Well I decided to order a new TV in December. I've had a Playstation 3 for a while and wanted to make the most of the blu-rays that I have. I looked around and decided on the Sony KDl-46EX503. Amazon had it for the cheapest price and if you ordered before the 24th December you could claim the VAT back, which worked out at about £100. I placed the order on the 16th and paid extra for quicker delivery. Now the weather wasn't very good across the whole of the UK during December. There was lots of snow that caused the roads to grind to a halt. Despite this, Amazon guaranteed to deliver all pre-Christmas deliveries on or before the 24th December. The TV left Amazon on the 19th and was being sent by Citylink. I checked the Citylink website and the tracking info said it would be delivered between 07:30 and 17:30 on the 21st. On the day I checked the website again and it still said it was going to be delivered on the 21st, even though it wasn't 'out for delivery'. I tried to get hold of Citylink by phone but they had an automated message saying they were receiving too many calls to take my call. I sent an email but didn't get a reply. Despite the tracking info saying it would be delivered nothing arrived. I waited in the next day, tried to get hold of them via phone and email but still no delivery or reply. On the 23rd I managed to get through on the phone (they were taking calls if you repeatedly tried and were lucky enough to get through) and was told it was at the Ashford depot for delivery. I drove to the depot to collect it (which is about a ~ 67 mile round trip ) and was told it was still 'somewhere in the Midlands' and they had no idea when it would arrive. I managed to get hold of the head office number and called them on the 24th as the tracking still hadn't updated, and still said they would deliver on the 21st. I was told that it definitely wouldn't arrive in time for Christmas as it was at the Coventry depot. I offered to make the 400 mile round trip to Coventry to collect it but they said they have no idea where in the warehouse the package would be, so I'd have to wait for it to arrive at Ashford. I asked if they would give me a specified delivery time when it did finally arrive as a gesture of goodwill and to save me waiting in all day and the supervisor said she'd monitor the situation and contact me when it arrived. Now Christmas day was a Saturday and as the Monday and Tuesday were Bank Holidays Citylink weren't open again until the Wednesday. I checked the tracking info all day Wednesday and still no change so I called the main enquiries number. I was told that it had definitely now arrived at the Ashford depot and was scheduled for delivery but until it was loaded onto a van she couldn't say when it would be delivered. Ecstatic that it had finally made it to somewhere local, I called the Ashford depot to confirm I could collect it. Imagine my annoyance when I found out that it was still in Coventry. I asked to speak to the depot manager to get him to find out where it was but he was 'unavailable', as was every other manager at the depot. Probably because they were fed up with pissed off Customers. I called head office again to try to find out where the TV was and when it would arrive. They said it was still in Coventry as there was a 5 day backlog at the Ashford depot. I asked them what a '5 day backlog means' as it had been sat at Coventry for 7 working days so surely it should have moved by now. All they could say was that there was a 5 day backlog and it should be delivered 'soon'. I asked was it likely that it would be delivered for the new year and they said no. By this point I am indescribably pissed off. They were blaming Amazon for accepting orders that they couldn't fulfil. I don't see how Citylink managed to end up with a backlog. If they couldn't deliver to people so surely they couldn't collect from Amazon at the same time? If there was any kind of backlog it would be at Amazon. I'm assuming this is also true as the TV wasn't dispatched until two days after I ordered it. I have no idea what the hell Citylink were playing at though. It's absolutely outrageous that they weren't taking calls in the lead-up to Christmas and never bothered to reply to my emails. Now before you say that 'it's not just Citylink that had the problems it was all the couriers' there are hundreds of post saying that deliveries with Royal Mail, FedEx etc. were delivered fine. People are STILL reporting that guaranteed next day delivery items aren't being delivered even now and the snow has been gone for weeks!
Two such forums are posted below.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2VNIOBYFU5MPA&asin=B001DTETLS&cdThread=Tx9I9WMV3SVL17
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews93418.html
The TV finally arrived on Monday 3rd January. Normally I would have praised them for delivering on a bank holiday but this is the least they should have done. I was out when they tried to deliver it so they left it with a neighbour. I wasn't very happy about this but at least I got it eventually. Obviously the supervisor who said she'd call me when it had arrived at Ashford never did. I doubt there is anyone at that useless company that can do their jobs properly.
This is by far the worst example of customer service I have received. I spent about £15 on phone calls just for them to tell me they couldn't take my call. It also cost around £25 petrol for the wasted journey to the Ashford depot based on false information (I'd go so far as to say outright lying to get me off the phone). They have blatantly lied to me on multiple occasions. I have written to Amazon requesting they reimburse the out-of-pocket expenses and have a week left to reply to me. I'll update you when I have a reply.
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