://www.ivorysky.com/index.php/2006/12/20/p194/More-Hard-To-Find-Telephone-Numbers—Amazon-and-Home-Delivery-Network.html
    over 1200 on this site

    28 Mar 2008, 22:40

99. Diego

    Home Deliever Network UK is worst than worst.
    We have been waiting for a very important package sent from the other side of the globe, and after 2 weeks going around England ( I have been tracking the package ) they decided to send it back without notifying us, but leaving us last Friday saying they would have re-delivered on Monday. They are very incompetent, and the reason I am saying this it’s because they failed to deliver because they looked for the addre at 1.113 instead of 11/ 13 where we have our offices. They could have used the post code ( which they had ) or the phone to call us. So, now these geniuses sent the package back to the sender and we have to wait to get there again and then ask some other curier to send it to UK again. Unbelievable !

    07 Apr 2008, 21:35

100. speedster

     HDNL are totally crap, Amazon have lost me as a customer for sure due to this. they tried to deliver an item yesterday and it was back at the depot as they couldn’t find the address (every other item ever ordered here could find it). No contact number for HDNL untill i found the stop0870 website (listed in this forum) when i called them up they said i have to wait and see whether they have found the address until this evening, the customer service is crap, if you want to buy something make sure they don’t use HDNL at all.

     15 Apr 2008, 10:56

101. K

     I have had a total nightmare with Amazon and HDNL. I will never use either again unless I am held at gun point. I have probably wasted around £10 on pointless phonecalls to HDNL to find out where my delivery was/is and am still none the wiser. The call staff have been abrupt and unhelpful. I have called them and confirmed my address numerous times yet they still cant seem to find my building.

     I have never had such a bad online shopping experience. Be warned.

     15 Apr 2008, 17:06

102. AndyG

     This firm is absolutely useless. I have experience of this company through Amazon. I ordered an item from Amazon and arranged for the item to be delivered to my office address as both myself and my wife work during the day. My office is manned from 07.30 until 17.30 Monday to Friday. When the parcel failed to arrive I finally tracked Home Delivery Networks phone number down and spoke to them. HDN do not advertise their number, indeed, their own web site clearly states they don’t give out their number.

     Amazon had provided me with a parcel ‘tracking number’. From the HDN site I was able to see what had happened to my parcel. The site stated that the premises were closed and they had put a card through the door. This was total rubbish. I scanned the CCTV footage of the building and whilst we had business deliveries from DHL, Post Office, Parcel line etc…know one from HDN came! Obviously no card was left.

     I challenged HSN on this. They had no answer but assured me the parcel would be sent out again the following day. I checked the address with them and gave them my mobile phone number as a contact. They assured me that they would deliver.

     Guess what…..no delivery, no phone call, nothing. At 4.30 pm I phoned them to be amazed to be told that they can deliver up until 20.00 and that the drivers are sub contracts who don’t carry mobile phones. Therefore they can’t ring them to see where they are. Have you heard anything so stupid? I sat at my office until 320.00 like an idiot waiting the parcel that never showed.

     That night I phoned HDN. It turns out that the call centre isn’t theirs and they are a contractor answering the phones for HDN. The HDN depots wont talk to you.

     The following morning the Wembley depot manager phoned me and apologised for the failure to deliver the parcel. I verified the address and gave directors. I told the Depot Manager that the parcel was now two days late and If I didn’t have it by Midday I would make alternative arrangements. He assured me that I would have the parcel by midday. Guess what? I didn’t.

     At 15.00 I phoned Amazon (for a third time) finally cancelling the order.

     The parcel arrived at 15.30. I rejected the parcel.

     They don’t care. They are not interested. They are rubbish. They don’t deserve to be in business and hopefully they wont be for much longer.

     26 Apr 2008, 17:13

103. The Barn

     Good with the bad, read so many bad experiances, wanted to give some hope

     Had the card through the door, I work so obvioisly can’t be in the next day either, phoned them and as everyone has said they dont do Saturday delivery BUT they were happy to redirect it. Gave them the new address and it turned up, next day just after lunch time.

     hope this gives some hope

     regards

     02 May 2008, 13:01

104. Marxam

     I have read most of the comments here and have found that multiple parties are only defending their own bases, not looking at the complete picture.

     Having worked in a couple of well-reputed delivery firms for a few years, I know exactly how things work in a courier firm. I am a regular Internet buyer so I amd well in tune with the customers’ expectations. Now I run a couple of Online shops and am well aware of the problems as well as responsibilities associated with this end of the picture too.

     Let’s understand a few things here people.

     1: It is your responsibility as a customer to provide CORRECT address and contact info. Believe me, nearly one third of the customers don’t even put the postcode in the correct format, forget to put telephone number and despite being informed a signature on delivery is required, sometimes put weird instructions in the order such as, ‘if nobody’s available then leave it in the hedge to the right…’ as if it were the retailer carrying out the delivery themselves.
     2: It is also the customer’s responsibility to make sure someone is at the delivery address to receive and sign for the goods.
     3: The shipper (retailer) is responsible for securely packing your item with CORRECT address on the package. This in most cases depends on the point 1 above.
     4: It is the carrier’s responsibility to make sure the item reaches its correct destination, on time! This is what I believe we are discussing here. I have personally had some interesting experiences in this area, please read on till the end of my comments.
     5: In case of calling cards being left, what the customer should consider is one of the following:

     A- Call the carrier to arrange a re-delivery (including delivery to neighbours), making sure someone is there to receive the goods.
     B- In case option A is not possible, the only option available is to collect it from the local depot.

     6: What the customers SHOULD NOT expect is as follows:
     A: Delivery of the parcel OUTSIDE the working hours, bearing in mind the delivery person is also working full time and delivery companies do not operate multiple shifts.
     B: Having the parcel redirected to another address is MOST DEFINITELY not an option where the redirection address is outside the delivery depot’s delivery zone because such redirections require the parcel to be forwarded to different delivery depot which requires a new consignment note to be raised and hence incurs additional costs.

     Now further to point 4 mentioned above, I have had terrible experiences with HDNL. A recent example is as follows:

     Ordered some computer components from dabs and was expecting a delivery on Monday, having a home-based office, I rarely ever run into the ‘calling card’ menace. Checked the parcel info on HDNL website which read ‘Delivery address closed, calling card left’.
     What the heck? I am at home, not playing loud music or watching tv, actually working on my computer, quietly, there is a LARGE door number at the front, my street has sign on the corner, anyone would be able to locate the correct address easily but not HDNL!
     So upon checking the status of the parcel, I called HDNL’s 0870 number and was told that the driver (a woman) left the card at another address; 4 E**d C* instead of the actual address on the parcel which was 4 B**d A**.

     Wow! What a performance!

     The address at which the calling card was left is two blocks away from me. So I called HDNL again, asking them to direct the driver in the right direction with eyes wide open. I was told she was out of the area and would be able to deliver the parcel after 6:30pm. I had to cancel my appointments that day, stay at home because of a clear mistake on their driver’s part.

     NNow this really is sheer NEGLIGENCE! You cannot call it great service.

     Sadly, my experience with HDNL hasn’t been good at all.

     10 May 2008, 14:26

105. Mou

     Ordered some expensive electricals off Amazon last week. ETA was 8th May…still haven’t arrived. So I checked the Tracking which said…Droitwich-St Neots-Droitwich (9th May). Now, my postal address is in a whacking great big hospital. It’s one of those supernodes of East Anglia, Addenbrooke’s. You literally can’t miss it, it’s fecking huge. But apparently, it refused delivery! This is a hospital that accepts delivery from billions of couriers, Royal Mail, Parcel Force and the rest all the time. So why can’t HDNL deliver here? Apparently loads of other Addenbrooke’s customers have had the same problem with HDNL. And yet, I’ve never had a problem with the other couriers.

