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Home Delivery Network/Yodel are pants AVOID!

Here is an email I sent as complaint because the last 2 out of 2 deliveries have seriously been a lot of fail, I’ll update if they respond or resolve the situation

DISCLAIMERS:

  • I mention 2 companies below, Amazon and Made.com it’s by no means their fault that I have had this experience (although the decision to use HDNL in the first place could be debated) it is solely HDNL/Yodel causing the problems. Amazon and Made.com are good quality companies and i would recommend either of them 🙂
  • It’s quite possible this is a localised HDNL issue (New Cross Depot, London) however not a lot of my reading over the internet fills me with confidence that it is only localised but rather likely a systemic company/country-wide plague
  • THIS IS A LONG EMAIL – You have been warned 🙂
  • REDACTED a couple of items that would be otherwise exposing personal information unneccesarily

UPDATES:

  • made.com been in touch with me due to my comments on twitter, they are chasing from there end and are doing much more than is required to help me out – that is what you call customer service 🙂
  • 27/10/2011 – 8AM: one of made.com’s items finally arrived at 21:40 last night, totally missed the delivery window and…. after 9PM!!!!, still as of yet not even acknowledgement of my complaint
  • I got an actual email response from Yodel dated – 2nd November 18:32, the from name was Amazon which is slightly misleading (i might report this to Amazon), its just a generic letter of response and “assurance” that they will investigate it

To Whom It May Concern,

This is the second time in almost as many weeks that I have had a package going via Home Delivery Network (HDNL), to arrive shockingly late or not at all. So far in the case of the second time, I’d like to record a catalogue of failures from my 2 current experiences and ask you what you are going to do about it. I’d like to point out that out of around 8 dealings with HDNL, I have only ever had one package arrive within the set time on the set day, but even then the delivery driver had a lack of care for the package, but I am not referring to that incident.

1st Delivery/Order – Amazon.com

I ordered several goods via amazon prime, which entitled me to free next day delivery. One item, being sent direct from Amazon, was sent via HDNL. It was ordered on a Sunday and dispatched on the Monday. I expected to receive the package on the Tuesday and took time off work to be able to receive it. The package did not arrive on the Tuesday and at 7pm I called the call centre. I was advised that you were very busy and that delivery drivers were delivering until 9pm, despite your advertised delivery time of 7am to 7pm. I called later at just after 9pm to be told the same information, as the only information the call centre had was that it was still out on the van.

Needless to say it was not delivered on that Tuesday and I had wasted a whole day waiting in for a package I expected to arrive. I called on the Wednesday morning at about 9am once the delivery status had been updated to scanned into depot again, and they just told me the vans load until 11:30am, so they couldn’t say what was happening. They also said they would need a day to recover the package so that I could go and collect it, as I required the item I had ordered on that Wednesday (which is why I ordered next day delivery) so I said no. I also was advised that the driver “did not attempt delivery” which meant they would today, as drivers are “not allowed to ‘not attempt’ delivery more than once”. The advisor also as good as guaranteed that I would receive the package on that day.

I called up at 7pm when the parcel had still not arrived, and was advised that they were very busy and were delivering until 9pm – again your automated service still said 7am – 7pm. I also expressed my concern that I was told the exact same the previous day, and the member of staff was fairly blunt in saying there was nothing she could do about it because the depot was closed. When I asked to speak to the manager, she put me on hold and then took my contact details and advised me a manager would call back – this never happened.

I called again at 9pm as the parcel had still not arrived, and the advisor had no information and could not contact the depot or driver.

The package arrived at 22:15pm. 5 mins later and I would have actually have been in bed! Also the package was supposed to be signed for, however the driver literally just handed me the package after I opened the door and commented “its a bit late isn’t it?” and walked off, no signature taken or anything.

2nd Delivery/Order – Made.com

I ordered these packages some weeks ago and was prepared for the wait originally. I received an email from them on Friday 21st October advising that they were dispatching the goods to the courier. I received an email on the Monday 24th to say they were due to be delivered on Tuesday 25th. I clicked on one of the emails to reschedule the delivery to the Wednesday, which was more convenient for me – I wrongly assumed this was for both packages, however it looks like it was only for one of the 2 packages. Your system is obviously lacking the ability to realise that if 1 package to the same destination as the other is rescheduled, it should ask to reschedule the other.

