Amazon Logistics

[bob]

Now i've not done any research into this, so i'm not sure if this is a thing or not, but has anyone else noticed a change in Amazon's delivery policy over the past few weeks?

 

I first noticed when i ordered something from them a couple of weeks ago, and it got delivered during the day, when i was at work. So far, pretty normal.

 

However, normally, they leave a card and leave the parcel at the Post Office, and i can collect it when i come home at 5pm. This time, i got a text, an email and a card saying that i hadn't been in, and that i needed to ring them to organise a redelivery. It seems that Amazon are using a company called Yodel, rather than Royal Mail now.

 

I rung them up, and asked if they could deliver it after 5pm, or early in the morning so i could get it before i went to work. The guy said, nope, he could not guarantee a time any more specific than between 7.30am and 9pm. So i had to take the day off work to wait for my parcel. Either that, or they would try and deliver it two more times, and then leave it at the depot (which i can't get to without a car)

 

Then a couple of days later, i ordered something else, and wanted it before the weekend, so i paid for next day delivery, and the same thing happened. They tried to deliver it (i was at work) and so they took it away again.

On saturday, i stayed in all morning, then had to pop out for an hour in the afternoon and what do you know!? They tried to deliver it while i was out!

 

I emailed Amazon and got my money back for the next day delivery (since i didn't get it the next day). They said it would be redelivered on Monday (of course i would be at work again). But no text, email or card through the door has occured since then....

 

Basically, if they persist in using Yodel, i will stop using Amazon. They are rubbish.

 

TL;DR - Amazon appear to be using Yodel, they are rubbish. Has anyone else noticed this recently?

[Ike]

Are you using Amazon Prime by accident?

 

I've had different delivery companies with Amazon (Prime) they are normally excellent.

[Shorty]

I think amazon uses different delivery services all the time. You notice when you have to return a package, sometimes it's yodel, sometimes royal mail, once I had to drop it off at some collection point in a newsagent.

[bob]

What do companies other than Royal Mail usually do though when you aren't in?

 

I understand that it is difficult to deliver a package when the person is at work all day, but Royal Mail always had the fall-back of leaving it at a post office, which other companies don't have.

 

I don't understand how Yodel can get anything delivered at all if they have to wait until you are at home and refuse to specify any time other than 'all-day'.

 

I work 9-5 and prefer not to sit at home all weekend dammit!

 

As far as i know, i'm not using Prime, just normal Amazon. I may try one or two more things, but if they use Yodel again i'm swearing off Amazon.

[Eenuh]

Urgh I hate delivery services like that. They always deliver when you are not in.

When I ordered my new phone, I think they were using UPS or something similar. Of course they delivered it when I wasn't home. They automatically rebooked to deliver it on Wednesday, but I knew I wouldn't be home again.

 

Their depot is more than an hour away by car, so that wasn't an option either. Getting a redelivery for a certain time wasn't possible either after I emailed them about it.

 

In the end, I managed to get them to agree to a Saturday delivery, and they even said it would be in the morning as I would be gone in the afternoon. In the end they delivered it at about 2pm, but luckily I was still in, so yay!

 

 

We had a similar crappy experience with CityLink, where they tried to deliver it when we weren't in and they left a note (of course it was during the 1 hour we were gone, we waited all day). Second delivery they didn't even leave a note I think. We ended up having to drive to their depot, where we had to wait in a queue for more than an hour with a lot of other disgruntled customers.

 

Really not a fan of delivery services, at least Royal Mail will leave our package by the door if we request it, or take it to the nearby postoffice, which is so much easier to get to than some depot.

[bob]

That sounds almost exactly like my experiences...

 

I don't know why no delivery services deliver in the evening? Or at least have it as an option for people who work standard hours...

[Shorty]

I work 9-5 and prefer not to sit at home all weekend dammit!

I get all my packages delivered to work, is that not a possibility?