     I contacted Amazon as the package had not had its status updated since the 9th and they can’t find it. Why can’t Amazon get their act together and employ another delivery service? I still haven’t received my stuff :(

     14 May 2008, 13:12

106. JW

     I would just like to say, that HDNL aren’t all that bad. Well up North they aren’t anyways. I ordered like 10 books in 2007, towards 2008. Both packages arrived on time. Was pretty pleased. No delays, or left with someone else. Was spot on. But that’s just what happened to me. Hopefully it will be the same with the 3 books i have ordered. Just a little hope and positive feedback though. Well done to the Yorkshire Depot i guess =]

     18 May 2008, 23:33

107. JW

     _~Update~ My parents recieved the package of my 3 books =]. It is a day early, which isn’t really something, that is bad. :P But, Thanks HDNL Yorkshire depot, or wherever it is. They really do, do a good job where I live, near Hull.

     20 May 2008, 16:32

108. Michael

     I work for HDNL and it appears that the majority of these problems are related to our PARCEL DELIVERY SERVICE, the company is actually split into 2 arms Parcel Delivery and Specialised Operations, we are currently undergoing a great deal of restructuring and technology upgrades.

     Agreeably we can be a disgrace sometime at delivering items, the way we deliver them and some of our processes but you cant totally blame us (yes sounds like the usual tripe from an employee)but we are expected to deliver and give the unexpected to customers all the time, every time.

     Behind the scenes the company does try its hardest, Specialised Operations works upto 7 days a week however we are contracted to work Monday to Friday just to ensure that we are giving the customers what they require.

     The depot i work for bends over backwards to help customers (and yes i work for Specialised Operations), internally we have a weekly bulletin that highlights our customers (your supplier) and gives them 3 levels of service from red to green, red being needs urgent improvement, green being minimal problems, every SO depot is permanently green with PD constantly flagging up with problems (notably these are amber), due to this the company was re-structured and these were divided to try and improve this with more focus and resources aimed at the PD depots.

     Damages (due to poor packaging and substandard items being sent to us) account for a large number of delays as we have to request a re-order and this then involves us needing goods to be sent back out to us again, but i can agree with a previous post that the state of some addresses we receive are a joke. I recently had to contact a customer direct as i had an item sat outside my office for 2 days awaiting a response from Amazon (who after 5 days are still yet to reply to me) to receive his address, because Mr. Moore, Co. Armagh XX99 XXX is a bit hard to deliver even when its transfered over to our Irish Depot, we cannot perform miracles.

     So i understand you all have issues and problems with our company but we do try to “delivery to every postcode, everyday”.

     Oh and just a quick note, the number you call isn’t a premium rate number is a local rate number and differentiates from depot to depot as it is a ‘direct line to your local depot’ in most cases.

     As far the track and trace issues, we have problems in the depots sometimes, especially when the supplier provides barcodes that don’t even exist on our system when we try to accept it into the depot, this then takes time to manually load your order onto our system and have it sent through the same process as a normally received order, this takes up a lot of time as we have to key every details the supplier provides us manually for you.

     So if your having a large item (mainly over 25kg) delivered to you in the north of England/Scotland or Ireland, rest assured that our depot is trying its best to help make your experience with us as stress free as possible.

     20 May 2008, 20:14

109. John

     They really do, do a good job where I live, near Hull.

     That will be the Hull depot then, on Woltshire Road

     25 May 2008, 09:02

110. patsy

     Yes it is true at HDNL we all are contracted to work 10 hours which during the busy periods like xmas it is bedlam. A lot of the time when parcels are carded and we get a responce from the client that they would like the parcel delivered on a specific day because they say “they will be in all day” and you go to deliver the parcel , suprise suprise the customer is not at home at all.

     03 Jun 2008, 21:32

111. Rogue Employee

     Well, what do you expect from a company that has never made any money????? a company that is run by a bunch of directors who like to take huge pay rises and wages but gave the staff a measly £300 pay bonus….not a pay rise and even this was taxed.

     when it was White Arrow/Reality GUS footed the bills, when it became HDNL Littlewoods started to foot the bills but even now they have seen sense and shrugged the little crappy company from its brandings…

     Ok so its the “uks biggest home delivery and collection service” and it prob would be a different company if it didnt have walter wanking blackwood running it (oh who by the way has been given the heave o as from August).

     It isnt the lads or ladies that are committed to the lost cause who fail the clients and the customers it the poorly managed and poorly cared about people who run it.

     My manager is never even in so how the hell she knows whats going on i’ll never know but lo and behold she makes decisions that go tits up for customers once shes back, and her as for her relief manager i dont even know how he gets dressed hes that useless.

     A total shake up of the company from directors down might make it a better company…its been funded too long by its big parent companies so you people maybe lucky enough not to have to suffer from us for much longer now we stand alone in the big bad world of delivery companies without anyone writing our blank cheques or footing the bills for stupid loans like the £30m loan we cant repay!!

     14 Jun 2008, 23:07

112. Elliej69

     Hi all

     Wow, It’s taken me ages to read all these comments and it all sounds so familiar now!
     My Mum order a recordable digi-box from John Lewis last Tuesday and even paid the extra £6.95 for a guaranteed delivery on Saturday.
     Guess what, it never turned up. I tracked it online through John Lewis’ website and HDL’s website and it said it was received at the New Cross depot at around 6:30AM on Saturday. Mum phoned John Lewis who said that ‘they ask that customers give them at least until 19:00 on Saturday as it can be a bit busier’. 20:00 came and still no delivery and the tracking status was still unchanged.
     I did some google-ing and tracked down, through this forum, the various telephne numbers for the New Cross depot. Mum called them, and surprise surprise, no answer, they were closed by then!

     (BTW the silly thing is New Cross is about 20 mins away from where I live! how hard can it be to deliver her digi-box!)

     Mum called John Lewis back to which they apologised and refunded the delivery charge and said lets hope it will be delivered on Monday.

     Monday has come and we’re waiting in for the delivery, 12 o’clock at the moment and nothing has turned up yet. Mum gives HDL a call. They say that it wasn’t even down for delivery for Saturday! and that they will try and see if they can get it on the van for today (as they load their vans upto 11AM on the day of delivery). Mum says she doesn’t want any if’s of maybe’s she wants a definite yes it WILL be delivered today, the lady sticks to her guns. :@
     She calls John Lewis back to tell them what has happened and they call HDN themselves and they have just about as much luck as Mum did!
     John Lewis then calls Mum back on her mobile and said that HDN have lost the digi-box and John Lewis have re-ordered a new one for Mum and that it WILL be delivered on Saturday AND if HDN find the digi-box they are to return it to John Lewis. They apologise and say that there will be a goodwill gesture on it’s way too! ( a bit of a result ;) ) Mum is to also ring John Lewis to let them know when she finally does get her digi-box.
     But if you think about it from John Lewis’ perspective, as a business, how many goodwill gestures do they have to pay out even if it’s just a £10 gift voucher, it all adds up.

     Reading several of the comments posted in here about people who have cancelled orders and they’ve still turned up, I’m secretly hopeful and optimistic that it will actually turn up today! LOL

     Here’s hoping, fingers and anything else crossed.

     23 Jun 2008, 12:20

113. Mario

     Amazon sent me the email telling me the item had been dispatched and should be in my flat on 23rd. I waited the whole day but nothing arrived. Then I called HDN, they told me it was not on delivery on 23rd and instead the parcel delivery would have been on 24th … but again another day waiting for nothing.

     As I can see I am not the only one.

