MSE News: Yodel again voted among the worst delivery firms, despite improvement

Northwestsaver

I have to say I think there is somewhat of a personal vendetta against Yodel on this website. The whole tone of the original article is almost one of disappointment that, somehow, Yodel managed to not finish worst! In fact they are better than last year and yet come off far worse in the text than the two who finished below them? Why are they even mentioned in the headline? Pathetic journalism taking a cheap shot. If you can in any way believe the survey, of course. I heard from someone who used to be a courier for one of the firms near the top of the survey, that they asked their couriers/staff to vote against others. They told them to use home PCs and personal phones so they survey wouldn't be able to detect them. So do you still believe it??

Personally, I've never had a missed delivery and the local Yodel delivery guy seems very pleasant. I can only imagine how busy they have been recently and yet he has been resolutely happy. I will agree their customer contact/call centre is awful, though have you ever tried to ring Amazon/City Link/Hermes??

I do wonder whether we've got the delivery industry we've paid for? Retailers all fight to offer 'free' delivery - in effect it isn't, they just try and screw the delivery provider to the cheapest of all services and then shamelessly blame them when their 'Black Friday' sale completely swamped them. Which logistics company can afford to invest in overflow/expansion when they have such tight margins? Its hardly the oil or pharmaceutical industry!

BTW, before anyone says it, I work for a medical research company, so no vested interest, just dislike the way we all seem to demonise some firms and industries, yet if you spoke to those who work there, they are lovely people who do an honest days work.

sjp1966

Different companies use different couriers, and to be fair from a personal point of view I couldnt tell you which courier company was used by what organisation that I guy online from, unless there was an issue that then I would be complaining to the retailer.

But that aside, what was interesting about the article to me was that the DX spokesperson and Guy Buswell are basically saying the people that did your poll are liars. Both of them spill out rhetoric about how great they are in other polls, 100% in service levels blah blah blah, which is essentially I’ve read your poll (maybe) and everyone that says we are crap are liars because of these other polls.

Also if 66% is excellent then that is pretty bad don’t you think if 34% of people think that they don’t get excellent service from a service based company.

I’ve never (knowingly) had a delivery from Yodel (or the others) and they may well indeed be utter rubbish, but at least his reply is not trying to call people liars and/or blow smoke up peoples behind.

Tropez

Northwestsaver wrote: »

Personally, I've never had a missed delivery and the local Yodel delivery guy seems very pleasant. I can only imagine how busy they have been recently and yet he has been resolutely happy. I will agree their customer contact/call centre is awful, though have you ever tried to ring Amazon/City Link/Hermes??

I've never had to phone those ones so I can't comment. They've never not delivered an item when they said they would, never claimed to have delivered an item that they clearly had not and never lied and claimed that they tried to deliver when they clearly did not. Yodel have though, on more than one occasion for each infraction.

I do wonder whether we've got the delivery industry we've paid for? Retailers all fight to offer 'free' delivery - in effect it isn't, they just try and screw the delivery provider to the cheapest of all services and then shamelessly blame them when their 'Black Friday' sale completely swamped them.

I didn't try ordering anything around 'Black Friday' or 'Cyber Monday'. Yodel's foul ups took place during "normal" times of the year.

Which logistics company can afford to invest in overflow/expansion when they have such tight margins?

And yet there are several companies that provide a better and more customer friendly level of service than Yodel. Yodel cut every single corner they can to offer the lowest rates so that more retailers will use their services. I understand why they're doing it but let's be honest, 7am to 9pm delivery slots are ridiculous. DPD, for one, can get the delivery time to a one-hour window and seem to be pretty good at hitting that window. When you wait in all day for a Yodel delivery and it still doesn't show up, I'm sorry, but that is extremely poor service.

But I have criticised other delivery companies before. Yodel are just the one that have let me down most often and most recently.

C_Mababejive

There was a lengthy discussion about this on 5 live the other day with some industry insiders adding to the mix. The word is that many delivery companies simply cant get enough drivers because the terms and conditions are too poor. Many experienced delivery people prefer to freelance. Who can blame them? Perhaps as well as Polish plumbers, Eastern block fruit and veg harvesters, Chinese cocklers, Spanish nurses, Asian doctors and Thai nannies and housekeepers we also need some Peruvian parcel deliverers.. its beginning to sound like the twelve jobs of Christmas...

crystal9

well I have not really had any problems with yodel either, my delivery guy is always happy and polite. I ordered 2 items on Tuesday 22ND @ 23.35 for next day delivery via amazon prime and they both turned up as promised Christmas Eve and early in the morning.

can't see why they have been rated so low cut maybe I am just a lucky buyer

nilrem_2

Just a few words in defence of Yodel! :eek: I ordered a DVD boxset from The hut on Friday pm 19th Dec, and did not expect to receive the item until after Christmas, however on Sunday 21st I received an email from Yodel with a tracking number and delivery details. on Monday 22nd Dec at 8:00am I received another email stating the item would be delivered that day and it arrived just after lunch.

For Christmas time delivery I thought it was excellent. I must also say that I have had other deliveries from them in the past that have been good too. I imagine that it depends on what area one lives in the quality of drivers plus a bit of luck!


