Do NOT use Park cameras!

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

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Alasdair Fowler
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Having ordered a Fuji point and shoot camera, the service I have had from Park Cameras (http://www.parkcameras.com/) has been terrible. I ordered the camera (refurbished) about 1 month ago. I then received an email stating that the item was out of stock, quickly followed by the dispatch email stating that the item had been dispatched and was on its way to me. Confused by the conflicting emails I phoned Park cameras and was told by the sales person that the item had indeed been dispatched and he was unsure as to why I had received the first email.

A week passes (The camera was for a birthday present btw) and there is no sign of the camera. So I send them an email to clarify the situation. I receive no answer.

Another week passes and I send another email. No answer.

Another week passes (Birthday has now been missed) and I phone Park Cameras. I explain the situation and the sales person sounds confused. He explains that the refurbished one is out of stock, but for another £20 I can get a new one. Just wanting the camera I agree, but ask if he can find out what happened to the refurbished one since I got a dispatch note. He says he'll investigate and phone me back in 5 minutes. I don't receive any return phonecall.

Then Yesterday after work I find a City Link card in my post. Attempted delivery. I phone city link up this morning to arrange for redelivery, but they claim I have already had "more than two attempted deliveries". So they tried to deliver it more than twice between 17:30 and 18:30 yesterday? I think not! I then get them to agree to redeliver it a 'third' time. I then receive a phonecall from Park cameras asking me to pay an additional £10 for the 'third' delivery! I refuse and say that I haven't had a second delivery. They say "oh ok" and hang up.

I'm not a happy bunny. I will not be using Park Cameras ever again. Shame Robert white don't sell the Fuji FZ20fd. :(
 
i don't know about park cameras but city link have to be the worst couriers i've ever had the misfortune to come across.
 
alexkidd said:
i don't know about park cameras but city link have to be the worst couriers i've ever had the misfortune to come across.
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You'd have enjoyed me going off on one at the manager of my local depot last week then, Alex :lol: They are, without a doubt, the worst courier service out there and that's saying something when UPS are still in business.

:bat::bat::rules::bat:
 
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Flash In The Pan said:
You'd have enjoyed me going off on one at the manager of my local depot last week then, Alex :lol: They are, without a doubt, the worst courier service out there and that's saying something when UPS are still in business.

:bat::bat::rules::bat:
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Yup. Every time I've had to use them I've been disappointed. I much prefer Parcelforce as it means I can pick the parcel up from the post office on my way home from work, rather than having to go miles out to the middle of nowhere to find the City Link depot.
 
Must say in all honesty, that my local city link has never got it wrong yet.
 
I have to say, It seems to me that your experience with park cameras is an unfortunate case, yet a rare one.

Myself and my family have used PC for years now and find them very very good and extremely helpful.
When I ordered my latest camera I had an issue in that citylink failed to leave a card to say it was delivered so didnt know. I called PC, they gave me all the details and also called citylink to see what was going on. I picked the camera up no problem and they filled a complaint with citylink. All PC staff were very helpful.

Prior to that, when ordering, the girl on the phone at the warehouse was a great help, advising me on my first DSLR.

I have always found the shops helpful too.

I would suggest that you either go in to see them or call them and calmy explain your grievences and I am sure that they will do thier best to make right.


It seems to me that the majority of your problem is with city link, and like me have fell victim to lazy drivers who couldn't give two hoots about thier deliverys.

I hope you manage to get what you want, but feel that your being harsh on PC by telling people here never to use them based on your single experience. Frustrating as it is give them a chance.

Before I get hollered at for working for them, I don't, I'm just an old customer of theirs who is very happy with them.

Rob
 
My worst experience so far though has been with FedEx. I had a new website launching and my opening stock (£20k worth) was enroute from France on a 24 hour delivery.

It never arrived and when I enquired Fedex blithely told me it had been sent to the Southampton depot- for delivery to Glasgow :thinking:. I explained it was urgently required and their response was that they would get the goods returned to Gatwick or Heathrow or wherever it was meant to have left from to reach me and that I could fly down and pick it up myself .......
 
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Flash In The Pan said:
My worst experience so far though has been with FedEx. I had a new website launching and my opening stock (£20k worth) was enroute from France on a 24 hour delivery.

It never arrived and when I enquired Fedex blithely told me it had been sent to the Southampton depot- for delivery to Glasgow :thinking:. I explained it was urgently required and their response was that they would get the goods returned to Gatwick or Heathrow or wherever it was meant to have left from to reach me and that I could fly down and pick it up myself .......
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That's appalling...