     24 Jun 2008, 18:28

114. Angharad

     I’m getting worried now – ordered some clothes from Oasis last Friday ,they claim it’ll take 2-3 working days to arrive, which by my calculations should be today. Just checked the HDNL website and it says “Droitwich Spa – Sorted” at 1.58 this morning (somebody was up very late in fairness!)
     Can anyone tell me what “sorted” means please? I work on the edge of Cardiff, in a large conspicuous building. HNDL have managed to deliver there before. Does that mean it’ll come from Droitwich Spa to Cardiff today, and then from Cardiff depot to offices tomorrow or what?
     I’m only concerned because I’m going on holiday in two days, and it would be nice to have my stuff by then – especially given I ordered a week in advance…

     Angharad

     25 Jun 2008, 11:39

115. Angharad

     Wow. My stuff actually arrived at my workplace this morning, I’m impressed. Also very lucky to work somewhere which has a 24-hour manned reception desk, no excuse for non-delivery then.

     26 Jun 2008, 10:06

116. Big Steve

     I don’t mean to be nasty here. But I have used amazon over 2000 – 3000 time in a year and never once had a parcel not arrive. If I want it next day it will be delivered with Royal Mail. If I want to be cheap(and I am) I use supersaver! So if you don’t pay for postage or transit how can you really have any kind of complaint. You picked the cheapest.

     That doesn’t mean that either company has the right to take up to 4 month to deliver a broken package. But it does mean that they put there paying customers first. So for amazon everyone is a paying customer, but to HDNL only the ones that have paid for next day will trully get a proper service. Thats the people that make them money.

     So what i’m sayin is, if you buy a 47” TV and then pick the supersaver, don’t expect it to come in two days. It’s going to be shipped up and down the country for about a week

     If gettin it within a week is that important, then pay for the service. That way you will get what you want.

     04 Jul 2008, 12:07

117. vic

     i work for hdnl and i think you people only think that you work well i put in 9 to 10 hours a day 5 days a week and i like my weekends so up you

     07 Jul 2008, 17:27

118. James

     I live in australia and i ordered 3 games from america and today it said it was delivered but i cant find it and last time it was home delivered, maybe it isnt, this time i dont know ill tell u later

     21 Jul 2008, 09:39

119. Reb

     My, how erudite the HDNL staff are ( vic 7.7.08) & how very encouraging that is! I ordered from Amazon, paid a reasonable price, was quoted a certain delivery date, have an uncontentious address, was at home all day yesterday to receive it, it didn’t arrive. Checked Amazon and HDNL websites – both say delivery was attempted at 7pm yesterday evening. Bizarre, as I work form home and both myself and my husband were sitting on the patio (approx. three feet from the fron door) from 5.30pm until 10pm. Still, the website did say they had left me a card to indicate a delivery attempt – pity it must have vaporised between being posted and the doormat!
     Just for the record – I do not mind the odd delay caused by Amazon’s inefficient systems & address cock-ups (I sympathise with HDNL drivers here), or even their being too overloaded (even in July) with parcels to get to mine on time…..what I do detest and will not tolerate is being LIED to. I have contacted the ‘local’ HDNL branch just now (using the local rate number – thanks John Waller for the www.saynoto0870.com link) and they have admitted they put it on the wrong delivery driver’s route, so delivery was not attempted and they did not card me and I do have to wait in for another day. More examples of them massaging statistics I suspect, so that their reports to Amazon look better.
     And also for the record (vic) – I too work bl**dy hard – often through the weekend, so stop being such a poor, hard-done-by victim prat and understand that customers have a valid right to complain if service is not as described at point of purchase – get over it!

     25 Jul 2008, 09:10

120. Catriona Snaddon

     I am waiting for a parcel to come containing a book i need for school on monday. it is now friday. does amazon always deliver with hdnl? because im kind of stuck if they do.

     15 Aug 2008, 00:47

121. Blow me HDNL

     I ordered a camera from Amazon on saturday, and the estimate for it was Tuesday.
     Today is tuesday, and i have stayed home in wait for HDNL to deliver.
     They did.
     TO THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET
     Yeah, i see a white van pull up, a man get out, get back in, write out a card and post it.
     So i realize that this idiot can’t see the difference between the number 21 and 22 and run outside in hope of catching him.. but of course.. he’s driven off, and i’ve got work tomorrow and won’t be in.. what’s the odds they’ll TRY and deliver to THE SAME address and fail??? Maybe HDNL should check to see if their drivers can read, or actually see numbers. What is incredibly frustrating about this situation is that i know i cannot contact Amazon and tell them that i did not receive my camera, as they will no doubt tell me to wait till the next day for another attempt at delivery (Despite them delivering to the WRONG house) what the hell am i gunna do.. beware amazon users, if you see HDNL come up near your order, your buggered.

     26 Aug 2008, 14:53

122. Beth

     To all those who say you shouldn’t order something if you’re not going to be in to receive it: my delivery estimate from Amazon was 2-9 August. Am I supposed to not leave the house for 8 days???

     28 Aug 2008, 20:01

123. jaaaba

     I ordered boots from kitbag and the were sent using HDNL 24. received them straight away with no problems. Home Delivery Network aren’t all bad.

     Date – Depot – Action
     28/08/2008 20:41:40 – Sort Centre Shaw, Oldham – Sorted
     29/08/2008 01:42:46 – Sunderland Depot – Received
     29/08/2008 08:00:50 – Sunderland Depot – Loaded onto vehicle

     29 Aug 2008, 12:43

124. lisa

     hmm. ordered an NFL football jersey from kitbag.
     ordered at 11am yesterday, they’ve shipped it. so i thought i’d have a quick check to see what’s going on and what not.

     Date Depot Action Reason
     02/09/2008 00:00:00 Customer Parcel Data Received

     idk what that means, i would have thought that within 24 hours it’d have gone from wherever it came from to wherever my depot is (assuming wembley)
     they way they put that is that they only have the data and not the parcel :s

     03 Sep 2008, 18:44

125. AnonUser

     @ Lisa
     I think “Customer Parcel DAta Received” is what the backend systems record when a delivery note is created. As a guess this could mean that the item is still at the KitBag Depot, or the item has not yet made it do the first HDNL Depot.

     HTH (I would guess that it should be showing up now, but added my 0.02 in case others were wondering, I know I was)..

     The should change the “Depot” name from “Customer” to “Sender/Sendee” or something of the ilk (to make it less confusing)

     07 Sep 2008, 02:53

126. Rick Salisbury

     I have bought many items from Amazon over the years.

     I have found HDN to be pretty efficient in almost all cases. We usually get the same driver who is always courteous and pleasant. Virgin Wines also use HDN.

     As I understand it Amazon’s Super Saver Free delivery service is for people who are prepared to wait a little longer for delivery and will of course be around to receive it (or use a work address).

     If I want a good idea of which day an item is going to be delivered I use the paid delivery service and the goods are normally delivered the day after I receive a goods dispatched email via Royal Mail.

     It amazes me that people order bulky items when they know that they won’t be at home to receive them. What exactly do they expect Amazon or HDN to do?

     11 Sep 2008, 10:01

127. John

     HDN are a bunch of tossers – what more can I say

     11 Sep 2008, 21:08

128. Very Angry Customer

     I think HDN is an abbreviation for Horrendously Disadvantaged Nerds which is coined from my personal experience of dealings with this badly run company. They deliver when you’re at work and can’t deliver when you’re at home. Insufficient intelligence to telephone to see if you are at home in the first place. It’s a bit like being a bricklayer who will only work in the rain – he’s never going to get the job done – and how stupid would you be to do that. Ask HDN – they will relate to that. Good luck to the future expansion of the company – I wish you every success – they certainly need it.