I got an email Tuesday morning saying you were going to deliver between 4pm and 7pm, so I rush home in order to be able to receive it, however it did not turn up within that window. I called at just after 7pm, but before I did I checked the tracking status of one of my orders (at this stage I only assumed there was one order in your system and not two)

Lo and behold it says the package had been delivered. I have checked with my neighbours and they have not received a package for me, and I was also at the property at the delivery time and was no more than 3 metres away from the front door for most of the delivery window time, so would have heard someone attempting to deliver and heard a van drive up or away. I called to complain that I have not received the parcel, and they told me all they could do was email the depot because it was closed at 6pm. I asked to speak to a manager and was told I couldn’t. I asked why not and was told they were “busy dealing with escalations”, so I asked for the call to be “escalated”. The advisor took my contact details and told me a manager would be in touch – as of yet no manager has been in touch.

I called yet again this morning and was advised of the 2 parcels and I was advised such: for the parcel that was “delivered” but not i was told they have to contact the depot and interview the driver, and it can take up to 48 hours and that I should contact the seller: made.com
The second package they advised me was damaged and awaiting further advice, and the advisor didn’t really know what to advise me to do. As of yet I have not received either of these 2 packages and I actually need them for people to sit on tonight!

So from my details above, here is how HDNL/Yodel totally failed me:

  • First order arrived a day (and a half) late
  • First order management never called me back
  • First order the package arrived at 10pm despite being given two sets of information separately
  • First order didn’t get me to sign for it
  • Second order, two separate items, wasn’t made clear in emails
  • One item is supposedly damaged
  • One item was marked as delivered, but it looks like driver never bothered to deliver it
  • Advisors have no info or means to contact depot
  • Has still not arrived

I also have lost earnings as a result of waiting for packages, I am a freelance IT consultant and any time I need to stay off work and wait for a package is actual lost earnings, because I do not have things like annual leave, so to earn money I have to work. If I exclude the days when I arranged to be present to receive the goods, I have so far lost:

Order 1: 1 day
Order 2: half a day and counting

If I was to be working 9 – 5 during that lost time, based on the above figures, I have lost overin potential earnings due to the failures of HDNL and Yodel.

I also have the following questions of HDNL:

  • why do you deliver until 7pm but your depots “close” at 6pm, how is this even possible?
  • why do you have to deliver until 9pm and then not actually update your automated systems to advise of this?
  • why do managers not call back customers despite being told this would happen?
  • how are you going to repair your reputation with myself?
  • how is it acceptable to deliver packages after 10pm when your stated delivery time is 7am to 7pm?
  • how is it even possible for your drivers to take too many packages to deliver that they are not able to complete there delivery round within the delivery day?
  • is it acceptable to provide so little information to the customer?

Until I actually get a satisfactory response, I will be advising friends, family and other acquaintances to immediately cancel orders from suppliers that send via HDNL/Yodel, and/or to get their suppliers to choose alternatives to yourselves. I will also be forwarding trimmed down versions of this email to made.com and amazon.com and suggest they find alternative providers.

For your reference, my delivery address is:

Regards



Summer is here… I think!

Wow! haven’t blogged here in a while and thought I should post an update. It’s been pretty pretty hectic for me the last month or 2 with studies, exams and work, I’m not complaining though! It has just meant that some things have taken a back burner while I focus on the priorities in the right order (God, Wife, Study, Work, Other). So roughly in that order :).

ChristChurch has been good, Marie and I got to witness Andy Tilsley being officially “prayed in” as an elder and the general comings and goings of church life, Marie has joined the crèche team to help combat the current and further impending baby boom! and they couldn’t keep me away, am back serving Sundays on the sound team now technically called the tech team (excuse the pun) which encompasses the visuals team also which i think is a brilliant move purely because the 2 teams were quite small on there own and trying to organise social events was rather difficult because normally what ended up happening is 2 guys end up meeting up for a beer (which is not a bad thing!) rather than 5 or 6 people meeting up having a meal and enjoying good fellowship.

Marie has been the usual busy with working for Newfrontiers, carrying on as usual despite all the ongoing staff changes that take place regularly, she is still knitting a woolly green scarf for me for Christmas, hopefully its ready in time although i wont need it because we are going to Zimbabwe for Christmas again, Woohoo!

