Yesterday I was expecting a delivery from DHL aka Yodel. You can guess
what happened, I sat around all day and no one turned up. I checked on
their web site and the delivery was listed as "Unable to
Locate". Other couriers don't have a problem finding us, but I suppose
that this could well have been true. So, I wanted to find out if the
parcel was out or re-delivery, or if I would have to make the 50 mile
round trip to collect kit. The latter option would have been
preferable, as at least I wouldn't have had to waste another day and I
could go at a time of my choosing.
I tried the usual premium rate 0870 number and after 20 mins of
listening to the usual message telling me that "All our operators are
busy", I gave up. back to the web site where there is a contact
form. This asks you to provide the delivery address, your phone number
and to describe your problem. I filled in the text box and hit
"Submit", only to be told that I couldn't type more than 200 chars in
the box. Not only was it impossible to get the required information in
200 characters, but until I hit "Submit" I had no ndication that there
was any limit at all. Even worse there was no counter telling me how
many characters I had typed!
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 Parcelforce left 300 quids worth a kit outside my front door the other day. It could of easily been nicked
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 Complain to the sender geek. If the service dhl is providing is rubbish then it would be in the senders interest to do something about it.
Some people you can't please stephen. If they left £3 worth of stuff saving you the hassle of a nice round trip to collect it would you feel the same?
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Cheers Parky
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| Edited: 06/09/11 14:51 |
I have complained to various senders in the past. The trouble is that reliability is usually down to the local delivery agent, who may be fine for 99% of the senders orders.
If it's something important, I ask the sender which courier they use. If the answer is Fedex or TNT, I say that they will have to use a different courier, or I won't buy from them. Obviously that doesn't cut much ice if you are only buying a single item from them. However, if you buy stuff regularly, they are usually willing to agree.
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 Yodel is a far cry from "normal" DHL I'm afraid. DHL's international stuff is still OK, but the domestic, now rebranded to Yodel since they took someone over (I forget who) is not what it was. Some of our suppliers who used to be DHL devotees have switched allegiance after the Yodelisation. How easy it is to get a supplier to switch carrier depends on the size of the supplier and how flexible you are willing to be in paying a little more. A large company will have a negotiated rate with carrier X for £silly per parcel; sure they can use carrier Y for you, but at a rate that is much higher. Smaller folk like us often use brokers, which gives you £reasonable (less than £published-tarrif but not as low as £silly) for a range of carriers, so switching to a different carrier won't cost too much more. There is no perfect carrier, as all depend on human beings somewhere in the chain 
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 Perhaps there is no perfect carrier (HDN par example)  ... Yet some seem to get it right - Chris (Outdoors Grub) above, BPL (Bob), and a few others with excellent service........and more importantly (for me), they actually tell you what is going on...
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The carrier that BPL (Bob) uses has twice failed to deliver his stuff here. I can';t check who it was at the moment, but I think it was Fedex. They did their usual trick of claiming to leave a
card, when they had been nowhere near the place. I made my usual phone call saying that they could view my security camera footage, which proved this.
I also informed Bob, who said that he used them because he had found them more reliable than anyone else. I am not blaming Bob as he has no control over the final leg of the delivery. However, it does mean that I am much less likely to buy from hi in future, despite his excellent service. Also Bob's system doesn't give you a tracking number, which would at least allow you to see where your parcel had got to. When I discussed this with him, he said that they weren't currently set up to do this.
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| Edited: 07/09/11 07:04 |
 Was coming out of a block of flats with a controlled entry system installed. There was a Yodel delivery bloke writing a card outside I held the door open for him but after seeing that the required letter box was on the 3rd floor with no lift he declined and wedged the card in the closed door.
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 Was coming out of a block of flats with a controlled entry system installed. There was a Yodel delivery bloke writing a card outside I held the door open for him but after seeing that the required letter box was on the 3rd floor with no lift he declined and wedged the card in the closed door. but the chances were, if he was getting no reply from the external buzzer then he'd get no reply knocking on the door of the flat either. are you suggesting he leave the package outside the door to the flat? 
