Today I wrote this letter to David Smith MD of CityLink and copied Robert Peto, Finance Director, Jane Desmond, Customer Care Director and Adele Henderson, Director of Operations. I am hoping they will help me find my paintings which went missing en route to my customer on 2nd November.

Mr David Smith, Managing Director, CityLink Ltd, CoventryAirpark, Siskin Parkway West, Baginton, Coventry, CV3 4PA

 12^th November 2012

  Re: CityLink Customer Service Issues

 Dear Mr Smith,

 I am writing to you concerning an issue I have with some parcels that went missing through CityLink’s system almost as soon as they were collected on 2^nd November 2012.

 The details on tracking number QAxxxxx show them being collected at 16:59 on 2^nd November but then they appear never to have arrived at the collection depot inMilton Keynes.

 Firstly please understand, I appreciate things do go wrong but as we know it is the way issues are resolved that instils confidence in a customer and I have to say the help I have received to date has been shoddy to say the least.

 Today is day 11 since the goods went missing and in the first couple of days I was fobbed off with all sorts of excuses and told more than once ‘someone will get back to you…’ but of course no one did.

 Somebody did eventually get back to me but I am still left feeling that all I am getting is a load of lip service and trite platitudes and the longer my packages remain lost the more I feel they will never be found.

Goodbye News of the World (c) Anne Blankson-Hemans

 Mr Smith, I have seen and read with a small glimmer of hope, the press release that was put out on 6^th September 2012 entitled ‘CityLink will put customers first’, that outlines your ‘right first time’ ethos. I applaud the sentiment and hope that your organisation will indeed do this with the utmost urgency because you only have to google ‘citylink complaints’ to see what I mean and I have to admit had I seen this before I arranged collection I would not have touched your company with a barge pole.

 I need to know that CityLink are doing everything they can to find my packages which contain 2 original paintings. I am an artist; not an established artist so the value of the goods is not high even though my customer was happy enough to pay £xxxx for the pair. I am not seeking compensation but just want to make sure that the goods are found. If they arrived at your depot then they are in the system. They cannot have disappeared into thin air.

 Mr Smith, I am addressing this to you and your team, Jane Desmond, Customer Care Director, Robert Peto, Finance Director and Adele Henderson, Director of Operations. I have researched your respective backgrounds and see you all have great credentials.

Yesterday's News (c) Anne Blankson-Hemans

 Please, if you want this ethos to filter through effectively please please please start with your customer care; I am afraid and very sorry to say this but it is shoddy. Perhaps one of you could go undercover or perhaps even listen in on some of the phone recordings?

 Secondly, your tracking system needs to be foolproof. A parcel cannot go missing as soon as it arrives at the depot. What is the process for cross-checking and tracking collections?

 The communication is terrible and infuriating. There is no point at all telling a customer someone will call them back when they know full well no one will.

 Last but not least please please please talk to your customers; there is no shortage of customers to speak with, as I said you only have to google ‘citylink complaints’.

 It would be fantastic to hear the organisation has turned itself around completely. I know you said you would like to turn over £500m in 3 years. This is possible if you would pay attention to some of the points I have raised above. Customers are dissatisfied!!!

 So now my parcels must be found. As I mentioned I have no confidence that anything is being done probably on account of the fact that there are thousands of missing parcels in the system and it is probably easier to fill a claim form which is then disputed by your terms and conditions.

 Please just let me know what has been attempted? Have they reviewed CCTV on the day the packages arrived at the depot? How closely has the driver been questioned? He told CityLink customer service he brought the goods to the collection depot and put them on the conveyor belt but told me when I bumped into him on Day 8 of the packages going missing that they were too big for the belt so he carried them directly to the scanner after changing the labels (the order was booked via your broker Interparcel so he says he had to create new labels. The driver collected 2 packages but the tracking number shows only one was collected. I have cctv to prove this.

 Has anyone checked the driver’s manifest for 2^nd November? The driver was a ‘subbie’ and as it was a Friday his van was less than half full. Have all the goods collected on his van that day arrived at their correct destination?

 This is not a difficult checklist and these are the questions I have been asking but have not received any satisfactory answers to date.

 I would like to help you reach and maintain your £500m target but I like many of your customers would love to be able to give you the right testimonial. At the moment all I can do is to use social media to run a campaign (#FindAnnesPaintings) and consider press releases to the media and letters to WatchDog. These last 2 considerations are borne purely out of frustration.

 Please help me. The items are only of unique and personal value to me and my customer and we would so love to have them back. There are 2 brown cardboard boxes approximately 140cm x 115cm x 10cm labelled with the customer’s name and address and my name and address as the sender in the top left hand corner. They were collected from my place of work – a fine art publishing company in Bletchley (which incidentally ships several hundred packages each week through another carrier and have never had an incident like this)

 I look forward to hearing positively from you and hope this letter will not end up on the top of the pile of other letters which will no doubt have reached you.

 Yours sincerely

  Anne Herbert

(Anne Blankson-Hemans – artist)

 www.anneblankson-hemans.com

anne@anneblankson-hemans.com

Cc

Jane Desmond – Customer Care Director

Robert Peto – Finance Director

Adele Henderson – Director of Operations