[Charlie]

Yodel are the worst delivery company ever. I Tweeted about them recently and was contacted by a TV production company asking if I would record a segement for a 'Dispatches' episode about them and other couriers.

 

I've had experiences where they said I wasn't in when I was in all day. When they delivered to a neighbour... The neighbour was an empty flat.

 

Amazon seem to use them for Next Day delivery. I just get stuff sent to work unless I know someone will be in.

[Cube]

I've had worst than Yodel from Amazon. They've sent a package to me via Hermes before. Which really put me off ordering larger items from them. I certainly wouldn't trust them with my PS4 order.

 

I left them feedback, stating that it puts me off ordering. I would suggest each time you get something from Yodel or Hermes to complain to them, even if it arrives on time. These services are generally hared across the whole country.

 

Edit: Also, my bad experiences with Yodel and Hermes are stuff delivered to work, so there's no problems with me not being in.

Edited June 12, 2013 by Cube

[bob]

I get all my packages delivered to work, is that not a possibility?

 

Not currently no, although it might be in future...i would if i could!

[MoogleViper]

We had a similar crappy experience with CityLink, where they tried to deliver it when we weren't in and they left a note (of course it was during the 1 hour we were gone, we waited all day). Second delivery they didn't even leave a note I think. We ended up having to drive to their depot, where we had to wait in a queue for more than an hour with a lot of other disgruntled customers.

 

Don't get me started on CityLink. The amount of times that they've not bothered to deliver something, and said they have and we weren't in (despite being in all day, and there being no card).

 

One time they did it twice on the trot with my sister's christmas present. I rand up absolutely furious with them, said this had happened numerous times and I was going to complain. About 5 minutes later they rang up and said (this was christmas eve) that somebody was on his way to drop it off.

 

Although the parcel was battered and one of the books was missing.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Yodel walk on water compared to those gobshites at CityLink. Worst company I've ever had to deal with.

 

Ine's Dad had bought us a dehumidifier, as we have a ground floor flat and it's a bit damp/has a lot of moisture in the air/high humidity. Ordered it online and got told CityLink would be delivering it. I think they first of all missed their promised delivery date, before telling us that they would be delivering it on another date.

 

That date came and we were given a reminder that we needed to be in the house from 7am til 7pm...We waited til 4 o'clock and still nothing and we needed to leave the house. So, out we went and we came back an hour later. No card on the floor, nothing. So, we assumed they didn't come.

 

We look online to see if we can track it and apparently they "tried" to deliver it at a certain time, but we weren't in and a card was left. It wasn't. CityLink said that they'd try to do it tomorrow.

 

For the whole of the next day, we're sitting indoors and waiting for them to appear. 7 o'clock comes and goes and nothing. I'm furious. I decide to ring their customer services department, where I'm put on hold for about half an hour before somebody picks up before disconnecting, meaning I now have to start over again...

 

30 more minutes in the queue and I eventually reach somebody. I tell them about the predicament, how no card was left, no delivery for today and I seriously doubt that there was a delivery on the previous day either, about the long wait in the queue to reach their customer services department. The person I spoke to barely listened, said that a card was left (it wasn't) and that we'd have to go down to the depot to get it. I'm enquiring about why the item wasn't re-delivered today like promised and, before I know it, I'm hung up on, again.

 

Nobody bothered trying to call me back. No "sorry you were cut off", nothing.

 

Into the car we go, all the way to CityLink's depot at around 8-ish in the evening. When we arrive there, we can see floods of people inside the depot and queuing outside it, some with cards, some without, trying to get their packages. We overhear their stories/talk to them, and they all have identical stories to ours.

"I waited yesterday for a package, it didn't come. I waited today, it didn't come. No card." A dozen or so different stories like that.

 

We queued for about an hour and a half, way beyond the closing time for the depot. The staff were all over the place, no idea what they were doing. Customers were raising their voices, getting quite arsey, making comments. Atmosphere was dreadful.

"You should be ashamed."

"This is terrible service."

"Fucking dreadful!"

