Castle Parcels product reviews

Branch: Christchurch

I've had bad service from Christchurch Castle Parcels several times in the past, but this time I'm really not very happy. They've lost my parcels and argued the replacement costs and are never on time. This time is no exception. If I were able to give them a grade lower than "1" I'd sure do it.

I ordered some urgently required repair parts, with a 2 day service that my parts supplier arranged with Castle Parcels. On the 2nd day, I enquired as to the status and was told, "your parcel was picked up on Friday and we don't work on Saturday and Sunday, and Monday is the 2nd day, so your parcel will arrive on Tuesday (the actual 5th day they've had the parcel). Tuesday rolled around and worked itself into Wednesday (6 days!) and still no parcel. So, I rang them again.

The wait on the phone was 15 minutes, even though the pre-recorded voice kept saying it was only going to be a 5 minute wait, again and again. Even their voice recording lies to you. When the receptionist finally answered, she was trying to find an excuse for the lateness of the parcel. Did I mention that I urgently required the parts? Sure, I know I did.

For all of you business owners out there reading this...I hope you read this. Castle Parcels is a bum rap. They haven't got what it takes to be a courier company, and they are patently dishonest, both in the way they represent their business and the way they conduct business. They are the most unprofessional group of people I've ever met. How they stay in business is beyond my understanding.

Whatever you do, no matter how much cheaper Castle Parcels is than other courier services, don't use them if you want to keep good customer relationships.

You get what you pay for.

I seriously discourage anyone considering using this courier service to send or receive items in the wellington/Hutt Area.
Their service is honestly appalling and far below any acceptable standards compare to other companies. Have been waiting for a package to be delivered to me for over 10 days, and I paid for a 2 day service. No communications (no calls or cards left) at all from the driver and tracking status on the website only displays �Transit Delays�. After enquiring to the support center in Auckland on a daily basis for updates on estimated delivery and a whole raft of excuses including �not able to find the gate� and �there is a dog on the property which needs to be removed before delivery can be made�, I still haven� ™t receive my package. The incompetence of the people involve just astounds me.

Do not endorse anyone using this courier service. There customer services is honestly appalling. Complaints and enquiries are not taken seriously. We invested a lot to have a large package delivered in a 2 day service we� ™re still waiting for the package, which the courier drive has attempted daily to deliver apparently

Fair Go is taking on this story and hopefully they have better luck at getting it resolved.

My parcel finally arrived, more than a week elapsed AFTER I was told it had already arrived in Auckland and I could expect it that morning.

The total irony of the whole episode was that there was an orange "URGENT - SAME DAY DELIVERY" sticker stuck to the box.

Clearly the driver has no idea of South Auckland, or does not possess a map to find the directions themselves. Rather cunningly, as with my previous parcel, someone had stuck a map to the outside with another 'X' marks the spot.

11 days for a two-day delivery is really not on. The senders of the parcel were not impressed and sent a second parcel via another courier service which got here before the original one. I have heard a whisper from senders that after this debacle they are now investigating other couriers.

Though my situation wasn't quite as dire as others, I too have had a bad run-in with Castle Parcels agents... and that is what they are here in Palmy... Agents. They are, in fact, the local branch of Post Haste Couriers, yet while operating under the auspices of Castle Parcels they really let me down.

I send and receive a LOT of parcels (Ya don't say... funny that, really) and when they are stickered with a Post Haste tag, they are on time and intact... yet as soon as the cursed green sticker is upon the box, it seems to trigger a Jekyll-&-Hyde reaction, and I have troubles... Y'see, firstly, I am the sender of the 4-day-late parcel mentioned in a previous review... so as a sender, I was shocked at the slack service...

But a few days later, I was also the recipient of a parcel from a major supplier, and I was stunned to be woken from a nap by the sound of something crashing on the concrete outside. As I opened the door and stepped out, I was greeted by the sight of the van departing up the driveway, and a dented box sitting on the ground just inside the front gate. The contents were damaged, but thankfully not beyond saving with a few cunning improv repairs and a hefty amount of praying to Saint MacGyver, patron saint of the "Kiwi #8 Wire Attitude".