Sorry to hear that you've received such bad service from Park Cameras. Its always a shame when someone gets a really bad deal. I've never used them, and if I'm honest, I've never really had a problem with anywhere that I've used.
 
Rob.7wood said:
I have always found the shops helpful too.

I would suggest that you either go in to see them or call them and calmy explain your grievences and I am sure that they will do thier best to make right.
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Unfortunately I can't visit them as they are based in Sussex, and im up here in the North east. I have calmly explained my grievances when I phoned them a week ago. This is after they had ignored 2 of my emails. After explaining my situation, I was offered no apology and was told I would be phoned back in 5 minutes, which didn't happen.

You are right in saying that I am basing my frustration on this event, but so far all I have seen is a series of incompetence and very little in the way of decent customer service. Maybe I'm being harsh in telling people not to use them, but as far as I'm concerned, i won't be using them again.
 
To be honest, it seems like your complaint is more with City Link than with Park. The trouble is that City Link are cheap, so more and more retailers are using them. The reason why they are cheap is unfortunately because they employ troglodytes who are incapable of carrying out the most menial of tasks.

When I went over to get my parcel last week, after they had failed to notice that our house is next door to the one they left their card at (despite the house numbers being writ large on the gate posts), the minion behind the counter reponded with "it's your word against ours" when I pointed out they had wasted an entire day for me in having to firstly await the delivery of the parcel and then trek all the way over to Glasgow to pick the damm thing up and then back again, because they wanted two different forms of photo id, despite it not mentioning this on their card.

What the retailers, and Park seem from your experience to be a case in point, is that their customers will see the late or non-delivery as their fault, not that of the comedy couriers, City Link.
 
Messiah Khan said:
Unfortunately I can't visit them as they are based in Sussex, and im up here in the North east. I have calmly explained my grievances when I phoned them a week ago. This is after they had ignored 2 of my emails. After explaining my situation, I was offered no apology and was told I would be phoned back in 5 minutes, which didn't happen.

You are right in saying that I am basing my frustration on this event, but so far all I have seen is a series of incompetence and very little in the way of decent customer service. Maybe I'm being harsh in telling people not to use them, but as far as I'm concerned, i won't be using them again.
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It amazes me how quickly they'll call a customer if money is owed to them..ie. for the re-delivery in this case.

IMHO, I'd have to say both Park Cameras could have given MK better customer service and also City Link with their phantom deliveries
 
Flash In The Pan said:
What the retailers, and Park seem from your experience to be a case in point, is that their customers will see the late or non-delivery as their fault, not that of the comedy couriers, City Link.
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Indeed, but in UK law you have a contract with the vendor and they have a totally separate contract with the carrier (who is their choice, not yours) but, in this country, vendors often seem to just mess their customers about as they are easier to fob off.

Compare that with US vendors. I've bought direct from US companies, as have several other people I know, and if the goods don't turn up you e-mail them to let them know and, often as not, they get another item shipped out - often on priority despatch - first then worry about chasing their carrier.
 
To be fair, I've just placed one order with Park cameras and that was Friday last week and it arrived perfect this morning, however it was delivered by Royal mail. Therefore I won't criticise Park cameras as I have no BAD experience with them.

City link however is another story. They appear to be a complete bunch of cowboys. I've personally had issues with Citylink "ghost" deliveries where I know someone was in all day (namely me!!!) and that the doorbell or knocker was never tried. At work we've had issues with damaged packaging and even an opened (and now empty) package delivered through citylink as well as the "ghost" deliveries at times when the office was occupied.
 
AndrewA123 said:
To be fair, I've just placed one order with Park cameras and that was Friday last week and it arrived perfect this morning, however it was delivered by Royal mail. Therefore I won't criticise Park cameras as I have no BAD experience with them.

City link however is another story. They appear to be a complete bunch of cowboys. I've personally had issues with Citylink "ghost" deliveries where I know someone was in all day (namely me!!!) and that the doorbell or knocker was never tried. At work we've had issues with damaged packaging and even an opened (and now empty) package delivered through citylink as well as the "ghost" deliveries at times when the office was occupied.
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I've had similar issues with ANC. I did hear the van reversing up my driveway. However, they only did this to write a "sorry we tried to deliver" card, didn't even bother knocking to see if anyone in, just assumed as it was a residential address that no-one in.

Fortunately I heard them and stopped the driver before he drove off..

As for City Link, they are featured all over numerous forums and this has been enough for me to check which courier with each retailer, before ordering..
 
