YODEL

Oh Anno, and there I was, thinking you'd gone all Swiss on us.

Mind you, the keenest yoddler I know here in Switzerland, is Scottish.

If DPD drivers have to leave a parcel in (for example) a shed or garage, they take a photo and send it to you!

Amazon drivers have twice walked straight into my house!

I agree that Yodel deliveries are unsatisfactory compared to other companies. My neighbours and I are always happy to take in parcels for each other. Usually I sign ( or, rather, squiggle) for them on the ( non-Yodel) deliverer’s handset. However, despite requesting that any parcel be left with a neighbour if I am out, Yodel inevitably just dump it on the doorstep. I won’t complain however, since these deliverers are exploited, on zero hours contracts and paid very little. Yet, presumably, deliverers for other companies are in the same situation....

I work in a mail order company, customers frequently say, please don’t use Yodel! We don’t, but to be honest we have problems with all of them, it’s wonderful that they give hour time slots, but that doesn’t leave the drivers with much flexibility if something doesn’t go to plan.

Yodel delivery man came today. Had two heavy sacks of dog food delivered. He always asks where I need it putting. Very pleasant helpful man. All our delivery people are very pleasant just as the Royal Mail is.

I take your point, BlueBelle. My 'safe' place is, at least, dry. As I have no garage and the shed is at the far end of the garden, I don't have much choice. The classic example of poor delivery was when the parcel was left in my recycling bin - luckily not on the collection day.

We had dreadful trouble with Yodel one Christmas. It’s not so much the people who do deliveries it’s the environment the company themselves work in that causes the problems.

My husband after being in good employment was made rdundant and ended up taking driving /delivery job working long hours and late nights terrible time him working me worrying.still has sales job but less worry but works long hours .

Had another delivery yesterday - left on doorstep in plain sight again, but the company we bought the stuff from updated us that it had been signed for!

Fortunately, I've only had one questionable 'safe place' delivery - their idea of a safe place, not mine, I hasten to add!! My package was placed inside our household waste bin!

My neighbour and I often take each other's bin out, so the package could easily have ended up in landfill.

Yes I agree Nag about how dreadful the job is - one reason I’m always happy to take in neighbours parcels is that I know otherwise the poor courier would have to make a return visit for no extra pay. However, we do have a right as customers to expect proper service from these companies.

My daughter has worked for both Yodel and Hermes and I can tell you its no walk in the park. They pay very very little . If you're a self starter, motivated and the hours work for you then you CAN be good at it but my daughter can tell tales of fellow couriers who are lazy, liars and in some case worse than that.

As a company they are totally price driven and I believe sometimes quote for contracts that they have no hope of fulfilling by the rules.

Mind you to play devils advocate my daughter has been bitten by dogs ( oh he wont hurt you....) , been screamed at , shoved, abused and had people call her at 9/10/11pm wanting to collect parcels that she was unable to deliver or leave in a safe location.

I wouldn't have the job for all the tea in china !!!

I believe they haven't got a great name after having read somewhere about its deliveries. I think it was once highlighted/ featured on a news programme a while back.

That should have read "I've come across this sort of thing", not merely "heard"!

I had an email yesterday saying my Yodel yesterday was "left in a safe place" apparently.
It was on my doorstep in plain sight. I live on a main road. I have a permanent note on my door asking deliveries to please be taken next door if I'm not in.
Useless.

BUT... Have read that they only pay the delivery workers a few pence per 1st delivery and less for subsequent attempts so it must be tempting to just leave stuff and run.
I feel sorry for people having to work for so little.

MiniMoon I've heard of this sort of thing before. What can happen is that a delivery consists of, say 7 packages, and the driver brings in 6 and thrusts their little hand held thingy at you for a signature. Unwittingly you've just signed for 7 packages, not noticing that one is missing. Later, when you realise it's not there, you contact them and they insist it's been delivered (they have your signature!).

I've had personal experience of this happening at work, where deliveries were frequently of several boxes, sometimes 20 or more. After being bitten once, I now only ever sign once I've personally counted the packages and read what's on the delivery schedule.

I've not been impressed by Yodel in the past, very unreliable, although the man who currently seems to have this route is better. The Hermes lady is brilliant and I've only had a problem with them once - when her replacement delivered to the wrong house. But we live in a small village and the mistake was quickly rectified. The main problem we have is that, even with satnav, delivery companies often have difficulty finding the right house.

My son ordered Christmas presents for his nephews, and they were to be delivered by Yodel. They did deliver all of the packages except for one. This missing parcel was never found! It wasn't delivered here, or left with neighbours. When my son checked it hadn't gone back to the depot either! They were adamant that he had everything. So, where did it go?

I know somebody who delivers. It is an awful job. They are paid very poorly and are under pressure to offload their packages. The company watches their every move. If the packages are stolen from their car they are instantly fired and have to pay for the packages.

I haven’t had any worse experience with yodel than other carriers and it depends greatly on the individual delivery driver.
I have a lot of sympathy with the drivers, they are run ragged to meet targets for ( probably) basic pay, often running in and out of property.

We have an altogether different problem with a Yodel delivery driver. This fellow is a friend/relative of a neighbour two doors down and lived with them for some months a couple of years ago. (Causing problems with parking, because he and his partner each had a car, so there were frequently four cars from that one house parked outside using up the very limited number of parking spaces. But that's another story....)

Since he moved out, for some obscure reason he has continued to use their address for his personal deliveries. They both work full time, so the deliveries cannot be made.

Now we are always happy to take in parcels for our neighbours, but a) he is not a neighbour and b) his parcels were coming so thick and fast that we were getting just a little bit fed up with being his personal poste restante . So now, if we're asked to take in a delivery, we always ask to see the addressee and if it's a name we do not recognise as being one of our neighbours we refuse. Is that mean?

Annodomini if you put a note on your door directing to the safe place surely it’s no longer a safe place

Courier left no card but I got an email saying delivered and signed for as I had left a note on the door to take to a shop next door but one I presumed it was there so I hot footed it to the shop It was not there courier had been to the shop but as the shop owner hadn’t recognised the name he didn’t sign for it (it was a parcel for my daughter) I rang and the parcel was back at the depot BUT what a blatant lie signed and delivered my axxx

My most recent Yodel delivery was erm........ "interesting"!

I came home to find a large box (it contained a folding chair) with "Habitat" emblazoned on it almost blocking the front door, you couldn't miss it.

When I got inside, I found a card on the door mat informing me that my parcel had been left in the porch.

We don't actually have a porch