RC India

Time for a poll on the best Indian parcel / courier company.  This information should be useful to the audience here.

Please help me add more choices to this poll.

Hi Anwar

I have had harrowing experience with DTDC 3 times in a row. Stopped using their service thereafter. I have had better experience with Speed post than DTDC. You can add First Flight and India post to the poll.

Regards
Ankur

can we also get feedback of aramex too here?

You should add India post positively and DTDC Plus.

Ok, need to add Aramex. Are Speedpost, IndiaPost and EMS separate entities ?

How is DTDC Plus different from normal DTDC ?  I have no issues with DTDC the few times I have used them, but the sample size may be small.

the parcels which i ordered from rcbazaar
came next day morning through vrl courier service
but the last 1 came after 2 days which was sent by rcbazaar through aramax courier
pls add VRL courier also

DTDC Plus is faster. it is handled in a personalized manner and as Priority Mail.

It is packed in a separate customized sealed packet of DTDC Plus with Bold Logo of the same, over and above your packing with a  separate side packet for POD movement slip Bar code sticker.

Basically it moves fast, does not get tampered, handled with priority. Cost wise it is twice/Thrice than the normal DTDC.

Ideal for high value items in terms and exclusive items.

This is no point.

I always use on-dot couriers. Its cheapest, almost a quarter of DTDC prices.
Delivery speed can vary with in the saame company.
For instance,i recently sent 2 couriers to mumbai on 2 separate days via same company and branch, one reached delhi to mumbai in flat 2 days, other took 6 days although both has same stuff and similar weights and were addressed near by,delivery time is affected by more factors than we can imagine..!

used DTDC till now...
not so good service....
but can say average...
one time they send to a place very far from the address given...
but rest deliveries are fine...

Speedpost - low cost/3-4 days delivery/detalied tracking/cust support non existant
rating - good
Amarex - med cost/3 days delivery/detailed tracking/very good cust service
rating - very good
First flight - high cost/2-3 days/below avg tracking/below avg cust service
rating - avg
DTDC - med cost/3 days delivery/avg tracking
rating - good
Blue dart - V high cost/2-3 days delivery/avg tracking
rating - best
Professional - med cost/4-5 days delivery/poor tracking
rating - below avg

none of the carriers mentioned above lost any of my shipments
*delivery time line mentioned is via AIR using the basic service (non premium)
Have sent Lipo (2200 mAH) using SpeedPost. Not sure if others accept them

Added more options to the poll.


Can anyone answer this ?

From what I remember, SpeedPost is EMS/SpeedPost.  Where does IndiaPost fit in the picture ?

I have given up on DTDC and taken up Professdional Couriers. Of the 50 odd consignments that I have sent through / received through them, I've not had cause for a single complaint. Just 3 weeks ago, DTDC attempted to deliver 6 CF rods to me from RC Dhamaka - neatly broken in half, in spite of all precautions being taken by the seller. DTDC in North East India is the dregs.

speed post or EMS is the cheapest way to send....

DTDC- is a bit costly as compared but i had very good experiences..

every one has his part of bad experiences with some or the other people...! :hatsoff:

Indiapost is the company. Speedpost and Express parcel are the various premium services offered by them

And SpeedPost is the same as what people refer to as EMS, right ?

I think EMS = express mail service and it covers both speed and express parcel.
Need to confirm this though

Sir, I wonder why Gati, Pafex (Fedex India) are not included. If included I would like to change my vote. Thx

Because no one suggested them yet ! :)

BTW, we are looking only for parcel services with wide coverage (pretty much nationwide, even if through affiliates).

EMS SpeedPost India definitely.
I have had several experiences which are absolutely too good to be true. In Europe this might sound true but our very own India! I have had them deliver parcels from the US to me where the mailing label was completely defaced with contents intact. Once the tracking starts in the IPS web server it updates like nowhere in the world. Every tracking system looks pale in comparison. The movement is so swift. I am based in Kolkata, so I do not know about other places. But I can very safely say I have had service from them which is The Best I have ever had. I have received stuff from USPS, German Post, Royal Mail UK, China EMS, Hong Kong EMS, Singapore EMS, UPS, DTDC India, DHL singapore, DHL Switzerland, FedEx USA and UK and I still say EMS India is the best. They have proved this on at least the last 4 occasions.
Jai Hind  :salute: :salute: :salute:

ajaytanna
i would have agreed with you and i thought this was the case too.. infact we have parcels moving out frequently and we did get in touch with the postal service guys here
- they refused to take electronic items
- they do not take large packages
- they do not do overseas delivery unless accompanied with a series of forms which we could not understand
- lastly we had an experience where we got a quote from their local branch office for a package and they gave a cost and we comitted the same to cost to our customer but on posting this package the branch office refused to take this package and asked us to go to their head office and we go almost 60% more cost that that the branch office has stated... and trying to argue with them is no use which we learnt the hard way..
- i still feel that ems / speed post is good but they need to streamline their service and be accomodative to complaints and queries rather than making one run from one desk to another... However, i would still love to use them if we are able to get some clear communication from them.

sujju

It seems that you new to India post and IPS. Would like to tell u few things. IPS web tracking is updating/working  these days as the Indian post was thrown a lot of lost parcel claims sent from overseas. some of those claims are pretty big and now they have started working properly after their concerned senior officials were in trouble. (I know this for Delhi & Mumbai). This is a temporary phase soon they will be back to old ways. Btw IPS (international postal system) is an international entity and is not operated by India post as u might have thought. http://www.ptc.upu.int/ps/ips.shtml
recently the indian ips web server was down for around 15 days when they did not make the payment to related party. this is how india post works. try tracking a local or international parcel on their own website and u will see the difference.

also USPS, German Post, Royal Mail UK, China EMS, Hong Kong EMS, Singapore EMS, are handled by India post once they land in India. so if u r not satisfied with their service kindly credit it to India post.

