Yodel delivery services - AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

gwapenut

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Are you always in when a driver calls? Is everyone else always in when a driver calls?

I'm always in when a driver should be calling for a redelivery I've arranged.

I will qualify what I said though by saying that I believe the problem is with Yodel's senior management rather than the drivers. The management seem to sell more business than they are capable of fulfilling, overloading what drivers they do have.

And then the management disincentivise the drivers from telling the truth - that a 16 hour day wasn't enough to deliver all their parcels - by fining them for non-attempted deliveries. The only way a driver can ensure not losing out when overloaded is to claim that the recipient wasn't home.

This has the added bonus for CEO Jonathan Smith that he can then claim that the problem of undercapacity is caused by the end customer requiring too many deliveries per parcel rather than his logistical planning. In my case, he would have been able to claim that my single parcel required 4 delivery attempts, when the reality would have been one if they had time to turn up at my house.

I apologise for using the phrase "can't be bothered" - I'm sure in the vast majority of cases, that is wrong.

Doc_N

gwapenut wrote: »

I will qualify what I said though by saying that I believe the problem is with Yodel's senior management rather than the drivers. The management seem to sell more business than they are capable of fulfilling, overloading what drivers they do have.

That seems to be changing. He's now saying that they're starting to charge more for deliveries - quite considerably more, in fact.

They've perhaps realised that the current business model isn't working - though they've probably put some of their competitors out of business already, which can't be bad for them.

Benefits starting to come through already. I've never before had a text from Yodel giving me a delivery estimate - that was quite a shock! Ties up with this:

"Shoppers will receive email and SMS delivery updates as standard, including time slot advice and be able to track their parcel using a simplified, customer-friendly online service. Any additional queries can be answered by making a free call to Yodel's customer services, as the current charges are dropped."

Flyboy152

Doc_N wrote: »

That seems to be changing. He's now saying that they're starting to charge more for deliveries - quite considerably more, in fact.

They've perhaps realised that the current business model isn't working - though they've probably put some of their competitors out of business already, which can't be bad for them.

Benefits starting to come through already. I've never before had a text from Yodel giving me a delivery estimate - that was quite a shock! Ties up with this:

"Shoppers will receive email and SMS delivery updates as standard, including time slot advice and be able to track their parcel using a simplified, customer-friendly online service. Any additional queries can be answered by making a free call to Yodel's customer services, as the current charges are dropped."

The problem is though, they are unlikely to pay the couriers any more than they get already, ergo there will be no incentive for them to provide the service Yodel are charging for.

Doc_N

Flyboy152 wrote: »

The problem is though, they are unlikely to pay the couriers any more than they get already, ergo there will be no incentive for them to provide the service Yodel are charging for.

They certainly won't be paying the couriers any more - I agree. The incentive, though, is the state of the economy, and the lack of other employment.

Very, very few, if any, people work for Yodel because they want to, and that's part of the problem.

originalbob

Must admit that Yodel do seem to have pulled their socks up a bit of late.
Was expecting a delivery scheduled for a Monday, and got a nice text two days early to say that goods would be delivered between 12 and 8 that day.Goods arrived and were signed for by 12:30! Not bad going guys!

Helix

I would say around here Yodel have got worse, didn't really have much of a problem until the last couple of deliveries where they lied about attempting to deliver two days running.

squidge60

I would like to thank the person who delivered my parcel and threw it in the wheelie bin !
Should be fun on wednesday when someone comes to pick it up from there.
Noone from this house is picking it out i know that much.:mad:

profscooter

The problem I have with Yodel is I am a sender rather than a receiver and they don't call to collect, let alone deliver. I had this problem with a couple of packages a few months ago and left them alone for a while, tried again this week, they were booked to collect on Wednesday, re-booked for Thursday this week and didn't turn up then either. So a parcel that should already be with my customer today (Friday) is still waiting to be collected. I used them because they offered the best price from those put forward by Parcel2Go. I think I will just ignore Yodel in future and pretend they don't exist

Stryder

Last time I used yodel I was shouted by a driver, and when i complained he got sacked, and a few months down the line threatened to beat me up in Tesco's.

yes - if your reading this, you know who you are. definately one to avoid!

melbell

profscooter wrote: »

The problem I have with Yodel is I am a sender rather than a receiver and they don't call to collect, let alone deliver. I had this problem with a couple of packages a few months ago and left them alone for a while, tried again this week, they were booked to collect on Wednesday, re-booked for Thursday this week and didn't turn up then either. So a parcel that should already be with my customer today (Friday) is still waiting to be collected. I used them because they offered the best price from those put forward by Parcel2Go. I think I will just ignore Yodel in future and pretend they don't exist

Parcel Broker collections with all couriers (and in Yodels case, Catalogue returns) are the lowest priority as they are not direct customers. So frequently get dropped, if a bigger money job or they run out of time.

This happens with all couriers.