Why the founders of the parcels company thought that using the name of the US national passenger railway company, whose reputation makes that of British Rail of late memory look stunning, was a good idea.

Big pity that, as Amtrak were a good carrier. Actually offered delivery times for when you were in the house, unlike shitylink which at most offer morning or afternoon (if they can be arsed) between when you leave for work and before you get back.

since I used Amtrak. I dont deal with any company that does.

Their 'Crewe' depot (in Warrington FFS) looks like it was abandoned some time ago, even thought it was (at the time) still trading.

Add to the fact that they proved themselves to be inept, and had staff of such calibre they needed a sign that basically said "Do not p*ss on the parcels" up in the fron office and Im not suprised they're dead.

Amtrak? Going bust?! SURELY NOT!

*Gasp*

Jesus, the amount of fun I had with those guys. They were the worlds worst couriers, why dabs even thought of using them god only knows.

I need to phone up and find my parcel... oh wait, no phone number... anywhere... oh here's one... ah, you can't actually talk to anyone... Bugger...

They were crap, and this can only be good news for dabs customers.

Personally I would have switched couriers after the first time they went into administration, but then they probably can't get the same rate from anywhere else.

A bad company gone bust - woo yay! They were one of the main reasons that I stopped buying from DABS.CON

Eh...

Bagged, I'd imagine.

They also use HDL (Home Delivery Network) who suck ass. They leave parcels at random houses, sometimes on random streets, they take signatures from anyone in the general vicinity of your house and they never ever post a card to say where they've just left your £1000 consignment.

At least 3 times I've had to follow up a week later to say "where's my order then", only to find that someone 5 houses away signed for it and has just been waiting (presumably hoping that I never find out) with it in their kitchen.

Unfortunately Amtrak going bust probably means that HDL will get the opportunity to mess up even more Dabs deliveries.

I consistently had trouble with them and they were very awkward about getting my stuff to me.

It's a shame to see lots of people losing their jobs, but some of those 1000 people were the ones making life hard for me.

I stopped using Dabs years ago, main due to their awful courier system. It was always Amtrak in my area, and as we all know Amtrak are the bottom feeders of the courier market; they wouldn't take alternate instructions, they wouldn't leave without a sig, they wouldn't deliver on Saturdays...

Also, these days, the Dabs website is so slow, it's like navigating through a river of treacle.

To be honest I'm surprised that Dabs are still going.

I always held Amtrak in rather high regard.

There 'redefine' their next day delivery and it is a complete CON!!!

Bunch of slackers - next day delivery is WHEN they dispatch the goods and the process of dispatching the goods takes more than few days.

Next day delivery - means 'THE NEXT DAY' in customers term. Which part you don't understand??!!

well I can only speak of shitty place where brother worked, you get crap pay, are forced into overtime, in fact you sign to say you wont refuse it, then they work you upto 18hrs a day, and give you 20 hrs work to do, insist you meet impossible deadlines so you have to break speed limits, and i know in york we often see crashed vans, wonder why....

no they need to really look at there way of doing things and sort it out.

you cant blame the drivers, the problems is with the depot bosses, who wont tell their bosses to ... off

Have to say Amtrack were great for me. Order from dabs previous evening, normally on my door by 9am. The driver even figured out that quite often I'd be in the office in the garden and would come round if I didnt answer.

I guess Amtrak went down hill over the years since I last knew of them. There was a time (late '90s, I suppose) where I wouldn't use anyone else if I had the choice. I always thought highly of Amtrak as a good and reliable courier company.

Ah well, RIP Amtrak for the good times.

At all the rage against dabs here, I've always found them very professional and all my orders have been delivered VERY promptly. Weird.

I used to use Dabs all the time and spread the word of just how good they were , prompt delivery and outstanding prices.

However , Long before BT took them over, all the reasons for selecting them automatically, have gone.

Delivery to Ireland can take weeks and the value just isn't there any more.

I rather used to like the Dabs points and collect a travel mug every now and again.

BT, a company rather fantastic at turning diamonds into smooth bits of beach glass.