 

Eventually, we got our package and left. Arriving home really late.

By far the worst company I've ever had to deal with and the worst customer service I've ever experienced. I will never, ever have anything to do with that company, no matter what package I want to get delivered. I'd rather cover myself in paper cuts and bath myself in a pool of salt.

 

@Eenuh's story isn't quite right, because there was no note. What she is actually referring to is the tracking which we found online, which shows that twice our package was out for delivery, without actually being delivered. It turns out that the reason why the staff and company were all over the place was because the delivery drivers were given new routes to deliver packages, and apparently this was very inefficient and caused a great percentage of their goods to simply not reach their destination.

[Agent Gibbs]

Oh god delivery services.......

 

I'll start off with the "good"

I've had a few international shipments via DHL, they called when i got a customs charge (which i expected) and they also sent a text (no idea where they got my phone number....) they then updated me on each stage via text even to the point of the parcel is out for delivery this morning etc (which gave me time to sneak out from work and wait 40 min for it)

 

My current Royal mail Service is exemplary, they leave cards, are courteous and polite and have on occasions left parcels hidden on my property and written on a letter they delivered.

 

thats where the good ends

 

Hermes;

 

Recently my girlfriend was expecting some food blender off QVC and these jokers were the delivery company.

• The first day nothing came and when checking online it was noted the attempted delivery around 9.30 and left a card, which they did not
  
• The second day a card arrived while we were out (9.30 again) and it had printed on it they try to deliver 3 times before returning to sender, no mention of a depot, but it had the drivers telephone number on, so we called and left a message asking could it be delivered early (before 8) or later (after 5) or even to a different address like a neighbor
  
• The third day they came again at 9.30 obviously not checking the phone and left a card saying it would be returned to sender, however my girlfriend managed to get the driver to answer the phone around 17.30, he was home and finished for the day, explained there was no local depot for customers and thats how the company works, after much deliberation he allowed us to collect the parcel from the van at his home, but we had to sign an envelope because his sign in machine was off now
  

 

the van was battered and it looked like they just hired white van men part time or something,and i fully expect given he already looked ready for bed that the 9.30 delivery was because thats when he rolled out of bed into the van to do the local deliveries.

it just screamed cowboy company

 

Yodel

Yodel were the courier used by nintendo when they returned my 3DS the first,second and third times....

 

When collecting my 3DS one time, it was when the iphone 4S had litterally just been released, and there was a queue out of the depot in morley, and every one of them was looking for iphones!

 

after speaking with several that were waiting it seems that over 7 iphone 4S had up and disappeared, and they were looking for a blue pallet of phones from o2 (seemed they were o2's preferred deliver at the time)

 

when i got to the front of the queue and several were stood angrily waiting for phone, it still took them 10 min to find my 3DS, which apparently had been left in a van...

 

My girlfriend works for o2 and i told her of the problems and she passed it up the chain, and about a month later she told me they were changing couriers, which managers were speculating was because they had had quite a few parcels go missing (many more than the ones i mentioned were reported apparently)

 

City Link

Almost exactly the same situation as above!

no card, i was in, then had to collect, and it was supposedly next day delivery!

 

My old Royal mail depot in Seacroft Leeds

• I never ever ever got a parcel delivered to me, always a card, even when i was in! had to chase down a postman once only to find he didn't have the parcel anyway
  
• Multiple times i'd be waiting for parcels to arrive and they didn't turn up
  
• other times i'd be waiting for a few things and they'd be late, then i'd get a sorry you were out card, and when i go to collect the parcel i'd find that multiple of my parcels were taped together despite coming from different senders etc, to whcih royal fail saw no problem as i still got the parcel (however late they were). I'm sure on more than one occasion i'd even complained to the sender it was lost, only for this to occur
  

 

 

 

 

Royal mail may be abysmal but the alternatives are much worse

[Cube]

the van was battered and it looked like they just hired white van men part time or something,and i fully expect given he already looked ready for bed that the 9.30 delivery was because thats when he rolled out of bed into the van to do the local deliveries.

it just screamed cowboy company

 

That's because that's the company is exactly that. They don't have their own vans and the company consists of freelance drivers. I had some woman and her kid deliver something using a car.

