Abbey Couriers

Paid for insurance but when the cabinet arrived damaged Marcus didn't want to claim on the insurance. Really unhelpful, avoid at all cost
Sep 26th, 2016

Dealing with Abbey Couriers has been a completely shambolic experience that I would not want to have to repeat again. I used Abbey Couriers upon recommendation from a seller I had made a purchase from on eBay. From the point of purchase on 15/10/15 the 2nd item within our delivery was not delivered until 18/12/15, which is a ridiculous amount of time to have to wait, even if they do have a system of grouping deliveries together. Whilst Abbey Couriers are not 100% at blame for this delay, there being some issues with arranging the collection with the buyer, as a customer, having to continually chase for updates from them and having long gaps without them communicating at all what was happening -- not responding to emails, taking several days to return phone calls (when they did actually return them), was a hugely frustrating customer experience. I don't doubt that, as the eBay seller had notified me, Abbey Couriers were also unresponsive in organising this collection. To add to this frustration, when I first booked the delivery I explained exactly what is was that was being collected and then a few days later added an additional item to the collections to be delivered at the same time. When the sofa that I had agreed for collection was picked up, I was then told -- as if it was my error in explaining the items for transportation -- that due to the nature of the items I was actually going to be charged an additional 30 for the delivery to take place. Again, a poor customer experience given that they should have sufficiently screened the full item detail to their requirements when I first made my enquiry, not at a later date due to not asking the right questions in the first place (this largely came down to the weight of the item being transported, but I had told them the exact nature of the item, how it broke into two pieces and that the person at the house would be able to help them carry the item down). I pushed back on paying this additional fee and they in the end agreed not to charge me this. As we had to wait such a long time for Abbey Couriers and our buyer of the 2nd item to organise a collection, my partner and I meanwhile had moved into our unfurnished flat and became desperate for our core pieces of furniture. As the two items were originally to be grouped together in their delivery, we then had to pay a further 30 to get the delivery broken into two separate deliveries. At this point, Abbey Couriers didn't feel it fit to just offer as a gesture of goodwill the delivery free of charge, but by this point we just wanted to get the furniture and were happy to pay the additional cost. When the second item finally arrived; a vintage item that cost approx. 200, my partners parents unpackaged the bubble wrapped item and a splinter of wood, about half a centimetre thick, fell off one of the handles, so it was damaged in transit. Abbey Couriers state on their website: "Insurance is compulsory on all items and is included for items upto 500 in value otherwise it is calculated at 2% of the purchase (bid/hammer/sale) price.", so I had no choice but to pay for insurance on the item. So far, so good. However, both my partner and I have contacted Abbey Couriers and sent them pictures of the damage and provided the details of the value of the item, and they requested further pictures, which we provided on 19/01/2016, and followed up on 05/02/2016 and again on 08/02/2016 and now they are just completely ignoring us! It's quite incredible. Nevermind the legality of a mandatory charging of service for something you do not fulfil! We've been left with no other choice now but to take this case to Trading Standards to seek further legal advice. MORAL TO THE STORY: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE UNLESS YOU ENJOY HEADACHE AND BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF. You'll have a far superior experience, and probably save in cost and effort, using a company such as shiply and organising a man and a van yourself.
Sep 4th, 2015