Couriers, shipping times, and unforeseen issues... how to solve them.

ARE YOU KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES?

By now, everyone has made an online purchase at least once in their life.

Well-known and lesser-known shops, with more or less services, but what is often read in the reviews is not so much the quality of this or that product or the experience had with the seller but the focus is increasingly on the experience had with the delivery service. We're talking about the courier, this almost “mythical” figure who is often expected to meet the needs of every single person waiting for a delivery, and whose role is important to delve into to manage the frustration and anger from a missed delivery and to understand how it works to fully grasp if one has been wronged or not.

THE COURIER… THAT BA…STION OF SERVICE!

Placing an online order is often considered synonymous with “fast” even before “quality” or “originality”. Unfortunately, the conditions to obtain one's desired item “at the speed of light” are not always met, and we often realize how much this is linked to the lack of knowledge about the fundamental role of this much-maligned figure, whom we are careful not to defend, but on which clarity is necessary.

LET'S GET INTO THE DETAILS

All of you know, or should know, that Tessiland guarantees processing within a certain time and that we strictly adhere to these rules and do our utmost to improve them; what cannot be guaranteed, however, is the delivery time: why? Because, of course, it is not Tessiland that brings the package to your home but relies on the best couriers present on the Italian territory.

But let's analyze better:

Not every experience should be attributed to a courier, but to a driver. Exactly! To a single person who performs their duties along a route until home delivery and who, like in any workplace, can do their job well or less well.

Add to this the fact that couriers, although diligent and keen to do their job well, very often have workloads related perhaps to a sale period, or seasonal peaks which are never followed by an increase in staff...

Let's add that they are on the road, and the road, as we know, is often a jungle, made of setbacks and rarely peaceful discussions, made of double-parked cars, of deliveries in narrow streets where you arrive with the van scraping the right and left mirrors...then there’s the lady who maybe by "distraction" didn't write the municipality but the district, maybe doesn't have the street number, who wrote their ZIP code wrong or who wasn't aware that their municipality has changed its street names for 10 years, or who has their own personal need that always that driver wants to solve for them…

We might expect the driver to start from a place and bring us our precious, essential package without any trouble, to give us a smile upon delivery, and maybe even to be a handsome young man... but it's not like that! The courier has on average more than 100 deliveries to make in a limited time, and if he fails, the extra time spent will be the time he has to take away from his family, from his little one waiting at home who hasn't seen him since the morning because he left very early for yet another day of work.

This is not an outright defense of couriers, certainly not, because everyone is expected to do their job in the best way possible, but it is an analysis we believe useful to better understand how the world of delivery by courier works.

So when we read phrases like: GLS delivers poorly, BRT is a real disaster, SDA is not reliable, we should refer more to a single driver who had difficulty and not to the entire transport company! Evidence of this is that often in social media posts we read in sequence people very happy with the deliveries and people very angry about deliveries with the same courier.

Then there would be to evaluate one's own area which may be difficult to reach, maybe it's a ZTL (Limited Traffic Zone) or simply that it is on a very busy artery. To this then must be added the subjective variable that we very often see on different occasions such as: “the doorbell doesn't work”, “I don't have a street number”, “I'm not at home call me before”, up to requests like “deliver from 13.30 to 14.30 otherwise I won't pick up”.

SO WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT COURIERS?

The route of couriers in their area is a predetermined circuit that starts from the courier's headquarters and gradually, with a logical path, tends to deliver packages along the way. It goes without saying then that if I lived close to the headquarters I would probably receive the delivery before those who are located further along the route. It’s just as logical that if the courier passes through my area at 11.30 a.m., it is inconceivable that they would reverse their route at the expense of all other deliveries to accommodate my request for delivery “outside of normal hours”.

DEBUNKING A MYTH: the preventive call.

Another consideration is related to the “preventive call”. There are services with preventive calls, but they are usually reserved for deliveries to professionals, or mandatory deliveries, for banking services or for large volume shipments. These services are almost never intended for private individuals and are always payable, so given the constantly rising costs, they cannot be offered for private deliveries.

SO HOW DO I TRACK MY ORDER?

All organized shops like Tessiland, at the departure of the order, provide a tracking system (traceability) with which to follow the route of their order and know approximately where it is and when it will arrive at its destination. In the case of Tessiland, the tracking is sent at the time of processing and can be found in your account if you are registered on the site. Moreover, given the poor performance (this must be admitted) of the couriers' call centers, Tessiland guarantees assistance for all necessary information thanks to a support service at the toll-free number 800 199 654 (from landline) 0825-472307 (from mobile) from Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm and on Saturday morning from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm.

