AFL Courier Review

Courier or Snail Mail???

My Rating- 1/5

AFL courier is a part of multinational FedEx. It may be a great courier company but I would like to share three experiences I had with this courier service. Those experiences speak a lot about their credibility and services.

I would like to mention that I reside in a remote area in West Bengal (just 150kms from Kolkata) that is serviceable by Speed Post and very limited courier services.

Experience #1

I opened my account in a bank and they made a mistake while entering my address (mistake in quarter no. only, rest of the address was correct) in their database. They send my ATM PIN to that address before I could ask them to rectify the ad dress. One fine day (that day came after many days) the delivery guy delivered my letter to that wrong address to a wrong person even though he was informed that it is not my quarter. My contact number was mentioned in the letter and I was expecting a call from them but no one took pain to confirm that whether the highly secure letter was delivered in right hands or not. One more thing, the delivery was done at 10:00pm . I would love to deliver at this hour if it is delivered on urgent basis but when it is already delayed there is no need to deliver at such odd hours.

Experience #2

I received a parcel from an online shopping portal. The parcel delivered at Kolkata and they forwarded it to third party . It was some ‘National Courier’ that I tried to Google it out without any positive results. The third party delivery boy came to my township after 10days . And the worst part, he does not come to my quarter, instead called me to receive the parcel from a specified location . As per my expectations, the courier should be delivered in time at my doorstep.

Experience #3

I again received a parcel from an online portal. Again they forwarded it to ‘National Courier’. This time that guy doesn’t even take pain to come to my township. I got a call from AFL Kolkata informing that they cannot deliver it to my address . And if I want to receive it, I have to collect it personally from a town (about 30kms from my residence) on a working day . I was having no other option as I was in need of that parcel on urgent basis so I took early off from my office and went to that town to collect it. There also, I was asked to wait for almost 1hr before the delivery guy handed the parcel to me.

My viewpoints

I am having some questions/ advices to courier service providers:
1. I agree that I reside at remote location and may be unserviceable by your courier company but then why do you accept the courier addressed to my location? Is it because you don’t want to lose your partners but why all this at the cost of customer service?
2. A courier company should be very clear about the PIN codes before accepting any package. If you are unable to deliver it in time, it would be loss to both- the consignee and the courier company.
3. If in any case you have to forward the package to third party, then you have to track it personally and need to make arrangements to deliver it on earliest basis. The situation should also be intimated to the consignee and the contact number of the third party should be provided .