Tuesday morning gripe, has anyone else had something similar to this?
Ordered a Chinese rad for my Gen1 and was tracking the shipment from China, when it was released from customs into the hands of parcelforce on Friday
Today Got my letter from parcelforce with the charges on it, a vat charge of £9.72 (ok) and a parcel force clearance fee of £11.25
.
Went to pay fee on-line but was told number on parcelforce letter was incorrect, so I called the telephone number on the letter, that is a premium 03XX number. Wading through the automatic menus took another 4 minutes, again to find out the system did not recognise the reference number given. Many requests (5+) by the system for me to input the number when finally I got back to the main menu and was able to connect to a real person, they then took the number and again it did not show on the system so went back to the tracking number, this checked out and details found. After usual security checks now told by operator that they must put me on hold to set-up the payment (why?) after about a minute came back and ready to accept payment, this again was stalled by operator asking multiple times for card number. Finally payment was made and then asked 'do i want it sent out asap?', no shit sherlock, finally after over 11 minutes on the phone and at least another £4 poorer (have to wait for my phone bill to find out how much) my parcel is on its way here.
Feels like a money making exercise for parcelforce with the length of the call and 'Clearance Fee'
Anyone else had anything similar happen to them with the parcelforce reference number not being recognised on-line or on the phone?
Also why does it only take 3 days from order in China for parcel to be in the UK, but 8 days before I get a letter to say I need to pay charges?
Rant(s) over , have a good day people