Also in chat.

Or on Whatsapp

THE COURIER CLAIMS I WAS NOT AT HOME BUT THAT'S NOT TRUE!

Another source of irritation for those waiting for a package is precisely these statements that the courier makes appear on the delivery status, and when you are behind the window waiting, going down the stairs for every single van that passes, to then be told "nobody was at home" it's obviously annoying: but let's explain what happens...

Every driver is equipped with a handheld device, a sort of computerized phone with which they communicate to the central office what happens during the route. On this handheld device, there are scenarios that the courier can select for an event: “recipient absent”, “unknown address”, “damaged package” etc.

Obviously, the “recipient absent” wording is used if the recipient is actually not at home at that moment, or does not answer the intercom, but the messages on their handheld are limited to the most frequent scenarios, so we will find “recipient absent” even if there was an incident on the ring road that did not allow them to complete the planned route. So often it's not that the courier wants to cast the recipient in a bad light, but more simply selects one of the scenarios that their handheld allows.

HOW TO HAVE A GOOD EXPERIENCE WITH DELIVERIES?

There are ways to have the experience closest to your desires! Naturally, it depends on the shop providing the service, but you're lucky because Tessiland is very attentive to these aspects and provides a service that very few shops can offer. Let's look at them together to learn how to have the best possible experience:

• COURIER CHOICE

Tessiland gives you the option to choose your preferred courier. This choice should not be based on national reviews, but can be based on your personal experience!

For example, in one area GLS might deliver poorly (reiterating that there's always a driver behind and not the entire company) while in another area of Italy GLS could be impeccable, knowing the recipient personally and even making the coveted preventive call in case of delay (which is a "plus" that the driver would do... possibly even with their personal phone since drivers often don't have company phones).

Therefore, choosing your trusted courier is a really important service that in this specific case can be done at the end of the order on Tessiland by choosing among the shipping options your preferred courier.

It's important to underline that the service has a cost (albeit nominal) and that such service must be chosen by the user, otherwise by default the system sets the shipping to STANDARD which has no cost but thus expects the system to choose the most convenient courier for the company based on weight/volume/destination.

• EASY SHIPPING (Pick-up at BRT FermoPoint)

Another service absolutely worth considering is the FermoPoint. Thanks to over 20,000 commercial services affiliated with the service, it will be very likely to find a pick-up point a few meters from your home!

So no more waiting at the window, or running down the stairs, but we will know in advance where to go to pick up our package and we will have a full 10 days to do it! This service is great for those who, for example, work and cannot be at home. This is also a completely free service (it cannot be done with payment on delivery but is an option only for those who use a credit card, PayPal, Scalapay, or bank transfer).

Just choose the Easy Shipping option (Pick-up at BRT FermoPoint), enter your home address and a drop-down menu will automatically appear to choose the most convenient pick-up point for us!

• SPEEDY SHIPPING

Another highly popular Tessiland service, but let's address the topic properly: Speedy Shipping (which we recommend using only if necessary, for example, for those with strict deadlines for the delivery of handmade works) allows the order to be processed instantly if placed before 12:00 PM. A service that, therefore, allows the order in question (at a cost of €3.90) to take precedence over other orders and be the first to ship. However, it's important to note that SPEEDY is not synonymous with TELEPORTATION but even Speedy Shipping has to go through road transit and can encounter all the snags of a normal shipment, albeit with the advantage of leaving first. So? This means that Tessiland commits in an infallible manner to dispatch it within the stated timelines, but cannot guarantee an instant delivery (which most of the time happens) precisely because it can only guarantee processing and it's impossible to predict what potential problems the delivery might encounter en route. Statistically, over 90% of deliveries occur within 24 hours but there's always that 10% that might wait a few hours more.

WHEN TO USE SPEEDY SHIPPING?

It's advisable to use this service for specific delivery needs or during certain times of the year when the order flow is always very high: seasonal changes, holidays and pre-holidays, periods of special offers, and Black Friday.

• ALWAYS READ THE BANNERS

In cases of heavy traffic or delays, Tessiland always provides timely information on clickable banners (the images found at the top of the website's access), where the issue is discussed in depth and where the user can always decide whether or not to proceed with the purchase: our primary goal is to facilitate informed purchasing for the user.

LET'S SUM IT UP

In conclusion of our analysis, every major shop like Tessiland has the obligation to always provide all the information and do its best to make the delivery as fast and efficient as possible. Unfortunately, in some cases, this does not happen... but now you know more, and if you have to wait a few extra hours, we hope to have made the wait with a more informed state of mind.