[Agent Gibbs]

That's because that's the company is exactly that. They don't have their own vans and the company consists of freelance drivers. I had some woman and her kid deliver something using a car.

 

HA what a joke! and that passes for a delivery service these days

[Raining_again]

Next day delivery doesn't really apply to/justify the cost for delivery to northern ireland... as I found out.

 

Amazon advertises the "want this by 14th June, order before 2pm" etc. So I ordered something, paid the several pounds delivery, and it was late! Not only that I had ordered some stuff supersaver around about the same time, and it was there before...!

 

I wrote a complaint to amazon, they refunded my postage. Really bugs me that they are so big on the promised delivery dates but they don't make it clear that its for certain areas of the UK only. When I ordered there was NO exceptions warning on it, now they have some pathetic wee hidden warning somewhere... It's a joke.

 

But then again its a far cry from the days of £15 surcharges to post over here... there was a time when amazon were the only ones not doing that

[EEVILMURRAY]

Are you using Amazon Prime by accident?

 

I've had different delivery companies with Amazon (Prime) they are normally excellent.

 

Amazon Prime is wank.

 

My last three or so transactions made me cancel the service. You pay £50ish for a year for mega-pr0 speedy delivery and you get fuck all. They'd lie on the tracking, ordering for a Monday delivery (which would've cost extra if not on Prime) and it apparently gets delivered EXACTLY at 6PM, signed for and everything. I've been in all day so I know no delivery had been attempted. It arrived Tuesday/Wednesday (which I could've gotten for free). I fucking hate paying for something and not getting it and what's worse is that they tried to cover up their own incompetence.

[Rummy]

A few years ago Yodel threw my shoes over the fence.

 

I think I realised then that they weren't my courier of choice.

[Shorty]

Amazon Prime is wank.

Huh, sounds like you had a very different experience to me.

 

I did the Amazon Prime free trial last December and it was amazing. I must've ordered about 15 Christmas presents and they all came within 1 day, even during Christmas delivery season. Everything arrived before 1pm the next day, even if I didn't choose pre-midday delivery, including something I ordered at 7pm at night!

[Ramar]

Oh god my 3DS XL has just been dispatched with Hermes. Godspeed.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Huh, sounds like you had a very different experience to me.

 

I did the Amazon Prime free trial last December and it was amazing. I must've ordered about 15 Christmas presents and they all came within 1 day, even during Christmas delivery season. Everything arrived before 1pm the next day, even if I didn't choose pre-midday delivery, including something I ordered at 7pm at night!

 

The free trial was amazing for me too. Then I just never bothered cancelling it. It went downhill from there. I have had good experiences with Prime, but whatever they were doing towards the end turned me right off.

[Ramar]

Oh god my 3DS XL has just been dispatched with Hermes. Godspeed.

 

Wowzer it was delivered at 8:15. Although the delivery bloke was already walking away when I got to the door, he waited a massive 10 seconds.

[James]

Had Amazon prime for three years now, only one problem when black ops 2 was a day late. I complained and they extended an extra month.

[Ike]

Last couple of times I used expedited I got City Link and DPD and they were excellent, pretty sure I got timeslots and everything with them.

 

Most of the time I just have stuff sent first class, seems pointless to get a DVD couriered and they turn up next day.

 

I think prime is great, I must have saved money the amount of stuff I've ordered. Only bad thing is you can't select second class postage since there was a couple of times I didn't want it next day.

 

Only thing is, Amazon themselves seem a bit slower at actually processing and shipping the orders sometimes.

[bryanee]

Never had issues with Hermes or Yodel. I tend to be in though if something is coming by courier. Most of the time though I just use either super saver and first class delivery, Royal Mails sorting office isn't far away if I miss a package that needs to be signed for.