Yodel returned my parcel to sender after THEY suggested diverting it to a locker – anyone else?

spesa

I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this with Yodel, as it seems like a pretty flawed system.

I received an email from Yodel saying my parcel was due for delivery and that if I wouldn’t be home I could divert it to an InPost Locker “to simplify your life”. As I was going to be at work, that sounded ideal so I selected the locker option.

When I checked the tracking, I first got a message saying there was an issue with the address. Then about a minute later the tracking updated again, saying the driver had selected to return the parcel to the sender.

While the parcel was still on the delivery vehicle (as I contacted Yodel 5 minutes after the status update) I asked Yodel customer services if the parcel could simply be sent back to my original delivery address or held at the depot for collection later.

I was told this wasn’t possible. Apparently once the locker diversion fails, the system automatically sends the parcel back to the sender and nothing can be done about it.

What I find odd is:

• Yodel actively encourages customers to divert parcels to lockers if they won’t be home.
• When you choose this option you have no idea how big the parcel is or whether it will actually fit in the locker.
• If the parcel turns out to be too large, the system doesn’t attempt delivery to the original address.
• Instead it can just be returned to the sender immediately, even though it was originally addressed to my house.

Customer services also said they couldn’t intervene, even though the parcel was still in their network at the time.

It seems strange that customers are encouraged to use the locker option, but if it fails the parcel can simply be sent back to the sender without even trying the original address.

Has anyone else had this happen with Yodel or InPost lockers? Is this really how their system is meant to work?

Murphybear

Yodel can be a complete pain. My husband hadn’t received a parcel that Yodel had reported as delivered. There is a big Yodel depot near us so we went in and were told it had been delivered to a house near us, it had the same number as our property, we live in a block of flats. She said it had been left in the porch. We knew that the house was empty so went along and as the porch was accessible we went in and found not only his parcel but 2 of mine 😹