We are twins who needed to get our stuff home to France after graduating in London. We paid TNT to ship three large sealed plastic boxes, and two shrink-wrapped suitcases, all carefully labelled, within 48 hours. When they had not arrived three days later, we called every couple of days to be told they were on their way. Then we were informed that the documentation was incorrect, and that they had been “returned to sender”, ie, our old London address, where we no longer lived, and that the case was closed.
Further calls revealed our belongings were in Deptford and could be delivered to a UK address, which we duly provided. They didn’t arrive there, either. After hours of phoning we were informed that the luggage had no identifying labels and, as a consequence, were lost. A 14-day process had to be launched to find them. After 14 days we contacted TNT again and heard that the items had been found, but had been sent to TNT’s head office in Bolton. It refused our request for photos to check they were ours. We suspect they have lost our shipment, or there’s a lack of drivers to deliver it. We are pretty distraught: our parcels contain all our student stuff.
T and LW, Paris, France
Fedex, which owns TNT, was rather curt about this disastrous experience. “We recognise there has been an issue with this shipment and are in direct contact with our customer to resolve the matter as quickly as possible,” it says. “We apologise for any inconvenience.” But it failed to answer questions about what had happened to your belongings, or whether you will be compensated. It’s concerning that, within days of my contact, it was able to magic up the consignment and send photos. The good news is, they were yours; the bad, that during their two months of peregrinations, they had been squashed, cracked and crudely taped back together. You accepted an offer to deliver to a UK address and made your own arrangements to get them to France, but say that, so far, there’s been no word about compensation.
But there’s thunderous applause from a Bose customer
I would like to give a thumbs up to Bose UK. I had a well-used pair of its SoundSport wireless headphones, bought more than two years ago. Recently, the battery in one bud began cutting out. I called Bose to see if I could get it sorted, and was told that, although the headphones were out of warranty, as a long-standing customer I would be sent a new set of upgraded headphones by courier at its expense. They arrived within five days.
EG, Ramsgate, Kent
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