Where's my missing mail?

Here in the Highlands I find most couriers are wonderful. Take things to our house if we are not at work - 12 miles away. Leave notes with their mobile numbers so we can easily rearrange delivery, leave parcels in the garage no problem. Treats for the dogs, always.

I get a lot of deliveries and collections but don't think any of them are by Yodel - my personal deliveries are usually be Hermes who are very good. Our local courier is brilliant for business collections and arrives without fail to pick something up - they'll even go to the other end of the country to collect a consignment and deliver it to me.

We have Hermes a lot too. For at least the last 10 years the same elderly gentleman who has always been unfailingly polite and timely.

Sadly he's just retired , we'll miss him.

I started a thread a few months ago about my problems with Hermes.
Enough said !!

Yodel left me a card to say they had delivered a parcel to number 2 (next door flat) but the people there said they knew nothing about it. I contacted Yodel and they said I had to check with the sender, but I have no idea who that is. I wrote to ask for the signature of the recipient, but have had no reply to two subsequent letters.

Not very satisfactory. I thought they had to supply the signature.

If you can comment on their facebook page or twitter about it, Daisyanswerdo, they will be quick to sort it out. There is nothing like a bit of bad publicity to get things moving.

I'm amazed by the number of delivery people who don't bother to get a signature, and that includes the Royal Mail!

I get Hermes deliveries too and have never had a problem. We've just got a new person, so I don't know them very well yet, but the previous woman was lovely. I've used them myself a few times when it was cheaper than the PO/Royal Mail.

The only time Yodel was supposed to deliver a parcel to me, I was out (Sod's Law) and it went wrong. A card was left telling me the parcel was left with a neighbour up and over the road (not a near neighbour, but we do say hello, etc.). The problem was that the neighbour suffered from Alzheimer's. She's lovely and was able to stay alone in her own home because of the support she got from family, friends and neighbours (she's in a home now). So I went over to ask for the parcel and of course, she didn't remember anything about it. So I went home and later I went over again, but she still didn't remember anything or even that I'd been over before. At that point her next door neighbour came home from work and he keeps a close eye on her, so he went in to her house and had a look around, but there was no sign of the parcel, but he said he would keep an eye out for it.

At this point I decided it was up to Yodel to sort it out and rang them to explain what had happened. I was told it would take 48 hours to get back to me before a decision would be made about what to do next, because the driver would have to go back and check what address the parcel had been left at.

48 hours came and went with no news, but I was too busy to chase things up and then on night before bin day, the parcel was found safe and sound in the lady's bin when her neighbour was putting out both their bins.

I contacted Yodel to tell them what had happened and found out they'd not even been able to make contact with the driver. What happened with the parcel was unfortunate, but the customer service from Yodel was definitely lacking. Can't say I was impressed, but they probably pay low wages and don't have enough staff.

I've a thread about 'anyone out there who speaks German' which is about this subject. My long awaited chest of drawers is on its way back to Denmark!!!

At least it will be well travelled Anya by the time it arrives with you !

My son ordered a toy for my DGS in good time for Christmas. Yodel were to deliver it! We have seen no sign of this parcel. Yodel deny all knowledge of it, but we know it was despatched by the toy company. So where did it go?

I buy from Amazon a lot - rarely any hassle (over the years one broken glass and a book which was out of stock, contrary to what I was told when I ordered). But a couple of days ago I received a package from a London grocery company which we have used once before. On this occasion, my son had ordered it in his own name, but while his name was inside on the paperwork, it was addressed to me outside and worse, they e-mailed me on the day of delivery. They tried to deliver at 8.15 am when I was out at work, no-one else heard them and the e-mails, received after I got back, one said delivering between 8.12 and 9.12, the second that they'd left it with my neighbour at the other end of the road, whom I didn't know at all. I went out to pick it up, only to find her away from home, so had to wait till she came back and delivered it. I was not impressed - but thank goodness for honest people! Once received a mobile phone from Yodel - they claimed to have tried delivery but it was impossible to contact them; had to wait 3 days before finally received. Personally wouldn't use them again.

