Friday 6 July 2012

DTDC - managed by "Complacent Pranksters"

When I was doing my engineering from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Bidar (small town in Karnataka, 140km from Hyderabad), DTDC was the only good courier service which was available there at that time and so my association with them is for quite a long time and overall satisfactory.


This courier service has grown very well with time and now they are a force to reckon with in this industry. Recently they categorized their services like DTDC Blue, DTDC Plus, etc. With DTDC Plus, they are trying to compete with Blue Dart, which offers premium service with guaranteed faster and timely deliver. 


Though Blue Dart also cant always be perfect, but mostly they deliver what is promised and if they don't, at least they are very quick to answer customer's queries and try to solve the issue then and there itself. But massive growth over the years have made DTDC guys complacent and unprofessional. If you have an issue, write a mail to their zonal office or head office in Bangalore, they hardly bother to reply and even if they do, it wont solve the purpose. It will be irrelevant and a generalized answer.


With the launch of DTDC Plus, their premium service, they promise faster delivery. But due to that and to promote the same, they have started delaying the delivery of the courier if its through their normal service. This is to compel the customer to pay almost the double amount for the same service, which they used to give mostly for half the amount. For example, if I send a courier from Jammu to Noida, it reaches DTDC's Delhi office at around 12pm and to Noida office by 4pm. At times they used to deliver the courier in Noida by 6pm but now a days, they have started delaying it and delivering it the next day. If we ask for probability of being delivered the next day, their staff in Jammu office now straight-away denies that.


My friend sent me a bundle of books from Delhi on 2nd July 2012. It weighed 6.5 Kg and she had to pay Rs.900 to DTDC. I waited for 3 days for the courier to reach from Delhi to Jammu and on the 4th day afternoon i.e., on 6th July 2012, I went to their office to ask for and pick my courier.


Only one elderly person Mr. Dogra is the reliable person in their office, who coordinates everything and keeps the things going. I always find him on his toes and most of the others are in a very relaxed poses though office has almost 4-5 employees apart from Mr. Dogra.


Today when I went there, unfortunately I couldnt find him there. When I asked for my courier, one guy was asking other to find, who inturn tried his best to depute the third. One of them finally tried to search for my parcel in their shelves and told me that it hasnt reached Jammu. Since repair work was going on, power was put off. When I insisted, they asked the electrician to put on a connection so that one PC could be put on and they could check the status of my parcel.


One guy put on the PC and without entering the password, he went and sat for lunch and 2 others were still telling me that PC cant be turned on. When i took them other way round the table, then the guys started struggling to enter the correct password. After all this drama, I was finally told that courier had arrived 2 days back i.e., on 4th July 2012.


Then for next 15 mins they started searching every nook and corner of the office, even the big poly-bags which looked as if dumped from ages. Inbetween someone said that check if the delivery guy has taken it today for delivery. Others guaranteed that it was not possible, he didnt take any. I asked them to call that guy but nobody did. After waiting for another 5 minutes I had to raise my voice and ask for that guy's mobile number. When I called him, he confirmed that the parcel was with him and he was at a location which was on way to my home from DTDC office.  


Finally I asked him to wait at a point and collected my parcel from him. Before going to their office, I had mailed about the delay to DTDC's Delhi Zonal Office and Bangalore office, but didnt get any reply till now.


They are surviving because in the country of blind, one eyed man is the king. There are few reputed companies in this industry and courier/parcel volumes are enormous. With the growth of business over the years, they have become complacent and that shows at every level of their hierarchy.

4 comments:

  1. Gurpreet it seems to be a local problem of Jammu office. The cause of delay should be explained by in charge jammu office. It was reached there on 4th July why it was not delivered. DTDC hired staff as good as they get. So that is the best staff they get in Jammu

    ReplyDelete
  2. I entirerly agree with you. Today I wanted to enquire about the delivery of one article sent to me from Jammu on 6 instant. Rang Up Customer Care 01133004444. No response several times. A few times automatic response with a song speaking greatness of a small courier and after the song was over some one would say we are transferring you to our Customer Ser rep and then the tel was cut off. Did not know how many times I had to ring them up.Tried from 1200 to 13oohrs continuously.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There are many courier services available and people choose always famous companies from all companies. People prefer reputable company and also which provide affordable services.

    Couriers London

    ReplyDelete
  4. DTDC Courier service in Noida- Before some years when technology was not much good, for any parcel one has to cover miles on horse riders and person did not use to have any services related to the customer care and they have to keep on waiting for the information of deliveries. But in present days as the technologies have grown these services have become more convenient and easy for everyone.

    ReplyDelete