Delivery rights discussion

Failed Deliveries from a Retailers Point of View

We are a small company that dispatches 100 parcels a day using "Yodel" - Everyone has had bad experiences with any one of the many couriers in one way or the other, but Yodel from my experience is the "best of the worst".
Small companies rely on 3rd parties to deliver your goods and it is therefore the company that is responsible for you receiving your parcel. Do not be fobbed off - if you don't want to email, then ring them on the customer services number - contact them within a reasonable space of time, it is your responsibility to say that your goods have not been delivered. A good company will want you to get your goods and reorder from them - it is therefore their job to contact the courier and queue for 20 mins! However do not expect immediate results.

I also understand how frustrating it is when a parcel has not been delivered. I have heard all the excuses from customers and couriers.
No delivery is 100% - we get round this by saying to "expect" your parcel by a certain day.

A courier company makes it as difficult as possible for a company like mine to get money back from them.
Always contact the retailer first - if they are being a pain, vote with your feet - by from someone else.

Xmas is the busiest time of year for deliveries, so delays will happen. Nothing is guaranteed. Vans break down, drivers get sick.
Therefore do not order last minute!
If you have chosen a Next day by 12 service and the goods arrive later, then a good courier should refund the difference.

If possible, do not take a day off work and wait - have it delivered to your work address or leave instructions "if not in, please leave......."

Couriers are supposed to get signitures for deliveries - otherwise they use their "common sense" to leave it with your neighbour or "in the green recycling box out front", or round the back. Common sense however is not common. A driver does not know if you live in a Crimewatch area and you have thieving neighbours. They just want to deliver your parcel and go.
If you pop out, then that is your fault for popping out - leave a note on the door - then driver has something they can take away.
Couriers are supposed to leave a card - however sometimes they do not - sometimes they do not even ring your bell - sometimes they even sign for it themselves if they are on tight time schedules. Inexcusable. Contact the retailer. Explain what has happened. My experience is that the majority of the general public are honest.

Unfortunately there are drivers who do sign for parcels and the delivery company does hide behind the T&Cs - therefore the retailer will say that the product has been delivered, therefore end of story. Therefore always pay by credit card. A good retailer will give you the benefit of the doubt - I know we do. Otherwise you can get you money back via credit card

The system is not perfect. Ideally when the courier pushes the door bell, they should always be able to contact you, but this is not the case.

Remember, vote with your feet!

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There are many people who ae self-employed / freelance, and who work out of home for a number of clients. Hard-copy work has to be delivered to them , often while they are out , so a "safe place" / neighbour is designated... with the arrangement that a card is left by the courier inducating what ha been done re a delivery.

If the courier fails to comply , one then has to lose work and / or time and / or payment , to obtain delivery.

Should one simply invoice the courier for the monetary amount it has cost them ??

As MSE is well viewed I hope many people will see this and hopefully improve your delivery success.

I am a trainer for a delivery company.

When ordering online in the third line of address detail that is rarely used put your telephone number. As this will always be printed on the delivery label and on his handheld scanner and the driver can call you if he has problems locating.

If you know your having a delivery please leave a note on the door or in your window specifying what neighbour will take your delivery in your absence.

If you want the parcel left leave a signed note saying where you want it left with a signature and the driver can take that away as your signature and leave the parcel as instructed.

I deliver between 50-110 stops per day and if people would do the above it would make things so much easier.

And also before I go it's busy this time of year and sometimes staff sickness or poor quality agency staff prevent us from being able to deliver first time but we want you to get your parcel as much as you want it!!

I work for Asda home shopping and when we are late we normally ring the customer to let them know and if more convenient we rearrange the delivery, most of the time the customers are alright about it if you ring them in plenty of time, the ones that aren't we tend to refund the delivery charge, or if they are really irate then we tell them to ring the free phone number to complain and the call centre refunds delivery charge and sometimes give a voucher code for free delivery off next order.

But on the flip side as a driver many a time I have turned up at customers houses with in the agreed time slot and had to wait for them to get home from dropping kids off at school, why order for a time when you won't be in for the whole 2 hours? We also get the odd customer that leaves a note saying had to go out leave in garage or other location, our company policy is not to leave goods as they could be stolen, I have on occasion done this for regular customers but left a message on their answerphone and a note through the door, as well as taking a picture on my mobile to prove in case it comes back to bite me on the bum! I also notice that some customers don't put addresses down right or live in a funny location which is hard to find and don't put any additional notes in the delivery instructions, then when you phone to ask they say everyone phones to ask where they are!! Well a lot of delivery drivers work to tight schedules, Asda has a system that says when we leave store, what time to get to the customers door, how long to spend at the door. Now if we can't find the address then it puts us behind and the time frame we work on doesn't allow for busy roads, delays or anything like that so it gets frustrating. My favourite is the customers that that have a doorbell that doesn't work, so you stand ringing the doorbell and it doesn't work so you wait 5 mins then knock on the door they don't hear that so you phone up and they answer and then tell you doorbell doesn't work, well take the bloody thing off the wall then or fix it or make a note to say it doesn't work!! Rant over

Now back to my own experiences of dodgy deliveries, we used to use Littlewoods catalogue company a lot and we had one order delivered when we were out as there was no date given for delivery, the note through the door stated left behind the wood in back garden, well we went out into garden and searched all over couldn't find it, wife phoned up and they said they would just refund the item instead. 4 months later we were cleaning out the old outhouse/coal shed and found it hanging on the back of the door!! Also the other month royal mail just left a parcel on our doorstep, luckily we spotted it before anyone else did as we live in a dodgy council estate where anything not bolted down gets stolen. We also had some cast iron gates delivered and costing a lot of money and the courier left them down a neighbours alleyway between their house and another neighbours house, which then got stolen, but lucky for us the company refunded the cost.