I don't think I have ever had anything delivered by Yodel, but we do have problems with mail going missing or ending up at neighbours homes instead of ours. We had a regular postie for years that we knew by name. Royal Mail (in their wisdom), now seem to have different posties just about every day and without meaning to be offensive I'm not that sure they can read the addresses properly. I cannot count the amount of times my neighbour has come to me with our mail. When we had our regular postie, he knew everyone and all the streets. Why they change all these things I do not know.

The worst delivery experience I had was a driver (cannot mind the company) who delivered a new item to a house about three streets away. Luckily, the couple were honest and actually drove down and delivered our item to us. I don't know what would have happened otherwise, and I was very grateful that we got it.

We have lots of courier deliveries and the only time it has been a problem was when Yodel couldn't find our house. Not hard as it has a number which is in the order you would expect it to be between the one below and the one above. Post code works in satnav too! For the 'redelivery' DH put a huge note on the gate which must have amused the neighbours.

We get lots of things simply dropped in the porch and not signed for but it is not a problem because it can't be seen from the road and we are a law abiding lot here. Even RM put things through the door which should be signed for.

My youngest DS worked for Yodel for a while, in their call centre - he absolutely hated it, taking abuse all day with no power to actually get anything done.
So bad was it that he jumped at the chance to come and work with his Dad & I in our small business that we run from home. We send out 300-400 packages per week by Royal Mail Tracked and have to say 98 - 99% get to the right destination at the right time, and some that don't is because the customer made an error inputting their address details. We chose a not signed for service as this means they can be left when customers are not there - which most prefer.
Our regular deliveries are by a few couriers, none Yodel thankfully, and we don't have any issues.
I'll bet it comes down to how the staff are treated my their management, when will they learn that if you want them to treat customers well you need to teat them well?

I ordered something from a third-party seller via Amazon recently. Hermes left a card to say they'd tried to deliver and left it 'in a secure location'. As I'd been in all day, I knew they hadn't knocked - and no sign of a parcel..

D'oh, pressed Send too soon... Hermes sent a scan of the delivery sheet, showing that the parcel had been 'left at side of house' - errr, NO. Three days later, my neighbour came round with the parcel - which she'd found behind her wheelie bin as she went to put it out...! It must have been thrown over her 6ft fence (with locked gate) and gone down behind the bin... So; delivered to wrong house, thrown over fence, no attempt to knock door (neighbour had also been in all day) and this all adds up to 'left in secure location'....!!

The problem is that it's not economical for the carrier to spend more on taking care of the freight than it costs to replace the breakages. To compound it, most consumers and retailers just pick the cheapest option.

Getting breakages replaced is a minor inconvenience, but where the system falls down is if there's damage that doesn't come to light until much later. A HDD might work fine when it's unpacked, but fail prematurely as a result of bad handling.

I've had TVs, PVR, HDD, computer, cycle spares etc. etc., and they've all survived so far, so perhaps I'm due for a breakage. It's letters that I have going missing by the dozen, but I don't think that's the fault of the Royal Mail.

We have often had trouble with Yodel. Before Christmas I received an email from the company I'd ordered from saying my parcel had been left 'in a safe place as agreed' by Yodel. I looked all around my property and there was no card and no parcel. I rang the company and after 15 minutes on the phone discovered the driver had broken into my gas meter and left the parcel there! To make matters worse when Iggot up the next day a card had very carefully been placed hanging out of the letterbox - presumably so that they could suggest I'd missed it the previous day! Appalling service.

We run a small business from home and only use the PO and Royal Mail. I can't remember the last time we had a problem with customers not receiving orders in good time and condition - and we don't use signed for services. We also don't want to lose the service, so our local PO and Royal Mail get our custom. The few times I've used Hermes was for personal eBay sales and it was cheaper than the PO because of the weight.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I ordered a consignment of family sized meat pies for the freezer and they didn't turn up when I'd been notified they were due. They were eventually found two days later on a doorstep way up the road by a neighbour who'd been away on holiday .It was sunny and hot at the time! Needless to say, they had to be thrown away. I got the money refunded. but was very annoyed at the waste.

We once had a packet dropped on the verge at the start of our 200yd quiet lane! It's a wonder it got found.