In contrast I had endless problems with DPD when waiting for them to deliver a chainsaw last summer, a next day delivery took them 8 days and many phone calls, excuses were - could not find the house, driver run out of time, the road was inaccessible, I even saw his van in the village when I was tracking him on line and saw him leave the inaccessible message, I phoned the depot and they told me they could not contact the driver as he had turned his phone off!

Northwestsaver

And yet there are several companies that provide a better and more customer friendly level of service than Yodel. Yodel cut every single corner they can to offer the lowest rates so that more retailers will use their services. I understand why they're doing it but let's be honest, 7am to 9pm delivery slots are ridiculous. DPD, for one, can get the delivery time to a one-hour window and seem to be pretty good at hitting that window. When you wait in all day for a Yodel delivery and it still doesn't show up, I'm sorry, but that is extremely poor service.

But I have criticised other delivery companies before. Yodel are just the one that have let me down most often and most recently.[/QUOTE]

Personally, I find most of them cut corners and Yodel are no exception, hence my point about 'we get what we deserve'. I understand (from someone who used to work in the industry) that DPD charge a LOT more for their service per parcel, so comparing them to others is a bit like comparing a Macbook against a cheap laptop and saying the Apple is much better made...er, yes.

I think my point is further (sadly) made by the news that CityLink have gone into administration. It seems is hellishly difficult to make a profit in this industry and if Yodel cut some costs to survive and maybe save throwing a further x thousand people onto the dole, I for one can't blame them. Yes, its annoying when they don't turn up, but I wonder how much they all would really have to charge to guarantee perfect service and instant customer contact resolution?

As for some of the others? CityLink presumably went bust because clients voted with their wallet and their fixed costs killed them. Personally, I hate the post office and Parcelforce. I've regularly argued with delivery guys from these that I catch posting the 'we tried but you weren't in' cards through my letter box. I ran out and said 'Here I am, I'll have my parcel now', and, of course, he didn't have it. Not for the first time, they send them all to your local collection centre and pretend to attempt a delivery. I said, 'Oh, OK. Well, I'll ring up now and you can try this afternoon', to which he went pale and said the systems couldn't do that. What he really meant was 'I've fiddled the process by dumping them all in the collection centre to save me time and give you the problem to pick up (despite me paying for a home delivery) and if you call my supervisor, they'll know I was being lazy and deceitful'.

Finally, in further defence of Yodel, I noticed that Collect Plus scored highly. This is their pick-up-and-drop-off arm. Why wasn't this score bundled in? Well, could it be because it would raise Yodel's score? Hermes do the same and their arm is included.

Journalistic rule number one: Don't let the facts get in the way of a story.

custardy

Northwestsaver wrote: »

And yet there are several companies that provide a better and more customer friendly level of service than Yodel. Yodel cut every single corner they can to offer the lowest rates so that more retailers will use their services. I understand why they're doing it but let's be honest, 7am to 9pm delivery slots are ridiculous. DPD, for one, can get the delivery time to a one-hour window and seem to be pretty good at hitting that window. When you wait in all day for a Yodel delivery and it still doesn't show up, I'm sorry, but that is extremely poor service.

But I have criticised other delivery companies before. Yodel are just the one that have let me down most often and most recently.

Personally, I find most of them cut corners and Yodel are no exception, hence my point about 'we get what we deserve'. I understand (from someone who used to work in the industry) that DPD charge a LOT more for their service per parcel, so comparing them to others is a bit like comparing a Macbook against a cheap laptop and saying the Apple is much better made...er, yes.

I think my point is further (sadly) made by the news that CityLink have gone into administration. It seems is hellishly difficult to make a profit in this industry and if Yodel cut some costs to survive and maybe save throwing a further x thousand people onto the dole, I for one can't blame them. Yes, its annoying when they don't turn up, but I wonder how much they all would really have to charge to guarantee perfect service and instant customer contact resolution?

As for some of the others? CityLink presumably went bust because clients voted with their wallet and their fixed costs killed them. Personally, I hate the post office and Parcelforce. I've regularly argued with delivery guys from these that I catch posting the 'we tried but you weren't in' cards through my letter box. I ran out and said 'Here I am, I'll have my parcel now', and, of course, he didn't have it. Not for the first time, they send them all to your local collection centre and pretend to attempt a delivery. I said, 'Oh, OK. Well, I'll ring up now and you can try this afternoon', to which he went pale and said the systems couldn't do that. What he really meant was 'I've fiddled the process by dumping them all in the collection centre to save me time and give you the problem to pick up (despite me paying for a home delivery) and if you call my supervisor, they'll know I was being lazy and deceitful'.

Finally, in further defence of Yodel, I noticed that Collect Plus scored highly. This is their pick-up-and-drop-off arm. Why wasn't this score bundled in? Well, could it be because it would raise Yodel's score? Hermes do the same and their arm is included.

Journalistic rule number one: Don't let the facts get in the way of a story.

and DPDs Predict took massive financial investment to develop.
Whilst you are nit picking around facts. When did 'the Post Office' last deliver to you?

DUKE

Am I the only one who's ever had a good service from Yodel?

Northwestsaver

"When did the Post Office last deliver to you?" Er, last week?