Yodel - Do they enjoy inflicting pain?

It all starts with the click of a button...

This story begins with a simple order from Amazon, that multinational company used by many to source their wares. 

The order was simple, 2 monitors, both in stock and both dispatched directly by Amazon. 

Order placed on the 12th of August 2013, delivery to be made on the 13th of August 2013. 

Now when I place my orders online I will usually have it delivered to my work address, after all I am there during the week between 8am and 5pm so delivery companies have the best chance of getting my orders to me. 

As this is a business address it receives deliveries all day from multiple companies such as DHL, DPD, UPS, Royal Mail, Parcel Force etc. 

Delivery Day

The delivery day is upon me, and I wait eagerly for my parcels to arrive. Tracking number in hand I click through to myyodel.co.uk, tap in my reference and post code and see the tracking information. 

Fig.1

Excellent its with the courier and on its way......

4:30pm rolls by and still no parcel! Getting a little concerned if it will be delivered now. 

I finish work and head home, however the company I work for is open late and someone is in the building so the parcels can still be accepted. 

5:40pm I am at home and decide to check the tracking information

Fig.2

Er.... that doesn't look right. It says:

We are sorry, but it appears your parcel has been delayed. Please find details below.

So checking the details further:

"Address problem, please contact sender"

I decided to give them a ring to find out what was happening, the person I spoke to (unfortunately didn't take their name) said "the driver couldn't find the address, are there any landmarks around that he could use".... ....

This is a business address, it is the only office block on the street and whilst there isn't any massive sign outside there is a small sign to identify the company next to the door. So I mention the building has a particular coloured fence around it. I still was a little annoyed by this comment though, as mentioned above we get deliveries all day and that very day DPD and Parcel Force had made successful deliveries. 

I ask if it will go out tomorrow and am assured that it will now that I have given information to help the driver. 

Next I speak to Amazon on their live chat service, explain the situation and that I didn't get next day delivery as I paid for. Amazon apologised for the inconvenience and refunded the cost, I asked if they could give me Amazon credit instead as its not really their fault so it would be wrong to blame them. Before leaving the chat I mention that if they don't deliver it tomorrow I will be after a refund as I am not happy with Yodel and their inability to deliver the parcels. They offer to contact Yodel for me, but a quick explanation that I have already contacted them and done everything that can be done leaves it there. 

Delivery Day 2, we are now entering the 2nd circle of hell (but less sexy).

I check their tracking website at 9am (13/08/2013), it still says its in the service centre (see fig.2) so I give them a call as I think "that doesn't seem right". I am again assured it will be going out today and to check the website after 11:30am as it will be updated then, and they can see that I called yesterday evening and gave further information. 

Midday, checking the website my parcel is marked as being at the service centre still. 

I've had enough. 

Contacting Amazon I ask them to contact Yodel to find out what's happening. 3 minutes later they get back to me to say the delivery company is having problems with the address. Unfortunately I am more than a little annoyed by this stage so ask them to cancel the order and refund it. Amazon without even flinching apologies for the issues and refund the money to me. 

I hope this is now the end of it.....

But wait, theres more.

Now its the 16th of August, and out of curiosity I check the tracking information on Yodel. After all I need to wait for the money to come back to my account before I can order my monitors from another company. 

The website shows the following, with my address still on the order:

Parcel out for delivery

Loughborough van

16th Aug 2013

08:48

My brain is exploding.....

I don't understand what is going on now, speaking to Yodel yet again I simply ask what address the parcels are going to and am duly advised "The address you just confirmed at the start" which is my work address....

Fine, let them deliver it, if they somehow manage to get it to me then I will contact Amazon and get them to take the money back. 

August the 16th, a Friday, a quiet day by all accounts.... as in no Yodel delivery van turns up. 

At this stage I am more bemused by the situation as I have my money back and find it slightly amusing that they are still attempting to deliver, and I have advised them that the order has been cancelled. 

I speak to them online on Friday evening, as its still not been delivered (either back to Amazon or to my work address), they mention that they deliver to 5:30pm to businesses and 9pm to residential addresses, mentioning that the building is open late into the night with people in the building he says they will try to deliver still. 

The Yodel tracking gets updated:

Returned to local service centre	Loughborough service centre	16th Aug 2013	21:58
Delivery attempted, unable to gain access	Loughborough van	16th Aug 2013	21:47

Right.... fair enough, the building is open however the people inside may not have heard the door as its a skeleton crew (reason why businesses are delivered to during business hours).

Does it ever end?

As I am not in work during the weekend and I have a life outside of stalking delivery companies I forgot about the parcels. On Monday a quick check of the website reveals:

Delivery / collection attempted, unable to gain access

Loughborough service centre

17th Aug 2013

14:23

Thats a Saturday delivery attempt that they still failed to complete, and someone was in the office that day as a delivery was accepted from another company. However I now think they are trying to deliver back to Amazon and its there that they could not gain entry. So I speak to Yodel again (the pain) and ask them to confirm the address they are trying to deliver to, to which they reply my address!!!!

Monday morning they have the parcels out for delivery again, Yodel guarantee it will be out today and delivered by 5:30. This is exactly what they said to me:

I'm chasing this now for you. Rest assured I will do all I can for you.

I sign off at 5pm, however I have made the depot aware that the parcel MUST be delivered pre 5:30pm.

Tuesday morning I arrive in the office to find no parcels and the Yodel website now states:

Delivery not attempted	Loughborough van	19th Aug 2013	20:49
Parcel out for delivery	Loughborough van	19th Aug 2013	08:18

I think they have given up!

Speaking to them I ask are the parcels trying to come to me or going back to Amazon as it should be?

Next I get a message saying that the order has been cancelled as per my request. No explanation as to why they gave up on the delivery on Monday even after being promised it would be delivered by 5:30pm, before they finally understood the parcels were meant to go back to Amazon. 

Life goes on, and DPD are the way forward it seems. 

I refuse to use a company that uses Yodel now, and a quick look around shows that my new options are going to be rather limited as Amazon and Ebuyer both use Yodel. However I really need my monitors so I check around and find that scan.co.uk use DPD for their deliveries. Order has been placed with a pre 12(noon) delivery option and I await the parcels. 

The bonus slap to the face!

During this whole debacle Yodel delivered a parcel to my work for something ordered by someone else. So they can find the address, just not when it suits them or their driver(s). 

I also have another item from Amazon heading my way I ordered at the same time as the monitors, this was through one of their third-party sellers.  Unfortunately they have used Yodel too, so I wait with bated breath if that will ever turn up, and if it doesn't thats 2 orders Yodel have lost for companies. 

For the sake of completeness

This is a screenshot detailing all the events as seen on myyodel.co.uk for my undelivered parcels. 

Fig.3