     11 Sep 2008, 21:20

129. Rab C.

     I too have reeled in horror as I realised this company will be delivering my package. People say that we should be at home to collect if we choose the cheapest option of delivery on Amazon- but I assure you, had I known HDN would have been responsible for my delivery I would have changed my option and gladly paid. This company are diabolical and incompetent. I have told Amazon that I will boycott their site until they break off ties with this company; Not to be hysterical, but because I am a paying customer and in past situations HDN have shown themselves to be rude, ignorant and even liars (claiming to have attempted delivery even when presented with incontrovertible evidence to the contrary).

     I would urge any person buying an item to ensure this company are not responsible for your delivery. If HDN have a chance to fail to deliver your item and have you dial their premium number they will seize the opportunity. I fully expect to need a new delivery from Amazon this time next week. I often read slating of companies on sites and message board and think that they are a little bit nerdy and a small group of people- this is my first post criticising a company, and certainly first time making a conscious decision to vote with my wallet as a consequence, so please heed the warning. The sooner this company goes under the better.

     12 Sep 2008, 19:56

130. LORRAINE

     ME TO, PHONED TO SAY ITEM DELIVERY WOULD BE FRIDAY SAID ALL WOULD BE AT WORK..THEY SAID COULD IT BE PUT SOMEWARE SAFE!! I SAID WHAT A £1500 50” PLASMA..PERSON ON THE PHONE SAID NOTHIING THEN SHE SAID WHAT ABOUT SATURDAY 7.45AM TO 11.45AM I SAID OK I’LL TAKE THE DAY OFF LOOSE 150 A DAY..GUESS WHAT NOTHING LOOKS LIKE IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN FOR ME TO THE HDNL HEX..

     13 Sep 2008, 13:28

131. Farrah

     WOW what a mess. i was willing to give them the benifit of the doubt until i spent a whole day poised and ready to get my parcel from amazon and it never came. was up at first thing, didnt even shower for fear of missing it, checked the door like 50 times….waiting…..waiting…...waiting.
     Aparently delivery was attempted at 6:41 pm and was carded. erm…...no. 3 people were in the house…...no card…...weeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrdddddddddd my post box must be a portal into another dimemention. Took til this morning for it to show on their tracking system. So im sitting here thinking to meself, well, if they tried delivery, then it wasnt to me so them trying again is a bit redundant now isnt it.
     So have called amazon 0800 496 1081. lady was very helpful. she SAID she was calling the depot and getting them to call me to confirm that my parcel would be delivered today. Now im not holding my breath, mostly cus i have a cold and would surely die sooner rather than later. I can say id rather not have to ring up and do this chasing, but ive had to do it with numerous other companies so im willing to say, if they pull their fingers out and get it deleivered im not too fussed.

     WHile i can agree that you get what you pay for with the supersaver delivery, i have to say that amazon offers a service which it is not forfilling. that is largely the responsibility of amazon. if they cannot offer a service successfullly then they should not offer it at all. I probably would consider using amazon paid delivery, but if that goes through this company also that really is a mess up. I know alot of student who use amazon and will definately be warning them that the savings are not worth the hassle in the end. It really is poor publicity for a company like amazon to use such a shambles of a company. mind you, i have yet to encounter any parcel service that i think is up to standard.

     im not blasting the drivers, but i will say that anyone deliberately sabotaging deliveries is slightly evil. someone has probably had to take time off their own job, asking them to respect your work when you cant respect theirs is a bit hypocritical. but all in all i get the feeling that its a handful of bad bad bad grumpies.

     willl update if someone pulls through. lets hope eh

     30 Sep 2008, 09:20

132. Farrah

     oki

     i got very quick email response from amazon, with confirmation of my call and what was happening, and then a second email when i queried some things.

     its not 15:42 and still no package. I am getting beyond fustrated now. I have called Amazon, the girl was very helpful but she said that they could not get a time for the delivery. so i asked if she could get the hours that HDNL deliver between as i am stuck in my house yet again! again politely apoligising she said that she didnt know and could not find out. so i asked for the depot number, and again she said that she did not have that information.

     Also checked the pricing of standard delivery. I have absolutely no problems with it. HOWEVER i see that HDNL are handling paid deliveries also. This for me is taking the buiscuit. THis must be a recent thing because i hve used amazon for years (in the midlands) and have never received difficulties. Maybe its a regional thing too now i have moved up north.

     Am very annoid. One positive aspect is contacting amazon on the 0800 number gives access to very polite and helpful advisors, but having worked for customer services for another company, i know that there is only so much the advisors can do. BOth advisors i have spoken to today have been very sympathetic and seemed to be more that aware of the issue.

     am waiting now. if its not here tomorrow i shall be cancelling my order and refusing to use amazon again. its very distressing to see the number of companies that have a contract with HDNL. I will not be giving them my custom either.

     30 Sep 2008, 15:55

133. Farrah

     received parcel 18:25 from lovely driver who was polite and chatty. starting to beleive that the fault with this company is not with the drivers but with the organisation of the adminitrative side.

     Would recommend giving amazon a ring AS SOON as you become aware of a problem with delivery. if it says carded on your tracking and you were not, give amazon a ring.

     30 Sep 2008, 18:36

134. Charlie

     When I order a mail order item I know that there will be a problem if it is not delivered by Royal Mail. I too am out working and if an attempt at delivery is made and no one is in a card is put through my door by Royal Mail driver giving details for me too collect from their sorting office

     With other couriers 99% did not put a card through my door so I had no way of knowing where my item was. I have had a few items returned by the courier to QVC as by the time that I had contacted QVC they had returned it

     Their systems are not geared up for this

     01 Oct 2008, 11:00

135. Jasmine

     09/10/2008 12:13:19 Maidstone Depot Unable to Deliver Address query
     09/10/2008 12:13:29 Maidstone Depot Unable to Deliver Awaiting advice
     10/10/2008 09:59:27 Maidstone Depot Unable to Deliver Awaiting advice

     What the hell does this mean? I’ve been waiting over 1 week for my order when I should’ve recieved it a good few days ago. Now the HDNL tracking website is saying they are unable to deliver…awaiting advice? What does it mean? Maidstone is a good way away from my house aswell so I’m not planning on picking it up myself!

     10 Oct 2008, 21:15

136. Mike

     Well, I’ve just missed two attempted Amazon deliveries by HDL and after contacting their call centre decided to see if my experience was unique. I was told that they’d try another delivery despite me saying that it’d be futile as I’d be out to work. They said that they’d try and leave it with a neighbor – all of them work as well. They’re only able to deliver 9-5 weekdays, so weekends or evenings are out and I will never receive the goods. Additionally, I was told I could eventually pick the parcel up from their Wembley depot, but the operator refused to tell me their opening hours, telephone number or address. Besides the fact it’ll cost me more than Amazon’s free service to collect the stuff. Their website also has no further contact details other than a customer services postal address in Merseyside. Is this company for real ?

     31 Oct 2008, 09:59

137. roger

     As the UK’s largest dedicated home delivery and collection service HDNL is proud to deliver 300,000 parcels and large consignments in every postcode … every day.

     01 Nov 2008, 07:36

138. Ella

     I ordered a tv and a digital scanner and this morning phoned up to ask when they might be delivered from bid tv. They said that they had been delivered yesterday, and I freaked. Obviously nothing had come. At first they said that they would send me out a claim form, which would arrive within 14 days and it took much persistance on my part before they gave me HDN’s details and delivery number. I went on their site and tracked the parcels and yes, they had been ‘delivered’ and no, there was no way to contact them. Luckily I found their numbers on saynoto0870.com.