The coat , it's for Amtrak.. ( BT would need a family sized tent with a hole at the top )

I love amtrak since they effectively guaranteed me a buy now pay in a year deal with dabs, after they lost £200.00 worth of registered ram for my server board. their mistake meant I was able to shoehorn 8GB into my mobo for a year, since they apparently "lost" my ram, when delivering it to my door. DABS caught up with me in the end mind, but it was nice while it lasted at 0% interest...

shame to see people losing jobs, but if we all want our free packaging then i suppose someone has to provide the kind of half arsed service companies like amtrak and Home Delivery Network continue to 'provide'...

....why website sellers and couriers never deliever on Saturdays, Sundays and between 18:00 to 22:00 hours?

OK it's a none social days and hours but, what about us having to work and worry about collection. We are the ones earning the money to spend after all. I know satuday delieveries are done by some places but you usually only find out when you start ordering the object. I once ordered an expensive acoustic guitar (the item was on sale and too good to miss) and I was on tenderhooks as there was no-one at home to collect and no saturday delievery.

Arh, now I remember! We're British....we'll put up with any old sh*te and accept it.

...was hoping that Home Delivery Networks had breathed its last. They are really, really appalling. When we order from Dabs I always pray that someone else does the delivery.

The Amtrak guy in our area was good, but I was surprised at his clapped out truck.

MH

Sometimes I forget how tiny England is - a place where a courier with a fleet of only 2,000 trucks can anger so many people.

You guys should get you one of them UPS or FedEx things over there, or maybe do a deal with our USPS. It'd be good for everybody.

I stopped buying from Dabs when they started using Home Delivery Network. Unbelievably poor, enough so that I will never shop with Dabs again until I hear that they have changed their delivery service.

Least I suppose they live up to their name, they deliver to the home, just not necessarily the right one.

Hopefully this Amtrak problem will force some other couriers into a rethink.

I recently ordered a camcorder from Amazon, it was after 8pm in the evening on a Saturday. At the checkout I was offered next day Delivery. "But that's Sunday?" we though. Maybe it means next working day. I looked closer, it really meant Sunday. It cost something like £20 but I was guaranteed it would arrive while a) i was at home b) I wasn't at work.

I chose the option and checked out. I got an email at 8:30am saying my order had shopped.

It arrived around noon on Sunday, delivered by a man in an unmarked van. The courier was apparently Royal Mail...this shocked me a lot.

This was truly excellent service, I got what I paid for.

Comparitively you can order from Scan and pay £10 for a Citylink delivery about a week later. I know which I'd prefer.

Amtrak (round here at least) were a bunch of absolute amateurs. Parcels turned up days late (even on 'next day' delivery) and were often damaged.

I also wonder (along with a previous poster) WHY someone chose to name their company after the American nationalised passenger rail operator. Is there a 3rd-rate courier firm in the USA called "British Rail"?

I've used Dabs for business many times, and their 1-3 day delivery service normally turns up the next day - even for orders made late in the day. This is to London though, so the delivery network around here is probably better than average. They even managed to get the right address, unlike some other firms I might mention who confuse us with the offices down the road.

Perhaps business accounts get better service than residential orders.

I used to use Dabs but wanted to start using ebuyer, but then they asked me for a copy of my passport and proof of address before they'd sell me anything so I'm back to using Dabs!

Although most courier companies are terrible, Business Post have to be the worst. I'm assuming everyone rejoicing at this either missed that Business Post were taking over the deliveries or have never had the misfortune of using them.

BillyG, to remind us that there's always something worse (balmer).

"The Register asked BT, which bought Dabs.com in April 2006, for £30m" instead of "The Register asked BT, which bought Dabs.com in April 2006 for £30m" - somehow managed to read an extra comma in there.

As for couriers, the best one I've used is ANC

but everything I've ordered from Dabs (quite a lot) as always arrived next day -- EVEN when I've only paid for the 3 day delivery service.

Perhaps they're more efficient when dealing to always-open business addresses.

It doesn't make sense for people to order things and expect them to be delivered to a house that might be empty.