Studies have finally concluded for the summer, I am still awaiting results and have one exam to do in august – due to the bad organisation of Uni which I have probably mentioned before. i had to spend 4 weeks at uni after my exams attending lectures which apparently had been the plan since the beginning of the academic year but we weren’t informed until mid way through our exam period despite several people including myself asking for clarification several times throughout this year (i think that shows how badly organised the uni is) in fact some were so badly caught out because they had already booked flights home for the summer and couldn’t attend the lectures. gladly though its all done, i cant wait to get this degree over and done with purely because it holds very little relevance to my day to day freelance work, and any content that did is already going out of date, that’s how fast paced the IT industry really is.

Work has really ramped up the last month or so, I’ve had the chance to meet and even work with some great teams like Made.com (new web infrastructure), Rackspace (got to see the Rackspace mini and got a goody bag) and have met the awesome GoSquared team and WooThemes just the other week, its keeping me busy which i like and importantly its earning money, I’m actually quite thankful to God for all the work as I had to replace my laptop a few weeks ago (the old one couldn’t take the load i was throwing at it) which cost a seriously painful amount of money which if it wasn’t for the work i wouldn’t have been able to buy.

Other than that, not much has changed, still busy busy busy, off to see my dad and Karen for the weekend next weekend which should be good as we will probably get to go to the village church too so that should be an experience for Marie (its not Newfrontiers!), the weather here has been pretty miserable the last few days but we got a couple of thunder storms that Marie and I both enjoy watching.



Africa United

Went to see Africa United over the weekend with Marie, Marie told me it was supposed to be an accurate portrayal of Africa. the opening sequence when Dudu (Eriya Ndayambaje) makes a football with a condom it made me sit up in my seat straight away as i knew this film just wasnt going to be any ordinary film. The story is that of 3 children’s road trip across Africa to Johannesburg for Fabrice (Roger Nsengiyumva), a football prodigy in the making, to be able to go out on the pitch for the opening of the World Cup. They get on a bus supposedly heading to the Rwandan capital for an audition but end up getting on the wrong bus and thats where there journey begins, they head through several African countries and have to fight the odds with so many things such as wildlife and bad guys threatening there journey and they pick up a couple of friends on there journey.

They hitch through Rwanda, Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa to get there and it includes many issues other continents would associate with Africa: AIDS, child soldiers, lack of schooling, war and prostitution. But it deals with them in a matter-of-fact, occasionally light-hearted fashion. I have to say it was a sobering storyline. The film was excellent and from the limited exposure i have to Africa i have to say it is pretty accurate. Considering that the main 5 actors of the film were children i have to say that the film was very well done, and its great to have a different storyline for a change rather than the usual hollywood stories where all too often sex or violence feature in some way.

We had quite a debate after the film because the one thing it got me thinking is although its an accurate portrayal, the bit that got me was Africa’s belief that condoms will solve the HIV/AIDS problem, when in reality it wont, it only treats the symptoms when the root cause is hearts need changing. Sleeping around seems to be so prevalent in Africa and all condoms do is seem to say that its ok to do that as long as you where one you wont get HIV, i honestly believe that a heart change needs to happen before the HIV/AIDS problem is going to be reduced. God is needed in so many hearts to convict them that sleeping with more than one partner is wrong before this problem will get anywhere near going away. its sad to see a generation being destroyed because of this.

I will close with this, you really should go and see this film if you dont know what the problems in africa are, in one sense it cant capture the true scale of some of the issues in africa because it would make a very dark and depressing film, however it does highlight some of the big issues in a positive way which is so refreshing given that we only hear about these stories so often in a negative light or once or twice a year at fundraising events. It’s quite exciting to actually see positive culture shaping films making mainstream cinema



Shuffling stuff about

today has been a slow day for me. not a lot of work to do today, so i was productive and decided to continue to work on my business website, one of the things i am doing is splitting my blogging! my intention is that this blog becomes a personal blog and the other blog is a technical resource, that will mean that this blog will become less geeky and more about personal updates. most of my existing geeky posts will eventually make there way over to my work site and will get redirected from here (so i keep some SEO niceness) one or 2 will likely stay here though mainly because they dont quite fit onto the new blog just yet 🙂

uni lecture was boring but neccesary, will help me look into some professional development which means getting free or discounted access to courses, am hoping to firm up and get W3Schools certification on my HTML, PHP & MySQL and Javascript(if time allows)

got marriage prep tonight, should be good fun, am doing it with another couple who are my friends too which will be good. leaving this now with a link over to my new blog which currently has a nice intro of what its going to contain (to keep the geeks happy)