     At first they wouldn’t talk to me, because Bid TV had me down as a ‘Mr’ when I am a ‘Ms’. There is no way to change this on Bid TV’s system. I tried though, and twice was told I couldn’t talk to them because it had me down as a Mr. I phoned again a few minutes later, and when the guy asked all my security details, he then said, ‘I can’t talk to you as I’m supposed to talk to a ‘Mr’ soandso. I said (in my very feminine voice) – I AM Mr soandso. He said, oh er, oh! Then he asked what he could do for me.

     They said that they would interview the driver to find out what had happened, because according to them it had definitely been delivered yesterday. I fretted and stewed about this, as I got the tv at a ‘reeeeeeeeeally’ good price, and knew they would just refund me rather than deliver another. Anyway, it got delivered about 3 hours later. The delivery lady just ran the doorbell, and didn’t even wait for me to get to the door which took about 5 seconds. She was on her way off again. She looked surprised when I opened the door, and gave me my 2 parcels and hurried off. I shouted after ‘don’t I have to sign anything?’ and she shook her head and went off.

     I tried to phone up to tell them that it was delivered, but the person wouldn’t speak to me because I wasn’t ‘Mr soandso’ and so I didn’t even get to tell them. I’d like to know what will happen regarding the ‘interviewing of the driver’. There is no email address for me to report the items as delivered, and while I’m cross that I had to worry about the items, I don’t want the driver getting into too much trouble as I have got the items and as things stand, HDN thinks I haven’t. To the drivers on here, what do you think I should do / or will happen to the driver?

     07 Nov 2008, 16:18

139. NMcL

     Of course there must be problems with Amazon/Argos etc. But HDNL are appalling – they seem to wilfully ignore/misunderstand very clear and simple instructions on leaving parcels at your home – despite the girl on the phone saying this is perfectly usual and will be fine – and hearing her type in instructions!! Now I have to take time out of work to pick up my long awaited parcel. I need two peices of ID for both me and my partner, they’ll call me to say where they are and when I can go – it’s 30 miles away! – then they have to call my partner when I get their to make sure it’s ok!

     The Home Delivery Network say they ‘put the customer first’! They only have one job – to deliver – why can’t they do this???

     19 Nov 2008, 08:49

140. RH

     Seems HDNL are liars from all these comments.
     First and foremost, why don’t they even have a telephone number? Seems strange that a ‘supposed large reputable (my ass) company’ has no telephone number. All you can do is track parcels. I had to ring Amazon and find out where my order is and been told it’s being sent back to the supplier, and i’m like WHY?
     They lied and said they tried delivering and the message i have in my amazon is”customer refused parcel’. Why on earth would i refuse a parcel that i’m expecting , and i was in all week? Stupid, stupid people. No card was left either. I think this company is pathetic.

     If i re-order this item again i’m afraid it will not turn up again and i wont get a refund. So far i have not received a refund now i don’t even know what to do. I am totally outraged by this unprofessional behaviour of a company. It’s not Amazon fault, it’s this companies fault. I had a problem with HDNL in the past too because they always seem to return to the supplier on any excuse. Something needs to be done to change this carefree attitude.

     28 Nov 2008, 10:28

141. RH

     Oh well, just got off the phone to Amazon and told them to change their courier lol No offence to any HDNL workers but it’s got a flaw somewhere you must admit.
     Anyhow, i managed to track down the number for HDNL Birmingham where my parcel is supposed to have been and they have not got it there anymore lol – surprise, surprise It’s now back with Amazon – Wales. Now waiting for my refund from them. Just worried stock levels will go down on this particular item (DVD) because of the price and want it for myself now for Christmas.

     I’ve put in an official complaint in with HDNL (with the lovely operator)...and on behalf of everyone who’s had the problem also smile.
     Amazon has promised that when my refund is received and order placed again, they will instruct HDNL to do their job properly haha Hopefully the next time i will be lucky enough to receive my order….and before Christmas. It was supposed to be a birthday present so i’ve every right to be upset about all this inefficiency of delivery. Funny thing about it is, if they had left a card, i would have been able to pick it up from the Romford office, as it’s only driving distance d’oh, so in that sense my anger only serves to be correct.

     28 Nov 2008, 10:53

142. RH

     Actually, to not offend all drivers, it’s only some drivers who are too lazy to retry delivery. I believe when they leave an item with your local office they are supposed to have three attempts to delivery before sending the item back to the originator. It’s only right. That’s what the post office do. ‘It’s the fact that many have said no card was left on attempt to deliver where the problem lies’.

     Just have to make a little joke, after i read from someone that an address was not even put on a parcel (re: i kid you not). My hubby just said , i wonder if we sent a package to Santa, Lapland for the kids whether it would be received before Christmas lol lol Just a light-hearted giggle there.

     28 Nov 2008, 11:04

143. JOHN

     Having missed the first delivery which was earlier than expected I had the missed delivery card posted through the door stating that re delivery would be the next day I arranged for somebody to be home from 06:00 to 19:30 to take the delivery. This did not happen. On my return from work at 19:15 I phoned the number on the card and an Asian sounding gentleman explained that the van for my area had too many parcels on so mine was left behind. I arranged with him to deliver the following day to my place of work supplying him with the revised address and post code. Again this did not happen. On my arrival home that night I was greeted with yet another failed delivery card. Next day a further phone call and an officious sounding woman informed me that the change of delivery address was made too late for their system. Ok I will collect from the depot. You will need two forms of photographic identity namely drivers license and passport plus a utility bill with my name and address on it. I will also probably have to wait at least 24hrs before it is ready for collection. I dutifully left my mobile number as a contact for them to inform me when I could collect. Next day I received the call. Looked on the web site for the depot address, not there. Yet one more phone call. Arrived at the depot, no ID Asked for just a signature. What a shambolic company

     05 Dec 2008, 14:17

144. Anna

     I hate HDNL. Its the most useless company. In the past they have delivered items to me (ordered from ASOS.com) and I have found it on the pavement.- not in front of my house or on the porch, but on the pavemenet, as if it was literally thrown across there.

     I ordered some items from asos 3 weeks ago and according to HDNL they delivered it on a day when my entire family was home, and the time stating they delivered it, we were washing our cars. Funny how we saw no delivery drivers/vans and no note was left? Now im left in the lurch and no idea how to get my money or my items.

     12 Dec 2008, 23:34

145. Simon

     Dabs use HDN as well.

     I ordered with Dabs on Thursday, and on Friday even received my tracking number.
     Late on Friday night I checked the HDN site and saw it had been loaded on a van at my local depot.
     I stayed in all Saturday, so was somewhat bemused to see that they had tried to deliver at 11.45, but I had “moved” (actually, I hadn’t – I sat in the chair overlooking the road all morning)
     Even more amazing, at 17.45 they tried to deliver again, but this time I has “refused” the package. (I assume I had moved back in at lunchtime?)

     Needless to say, at neither time did a delivery van arrive, nor did anyone attempt to knock on my door.

     As the website says they will leave a card and try deliver the next working day, I stayed in all Monday. Mid afternoon, I decided to go looking for a phone number for them and found them about half way down the page here

     Now for the good news: They have returned the parcel to Dabs, whos system is to refund the money and have me re-order. Apparently it’s all my fault, even though the driver never got within shouting distance of my house.

     Neeedless to say, I will be buying somewhere else – where I can collect my items.

     15 Dec 2008, 17:08

146. Andrea

     I ordered some clothes from republic.co.uk on thursday, the main reason I used them was the next day dilevery they advertised on the site, all standard dilevery is upgraded to next day express, I’m going abroad on tuesday so I wanted them as soon as possible, you can tell where I’m going with this.

