I have had deliveries by DPD in the past that went as a delivery should. It isn’t rocket science. Yesterday and today was a different matter. Last Monday an item that was delivered arrived damaged. It’s a little unclear as to who was responsible, the manufacturer or DPD. Either way I needed to return the item and get a replacement.

That new delivery / old collection was supposed to happen yesterday. I was given an 11.09 / 12.09 delivery time. As I was tracking it from the app I could see that I was delivery number 11 (later that changed to delivery 10) . The driver was on delivery 8, then 9 then… nothing. I could see that the van had gone out of the area where I lived and getting farther away. After 3 hours I called DPD. No one was helpful. The usual, we don’t know / we can't help. After pushing I eventually received a call from the Peterborough depot. All they could tell me was that the tracker handset wasn’t working (though I could see the van moving away) and the driver wasn’t picking up his phone. ‘He can’t whilst he is driving’ was their only answer, ignoring the logic that once he had stopped seeing the depot had called as an employee should have (especially if his tracker handset was broken, which didn’t really wash) replied to messages. DPD insisted on repeating the same excuse. I spoke to the depot twice, to DPD other departments several times. They assured me more than once that whatever happened the package ‘would’ be delivered today (yesterday). It wasn’t. By 7.30pm I assumed they weren’t delivering. I wasn’t happy at being lied to and given the runaround and wasting a day relying on an unreliable company. At about 9.30pm I reached notification that it would be delivered today (Saturday).

Today again, I was given a delivery time slot. Some time between 11.23 and 12.23. I was 86 to be delivered. At 11.25 the driver was at delivery 64. It kept creeping up, getting closer until it got to delivery 73. This was at 12.27 then again, much like yesterday the update / tracking ability stopped. Coincidence? Doubtful. At 13.43 knowing that there was an issue and the driver had again missed this delivery I called DPD wanting to lodge a complaint. Not possible. DPD keep you so contained in their complaints process that they make sure nothing happens. They simply do not care. At about 14.10 I received a message telling me that the package would be delivered by 4:23pm. At 16.02 I got another message telling me that another driver would be delivering between 15.55 and 16.55. (yes another driver / another van which brings up all sorts of questions). At 16.28 I received another message saying: ‘sorry we missed you. Your driver E...... Won’t be back today but we’ll be back Sun 2 October with your parcel’. Along with that was a photograph. Totally wrong house with totally the wrong house number. Not even the street I live on. They don't even pretend to care.

So far, in one way or another, I have spent 3 long days waiting fro DPD to do their job to a level of competence we should all expect. They expect me to wait for a 4th day. It’s a Sunday. I doubt they will arrive tomorrow and if they do come will they be at the right address? Will I be waiting, twice bitten etc. So probably not. Again, DPD simply do not care.

The issue is that anyone at the top on the corporate side of things don’t care either. They collect their huge incomes and do not have time to run a company in an efficient thoughtful way. If they did care about service, they would not make it an impossibility to reach them.

Here is a company owned by a huge French corporation miles away passing on control to the UK office who deliver service in a very bad way.

DPD may work when it works but when it doesn’t, they do not care and walk away from any responsibility. Along the way they will lie and make someone’s life more than difficult just because they’re in control and they can.

Update from DPD Sunday: Received a message at 10.40am: 'your parcel has been delayed due to an unexpected issue in your area. your estimated delivery date is Monday 3rd October'.

Well... there's a surprise.

Update Monday. Finally arrived. Wasted days. no apology nothing. DPDo what we want, how we want to and you don't matter, we're still making money!