Flash In The Pan said:
To be honest, it seems like your complaint is more with City Link than with Park. The trouble is that City Link are cheap, so more and more retailers are using them. The reason why they are cheap is unfortunately because they employ troglodytes who are incapable of carrying out the most menial of tasks.
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I'd agree - I bought my D200 from Park Cameras, the problem I had was CityLink delivering it... Left it in the snow, on my back door step:bang:

Park - not a bad retailer really. City Link need to be excommunicated from the courier business...
 
You will find bad stories about every carrier - I've even had the bloody postman stick a card through the door saying I wasn't in when I'd watched him walk up the path!!! - they all seem to be inconsistent and vary from depot to depot.

However, as the OP here shows, the customer sees it as the vendor's problem, that the vendor has failed to provide the advertised service, and, in a way, they have. You should always inform the vendor if the carrier messes about; if everyone did that then any responsible vendor would switch carriers as they realize that it reflects badly on them.
 
CityLink can be dire. I've had a delivery from Nikon undelivered as alledgely I'd been "carded" but off course no cards.. had to go and collect it in the end, as I was seeing "out on delivery van", then "not in - return to depot" for days on end.

On the other hand, the CityLink chap who comes to the north of Cambridge is fab, Tokina sent me a lens (swap n drop) and that was great, and they deliver my Fuji gear too promply and usually before 10am.
 
Sh***y Link and Parcel Farce are as bad as each other. Never had any problems with SD, DHL, UPS, and others. Just those two. Fortunately, I can get to my local Parcel Farce depot - no idea where Sh***y Link are though. Sorry to hear of your problems, but as others have already said, Park Cameras should have resolved your issues right off, and chased the crappy courier they choose to use, separately.

Perhaps, if you send a letter to the MD of the company, saying that the Customer Service advisors you dealt with were not the most helpful, but to compound that, the courier was so bad, and claimed to have attempted delivery when they didn't, and because of that you will not be using them again. If he/she gets enough complaints about the dire couriers they use, they may choose a more expensive, but higher quality one.
 
Parcel force have a habit of writing out the "Could not get an answer" cards in the van and just posting them without knocking to save time.

I've actually caught a guy eating a sandwich in his van outside after posting one because I heard the letterbox!

They also leave sign for packages on my doorstep (which is much more convenient, but technically bad)
 
mikezs said:
Parcel force have a habit of writing out the "Could not get an answer" cards in the van and just posting them without knocking to save time.

I've actually caught a guy eating a sandwich in his van outside after posting one because I heard the letterbox!

They also leave sign for packages on my doorstep (which is much more convenient, but technically bad)
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That reminds me of the time I got home from holiday, to find a package on the doorstep that had been there for three days, through rain and shine - the books inside were unsurprisingly ruined, so got new ones sent out to me.
 
goatee said:
That reminds me of the time I got home from holiday, to find a package on the doorstep that had been there for three days, through rain and shine - the books inside were unsurprisingly ruined, so got new ones sent out to me.
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Did the company compensate you, or did you claim from the courier's insurance?
 
The company (I forget who) sent a new one out no questions asked, and they followed it up with Parcel Farce.
 
Park Cameras - great! I'd heartily reccomend them and have used the shops & website on many occasions. I used to work round the corner from their Burgess Hill store so it was my 'local'.

As for ****** (rhymes with city) Link - well, I avoid them like the plague.
 
Another thumbs up for Park Cameras, I buy all my eqiupment there if I can, advice and aftersales service has never let me down yet.
When my 6 week old D200 packed up, I rang them then drove over to the shop, they gave me a brand new one without any arguements.
 
I've had a fortunate but bad experience with City Link as well. The doorbell went (I was waiting in for a delivery) and there was the man from City Link who I was expecting. He then asked me if I would accept a parcel for next door since they were out. Being a good neighbour, I said "Of course" and took the parcel. Which was addressed to me, at my address, correct number, printed in big numbers. I pointed this out to the delivery person who just laughed and said "Well, you've got it now, anyway" and drove off.
 
Messiah Khan said:
The service I have had from Park Cameras (http://www.parkcameras.com/) has been terrible.
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As a counterpoint, I quite like them.

I got my 1DsIII from them. From stock. Good price. I went there in person to pick it up. (I wouldn't get something that expensive from anyone by mail order...)

I got a pair of 580EXII flahes from them. Delivered by Citylink. But then I have stuff delivered to the warehouse at work where Citylink deliver several times a week.

And they let me play with a TS-E 24 mm f/3.5L which helped me decide not to buy one...

Andrew
 
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