     Come friday I input my tracking number just out of curiosity really and lo and behold, at 7:30 am unable to deliver – prime sort error, I think of calling them, no number on the site, no number anywhere and the ones others had listed on forums didn’t work, of course by now I had read about 500 people’s complaints online, and all these horror stories about parcels left in wheelie bins I was freaking out, so I call republic and tell them to sort this out immediately or I want a refund, they actually tell me next day delivery is just an estimated time and, after all, I am paying £2 less for the “express” delivery, wow, there is now way of dealing with people like that but putting them in their place, don’t waste your time trying to contact the delivery company contact the people where you bought the items in the first place, you paid them so it’s their responsibility to sort things out, when I pay for next day delivery I expect next day delivery, I expect them to do what they’re paid for.

     I got my package today, monday, after 2pm, hdln don’t work on saturdays, if I hadn’t asked republic to contact them I’m sure I would still be waiting for nothing, looking for contact numbers online, not even republic have hdln’s phone number, they “correspond” and in the end they proved quite helpful.

     Compared to the other posts mine seems like nothing, but it’s essentially the same fail story, don’t give it 2 or 3 weeks, call the company you ordered from.

     15 Dec 2008, 20:53

147. Hannah

     Hey,

     Fair enough that if I am working then I should expect missed delivery – I DO. But for city link etc this is not a problem, i accept giving up my time to trudge to a depot.

     My problem is 2 missed deliveries and NO card. No card – so no telephone or address. Stuck totally in parcel limbo. I ordered on Dec 4th, plenty of time for xmas or so I thought, but looks now like I will have to apologise to everyone not having their pressies.

     Email amazon to say, no card means I know I need to contact them but I can’t. All they say is we’ll contact them to find out where it is. But that’s no use, I know where it is and it’s me who needs to speak to them! And in preference I’d rather not phone just turn up … not at all amused.

     16 Dec 2008, 00:36

148. Mr A N Noyed

     HDNL….Argghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

     These jokers have ‘lost’ a games console and games and are now claiming they have delivered them to me but they have no trace of it on their tracking system.

     Amazon don’t believe a word of what they say and have refunded me…and judging from what I have read on this and other websites HDNL are not a reliable or well respected firm.

     16 Dec 2008, 12:46

149. Hannah

     Hello,

     Follow up to above. Email amazon to say this is a useless situation, they phone me to say – okay give us another address. Which I do, they say sure sure, send out email confirmation to me. 2 hours later another email – HDNL says it’s outside of it’s area … how can it be?!! I know it’s a small village but there’s a depot listed on their website as being 10-15 miles away! Tis getting uber riddiculous now ….

     16 Dec 2008, 13:21

150. Penguini

     I ordered on line from M & S 4 days ago, I received email confirmation on 15th December that my order had been despatched on a 2 day service with HDNL. At 0912hrs this morning I received my deliivery in good order with a polite delivery driver. I would gladly offer my 27 years of transport/parcels experience/skills to HDNL if i could only find where and who I could send my cv to.

     17 Dec 2008, 10:18

151. Tommy

     i placed an order with asos on december the 8th and was shipped on the 10th, low and behold the courier is HDNL, its been 7 days now and still no delivery, i’ve jsut phoned them and they have no record of any package at but ASOS shipped it a week ago! what can i do?

     17 Dec 2008, 11:33

152. Tigger

     I am speaking purely from personal experience about HDNL. I ordered from Amazon on 8th December, and no trace of parcel by the end of last week. When I looked on my account, horror of horrors, it said that the parcel wouldn’t be delivered until after Christmas – a disaster because my parcel contained several Christmas presents! I called Amazon, who were next to hopeless, (most unusal, from my experience) and babbled on that they were in first class mail and would be here by Christmas.

     Email over weekend from Amazon told me they’d been dispatched by HDNL, and would be here on 29th December! I did track and trace on HDNL this morning, and that told me that my parcel was loaded onto the van – I did the same with Amazon, which told me the same story – except, still that my parcel would be delivered on 29th December. Presumably the driver was taking an extremely long detour! Rang the local HDNL depot (number found v. easily on Thomson Local) and they were very helpful – she confirmed that it was on the van, and the driver would be aware that it was an office address that they were delivering to, and would try and deal with office addresses first. Parcel here safe and sound by just after 2.30 pm – delivered by pleasant, personable and friendly driver – although clearly he was on a bit of a mission, and has a hell of a lot of parcels to deliver today.

     So, my experience with HDNL has been very good – and customer service actually better than Amazon! Perhaps the level of service depends on where you live and which depot deals with it.

     22 Dec 2008, 15:05

153. John

     Penguini said
     At 0912hrs this morning I received my deliivery in good order with a polite delivery driver. I would gladly offer my 27 years of transport/parcels experience/skills to HDNL if i could only find where and who I could send my cv to.

     post your town and I’ll provide the address and phone number

     01 Jan 2009, 10:08

154. William

     Order Date: 28 Dec 2008
     Items dispatched on 31 Dec 2008:
     Delivery estimate: 5 Jan 2009

     Date Time Location Event Details
     2 Jan 2009 09:30:14 AM PRIME SORT UK Arrival Scan
     31 Dec 2008 12:00:00 AM WEB CUSTOMER UK Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

     Been Waiting 5 Days,
     31st to 2nd = 2 Days of Traveling?

     Something seems wrong

     02 Jan 2009, 12:17

155. John

     31st to 2nd = 2 Days of Traveling?

     HDNL didn’t work on the first, so, as your del ESTIMATE says, you’ll probably get it on Monday

     03 Jan 2009, 07:29

156. William

     I blame it on Amazon, They apparently had a problem with “Despatching”.

     Thanks John, I’m guessing they don’t work Saturdays?

     I don’t see how on Monday they will get it from Oldham -> My Local Depo -> To Me (In One Day)

     03 Jan 2009, 10:48

157. Penguini

     This is for John on comment 154 my home town is Kingswinford West Midlands which is situated between Wolverhampton, Kidderminster, Dudley and Stourbridge.

     Thanks

     05 Jan 2009, 10:38

158. John S

     I used HDNL for some sale items from ASOS.com arrived as expected – driver friendly. Just thought I would post this… as it is not all bad!

     13 Jan 2009, 12:39

159. John S

     Also, just as a side note – the package arrived in a non-branded plain white van and the driver only work a bright vest no uniform.

     13 Jan 2009, 12:44

160. vic

     to follow up on reb if you worked for hdnl you would know just how bad things are ive worked for the company for 25 years and i always try my best but the targets set for me to deliver are to high manegers are uncaring dont think us dirvers are worth anything things have got that bad ive had two breakdowns in the last year im a family man with two children and need to work but im sorry you think im a prat but i need alife to from now on me and my family come first and the parcils come second and as far as hdnl gos i hope the manegers that treated me badly rut in hell

     14 Jan 2009, 15:01

161. vic

     re john forget it the manegers dont care unless you are willing to work your balls off with no thanks

     14 Jan 2009, 15:09

162. Ryan

     Apparently, my parcel did not arrive today, eventhough I chose next day delivery. I called my local depot and they said the van broke down. Does this usually happen? Is it just a way for them to lie and not deliver my parcel? I realise I may be being a tad paranoid, but reading all the reviews over the internet, it’s hard not to be.

     10 Feb 2009, 21:21

163. spinfury

     Just ordered a 32” tv from littlewoods yesterday paid extra for next day delivery with hdnl….phoned littlewoods this morning to find out what time they were coming so I could be home, they said hdnl will ring me to arrange a time as its a big parcel…..no phonecall…I ring back at 5pm after sitting in all day and littlewoods tell me my parcel was apparently delivered??!! and now I have to wait 24 hours for littlewoods to investigate. After reading all these comments I will be ringing littlewoods back at the crack of dawn. My address is very clear on my account and also have a message of who to leave parcels with on my littlewoods account and on my front door if I am not home etc…also all my phone numbers are available to them so where is my parcel!

