Parcel delivery firms: who are the best and worst? 2 January 2014 at 2:00PM edited 2 January 2014 at 3:24PM in MoneySaving polls 43 replies 12.9K views

Mooch9987

taxitaxitaxi wrote: »

How can this poll be accurate when all Collect Plus Parcels are delivered by Yodel, Yodel get bad rating and Collect Plus get a good one ?

Exactly right - aren't they the same company??? In my experience Yodel have been actually one of the best of recent times, their deliveries have been brilliant. They have had a pretty bad press as I have used a huge selection of parcel companies over the years and every one has let me down or hasn't been great, there's good and bad in them all. I think Yodel have improved greatly. The service has been great and the updates as a Yodel customer are by far the best that I've seen.

Mooch9987

Life_is_too_short wrote: »

So some parcel companies only deliver premium services others are used by retailers to deliver the lowest cost services possible so they can offer free deliveries. A service that folks on this forum will applaud.

So when you get your free delivery that takes 3 days to arrive please do not compare it with the 15 minute delivery slot you got from the retailer who added £5.00 plus to your order. You get what you pay for but this is determined by the retailer not the carrier.

For the avoidance of doubt I am not saying it is acceptable for a free delivery to be a problematic delivery. Just don't expect all the bells and whistles for a free delivery.

Yodel and Hermes tend to get pigeon-holed as poor providers when they are in fact delivering to the low price specification they have contacted with the retailers to ensure a free delivery option is available to you the consumer.

Also I understand that when a retailer's web site offers customers to suggest a likely safe place, the single largest request is recycling bin because it hides the parcel and keeps it dry. So what should the delivery driver do...the vast majority of leave safe options are recycling or wheelie bins...yet on so many consumer feedback fora this is seen as a lazy and stupid choice chosen by the delivery driver....

Before anybody asks,....yes I do work in the industry and am proud to do so. Tens of millions of parcels are delivered every day and the vast majority without incident. In the UK we have the best range of parcel carriers in the world and this is amazing given we have the lowest margins in the world. Most parcels are delivered across the country for prices less than a pint of beer paid to the carrier and margins are pennies - if lucky. So, if folk want better then recognise free delivery will not give you this and you need to pay a price that will allow the parcel carriers to invest in improvements.

My vote is all parcel carriers are acceptable to good.

Thanks to all those trolls who take delight in making this a meaningless survey. However, you trolls probably achieve your aim by depressing lots of delivery drivers who work their socks off to provide a good service and see themselves described "cow boys"

I can predict the outcome of this survey...but then any one with a brain can do. You can't compare parcel carriers being paid less than a price of a pint per parcel with those being paid more than a good bottle of wine eg compare Hermes to DHL international. It would be like doing a survey to ask which is better a Mondeo or a Rolls Royce. I for one prefer the value for money of a Mondeo but I recognise it will not have the external appeal of a Rolls Royce.

Well said!!!! Couldn't agree more.

driverdriver

scottme wrote: »

Results so far bear out my impression that Yodel are the worst and DPD possibly the best. My own stories:

• Yodel recently squashed an expensive laser printer into my wheelie bin, leaving a card through the door saying it was in a "safe place". Luckily it wasn't a waste collection day.
  
• DPD have an excellent tracking website so you can follow your delivery's progress and know more or less exactly when to expect the bell to ring. UPS and the rest can't seem to give you any clue as to what time of day their driver might turn up.

so if dpd was delivering you would be at home to hear the bell ring........... but if any other carrier is delivering ,you wont be and expect them to put it in a safe place....nice one another sensless comment

rageagainstessays

Fedex, UPS, Parcel Force and Royal Mail have always been good for me. DPD missed one of my deliveries so I'm not their biggest fan... so yeah

driverdriver

custardy wrote: »

yup,but people can only go on the experience they get
good,bad or misrepresented.
Every company has bad press online
mind talking to somebody the other day. Yodel left a package in their works yard behind the bins.(royal mail delivery office),whilst the package was actually for the towns post office

well said attach a copy to every parcel delivered please

vinh1000

Amazon Lockers are great and efficient as they usually deliver it to my nearest locker at the same time each morning - they use TNT :-) tracking is good too

