Christmas presents still in City Link depot in Durham City

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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BACKLOG of parcels at a courier company means shoppers are still waiting for presents to be delivered two weeks after Christmas.

The City Link depot in Durham City was reported to have had as many as 35,000 parcels waiting for delivery, although that was denied by the company.

The firm last night blamed the backlog on the extreme weather and exceptional number of parcels sent before Christmas.

Adrian Beadnell, from Saltburn, east Cleveland, ordered an amplifier for his daughter on December 15.

He paid an extra £10 for an express delivery and waited in for five days before Christmas for it to be delivered.

However, he is still waiting.

He said: “I just wonder how many other people have been affected. There has been no notification from anybody.

“I must have tried to ring City Link 20 times over the last two or three weeks, but cannot get to speak to anyone.

“It is the not knowing what’s happening which is the main problem.”

The shop he bought the item from said the Durham City Link depot had 35,000 items waiting for delivery.

The branch deals with deliveries across the North-East and North Yorkshire.

In normal circumstances, customers can collect delayed parcels from the depot.

However, the company closed the collection point, at Belmont Industrial Estate, because people were waiting so long.

City Link operations director Mark Tapper said the delays had been caused by the extreme weather, together with exceptionally high numbers of parcels being sent in the run-up to Christmas.

He said: “At City Link, we take customer service very seriously and are making every effort to maintain service levels.

“However, the backlog which resulted has caused excessive waiting times for people collecting from the Durham depot, resulting in us taking the decision to close our parcel collection point.

“We will, however, continue to review the situation on a daily basis.”

The company is understood to be delivering on Sundays and has brought in extra staff to reduce the backlog. It hopes to have the backlog cleared today.

City Link is used by many of the country’s biggest online retailers, including Amazon

[rmdriver]

The worst courier company I have ever had dealings with in all my life. Ordered something recently and they didn't show up on the day they were supposed to. No phone call or nothing. Arrived the next day with the item in a box that had what looked like forklift forks driven into the side of the box. Item inside decimated. The cheeky b@@tard driver tries to hide it from me by showing me the good side of the box as he attempts to get me to sign it. Utter p@sh. Wouldn't let them deliver horse manure.