After ordering some products from my supplier on the west coast containing many parts for repairing products I had in our service dept., as well as a number of items to be given as Christmas presents in Dec 2008, I was happy when the local Purolator delivery driver showed up the next morning and began unloading boxes into my store. My happiness quickly faded to concern, when he noticed that one box was missing. Unfortunately, as this was the box with the invoice total, as well as the return waybill (this was a COD/Expresscheque order), he said he could not leave any of the packages until that box showed up. I contacted Purolator to see if they could offer any assistance, and a case file was opened. I was contacted shortly by a "tracking specialist" who said he would find out where the package was, but he needed the information off of the waybills. I suggested that he contact his own Purolator depot, as I could not provide these details as I was not the shipper, and that the driver had taken back all of the packages that did make it here. Each day for the next 3 business days (they are closed on weekends), I contacted Purolator myself, as their agents never called me back. I left voice message inquiring about the status, and on day 4, I finally received a call back, saying they did not know where my package was, but that they were still looking for it. Continuing to call them back each day, I talked to several more agents who could not assist me, but kept referring me back to the agent in charge of my case, who continued to not return my calls. After 7 days, this agent finally did call me back, and said that they had lost the package, and that they were closing the case, and that if I wanted to submit a claim, I would have to call another number. Needless to say, the frustration and anger I had to face from my customers who were not able to get their products repaired on time, or for the many custom ordered products that were Chistmas orders that did not arrive, was very unpleasant. I had to give customers who went elsewhere to get products, and the fact that it was too late before Christmas to re-order the products from the same or other companies meant that many people were left hanging due to Purolators botched delivery.
As if this was not bad enough, once the new year had passed, and I for the order that I had not been able to complete due to the lost package (which prevented delivery of the packages that DID arrive) I re-ordered items for customers that I had not yet lost, and waited for the shipment to arrive, usually an (guaranteed) overnight delivery, but after it did not arrive the next day despite my observing the purolator truck pass by our office, I check online as to the status. It had an entry as of the time I noticed tha driver in my area, stating that I needed to contact the local depot to arrange for delivery. So I called the local depot, and they said they do not schedule delivery times. I asked where my package was, and they said it must still be on the truck, and due to poor road conditions, deliveries were taking longer, so possibly I needed to wait until the next day. After noticing the Purolator driver pass by my office again the next day, I called Purolator, to be told that once again, it appears that they had lost a package, and that once again, it was the one with the waybill and COD waybill on it, and asked if I wanted to open a case. I said "yes", and after 5 hours, have not yet received a call back from my case worker, who coincidentally is the same agent from the original lost packages, so I am not expecting much.
At this point, I would have had better luck receiving my packages if they had been left out on the street with a post-it note asking some good samariton to somehow deliver these packages to my address. While I can appreciate human error, and mishandling, for a company who promotes themselves as being in the business of delivering packages on time, and safely, and supposedly will have procedure and policies, equipment and technology that will enable this, I find it utterly amazing that not just once, but twice in a 3 week period, that they have "lost these packages. In both cases, the packages in question had boxes imprinted with the suppliers name, and packing tape with their company name, logo, and phone number imprinted on them, so even if the waybill were somehow able to be removed, the packages could still be identified if it ended up in a "lost packages" room. To say that Purolators service in this regard is extremely poor, is giving them too much credit.
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