Yodel keep losing my parcels and when calling their dwpor up they don't want to hear about it so I never use them and put off buying from companies who may use them

UPS, DPD/Interlink are great the tracking is good and efficient service

I use Hermes too and use the Parcel Locker and Shop option as my local courier never turns up when booked so its far quicker and easier to use the shop or locker

City Link never answer the phone when my parcel says it was meant to be delivered one day and great it don't turn up :-(

Collect+ is great as got nice local shops I know they use yodel but I've sent loads and no complaints ever

DX are hit and miss they aren't on list but they are OK :-)

Amazon Logistics are horrendous one minute they are superb but next they don't deliver my parcel or it gets lost somehow - tracking is poor - they use APLE

DHL as above hit and miss

Best service I've ever used however is FedEx

littlerat

The main 2 we seem to get here are MyHermes, who deliver my catalogue stuff and such, never had any issue apart from 1 return going missing - could well be the warehouse though. Always on the right day, often on day 3 of the 3-5 days.

DPD have always been within the given hour, always polite, friendly, no problems.

Had Yodel, a couple of times - again no issue though I remember a couple back when they were HDNL.
Our posties are fab. Sometimes now mid afternoon as 1 is doing 2 routes - but that's not her fault, she can't magically do 2 routes in the time of 1. And does those extra few hours matter, really? Things a bit slower over christmas/new years, as expected.
Definitely had interlink and DHL reasonably recently, probably city link and parcelforce. Not sure of others.


I don't know if the south west is just a lovely place with amazing people, but I've just never had all these troubles thankfully

blastarhymes

at an old work place we had used most of the larger delivery firms for next day time sensitive products and here is how i would rate them below, just to add, on mass volume your always going to get problems, the question should be who deals with it best...

9/10 DHL - Mainly BtoB some BtoC - Very good Customer Service, quite good delivery service

7/10 UPS - had quite a decent delivery rate, CS not so good, couple of damaged parcels

6/10 Parcelforce - As above but the delivery rate was not as good

4/10 Yodel or hermies - these guys where god awful, failing to follow simple instructions, none delivery, bit of a CBA attitude

and Royal mail, i have not added them to the list as they would always be my first preference, as long as they could take the parcel in question. They have been knocked over the years but a far superior service and clean up team.

Galaxy68

I've had problems with all delivery companies at times, however one delivery driver gave me a good tip- there is usually a blank line when you fill in your address details, use it to add a contact telephone number, the delivery driver can then contact you if there's a problem. Doesn't work everytime but if you get a decent driver, he can contact you if needs be.

littlerat

dastep wrote: »

4forksaches,

You said: "I don't believe that any delivery driver would attempt delivery and not leave a card "

Maybe you don't believe it, but I personally watched a postman deliver a 'while you were out card' as I was walking past my front door. I then chased him around the corner and he claimed he didn't do it and blamed it on a 'van that just drove off'.

In 2011, Which surveyed customers of Royal Mail and this is what they found.

"Which researchers questioned 2,500 Britons and collated the experiences of another 3,923 who kept diaries of their postal deliveries.

They found householders were particularly annoyed to receive a ‘while you were out’ card when they were in fact at home.

Which said: ‘Fifty-one per cent experienced this in the past year.
‘This was echoed by our diarists. Sixteen per cent of those who got a “while you were out” card reported receiving one while they were at home.

An eagle-eyed 6 per cent actually saw the card arrive without receiving a knock on the door.’

Some customers suspected postmen of deliberately leaving packages at the post office because they could not cope with heavy loads and long rounds. Instead, they dished out the cards so customers had to collect the parcels."

I find it extremely telling that 51% of people generally asked found it, yet of a slightly higher number who actually kept diaries, only 16% did.

Sadly many studies have been shown people's memories aren't always great, any study on asking people what they've eaten the day before can tell you that.

How many nipped the shops for 5 minutes, or round to a neighbour. How many wandered into their back garden where they can't hear the doorbell? Or were on the loo and expected the postie to be hanging around 2 minutes later?

I'm not saying all were lying or mistaken, just that humans aren't always very reliable with these things.


Plus some people on paid surveys just tick random boxes at a guess.