The Courier Guy / Pudo - A Broken System and Frustrating Experience

RedViking

Nord of the South
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(Not referring the TCG deliveries to your front door. Referring to TCG Branches)

TL;DR
The Pudo System or TCG to TCG walk in system at your branches is broken and a tedious and frustrating experience which makes zero sense. I have experience this now at more than one branch. Hate having to go fetch a parcel.

Anyone else have a similar frustrating experience fetching a parcel at TCG branch?


The Process:

At the local branches there are usually one or two people doing everything, most of the time clicking away on their extremely slow computers, asnwering the phone and not being able to multi task. Takes ages for them time find someones parcel. Their system uses a combination of TCG Tracking Numbers, Pudo Locker Tracking and Name and Surname only giving you a call.

1. Someone sent you a parcel using Pudo.
You are supposed to get an sms but 80% of the time you don't get an sms.
Someone at TCG phones you to tell you your parcel is there.

2. You go to collect it. But first you wait for the 3 people in front of you. Who are currently also waiting and fighting with the system. Frustrated.

3. 15 minutes later is your turn. You stumble over all the parcels scattered around the little TCG office floor. THe assistant waits for you to start talking without looking up from the computer screen, smoke coming out of his ears.

4. They ask for a tracking number. You give them the tracking number the sender sent you if you were lucky or you just give a Name and Surname because they phoned you and did not provide a reference number.

5. While they ask for that they first do some other things on the computer. Then someone else says they first need to use the computer (even though there are two), then you wait, the TCG assistant waits for the other assistant, then finally he get access to the computer again. This process gets repeated throughout the process.

6. Then finally someone goes to the back which is easily accessible by anyone walking in as well, there they start looking for your parcel among 100 of other parcels scattered around the room. Then you finally go into the back as well to help look. Great, WE found your parcel.

Back to the front computer waiting for the other assistant to stop using it while the other one is using it. Crazy I know.

7. Now they ask for the locker pin. Of course you did not get an sms. They are sorry. They go on the system. This takes a while as in between other person uses computer as well. Now they confirm your phone number. Great. They sending you an sms now. THere is no reception there, so you walk like a hobo up the driveway. Great, now you get an sms. Time to walk back like a wonga addict.

8. You got an sms and ready to give a pin. Now the assistant is first looking for a piece of paper you need to sign and write your PIN on. THe paper are lost somewhere under one of the boxes stacked around. Found it! Great. You sign and you write down the pin.

9. Back to the computer. This takes a while as other person quicly need to do something as well.

10. Sorted. You can now leave and thank you for your patience.

11. I hate receiving a Pudo parcel.



Courier Guy, if you read this, FIX YOUR WALK-IN / LOCKER SYSTEM, IT IS NOT WORKING!

Not such a smart locker system.


/sips coffee
 
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Heh. I saw PUDO lockers in a nearby shopping centre the other day but you mention local branches so you can't mean those ones ?
 
You fetch parcels also at the lockers. My wife regularly collects and sends from the lockers at the local Sasol garage.

Lockers don't always work. Then you have to go to the branch to collect your parcel.

That goes exactly like RedViking describes above.

Been there, done that !
 
Lockers don't always work. Then you have to go to the branch to collect your parcel.

That goes exactly like RedViking describes above.

Been there, done that !
It seems like they now have a couple systems running. The guys at the branches run it now hybrid. They should just have a single system and they need to make sure their communication system works, which it doesn't.

Then they need to sort out how they manage and run the branches itself and not do all their stuff on a single system or with a single person. . Currently it is heading the same way as SA Post Office branches.
 
We have been using it quite extensively for 6 months now. locker to delivery address works well most of the time. But if i choose TCG kiosk as the locker drop off, then I go through exactly the same experience above sometimes worst, depending on which of the two TCG staff assist. I swear they behave like they are a government post office...

The delivery service from TCG is better than fastway tho, in our experience as a business. (We use both)
 
We have been using it quite extensively for 6 months now. locker to delivery address works well most of the time. But if i choose TCG kiosk as the locker drop off, then I go through exactly the same experience above sometimes worst, depending on which of the two TCG staff assist. I swear they behave like they are a government post office...