Amtrak & Business Post. Really folks you are not improving by much.

Service, is about the same. (shite) Although this is true for all the lads, DHL, Citylink, FedEx. because they all underpay, undertrain and over work their staff.

From the side that matters to the customers: BP do have a reasonable home delivery service if the sender fills in the despatch info properly (we never do this because we can't be arsed and only care about my final point)

In my experience are a bit cheaper than Amtrak.

IT angle icon because Business Post wrote their consignment software using FoxPro and...well seriously, FoxPro?. [Flame on]

Thank god for that. Citylink in our area will actually leave parcels with next door (my great aunt) if I'm out, know that she's in her 80's and will go to her back door with the parcel because she never uses the front door. Amtrak refuse to deliver to me unless they carry the box into the house through the front door because "it's a requirement of credit card orders". Why, for God's sake? Especially as it's dabs4work, and I'm ordering off a county council invoice only account? No wonder if they employ muppets like that.

and you wonder WHY service is crap - its because the mega high fuel prices mean there is no money to be spent on customer service...

get real people - and wake up and smell the nu labour feck up of everything...

paris - cos she is dumb enough to vote labour

Around Cardiff, Amtrak was one of the least unreliable couriers.

Citylink are the the local bottom feeders. I no longer order from anyone who uses them.

Target (RIP) were the best until Citylink bought and closed them.

This is the company that puts everything (last thing I bought from then was an SD card) into an 18"x12" cardboard box, and then charges £7 surcharge to send said box of air to Northern Ireland and/or remote corners of Scotland?

Why am I not upset to hear they've got problems in the delivery department? Couriers have their place, but so does ye olde humble Royal Mail, at 26p to anywhere in the UK.

I'm happy with DABS, and Amtrak were reliable to me. DABS have improved might I add, on a service that was damn god anyway. As for delivery times, card is left, you go and collect it, same as 95% of all other parcels I get delivered from couriers!

Delivery costs (and many other commodity costs) are being pushed relentlessly down by competition with people choosing the cheapest of anything to save a small, even trivial, amount.

This relentless pressure brought about by the consumer[*] who wants ever more for less means something gives, so first it's quality (often with concomitant worsening working conditions for the shopfloor/delivery staff) then it's the actual existence of these companies - they go bust.

Well, surprise.

If you want decent service/components/anything, it's going to cost a bit more. You can't magic that away, and the price comparison sites and endless magazine articles comparing items (eg. pcs in the mags I read) predominantly by price just ignore that fact and drive assorted industries into sickness, and their employees with them.

[*] I hate that word

Couldn't agree with you more about Dabs, their customer service has been abysmal for a long time now. I remember once to get a refund I guessed the email address of the CEO so I could complain to him to get my money back (this was back before he was out attacking women). It took nearly 2 months to process the refund...

Of course, Micro Direct is 50 times worse than Dabs, and I wouldn't use them again ever because even if something is faulty they won't give you a refund... until you take them to small claims court anyway!

Much maligned I know, but if I'm not home the drop it at the local Post Office where I can collect it, that evening, or at the weekend.

The village I live in is a long way from any depot, so if I miss a delivery, it doesn't matter.

In my experience all the couriers are just as bad as each other, and in many cases it's down to the driver. I've been caught a number of times by couriers ringing the bell, and departing because I haven't reached the door within 30 seconds. They also deliver at the wrong time, leave it with neighbours but fill in the card with the wrong house number. I've also had them chuck parcels over my back garden fence, leave a cardboard box outside on wet days. I think I've been the victim of just about every courier company there is, and the most reliable and professional service has always come from Royal Mail Letters, I exclude Parcel Farce from that designation.

I've also noticed that quite a few couriers now use plain white vans with no identification on them. Wonder why?

Oh yes they are! I stopped using them (pre BT) when Dabs refused to take back an order incorrectly supplied simply because they had no record that it had been delivered! Yes it was Amtrak, but as I policy I boycott any company that I have to write registered post letters to and then threaten with the small claims court. Dabs never had the courtesy to acknowlege that they or their couriers might just have made a mistake. Fools.