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I opened the door for him and it was my expectation that he would have gone to the required flat and posted the "You weren't in" card through the letterbox so the person would definitely get it. As I had left it the next person opening the door would have left the card to fall onto the ground ready to blow away or be picked up as litter.
Am I correct in thinking your a postman?? if so what would Royal Mail have expected?*
*Genuinely interested as I sure postmen must have a nightmare with controlled entry system. What happens if you genuinely can't get in? rather than can't be arsed to walk up the stairs? The latter I'm sure would be a sackable offence!! Anyway gonna mail my postman mate.
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| Edited: 10/09/11 15:01 |
Am I correct in thinking your a postman?? if so what would Royal Mail have expected? I am. If I couldn't gain entry to the flats then I'd have to return the package to the office and attempt to deliver it the following day (assuming there wasn't an exterior letterbox in which to post a red card). If I gained entry to the building but got no reply from the flat then I'd expect a letterbox on the door (though this isn't always the case), through which I'd post the red card. The postman in your example was certainly in the wrong leaving the card wedged in the door - if as you say, the building was secure, he might just as well have left the package in the hall/vestibule area (though this too would have been against regulations).
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There are revisions taking place within Royal Mail which includes the phasing out of bicyles, and Posties working in pairs from a van. SEE HERE The system hasn't yet been implemented nationally but is being gradually phased-in. Mail is delivered in most cases using bags mounted on lightweight, golf-style trollies. The main objective is H&S driven and intended to reduce the load a Postie carries. One important issue however is the end of the 'job and jack' - no longer will we be able to rush around and get the job done and be home in time for the midday news - instead, we work to a finish time (the case in my office being 14:15). What this also means is that there is no advantage to be gained by us 'cutting corners' so to speak - if we have to climb six flights of stairs to deliver a red card then so be it. Likewise, there'll be no advantage to be gained trampling over fences and taking shortcuts across manicured lawns.
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| Edited: 10/09/11 16:06 |
Just one more thing - Royal Mail is currently using a MASSIVE number of casual workers to arrest the backlog the new system has caused. Casuals can often be identified as quite often the only item of RM uniform they wear is the hi-vis vest. I'm not having a dig at the casuals, I actually feel sympathetic toward them as they receive very little training, given a bag of mail and pointed in the vague direction of where to deliver it!
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We live in a rural area. Our post can arrive any time between about 11:00 and 16:00. We are at the end of our postman's round and about 8 miles from the sorting office. Not sure how PO shifts work, but our regular postman must work quite a bit of overtime. He works on his own in the van. When he has to make deliveries in a particular time slot, this must increase his working time considerably, as he will probably have to cover the same ground twice.
I can't see many rural postal services surviving, as apart for parcels in times delivery slots they are just too unreliable. Not the postman's fault, but the system.
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| Edited: 10/09/11 17:01 |
Well, actually got to speak to my mate but up shot was that in the above circumstances if a manager had seen a postman from his office doing the above depending on the individual there would be a 75% chance they'd be sacked.... if he was seen by the "dreaded IB/eye bee???" then you might as well go back to the office clear your locker out and start looking for another job! There are only 3 accepted ways to deliver 1) hand the item to the householder 2) drop a red card through their letter box if there not in 3) bring the item back to the office and tell manger why it wasn't delivered then write the reason on item and take it back next day for another attempt. He said that he does sometimes leave items with a neighbour he trusts BUT if it goes tits up he's 100% liable. Just to make cleat the person I saw WASN'T a postie but a Yodel courier person. Yup have heard about big changes that are really stressing posties out but don't really know the full story. This 'park and loop' things looks to me as an outsider as plain stupid. How can you make two rounds of mail equal? how do ensure people work at the same speed, what happens if you get lumbered with a slow coach? Like any big organisation what the people at the top in there ivory towers think and what actually happens at the 'coal face' are two completely different things. 
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Unless you know and trust the resident 100% who's personally requested you leave the package in a safe place (porch, meter cupboard, neighbour, etc), to avoid getting into a sticky situation, I'd adhere to either of Bedouin's 3 points above. There's no reason not to.
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| Edited: 11/09/11 11:29 |
just passing on what I've been told... credit goes to "cookie"
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