incompetence

We have had an account with Timefreight for about six years now. During this time, there had been overcharging on at least a third of our accounts. To correct such overcharging takes at least 2 e-mails, 2 telephone calls, and up to two months of follow-up to make sure it happens. We are a 2 person business, but I think bigger businesses do not pick up on such overcharging.

Today when tracking a parcel, I noticed that my client was also being charged for the delivery. The quotation and booking of the parcel were done online, and clearly stipulates "Account of Sender" on all the e-mails. How many of my clients may have been offended in this way, and have just left doing business with us because of this? We are charged for all parcels, but now it seems our clients are sometimes also charged!

Then there was the time when all my parcels had to be delivered for an expo the day before build-up at the CTICC, and Timefreight just did not. I had to literally beg Timefreight Cape Town on build-up day to bring my parcels. They said they did not have a vehicle big enough for the delivery available that day. After more than six phone calls, with each call preceded by a long automated waiting period, and a lot of begging and pleading, the parcels arrived around 19:00. The exhibition was an annual one, costing around 60,000 for the 4 days, and build-up may only happen during that one day, and only until 18:00. Decorex allowed me to set up that night still. I worked until 23:00 and was exhausted during the show. (I worked alone). This was one of the most stressful days of my life, and I vowed never to use Timefreight again. And for I a while, we did not..

More reasons for the one-star rating:

Timefreight (and other courier companies) use third parties in remote areas. With Timefreight the system does not have a follow-up procedure to make sure that the parcel had actually been collected. Sometimes parcels are just left forgotten. Worse case was when a parcel booked to be collected from Gariepdam, had not been collected two weeks after the expected collection date. This is not a once-off thing. The last time this happened to one of our parcels, was last month.

Sometimes surcharges were levied after we have accepted a quote online from Timefreight. This happened twice from remote areas in the Western Cape, where I particular branch would refuse to pick up a parcel before the "ransom" is paid.