     10 Feb 2009, 22:53

164. Jock

     What a load of sh** we work every Saturday and if asked would have delivered you parcel so don’t heap all the blame on us

     15 Feb 2009, 09:09

165. robot

     So theres still a minority searching for this little blogs to write complains huh ? wells here a comment from a Sort Operative.

     @Spinfury – I find it hard to believe that Littlewoods gave the option of a 24 hr delivery on such a large item as these are usually dispatched direct from the manufacturer and are sent on STANDARD DELIVERY which is upto 5 days from the dispatch date. Therefore I think Littlewoods are at fault not us.

     Most of the Failed deliveries where the negative comments are directed at HDNL are the result of company you placed your order with not us !. Heres some of the reasons for failures :

     No Track and trace info – This is generally caused by either missing or incorrect address details(provided by the company you placed the order with, damaged / un readable / missing barcodes and labels which.
     If we encounter any of the above the we tend to query these in order to reprint new labels with the delivery address but in alot of cases the address details are wrong and prove difficult to correct. We run a query through the company you ordered with and alot of the time this takes 3 days or longer to verify the address.
     On other occations the labels have been ripped of when the company you ordered with load the parcels carlessly meaning that when it arrives at the sort centre there is no way to identify that parcel and most companies do not put delivery details on the invoices inside the parcel therefore we have to return it to your supplier and means that the parcel will not show up on track and trace.
     What also makes the above harder to solve is that when you order your goods, that company should input the parcel / delivery data into the track and trace system, again more often that not they dont so we have no means to identify the parcel and is returned.

     Late parcels – If we come accross a parcel that should has delivery on a 24hr/48hr basis and appears that the parcel is late then we take the following actions- upto 1 week late – the parcel is checked for damage etc then forwarded onto you. If the parcel is over 1 week late we will return that parcel back to the company you ordered from and will often put it down on the system as 2 attempts as we do not have the option of ” failed delivery”, we return the parcel incase a new order has already been placed.

     Damages – Unfotunately on both sides (hdnl and your supplier) there are damages that happen during transit which happen for a number of reasons from the way the supplier loads the trailors for us, the amount of parcels loaded on the trailer ( thousands per trailer/ millions a week etc) , damage caused by the sorting machinery etc etc which are unavoidable, When this happens your parcel is returned to the supplier and is noted on the system as damaged (hdnl get charged).
     We (HDNL) then use our system to automatically place a new order with your supplier on your behalf. This ultimately will delay your parcel by quite a while in alot of cases.

     Lastly can I point out to the negative commenters above that we at hdnl do try our best to deliver your parcels in the best condition and ontime but with millions of parcels being sorted and delivered in any given week then there will always be cetain ones that fail. its unavoidable so just try to understand this from our point of view and remember more often than not its your suppliers fault and we pay the price !. One otherthing, we wouldnt be the UK’s largest Home Delivery company if we were as bad as some people say. :)

     robot

     15 Feb 2009, 17:11

166. Niamh

     Can anyone help me? I ordered a TV through Amazon and it shipped last friday 20/2 via HDNL. Does anyone know what the transit time is? I live in Northern Ireland.
     Also does anyone have a depot/contact information for HDNL anywhere in northern ireland?

     Its so frustrating that a shipping company has no customer service telephone number and the tracking via th website is inferior, the last scan on my shipment is on monday 23/2 at 12.30 pm… that 2 whole days ago!! so i am wondering where the hell my shipment is….

     I am a manager for a large shipping company (which i will leave nameless) and i know the ins and outs of logistics and i think firstly what sort of service takes so long to deliver domestic shipments!??!!!! and their tracking is not even up to date and you cant get an approx delivery date… FRUSTRATING!!!! :)

     25 Feb 2009, 11:25

167. Daniel

     I wish I’d read up on HDNL before selecting the option on the Amazon website.
     I ordered three Items and thought I’d try out the service. I normally just take the default option. In fact purely a case of habit, the next order I placed the same day I use the default option.

     Guess which turned up first… yep the default option in fact the items arriving by HDNL never actually got delivered. I had to drive and collect them from the HDNL depot after a series of phone calls to Amazon and HDNL. I won’t be using this delivery method in the future it’s really not worth the hassle.

     04 Mar 2009, 18:06

168. me

     I used to work for hdnl and not all depots are the same, it annoys me that people tarnish everyone with the same brush! My depot tried their best to get parcels to the customers, even the ones where drivers have to go miles out of their way if a parcel is found which isn’t on their route. Yes some depots are useless but that doesn’t mean they’re all like it. I personally used to have to reprint address labels due to companys not putting the full or correct address on the parcel and also just because your address is right on your account does not mean that it will come out right on the delivery label. Unless you work for them you have no clue what happens behind the scenes

     05 Mar 2009, 09:19

169. Rhian

     It’s the inflexibility of HDNL that annoys me! The lady on the phone at the branch was nice, but nothing she could do.

     How anyone who works can get a parcel delivered by this company I have no idea! They won’t deliver on a saturday, won’t deliver to a different address, won’t give me an approximate delivery time (not even am or pm!) and their drivers can’t phone up and let you know what time they’ll arrive either. I’d love to leave it with a neighbour, but oh! yes, they work too!!! And seriously, I would NOT ask a neighbour to sit at home ALL day. That’s rude!

     My only current option is the 70 mile round trip to the depot, which would double the cost of the item I’ve bought from Amazon due to the petrol costs!! Might as well let Amazon have the darn thing back and then get a full refund from them!

     The only people who should use this company are the unemployed who are at home all day!!

     06 Mar 2009, 18:02

170. Katryna

     I cn’t believe that river island have let this bogus company deliver my parcel!! i have been tracking my order since it was despatched and received at oldbury depot 12.50 am 5th March, redy to be delivered at 7.15am 5th march. I waited in all day and nothing. I hecked the website later on and it said ‘failed to deliver at 7.15pm’ ‘carded’ and ‘received back at oldbury depot at 7.20pm’....hold on how the hell has it failed to deliver and got back to the depot within 5 inutes when it’s half an hour drive from where i live to oldbury!!!!!!!!!! I checked the site for contact details…none! It says a second attempt wil; be made the following day on which a number will be left if not in…2nd day i waited all day…i even phoned river island so they could find out what’s going on…the advisor said attempted delivery i said no way i was in all day she checked my address ans said the parcel has been loaded onto the van…she took my mobile to pass on incase the driver had difficulty finding my address. All day i waited and still nothing..i kept checking the tacking site every hour…low and behold 8pm info was updated…they had to failed attempts at 1pm and 5pm….R THEY CRAXY I WAS IN ALL DAY N STILL NO CARDDDDDDD!!! I need my parcel for next week i can’t see myself gettin it can you..? I have been ringing the depot but they’re no open until Monday!!! I have got a short temper…GOD help anyone who i come into contact with if i don’t get my parcel!! Roll on Monday!!!

     07 Mar 2009, 16:04

171. katryna

     HDN – 08701545400 As someone has already said..you can find your local depot if you google ‘saynoto 0870’ and enter this phone number or the companies name and a list f depots will come up..!! Good luck, i will keep you posted!! Oh and nobody called my mobile to check if i was in etc or for directions!!

     07 Mar 2009, 16:07

172. me

     I work on the phones for hdnl and thats what we get TOLD to say, we get told to say we cant say a time and contact the drivers. its not our fault we are just trying to do our jobs and pay the bills. blame the greedy fat cats at the top who only care about money and new contracts while we workers on the phones take all the shit.