As for Ebuyer wanting proof of your address/passport, I would suggest that you probably wanted your first order delivered to an address other than the cardholder's address. GOOD for them! It's a simple security policy that works - unlike the idiots at Dell and Misco who delivered againt my cloned credit card (Thank you Shell).

Let's be careful out there ....

I initially thought that Dabs had gone tits up and not just a courier. I did a little jig and everything but then I saw Dabs was still going and I was a little sad.

Pre-BT or post-BT Dabs are arguably not the worst company to buy from but they are so bad you would have to be cognitively challenged in order to do so.

> I also wonder (along with a previous poster) WHY someone chose to name their company after the American nationalised passenger rail operator. Is there a 3rd-rate courier firm in the USA called "British Rail"?

Na, it was in the UK, they just couriered people instead of items. Still 3rd-rate tho...

I occassionally use Dabs, have had both positive and negative experiences with them. Slightly frustrated that they seem to have dumbed down their product information pages - previously you could get wads of info on there. Delivery was always a joke - as mentioned above, massive box with bugger all in it. Think they've stopped shipping you free air in plastic bubbles now though?

yoyotech all the way for me... only cos they're local though, and generally helpful if you wander into the store on TCR

Royal mail/parcel force is about right for small stuff...BUT BEWARE...do not get heavy items mailed by them.

I had a laser printer delivered and informed them of the size and weight.

(It clearly takes 2 people to lift the box as it is large.)

SO, the postman turns up at the delivery address and asks the person accepting it IF THEY WILL HELP HIM LIFT IT OFF THE VAN. She refused as she wasn't strong enough, (quite right to as well, as if he had of dropped his end the insurance wouldn't have covered the damage because she would have been helping to bring it in from the street??).

The postman took the huff.(they don't like delivering non-letters generally)

He then dragged it from the back of the van and deliberately let the other side of the box slam down onto the concrete road with a crunch(there is no tail lift on postoffice vans-remember)......he then dragged the box up the small path (they don't use the trolley things that proper delivery drivers use).

Then out of spite he ROLLED the box numerous times over the doorway into the office hearing it smash about inside, despite there being signs on the outside of the box saying "FRAGILE, THIS WAY UP ONLY, GLASS INSIDE"(glass=optical laser drum).

Once i heard about this i complained to royal mail, who then sent out a form to fill in and said it might be months before someone comes to inspect the damage for repair etcetc, heard nothing from them, and couldn't be bothered chasing it up as i had learned they were useless by then. £150 lost)

SO don't use royal mail/parcel force for heavy/big/fragile stuff. They are rubbish at that.

Have never had problems with Dabs but have gone right off yoyotech.

Their promise of 'paying the internet price instore' is, I suppose, technically true; they also try to add on the same 'shipping and handling' charge as you'd pay online for shipping and handling it, er, all the way over the counter to you.

When I asked the man to justify this he said they had to 'because we all know that you're all out there watching the internet and then coming in here to save money'

Um, Quite.

The only two couriers I use are CityLink (UK) and UPS (international). I guess it is luck of the draw, since CityLink in my area are superb. Always the same guy (unless he's on holiday) and he is more accurate than the atomic clock - always 8.30am on the dot (regardless of the level of service I use)! When I order from companies, I ask them which courier they use. Point black refuse if they say home delivery network which really is a POS.

talking of bad names........

dabs????

...but anyone fancy a knees-up at the Amtrak memorial?

Horrible company, practically uncontactable, parcels routinely delayed day after day because drivers didn't complete their rounds, goods damaged, dropped off at the wrong address or vanished.

Perhaps I can now start shopping again at some sites who used Amtrak to (not) deliver their goods.

They are both here although FedEx only deliver within the M25 London orbital Motorway or they did.The main courier Co. in the UK are Securicor/Omega ,TNT

Bussiness Post also there are probibly thousands of pureley local Co that use any thing from motorcycles to 40' semi's and anything inbetween sometimes they are subcontracted to the big players.Chopper cos there is probibly a Co.using one

Guess what, we have UPS, AND FedEx AND... DHL. All three deliver outside the M25 too, thank you very much. All three have large depots in larger cities and towns, so it's not just Securicor/Omega/TNT who are the main couriers.