When I phoned the local depot to enquire why such rude behaviours were being visited upon my goods, I was told, in all seriousness, that the delivery agent "...couldn't get through the locked gate, so had just popped it inside the fence for safe-keeping..."
    •  Point 1: The gate is never locked. Physically impossible to do so, on this gate.
    •  Point 2: The 'delivery agent' never has trouble opening it when delivering non-C/P parcels
    •  Point 3: Tossing/dropping it over a 5-foot fence onto concrete slabs is NOT "...just popping it..." anywhere!
    •  Point 4: Telling utter porkies to a regular client is never a smart move, especially one who can 'talk' to thousands of potential customers of the courier's service, and isn't afraid to do so.

Overall... I have torn up the remaining C/P tickets I had on hand, burned them, and scattered the ashes to the winds... I'll stick with those who treat my goods with the respect WE PAY THEM FOR. Thanks for nothing, Castle Parcels and assorted affiliate agencies. At least you delivered THIS one on time!

UPDATE: It will now take 10 days (yes TEN WHOLE DAYS!) for a parcel to arrive from Christchurch to Auckland on a two day ticket.

I understand getting the parcel to Auckland was easy enough. In fact whilst waiting for the first parcel, I was informed that they already had the second one for me loaded on the van last Thursday. At that time, I gave the couriers full permission to leave the parcel on the front door-step. If they wanted it signed, they were given a work address less than 2ks away and I was informed they could deliver there.

It didn't arrive.

Today is Tuesday. No sign of parcel, yet I did get a phone call today to tell me the courier could not get through a padlocked gate. Fair enough - IF the gate WAS padlocked, it wasn't padlocked. But then last week I was told they wouldn't deliver to the house because the garden has dogs running loose in it. We don't have a dog, and the one or two feral cats that hang around aren't that big and are really not that brave enough to tackle a courier driver. Again, despite my protestation that I don't have a dog, I was assured firmly that we do - which is why the courier wouldn't enter the gate.

And yet again, I gave them my work address to redirect to. I was informed it would be delivered by the afternoon.

Fine.

Except it wasn't.

At 5.00pm I rang the office to find out what had happened. To be fair to the poor woman I gave a bit of an ear-bashing to, who, must also be acutely embarrassed by the whole situation too, went down to the depot, said she would try to find it and send it out to me by another courier (Sub 60). She couldn't find it; couldn't get hold of the courier whose van the parcel is likely to be forgotten on. So no parcel tonight.

So, tomorrow being ANZAC day, and fair enough a delivery normally shouldn't take, but with something THIS late, one would almost expect it. But no - I must await yet another day to see if my parcel ever turns up.

Do keep tuned to this on-going, sorry saga.

If you want something collected on time, then contact Castle Parcels. If you want something delivered on time - call another courier service.

For a supposed "two-day service", I had two parcels sent by Castle Parcels, one was delivered four days AFTER their two-day delivery time, the other, I am still waiting for, eight days after dispatch.

Let's take the first parcel. Dispatched from Palmerston North and collected as promised, due to arrive in Otara, Auckland two days later. It finally arrived after six days.
Firstly, they had to 'check the address'; the address given was the one the post office uses to deliver mail to my house every day. For some reason, the couriers returned it to the depot needing to check the address. Why they never felt it necessary to check the street address in an Auckland street guide I will never know. There is one (yes ONE) of my streets in the Auckland street guide. After many phone calls, getting seemingly no-where, it finally turned up flung over my gate. Someone had the rather cunning idea to photocopy an Auckland street guide, with an "X" marks the spot pointing to my street.

Now, Parcel two, I was told, was on the same courier van as the first parcel when it FINALLY got delivered. Well, that is what I was told; the parcel never turned up. Or the next day. Or the day after that. The following day was a Sunday and I guess I wasn't expecting a miracle to occur on a Sunday. But for some reason, I thought it might have been delivered on the Monday....

Nope - no show.
Today is the eighth day from dispatch. Clearly my address cannot be a problem this time, because Castle Parcels clearly have a map. I do wonder if the driver has a brain or enough intelligence to read the map.

So, do you still want a courier? Try Courier Post. Try anyone. What I can safely say, it would have been quicker to send this parcel BY POST VIA ENGLAND, than it would be to use Castle Parcels from Christchurch to Auckland. To be fair, I suspect the Auckland branch to be the problem.