Yodel -crap!

irishjohn

Thank you Shalis - I bought a wireless speaker from Amazon Black Friday Deals - and then confirmation showed it will be delivered by Yodel tomorrow - so here's hoping for a positive outcome here too

Witless

Hmmmm. Not Yodel but coincidentally their depot is Carrickfergus too!

Despatched from CARRICKFERGUS DEPOT 00:59, Thu, 28 Nov 2013

Loaded onto OMAGH VAN 16:17, Thu, 28 Nov 2013

Delivery attempted card left at 16:19, Thu, 28 Nov 2013

No callers at the house since I got home at 15:10, my son & I both here at the time of the supposed delivery attempt; definitely no card left either.

Either an extremely fast driver or somewhat ecconomical with the truth.

Strangely enough the call centre wouldn't give me the number of the Omagh Depot (who apparently are unable to contact the driver).

It'll be interesting to see what tomorrow brings; if it's a parcel it'd better be undamaged.

Quick email en route to the supplier giving him the facts and advising a change of courier even if it means a more expensive (for the customer) delivery.

Witless

In a sense of fairness I copied the email to the courier.

Time will tell; I advised the supplier i wouldn't be ordering again if they stay with the same courier.

irishjohn

irishjohn wrote: »

Thank you Shalis - I bought a wireless speaker from Amazon Black Friday Deals - and then confirmation showed it will be delivered by Yodel tomorrow - so here's hoping for a positive outcome here too

Well folks - my wireless speaker was delivered at 9.30am on the specified day by a very friendly driver, who had a smile for his customers. This morning I received my M&S outlet delivery again though Amazon and by Yodel. I went to the back to feed the birds, and was emptying the waste bin when I saw through my kitchen the same Yodel driver wave at me - another order delivered as promised and agin early enough for me not to have to wait around. To be honest I was expecting this order to arrive tomorrow as it was not a guaranteed one like the previous.

I have had Yodel problems before where it took 3 attempts to get my order delivered and that gave me a bad feeling about ordering anything which is Yodel delivered. I suspect that it very much depends on the character of the driver and I am fortunate to have found a good one. I realise it still leaves Yodel hard to contact when they let you down - so its possible the company standards are being exceeded by some of its drivers and adhered to by others.

rolo1_2

Yodel are hit and miss -if you are unlucky to fall into the miss category Yodel are indeed an Epic Fail. They make things up, pretend to have delivered stuff and are totally baffled.
The staff up in Carrickfergus depot are totally swamped in chaos.

shalis

A vote for Citylink Express. Ordered item at end of last week from Amazon. Was pleased to see the courier was Citylink Express. Tracked order last 2 days. Their website said it was on van for delivery today. Just arrived a few mins ago. On checking website 5 mins later it showed item had been delivered. (obviously as a result of me signing electronically for it). Excellent service and the item was delivered exactly as stated on their website. They get my vote.

snowmen

Yodel are Ok if you are in at the time they try to deliver.
Miss them and your problems will begin...
Like others we have had good drivers (courteous and efficient) and others (throwing parcel over back wall, putting note through door when didn't even knock or ring bell).
I wouldn't want to be relying on them for a special present near xmas .....

chunter

It's worth mentioning some if not most of these delivery contracts are subcontracted out to companies who then subcontract the work out to "men with vans".
On the normal 10 months of the year it's a 'drive like a maniac' system, but then it kicks into Christmas.
These subcontractors don't add extra vans to the route at Christmas so 'the man with the van' may have many more deliveries to make than normal.
If it can't be delivered it's added to his route for the next day.
It's worth asking the delivery man what time he gets home at.
It's not far off the Amazon Swansea situation where you have a number of minutes to get to the next delivery point.

Maybe it'd be useful to ask the retailer what Courier service they use and reporting it back here. Maybe we can builda picture of who the bad couriers are and who are the sensible ones, who do bring in extra staff/vans for Christmas.

giplet

The worst experience I had with them was a few years back when ordering items online that I needed for a specific date. I paid for specified day delivery, and was told that I had to be in to sign for the items which would be delivered between 8am and 6pm, under no circumstances could they be left without a signature. So I took a day off work and stayed in the house. At 4:30pm I rang to check the delivery was definitely coming and was they couldn’t do anything until after 6pm.

Of course nothing arrived, day off work wasted! Phoning and emailing got me nowhere so I bought the items elsewhere and arranged for my credit card company to refund me (due to the company saying that they couldn’t refund me as it was out for delivery).

Came home over a month later I came home to find the delivery dumped in the back garden as no-one was home to sign for it! I made several phone calls to get it taken away (as I had already bought it elsewhere and obtained a refund for the original order), which resulted in it lying in my back garden for another few days (maybe even weeks, I can’t remember how long) before being collected.

It was then manhandled and thrown into the back of the van, and when I told the staff member that it was glass and therefore breakable, he grunted and shrugged.

Suplex_Backbreaker

I've only had stuff delivered by them once but it turned into a bit of a farce when I wasn't in and it ended up with me chasing the package to and from Carrickfergus the next day.

The staff involved were friendly enough and tried their best to help rectify matters but there seemed to be a communications breakdown between their logistics system and their back office/customer services.

I much prefer Parcelforce/Royal Mail (or whatever they are calling themselves now) as they have been consistently quick and reliable, not to mention being typically cheaper for NI shipping. It will be interesting to see if they get better or worse after full privatisation, my guess is worse.