DHL has branched into Staples as well (so you can DHL stuff from your nearest Staples branch), and UPS and FedEx do home collections on request.

FedEx used to be franchised out to BusinessPost (part of Deutsche Post), but since Deutsche Post bought DHL to merge some of their other UK acquisitions into one, FedEx has expanded rapidly too.

My courier experience has varied wildly... in some cases it's been crap, only for the same company to bend over backwards to accomodate your request a week or two later. At times the experience from DHL/UPS/FedEx has been absolutely horrendous, way beyond below par from what one expects. So it's all dependent on the depot that your parcel arrived at.

Bit out the loop mate.

DHL own Securicor/Omega (long time ago now) all the vans are rebranded

FedEx now own ANC and I believe have also rebranded.

yep... I'm sad.

.. they bill your card and misplace your delivery before it's left the depot.

Then try talking to them. If you can.

you lot are a load of tossers, we've all lost our jobs, don't put us all in the same category, some of us did our jobs right i know alot didn't, the reason why we had 2 deliver through your door was there was so much credit card fraud on dabs so if i gave it your auntys uncle who is also your mum/dad who lives in your dog house round the back i'd of got the sack and you'd be the first 1 moanin when you dint get it, you wouldn't order a pizza when you wasn't at home would you, and just try takin parcels to a post office they dont want to know unless your from royal mail so i hope you enjoying getting in your car and fetching your shit stuff thanks over & out ex amtrak driver.. soon to be working 4 another shit company and putting a card through your door sorry your not in NOT!

...whoever Misco use. Where I work I never select next day delivery when I order from them because over the past couple of years I can't recall anything not arriving next day on the 1-3 day delivery anyway. Even when ordering late in the day. YMMV

BTW @ The AC who says you don't get refunds from Micro Direct - I did! No small claims court required. Just jumps through several hoops to get them to realise that my duff item had more than the one year warranty that their system appears to assume.

We stopped buying from Dabs simply because Amtrak messed up so badly on so many deliveries. We may start using them again if they get a decent carrier instead.

Getting a card at our business unit at 7.20 AM (nobody in surprisingly) on an important 'Next Day' delivery, being told it wouldn't be back at the depot until 4 PM for collection by us, driving 1.5 hours to get there at 4.00PM to discover it shut "It was a bit quiet so we went home early" as we were later told with no apology and the sense they thought this entirely reasonable. Just one of many such incidents.

Schadenfreude was invented for news of companies like this going under.

maybe they were trying to tell you some thing. Oh yeah as lately Amtrack is not that bad. Mainly because they have been taken over by the government. Truly shocking when the government goes into a co op with a private company and service goes up.

I use Dabs as my main supplier and i cannot fault them.

I have 13 offices and therefore have considerable spend with dabs, so i have my own acct manager etc.. I always pick 1-3 days delivery and its always there the next day without fail. And i cannot beat their prices elsewhere.

10 out of 10 from me.

I was REALLY hoping that shower of s**t Home Delivery Network Ltd had went down the pan, Amtrak round my way actually weren't too bad (well after me yelling down the phone a few times that I paid for the item to be delivered BEFORE noon not by 5) at least they published their depot number unlike HDNL who try and avoid talking to customers (we only discuss deliveries with the sender, you'll have to contact them if you want to find out where your parcel is)

Citylink are the best round here apart from not delivering on Saturdays and I'm only 10 minutes down a motorway grade A road *rolls eyes*

Ebuyer gave me a good laugh telling me that "Citylink only offer 3 day service in your area [Scotland generally]" despite there being a depot 15 miles from me and me being 3 minutes off said A road, and having next day drops from Citylink for donkeys years.