PS-This post will be very very long if i will start on many other aspects of India post which deter me from using it. one such example is posted by Sujju Sir.

 

Would make more sense to change the topic to "least worse",I would think!

"Comparatively better" ;)

BTW, very few people seem to have voted... this would be goo topic from "useful information" perspective.

Possibly. But there are far too many,for this, I think.

And how would you set up a poll to rank "comparitively better"? Fuzzy logic? (pun intended) 

That is simple... "better to me" is (or can be) different from "better to you" :)  The hope is that a "better in general" or "better most of the time" emerges out of the chaos !

As I said EMS Kolkata only.
@RCbazaar I have no idea of sending-parcel-problems, as I only receive them. The only time I shipped one out was to USA - a 4MB Diamond Viper VESA display card for replacement in 1992. It went and came back without a problem. That's about 19 years. Since then I have yet to come across an issue with EMS. Maybe I get lucky?
Recently I had USPS ship out a parcel (Shipping charges were USD 186.00 on an HP large format printer part) and drop it in Dubai for over 45 days and then sent it back to the sender in USA. Reason still unknown. I had to reorder from HP India later for twice it's price.
Deutsche Post on 2 separate occasions were unable to trace service manuals I ordered. in fact the sender or myself did not get a response. The sender had to reship new manuals. HobbyKing sends to singapore en-route to India and it reaches Singapore the same day. It remains in transit state in Singapore for 10 days. God alone knows why.
These things did not reach Indian shores. Tracking was on their respective sites.

Recently i'm getting parcels from various sources sent through Aramex. I have to say that this is the slowest courier service I've experienced. Most parcels are taking a full week for delivery, out of which most of the transit time spent in destination city. For example the parcel will travel from Delhi to Pune in one day and then for traveling from their Pune office to my place it will take another three days :banghead:

For many reasons dont like the EMS SpeedPost, firstly there is NO customer support at all, and in West Bengal, they are not even willing to help, and then the parcels take a LOT of time to arrive as compared to DTDC which takes not more than ONE day, as with my recent experiences with RCDhamaka, who shipped an order on monday and it reached on tuesday. Plus SpeedPost tracking is not very good either and they take 7 days to deliver one shipment minimum.

I have had very good experience with EMS Speedpost, so far. Not only with parcels from within India but also with consignments from as far away as Turkey. What's more, my local Post Office delivery guys are extremely customer friendly. I guess I am lucky.

Even with my shipments, DTDC invariably managed to break a glider fuselage or wing in transit. Speedpost has delivered consignments of more than 500 pieces packed in a carton without any damages.

EMS Speedpost = Value for Money (IMHO).

Mr. VC you're quite lucky, but in kolkata things are very different, all you will hear from post office guys is 'aami jaani na' meaning 'i dont know', plus it is much slower as well, i got a 36" edge 540 foam shock flyer, which dtdc had shipped, i recieved it the very next day without any damage,while i am still waiting for my other package which is coming via speed post, (both were shipped on the same day)

P.S.: this is just my personal experience.

I am in favor of speedpost.
Have bitter experience in Aramax, DTDC and even BlueDart.

Several time it occured fast delivery courier returnrd back while the receiver received the slow delivery Indian Ordinary post Before it. All are official letters and are documented. Even to introduce delay in speedPost (And also may be other reason) several attempts are taken but it's weakness become it's Shield. ;D Check Newspaper of Today.

I have given up on aramex recently.... It is really disgusting.... They have seriously bad customer support..... Have had one parcel come before, it took over a week, and i got another one shipped from rcbazaar via aramex, must say the aramex guys are useless..... Most of the time they take in transit. Whatever you do, chose other methods but dont go for aramex

I disagree. I was sent a shipment from bangalore to Hyderabad one morning and it arrived the next evening. Most other times it took not more than 3 days within India.

See, its my personal experience, i have had an amazing experience with DTDC, who delivered the goods next day, but others havent so it has been different for different people

i vote for dtdc followed by blue dart

it also depends upon the region - eg - south india - aramex
is very good .

the only service which is really pan india is maybe speed post.

- i have also noticed couriers have a nasty habit of not delivering
and saying -"wrong address" . In this case the sender really cannot argue
as there is no way of verifying.

Earlier my preference was for DTDC and EMS, but i would now go for EMS. i 'had' good experiences with dtdc , but one parcel slightly damaged, and one document sent to delhi got missing for 3 months.. has changed my mind

My experience with DTDC: 1 x lost parcel, 1 x missing documents and 1 x missing contents - All in a timeframe of 2 months.

Hard luck..... They always delivered to me