SlowWay Couriers
I recently bought something from a TradeMe auction, and paid immediately hoping that I would get my hands on it pretty fast. Unfortunately, the trader used Fastway Couriers (http://www.fastway.co.nz/).
These guys picked it up from the trader (in Auckland) on Monday 23rd January. Thus far, they have failed to deliver it to me, also in Auckland. Given that it is now a public holiday weekend, I'm not likely to have it delivered before Tuesday, which will make it over two weeks to get a package ACROSS TOWN!. Even good old New Zealand Post doesn't usually take more than 2 days, and is cheaper.
They have "Track and Trace" on their website. Unfortunately, their track and trace can only tell you two things: when it was picked up, and when it was delivered. It doesn't tell me where the hell my parcel is or why the hell they haven't been able to deliver it yet.
Hoping that maybe they had more information somewhere in their system, I decided to call them. Locating their phone number was the first problem. Nothing so simple as a contact us link on their website. It took me probably 5 minutes of digging before I found a phone number for their Auckland office.
Then, I negotiated their automated voice response system. Press 2 for track and trace. No problem. After waiting on hold for only about 5 minutes, a pleasant sounding woman answered, and I explained that I wanted to try and locate my parcel. "Just one moment," she says, "I'll transfer you to track and trace".
After waiting on hold for another couple of minutes, I got through to another pleasant sounding woman. "Thank you for calling Customer Services. I am out of the office for the rest of the day and for tomorow. Please call back later".
Their website has lots of information about franchise opportunities, franchise awards, and so on. Most of their website is devoted to trying to sell you a franchise, and remarkably little about their actual courier service. It almost smacks of Amway.
Closer inspection of their descriptions of service reveal that they "operate on a cost effective, easy to use prepaid label system", and "prices are highly competitive and service standards are high". Nowhere do they actually claim to be fast. I guess it's not false advertising if its part of your name, right?