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Kiwi Express - the very worst courier, avoid!

From time to time I deliver sage warnings about things to avoid.

This is usually in the form of highlighting scams such as the "run your car on water" nonsense that proliferated a decade or two ago. Sometimes however, I highlight a product or service that really doesn't perform "as advertised".

Today is a case of the latter.

Allow me to recount my experiences of the past week.

An expensive "mobility device" was purchased from an Auckland vendor last week.

The seller did a great job and consigned it within hours, for delivery to me here in Tokoroa, barely 200Km away.

The courier service they chose was Kiwi Express Oversize.

The product itself is somewhat heavy so I guess, from a logistics perspective, using a courier that specialises in heavy or bulky items makes sense.

A look at the Kiwi Express Oversize website sees some lofty claims being made, including "Overnight within island, 2-3 days between islands" and "Courier speed, live tracking, across New Zealand". Sounds great eh?

I received the tracking number last Friday and took a look at the progress of my goodies. Woohoo... it was picked up by the courier at 2:17pm and arrived at their depot at 4:33pm.

Looking good!

Given that the weekend was ahead, I figured that an "overnight" service would deliver the following "working day" which was Monday.

With that in mind, and looking at the weather forecast, I made plans to spend a couple of days filming on Thursday and Friday of this week. Lovely fine weather and calm skies would be perfect for two or three videos in which this gear would feature.

Nothing arrived on Monday.

Okay, sometimes things don't always go to schedule -- people mess up, trucks are too full to take every box some days, you know -- that sort of thing. No worries.

Nothing arrived on Tuesday.

I checked the tracking on Wednesday and it seems my package was still sitting in a depot somewhere, presumably Auckland. Not that flash for a courier that boasts "overnight" delivery.

So I did what anyone would do... I gave them a ring and asked if there was a problem and when I could expect delivery.

Apparently, Kiwi Express had passed the package on to New Zealand Couriers for delivery to me so they rang NZ Couriers while I waited on hold.

Nope... nobody seemed to know and NZ Couriers weren't even interested in sending someone down to check and see if the consignment was still there.

For those who are unaware, NZ Couriers have a 1.4 star rating on Trustpilot. so no surprises there.

The guy at Kiwi Express seemeed to think that this is where their responsibilities ended. He offered no resolution or solution.

WTF?

This may be the fault of NZ Couriers but ultimately it's a failure of Kiwi Express because they are the ones with who the contract for delivery exists. Also, if they're promising "overnight" delivery (it's now been a full week with no sign of the stuff) then it's their responsibility to choose subcontractors who can also deliver on that promise.

As I type this it is Friday, seven days (five working days) since the product was shipped for delivery the next working day and still nothing has been delivered.

Given that the weather is about to turn to custard for a week or so and that the next couple of weeks are school holidays (which makes filming in public a lot harder around here), Kiwi Express Overnight's utter failure has effectively cost me opportunity and money.

Right now I'm wondering if the product will ever turn up and if it doesn't, how long will it take to get a final resolution (although I'm hoping the retailer will step up to the plate and simply replace the product -- shipping via a different courier this time).

I get it, sometimes things go wrong but I understand and accept that. What I don't accept his the "too bad, we don't really care" attitude of Kiwi Express. They do not seem to have hammered their subcontractor for answers and they openly admitted that their "live tracking" is actually a joke once a package is handed onto a subcontractor.

By way of comparison, I ordered some stuff from PB Tech on Wednesday and it arrived on Thursday morning via Courier Post. No fuss, no drama, no problems. Yes, it was a smaller box but then again, Kiwi Express Oversize claim their whole business is built around providing "Courier speed" delivery of oversized items so they have no excuse.

One interesting observation I've made over the past few days is that if a company doesn't have any significant presence on social media (aka: Kiwi Express and NZ Couriers) then perhaps they're missing for a reason. I have little doubt, based on my own expriences, that their Facebook pages (if they had any) would be littered with complaints so perhaps they figure it's easier just not to go there.

And, just for the record, even if this package arrives today, its average speed on the journey from Auckland to Tokoroa will have been just slightly more than 1 kilometre per hour. If I could still walk properly, I could have traversed the distance from Auckland to Tokoroa FIVE TIMES on foot during the time it has taken this package to move nowhere.

Express?

Yeah, right!

Carpe Diem folks!

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