Disappointed by O2

i threatened i would do it on twitter the other day, so here goes, most of the details are in the formal letter of complaint already so i wont bore you with them, needless to say things have progressed since this email and i do have iphones but they still keep making blunders trying to get my existing number into the contract, here was my letter of complaint, i have yet to recieve a response or a call regarding this officially and when i do i will update here:(personal information removed) WARNING: this is a long email!

UPDATE 30/09/2010 – 11:30: Wayne called me to offer some accessories but i turned them down, i asked for a free 500 text bolt on but it was declined, i was offered a months free line rental (£45) which i accepted and asked for a note to be made that i didnt feel it was adequate and he advised me to forward the email through to the customer service department

UPDATE 02/10/2010 – 10:30: Bernard from the complaints department phoned to apologise for in his words “Appaling lack of service” as a good will gesture he credited me the cost of one of the iPhones, the costs i had accrued on the second account that was wrongly setup in the interim (around £20) and also confirmed the credit of one months line rental that Wayne offered. Credit where credit is due, O2 admitted there faults and made a good effort to resolve the situation. i am happy to finally put this issue to rest after 2 weeks of constant calling and battles with them.

To Whom It May Concern,

I wish to make a formal complaint because of a series of major and continued blunders by O2 regarding my contract, which has left me with a very sour taste and very frustrated and angry.

I shall first give you a run down of everything that has happened so far, give a summary of how you failed me and what I think you can do to resolve the situation.

A week ago last Thursday (16/09/2010) I ordered a new Business 500 Sharer Contract online, I ordered 2 iPhone 4’s (16GB and 32GB) order ref:REDACTED, at order time I was quoted 3-5 working days to receive devices after credit checks, I was called pretty soon after to confirm a few details such as delivery address, company name etc, I asked for an ETA on the credit check procedure and also an ETA on handsets, i was told the credit check would be done by the following morning and I would receive handsets within 3-5 working days of it being approved.

I phoned o2 the next day (17/09/2010) at around midday and was told that someone from the credit team should have contacted me to say I was required to pay a £300 security deposit and ask if that was phone, I informed the agent that this was ok and that the credit team hadn’t called me. He said he would make a note about my authorisation to take the deposit off the same credit card. I also asked him for an updated ETA on handsets, he said that it would take 3-5 working days to arrive and that, when i get an account number by Monday morning, I could get an updated ETA from the customer service team. 1 hour later I got a call from the credit team saying I needed to pay a £300 deposit on my account. I told the agent that I had already spoken to another agent about this and had authorised the deposit to be charged, they commented that no note had been made on their systems, I authorised the deposit to be paid.

Monday morning, I called up sales to find out my account number (REDACTED) and for an ETA on devices, I was given the account number and told to contact customer services for an ETA. I called up customer services and gave them the account number and asked for an ETA for my order. However, the agent couldn’t give an ETA because he had my account number and account name, but it had zero information on it. I was also warned that a recent internal update on iPhones had been released, stating that iPhones were out of stock and would be for about 2 weeks, and that I would get a text within the next 2 days to give an update on the status of my order. I was also told by the agent that I would be called back the following day to give me an update – this did not happen.

I called the following day (21/09/2010) asking for an ETA, but again my account was blank and was told this time not to expect a phone before October. I was also told that I should not have been allowed to make the order on the website when I did as a result. I was also told again that I should have received a text informing me of the status of my order, and I hadn’t received any texts at this point.