Dabs I will NEVER use again, incompetent morons who along with HDNL would NOT accept any responsibilty for me not receiving a package on time (present) so I spent 3 hours of my birthday driving to Aberdeen where my package had been dumped (only reason I found it was there was googling depots till I found a number for Glasgow who helpfully told me it was in Aberdeen and gave me their number...unlike their Nazi Callcentre who decided they were god and I would have to wait until they felt like delivering it)

Tekheads are my favourite company, always dispatched on time, prices not bad, packaged well :) Unlike Scan who FORGOT (their admission) to pack up a £900 + order (only reason I didn't cancel was I needed the parts ASAP and couldnt wait a week for the refund to clear on my card (I didn't have enough £ to charge another £900 on it, otherwise Tekheads would have got the order)

Lastly Citylink in the Dundee area are A C E! Anytime I phone up to get an estimate on time, I speak to either a lovely lady or a not so lovely bloke and get a rough 2 hour time slot or narrower of when the guy will turn up (usually circa noon or 1 pm which isn't bad at all)

Dabs will follow suit and close it's doors. I've had nothing but trouble with them (lost parcels, incorrect stock levels shown on website, crab customer service, etc) since they were taken over by BT. My company now uses Ebuyer and not a single complaint! Pure bliss! A company we can rely on.

Bye bye Amtrack, you won't be missed ... not by me anyway.

19 miles? 10 minutes? Just don't tell plod... ;-)

As others on this board, I used to use Dabs as the preferred supplier.

However, back in 2001 they spent nearly a week going over "security footage of their packaging" to see if they could proof the 80GBP motherboard that was missing from an order was actually packed. This delayed a contract to build machines for someone, and upset my customer.

Since then I've been very wary, though the occasional order has been made. No more though, as they won't allow you (the customer) to choose the courier, instead deciding to randomly choose. Having had hard drives stepped on and kicked by Home Delivery Network (boot prints clearly visible, reliability of drive single figure pecentage) and having parcels delayed because "I was too busy yesterday", Dabs have for the past 3 years been used only as a *very* last resort.

That another company owned by them is suffering is most likely due to that (previous excellent) company's basic mismanagement.

To save the other parts, they should allow the customer asking to place an order for 10KGBP the choice of courier. They refused, even knowing that it could lead to many other similar orders... they lost the business.

What a highly informed comment you make. (not?!) I have a day job. just like the couriers. Only, my day job starts at half past seven, and stops when everyone else has finised. I provide whats called a service to people, which means that I work when they need me to work, not when I fancy it because its convenient to me.

As was mentioned earlier, if Courer companies cottoned on to the 'outside working hours' delivery slot they would make a fortune. When I did a stint as a Tesco '.com' driver I worked from 5pm till 11pm. Because thats what the customer wants.

So: 1: Dont rant and abuse a myriad of highly intelligent contributors and readers.

2: Try responding intelligently to the points raised.

3: A polite argument carries a lot more weight than aggression.

Yes there is credit card fraud out there. Its not up to couriers to try to fix that. Its up to consumers, vendors, and banks. If I have a contract with a courier to deliver, its up to them to fulfill it. Citylink have some horriffic practices, but I have to confess in Norfolk I've not had to claim from them once, and only occasionally have to pick up from the depot. Royal mail are pretty good. However, without fail, UPS are the best I deal with, always delivering in my area in a 2 hour window. It helps if you understand how courier companies work.

PS Black helicopter as these are the White Vans of Urbanity...

PPS Couriers use white vans when they break their own...

watford electronics once used them. the curse of mr Jessa

I'm surprised anyone still uses Dabs anyway since they got taken over by the totally inept BT, who couldn't organise a P up in a brewery. No wonder they'd choose a useless courier!

DABS is the worst company i have EVER had the misfortune of dealing with.

I have waited for OVER a month for them to collect a faulty item - i get emails from them confirming collection dates only to find it is still in reception the next day!!

I am on the chat to DABS very day complaining but they don't care.

No wonder why they don't have a phone number if they offer such a despicable service. It wouldn't be to far off for me to say I HATE THEM!

Never use them. Claim your life back from their ridiculous live chat debacles.