Poor customer service & non-adherence to service paid for!

I decided to try Aramex “store to door” service, which allows a parcel to be dropped off at certain stores, once a shipment is created into dedicated Aramex collection bins. The process at my local Checkers was automated, quick and seamless.

Unfortunately that is where the positives ends! According to the store to door service, the Aramex bins in store are cleared and parcels collected daily by 3pm each day (Monday to Friday). And the delivery to the recipient will be between 24-72 hours after collection.

Given I dropped off my parcel on a Sunday(12 January), my reasonable expectation was that it would be collected on Monday, 13 January. By Monday afternoon, I attempted to track the shipment. I kept on receiving an error that the shipment number couldn’t be detected. This was worrying as I did not drop off the parcel, until I received both a text message and email confirmation from Aramex that the shipment had been created.

I thought I was doing something wrong. So I decided to wait until Tuesday (14 January) to try again. Same thing happened. I went onto the Aramex website and initiated a customer support chat to try to ascertain what was going on. I had no joy with the Bot. I then realised that I could contact them via WhatsApp but again a Bot responded and was unable to speak to an agent, as was after 6pm. I still could not track the item myself.

The Bot then advised on the WhatsApp chat that my shipment number was “invalid”. This was becoming even more concerning but I had to wait until the next morning, Wednesday, 15 January to finally reach an agent via the WhatsApp Live chat.

The agent advised that she could also not track the shipment number on her end & requested for the confirmation sms & email that I received when the shipment was created, which I provided together with more details of the shipment, drop off and my contact details. I was then advised that a case had been logged and they would take up to 72 hours to revert to me!

I expressed my concern & was then advised that the shipment wasn’t tracking as it was likely still at the store & had not been collected! When I questioned this, I was told “there are sometimes delays and they will look into it”. While I was responding she closed the live chat!

I had to then initiate ANOTHER live chat with an agent. And start all over again with another agent! Frustrating to say the least! Again this was a pointless exchange & I got nowhere!

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Reba (Aramex agent) to advise that they had contacted the depot centre in Durban and that a driver will be sent to collect my parcel. Given that they should be collecting daily was glossed over - it was Day 3 since I dropped off at the store and it STILL hadn’t even been collected as yet!

Given that the service provided was to deliver the item to the recipient within 24-72 hours, well that was a complete fail -given it hadn’t even been collected 3 days later!

I once again made contact this morning (Thursday, 16 January), as from the tracking, the parcel still showed that it had not moved and was still in store! This time I got an agent named Tshepo. His responses were as if I was still messaging with a Bot! He failed to respond to my questions and the answers given were unrelated to what I was asking! There were also long lapses and I had to keep checking he was still there!

I asked for a manager to call me - I was told they can’t “share the managers number”… ?! I was told that the parcel would be collected today by 3pm… call me unreasonable but after they were supposed to collect it on Monday and today is Thursday and it still hasn’t been collected let alone left Durban, I was livid!

I decided to call the call centre number Tshepo provided - I once again explained it yet another Agent ( about the 5th one) and was put through to Reba, who was dealing with my case. She advised that she called to follow up this morning and that this Aramex collection box is supposed to be cleared by POSTNET?! This was now a new twist! What on earth does Postnet have to do with it - she couldn’t explain. She would call me back by 2pm to confirm if the parcel was collected. I was completely dumbfounded by this point - if I wanted to use Postnet I would have done so! All along I was led to believe that I’m dealing with Aramex.

I once again expressed my dissatisfaction with the timeframe & process - 4 days (96 hours) after drop off, the item was still not even collected! They could not assure me either that it hasn’t been ****** nor mislaid!

I received a call at 2pm from Reba to confirm the parcel was collected and would be handed over to their driver today. I enquired when my recipient would receive it in Cape Town and was advised that as it would only get to Cape Town on Saturday, it would only be delivered next week! I asked what compensation would be provided, given these long delays and non-adherence to the service and timeframe I paid for and I was told that I accepted the terms & conditions and Aramex “is not responsible for my item in transit”! I was so angry and frustrated at this point that I ended the call.

What on earth is going on?! Aramex have not provided the service I paid for - for 4 days they didn’t know where my parcel was and after undertaking to deliver it within 24-72 hours to my recipient it will now take more than 7 days (I.e.168 hours - if it even gets delivered to the recipient on Monday, 20 January)!

I am extremely disappointed. Do not use this service!