Doubtful Parcel Delivery

Last night and this morning, Bavarian TV and radio has been full of news about councils building blindingly bright red LED lights in to the pavements to try and cut down on the injuries and deaths caused to pedestrians using their mobile phones and crossing the road, especially in cities with trams. The lady in the Blip with her hand to her head wasn't using her mobile but scratching her head, probably surprised that she had been able to deliver the parcel she had carried out of the van a minute earlier. The cat under the van could probably have used the red "Stop" light but no doubt it was covered in snow.

We had about 18cm of lying snow overnight, really wet heavy stuff which broke off lots of branches but luckily the temperatures didn't get too low so as the sun picked up strength and the horrible wind blew knocking the snow off, it revealed most blossoms had survived. However the meadows all around here are now revealing very sad looking dandelions, badly squashed by the heavy snow. Shortly after midday, at around 8°C shadow temperature, actually found lots of my bees flying, so I suspect we will have a bit of tree blossom honey added to the dandelion.

Took off for the Bannwald forest in Ottobeuren for the third day in a row, something I haven't ever needed to do in any winter, simply to avoid the horrible wind. Our route is on the west side of the hill and as we set off the sun came over, melting the snow and the strong wind meant we got covered with avalanches and walked through white outs of snow!

I had set off a bit late having spent the morning fighting with DPD, the parcel service charged with delivering my urgently needed car light bulbs for which I had paid Amazon the premium shipping rate. They should have delivered yesterday and I waited around to make sure I was in when they arrived. Instead I got a message from Amazon in the evening that DPD had been unable to find the house. Sent an Email to DPD straight away insisting they try again today.

In the course of the morning saw on the tracking site that the parcel was still in the depot and going nowhere. Phoned DPD "The driver couldn't find a name plate on your door bell" and so couldn't deliver yesterday but will try tomorrow! After an official complaint to Amazon got an email from DPD "The label on your parcel had been damaged and the driver couldn't read the address"!

Now I know things can go wrong but this type of business ethics is not acceptable. I don't blame the employees, we all know under what pressure they have to work and I think our depot in Ulm about 100km away is one of the franchised businesses who work under the very worst conditions.

I first had experience with DPD around 1996 working for a medical company and I was responsible for logistics, all our products were sent by parcel post. DPD salesman appeared one day and convinced me to drop the "old, boring" German Post service and use their dynamic and of course much cheaper system. Within a month we had to drop them like a hot potato following a flood of complaints from hospitals.

In the 14 years we have lived here, DPD has been a continuous nightmare for all shipments. However in 2015 we got a very reliable driver and it worked great (except for one day when the driver was sick and as he told me the next day, DPD simply didn't have a back up and posted on the tracking system "Customer not at home to take delivery"). Sadly the driver left at Christmas as he couldn't take the pressure.

In January a very important parcel of medication was not delivered. On phoning the supplier (I had no tracking number), they had thought that having got the parcel returned to them with the remark "Customer refused to accept delivery" that I had changed supplier!

And so the story goes on. Find it unbelievable that such companies can muscle in, take away the business from the German Post/DHL who daily drive to almost every house in the country, regardless of distance, to deliver a postcard for a couple of cents - come snow and wind. DPD are the Nr. 2 parcel service in Germany behind the Post/DHL but are constantly criticised in tests.

Just to put the record right and show that I am fair, I wrote a praising email to DPD in December 2015, thanking and giving them some laurels for the great service in 2015 and got a nice reply. My emails in he last 24 hours direct to them were all ignored, the only one that came was sparked by Amazon who had refunded me the premium shipping costs and said they would start an official complaint with DPD.

Snow at least was a bit of fun for a few hours and the only thing DPD didn't blame for non delivery - see Extra Photo. Awaiting another parcel on Thursday but that's coming with Postman Pat and will be delivered with a smile and a chat. I will have to try not to be unfair or rude to the DPD driver. We are not on the route of the Bliped DPD driver in Ottobeuren although they both come from the same depot in Ulm.