     (and just to all the thick as pig shit people IF YOU ARE IN WORK DO. NOT. ORDER. A. PARCEL. TO. BE. DELIVERED. go the shop of a saturday or something you stupid cretins)

     thank you :)

     27 Mar 2009, 22:34

173. LC

     I’d just like to know how the delivery drivers can justify leaving parcels on people’s doorsteps. That’s not ‘delivering’; it is ‘dumping’. And it has happened to me more than once, with at least one item going missing. It doesn’t take long to leave a card.

     02 Apr 2009, 11:33

174. JvJB

     This is a very interesting thread. I have never had a problem with Amazon delivering stuff. Is this because they use the German Post carrier?? Maybe but no issues. HDNL though have caused me problems with an Argos order though. Things like arranging a re-delivery and it “not being put on the van” or going to the depot to collect and being told that “I hadn’t spoken to anyone at the depot” or when they couldn’t find the package “I was talking to the Argos call centre” when I had called the number for the HDNL customer service line. What gets me is you spend time and money chasing these people to get your stuff. When you get to them there are no solutions just excuses like in the post. The problem is the blame culture that exists in this country, no one every stands up and takes it, it is always someone else. Amazon have been around for a while, they are slick and when it does go wrong (like the time I had a defective piece of hifi, they sorted it. The HDNL can only say they are sorry. They don’t have a channel to complain apart from writing to a postal address or getting charged to call customer services who are no help. Today, I spoke to Argos and they refunded the delivery which was something. If you feel like HDNL really need to know how bad they are, then waste more time and write to the people below:

     Elaine Boyle
     Director of Customer Services
     Home Delivery Network Limited
     Fallows Way
     Whiston
     Merseyside
     L35 1RZ

     It says it all really that you can’t email them. Zero out of ten today because when it goes wrong, that’s when a company shows how good they are. I won’t be buing on-line from Argos until they change the delivery company.

     07 Apr 2009, 16:30

175. richard

     Waiting for a delivery, read the posts and got very worried. Rang the place and got told it was nothing to do with them, call Amazon. More worried!
     it just arrived, delivered by a very friendly guy, so not all deliveries are disasters. It was from the Romford depot. I wonder if some are worse than others.

     08 Apr 2009, 13:45

176. costas antoniou

     I can beat the lot of you..

     Ordered a netbook, again they used the “left a card excuse”. THREE TIMES!!

     When looked into, the times were 9.30pm, 7pm, 10pm?!
     Needless to say no cards were left.

     This was last week, This week i phoned up cdiscount, every day, and everyday they promised it was on the truck to be delivered the same day. Every day they say they have come and no one was here,
     I have CCTV set up, and have reviewed it everyday.
     There has been no vans at all.
     Its now the end of the week, still no delivery.
     Lies Lies Lies and blatent lies.

     Total time from order. Over 2 weeks.
     Total times promised to be delivered, Over 7 times now.
     This is from CDiscount.com.
     Will I ever get anything from there again?

     NOPE!

     22 Apr 2009, 12:04

177. Sandra B

     I got one card (and only this card) through my door, saying that this was their 2nd attempt to deliver and if I did not contact them within 5 days my parcel woiuld be returned to sender – I then managed to lose the card, and their websitre deliberately does NOT list a contact number – HOW ANNOYING! Anyway thank you so much to Lorenza (post number 9 in this list) as through www.saynoto0870.com I was able to find a contact number, and the location of my nearest depot, so instead of going through the trauma some of your guys have faced I have arranged to be able to go to this deport and collect my parcel. They are open until 7pm, plus they are open on Saturdays, so that I can live with.

     Thanks again for this post …..for anyone who wants to know their number I used is 0844 8111816 (the 0870 number listed in post 7 did not work for me).

     Best wished to anyone else using HDML…....

     23 Apr 2009, 20:58

178. EX HDNL DRIVER

     To all you people out there complaining about HDNL all I ask is you walk a mile in an HDNL drivers shoes. You all think it’s so easy to deliver a parcel to someone{in a perfect world it is} but it’s far from that out in the real world. HDNL overwork thier drivers{that is a known fact} most delivery drivers for other companies, mainly business to business only have abot 60 parcels a day to deliver max,that equates to about 40 drops, then a few collections, the HDNL driver has upwards of 200 parcels a day to deliver mostly single drops, you see what I’m getting at. People are out at work, nieghbours won’t take parcel in for customer, wrong address/ incorrect address details on parcel, no postcode. parcel is a suprise for recipient{birthday flowers/ chocolates etc} so are not expecting a delivery, so when they get home at 5 or 6 in the evening ring up because they have been carded DEMANDING to know what the item is, and when they realise DEMANDING it be re delivered immediately, so some poor sod out of the office who has just done a full shift instead of going home has now got to travel to god knows where to make the delivery because HDNL is putting the customer first.
     Next time you have a week off work ring your local depot {or write} asking if you could ride along with a driver for a day…. believe me it would open your eyes. What I have mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg, there would be many many more parcels undelivered if it was not for the sheer hard work these lads and lasses put in under such difficult circumstances.. It’s the companies fault, they overburden thier staff {they are constantly trying to do the job on the cheap} all you lot out there do the drivers of HDNL a favour and stop getting at the staff and complain to HDNL TOP MANAGEMENT

     24 May 2009, 13:43

179. Joey

     Wanted to order a parcel from Amazon today, thought i’d check here to see if they are still using HDNL, they are, so i’ll go elsewhere. I never got my parcel from them last time and vowed “never again!” Lies about leaving cards when they hadn’t even attempted delivery and total inflexibilty make this company pointless. You can only take so many days off work (ie.1) waiting for a parcel before you become angry.

     09 Jun 2009, 09:00

180. Maddie

     The last time I ordered from Amazon delivery was via HDNL the item didn’t arrive within the specified time so I checked the tracking details on the Amazon website where it claimed delivery was attempted and no one was home which was a lie as I at home at the time of of so-called attempted delivery and we have a very loud doorbell. Anyway, gave it a couple of days and checked the tracking again only to find that the item was shown as delivered. I promptly called Amazon customer service to enquire only to find that HDNL had delivered the package to a home at the other end of the road (it is a fairly long road). I was hopping mad as it was an expensive item and I had been at home all day so I know that no attempt had been made to deliver to the correct address. To top it off the delivery person didn’t even leave a card to say they had left the package somewhere else. It took me another two days of calling at the address given to me by the Amazon rep to retrieve the package.

     As I type this I am awaiting another package from Amazon which is being delivered via HDNL and the tracking details on Amazon shows it was dispatched from them on 25 May and has been in and out various HDNL depots since then but not manage to reach my house. it is now 10 June and I am still waiting. I will never order again from any company using HDNL as their delivery service.

     10 Jun 2009, 12:13

181. Adam

     Also had a bad experience experience with HDNL via Amzon. I rearranged for a day I took off work. The driver rang the doorbell, in the 20 seconds it took me to get down to the door (live in a block of flats) he’d already left the card (on the doorstep, not even posted through the letterbox) and was in his van. I sort of waved as he could have only seen me out of his left door mirror from where he’d parked but no, he just drove off. I usually pick up my goods from either the post office or royal mail depot if ordering through amazon, every other company from UPS to Parcel Force other places use either ring you to confirm you are home, or arrange a Saturday delivery, or at the barest minimum even the smallest companies offer a collection service on Saturdays. These guys area a total joke, I’ll be watching out for HDNL as a delivery company in future when ordering through Amazon or anywhere else.

     29 Jun 2009, 14:11

182. John Waller

     Thanks everyone for your comments. Unfortunately at least one of the HDNL phone numbers posted here was wrong and an unsuspecting person has been receiving lots of phone calls from HDNL customers. I simply don’t have the time to check all the numbers, so I’ve removed comments with phone numbers in them and closed this entry. Sorry.

     03 Jul 2009, 17:05

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