I called the following day (22/09/2010) and spoke to an agent – the account was still blank. I had still not received texts and was told 2 weeks again. At this point I asked about making a formal complaint and was told to write to this address or speak to a line manager. I asked to speak to a Line Manager first and, in the time I was on hold for him to get a Manager, I was put through to Wayne Bebb (an Admin Manager in Business Sales)? I explained that it was unacceptable to be quoted 3-5 days to receive devices and not have any communication to the contrary and that my credit card had already been charged for the handsets and first month’s line rental, and I hadn’t even received devices or an ETA on when they would actually arrive. I also explained that I ordered the handsets fully on the knowledge that they would arrive in 3-5 working days, and should have arrived in good time before having to hand my old handset back to my previous company, and that without a handset I can’t work or communicate with my clients and would lose business/income as a result. He apologised for all the problems faced with my order and informed me more accurately that o2 Business was out of stock of iPhones and that they were having to “go through other channels” to source iPhones and fulfil orders, and somehow my order was lost in the system. He also told me he would do what he could to get me sourced with the iPhones I ordered and sent out to me, he told me it was too late to get them out by Thursday but could have them out by Friday. He also said he would call back the following day with confirmation of this or an update.

That evening of 22/09/2010 the second number I had ordered, which was a transfer from 3 with a PAC code, stopped working with my other user. It was too late to call o2 that night, so I called the following morning (23/09/2010) to see what had happened. I was told that the number was on a different account to the one I had quoted (new account: REDACTED) and that it had transferred in the previous evening with the PAC code – this was not even communicated prior to happening and also we still had not received SIM’s or handsets. I had to go through a long-winded process of finding a spare o2 SIM, getting the phone unlocked and getting her number transferred onto the SIM – this took several calls and several hours to get going. I called customer service to get an update on the ETA and was again quoted the 2 weeks stock response and that I should wait for Wayne to call me back. I called back at 16:45 and got put through to Wayne Bebb and he told me that he had no update and would chase it through dispatch. He also apologised about the PAC code issue and informed me that he had received an influx of complaints relating to PAC codes being migrated early. He told me he would call me back the next day by 5pm (24/09/2010). If I hadn’t have called him on 23/09/2010 he would likely not have returned my call that day and today, 24/09/2010, he did not call me back despite saying that he would, and I have not received iPhones or any update of when I will receive them. I am now currently without a reliable working handset that I can continue to do business with. I am also unsure of which account number I now have either.

So to summarise the failures:

  • I should not have been allowed to place an order online for iPhones when I did, which caused this whole issue.
  • At no point in time did o2 communicate TO me about a change in status of my order due to stock (either via text, email or call) even though I was told you would.
  • When asking for an ETA, I was given different conflicting answers every time.
  • When I did get through to a Manager who said he would get me sorted by Friday, it didn’t happen.
  • When the same Manager said he would call me back the following day, it didn’t happen.
  • o2 transferred a number with a PAC code EARLY and WITHOUT us having received our new SIM cards or handsets.
  • o2 took payments from my credit card on Monday, but still did not give me info about when I would receive my devices and have still not yet sent them.
  • repeatedly yet correcting my account address several times it still was wrong – it should be REDACTED
  • I still have no devices, despite it now being past the 3-5 days quoted at order time, and after going through the credit checks.
  • As a result of all the failures, I have lost earnings through being unable to provide my normal service for clients or otherwise having to phone up o2.
  • Nobody seemed to make notes on the system, and as such I had to explain myself every time I called.

How o2 can resolve this issue:

  • Communicate with me properly and when you say you will, giving me a full update on when I will receive my iPhones.
  • Deliver to me my iPhones that I have paid for ASAP – and I mean before the end of this week 1st October.
  • Provide me with a discount on the handset charges or line rental.
  • Compensate me a nominal amount on my bill for the inconvenience and lost earnings as a result (see below).

Over the last week I have spent probably somewhere in the region of around 8 hours on the phone to o2 or on hold to o2, this is 8 hours of work that I could not do as a result. This, if charged at my standard freelance rate, is about £200 worth of work that I was unable to do and thus unable to earn in this time. Also, I am now having to stay tied to my desk to work, as my old handset can not perform the functions that an iPhone does, which allows me to work while travelling or whilst away from my desk. I estimate that I am losing at least 1 hours work per day as a result of this and, by assuming a Monday to Friday working week, I have already lost 3 hours worth of work as a result so far (£75). So far loss of earnings is sitting at £275 and rising each day.

If you do not resolve this issue promptly and respond with an update, I will look at reporting the o2 charges to my credit card providers fraud department and look to take my business elsewhere, because I am shocked and appalled by the lack of service and even poorer communication. If this issue is not referred to promptly and fully, I will also not hesitate to refer this to Otello or other relevant bodies.

Yours sincerely,

—
Anthony Somerset