This is the worst delivery/courier service I've ever encountered! (although there's another which comes close to being as bad which will be getting reviewed in the coming months...).
When I'm ordering off ebay I try to find out if they use Yodel. If the seller does use Yodel, I won't order from them. Here's why...
Yodel have a process whereby they try to deliver your items on three consecutive days (excluding Sundays). I got home from work to a Yodel card that they leave informing you that they tried to deliver something, which had the time of 16:05. It was unfortunate since I get home at 16:30, but that's no-one's fault.
I see on their card that they will try again to deliver the next day. I call the contact number which is an automated system asking me for a reference or tracking number. In this instance, my card from Yodel has neither of these. The system won't let me proceed, so I have to enter random digits that do not exist as a tracking or reference number. Because it doesn't recognise the number, it then has to put you through to someone. I then get speaking to an idiot, sorry, customer service representative.
Me: "Hi I had a card from yourselves and just wanted to let you know that the earliest it is physically possible for me to arrive home from work is 16:30, so there's no point in a driver calling before that."
Yodel: "We can't tell drivers to deliver at specific times."
Me: "I understand, but what I'm saying is that it's Tuesday, so if he tries to deliver tomorrow and Thursday before 16:30, I won't be here. That means he'll have tried three times and I'll have to drive to Carrickfergus. I'm just saying that if you could let him know there's no point wasting his time coming here as there won't be anyone here, then that would be more sensible."
Yodel: "We can't do that."
Me: "How come?"
Yodel: "We can't give them specific times to deliver."
Me: "I fully understand that, but I'm not asking you to give him a specific time to deliver, I'm asking you to tell him that if he comes before 16:30 he's going to have a wasted journey, so he should leave it til another day."
Yodel: "Do you want me to change it to be delivered on Saturday?"
Me: "If he's never going to come after 16:30 during the week when I'm not home from work then, yes, change it to Saturday please."
The employee then informed me that I would just have to stay in on Saturday until the delivery came. She couldn't say if it would be a.m. or p.m. I had to waste a Saturday sitting there until 16:50 (which, ironically, would've been perfect during the week) when it came. Not only was that a total waste of my day off, but here's the real idiocy - if you aren't in when they call to deliver, you get a text message almost immediately to tell you they tried to deliver and would try again tomorrow. Why not change the system so that you get a text message saying "our Yodel driver will be at your address with your delivery in approximately 45 minutes". Would this not make infinitely more sense?? Or is it too logical to be worthy of consideration? Obviously the driver hits a button to say they called but no-one was there, and that's how you get the text, so why not have them hit the button when they're three deliveries away from you to say they'll be with you in approximately 45 minutes?
I have another example of how abysmal Yodel are, but I think this review highlights the main points. read more