The delivery service from TCG is better than fastway tho, in our experience as a business. (We use both)
I only have a problem with the TCG Kiosk, which is sometimes the only option.

They are useless and should be closed down. Put a locker up in its place.

Just sending a normal non pudo from the TCG branch is already an extremely frustrating experience.
 
I’ve had excellent service at the TCG kiosks, always very helpful and not much of a wait.

The lockers can be fkn annoying, they often get full so there’s no way to send a parcel until one comes available so you have to try repeatedly to send during the day till one opens up, start the shipping process from scratch each time. And the pudo website is kaka, it logs you out every 5secs and isn’t the easiest to navigate.
 
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I just had a very frustrating experience with Pudo.

I booked a locker to send a parcel with. Upon entering my code at the kiosk, another person's parcel was already inside the locker that popped open. I then proceeded to close the locker and keep my parcel as there was clearly an issue with my assigned locker.

I then proceeded to cancel the order and request a credit so that I can book a new locker. Credit requests take 5 days to process, so I paid and booked a new locker and requested to rather be refunded to my bank account as I cant wait 5 days before booking and sending again.

Support then mentioned that a refund will take 15 days to process and my account will be disabled. All due to an error on their side. Must be one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had, nevermind the security concerns regarding being assigned a locker with a parcel that I could very easily have taken had I been so inclined..
 
I just had a very frustrating experience with Pudo.

I booked a locker to send a parcel with. Upon entering my code at the kiosk, another person's parcel was already inside the locker that popped open. I then proceeded to close the locker and keep my parcel as there was clearly an issue with my assigned locker.

I then proceeded to cancel the order and request a credit so that I can book a new locker. Credit requests take 5 days to process, so I paid and booked a new locker and requested to rather be refunded to my bank account as I cant wait 5 days before booking and sending again.

Support then mentioned that a refund will take 15 days to process and my account will be disabled. All due to an error on their side. Must be one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had, nevermind the security concerns regarding being assigned a locker with a parcel that I could very easily have taken had I been so inclined..
That's concerning. What might have happened is someone placed two parcels in there and only was fetched.
 
I've only had good experience using the lockers (for both collection and deposit).
 
I received a parcel express delivery from Alberton to my front door at work in Paarden Eiland, Cape Town on Monday for a flat rate of R30
Now that is excellent service
2UqfmqyGf5DRDVdWfu--ig26omfz43eVVzFAGJvi0HcPKIc9SQFVbcVpE9CfOOL6UVxwoaycr9D3_9QxIM3wCsltpFtLDxG-gWueo1XduSAAMg81HvjxWvqTgtnuC-K0MLscKKQQvm5BRPPr12Klq3h3qV3bnKrI_0jO5wF1mrDGuNofIP-mffc5PAxpWjgyDYKUBMy2AdHwE0v4a2p4=s0-d-e1-ft
 
I received a parcel express delivery from Alberton to my front door at work in Paarden Eiland, Cape Town on Monday for a flat rate of R30
Now that is excellent service
2UqfmqyGf5DRDVdWfu--ig26omfz43eVVzFAGJvi0HcPKIc9SQFVbcVpE9CfOOL6UVxwoaycr9D3_9QxIM3wCsltpFtLDxG-gWueo1XduSAAMg81HvjxWvqTgtnuC-K0MLscKKQQvm5BRPPr12Klq3h3qV3bnKrI_0jO5wF1mrDGuNofIP-mffc5PAxpWjgyDYKUBMy2AdHwE0v4a2p4=s0-d-e1-ft
Do you have a link to that offering?
R30 for a shipment to your door is crazy cheap.
 
Do you have a link to that offering?
R30 for a shipment to your door is crazy cheap.
It was via Bid or Buy
Or Bobshop as they're called now
You'll see loads of items listed at R30 shipping
I ordered 5 items from 1 guy expecting R30 x 5 = R150
But it was just R30

 
PUDO estimates 7 days to ship a package 500kms!
 
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