Category Archives: Home Delivery Network

Home Delivery Network

Delivery Man Throws Monitor Over Fence

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For once we have a story of a delivery man throwing a parcel over a fence, and it’s NOT Home Delivery Network. This time it’s FedEx, and the delivery drive in question lobs a Panasonic monitor over a fence right in front of the CCTV. Smart chap.

The video was added to YouTube on the 19th by the intended recipient of the monitor, and in two days it has attracted almost 2.5 million views and has gone viral. FedEx must be so proud of their driver. They couldn’t have paid for this type of publicity. Watch the video and marvel at the ineptitude and the ‘just couldn’t give a f*ck’ attitude of the driver.

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Complaints, Home Delivery Network

Yodel employee speaks out against employer

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I had a comment from a Yodel employee on one of the many HDNL/Yodel posts, explaining some of the difficulties the company is experiencing with its workload, and how it is laying off many of the drivers in favour. I thought this comment was so good that it should be added as a guest post. He makes some great points, and confirms what many Yodel customers have suspected…

Author : Yodel employee

I work for this company and can really sympathise with a lot of disgruntled people who have experienced issues.

However, I have to mention that there are people that work for this company that actually care. Just like in other companies, we are just let down by people who take short cuts and don’t give a damn about the consequences on customers. For the position I work in, it is so difficult to repair situations and at times you feel helpless at the chaos that occurs around you.

Yodel came about when HDNL acquired DHL Domestic (formerly Securicor Omega), so I knew things we not going to end well.

I normally monitor the emails and am appalled at the amount of complaints, missing parcels and delay queries I have to answer. There is no concept of adhering to standards or addressing poor service/performance. Yodel have made huge staff cut backs, drafted in a host of self employed couriers (without doing background checks) but persist with them as they are cheaper than employing drivers and are continually restructuring the organisation as well as the systems we use.

As a result, we have had IT issues, problems tracking parcels and the customer has suffered. We have lost so many customers in the past year, many of whom had been with Securicor Omega. I am someone that takes pride at what I do and really try my best so seeing this damage unfolding is depressing.

Each employee is pushed to work harder and for less which kills any lingering bits of motivation anyone has. Working for this company for the last year has been demoralising and very frustrating.

Like Lee Stevens, I will also very likely lose my job as the company looks to close sites and claw back money. With that decision they will lose a lot of employees with years of experience and many who actually care about what they do.

For me though, it may be a blessing.

Complaints, Home Delivery Network, Humour

HDNL driver crashes through gate

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This video was added in one of the comments on a post about HDNL had rebranded to YODEL to escape all of the bad press they have been receiving – and clearly it’s working if this dissatisfied customer is anything to go by. While waiting for a delivery from Amazon (who really should consider dropping HDNL/YODEL when they get tarred with the same brush) the customer’s CCTV caught the delivery driver ‘attempt’ to open the gates to his driveway, before giving up and forcing his van through the gap – damaging both the van and gates.

What sort of utter moron does this? Good work from YODEL – I wonder how long it will be before they rebrand again.

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Complaints, Home Delivery Network, Internet

Home Delivery Network Complaints Department

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HDNL, or YODEL as they’re now know, have been added as one of the founder companies to a new complaints website, The Complaints Department. This site has just launched, so is a bit sparse in content right now, but with listings such as Home Delivery Network it’s only a matter of time before the website is brimming with complaints from dissatisfied customers of the incompetent delivery company.

Who knows, perhaps even some of the HDNL drivers will get over there and mouth of as well? We can only hope.

Be sure to leave your opinions on HDNL over at their own page on the Complaints Department website.

Complaints, Home Delivery Network, Rants

Abusive Home Delivery Network driver

14 Comments

This site has featured a number of posts about HDNL, also known as Home Delivery Network, now known as YODEL. Initially I posted about how a delivery of mine was tossed over a gate and left in the rain, and that post alone has generated nearly 500 comments from equally annoyed customers and also from HDNL drivers. Some of the drivers come to defend their employer, some come to admit that there’s a problem, some come to abuse people – all of which of course helps the website to rank even better in Google for HDNL, so thanks for that!

One driver however has been particularly fervent in his postings. Sometimes he uses the name ‘Matty’, sometimes he uses the name ‘Dan’, but he always uses the email address bigtreewitheyes@talk21.com and he says he works for HDNL in Newton Abbot, in the Heathfield depot. Dan, Matty, whatever he calls himself, has been posting comments on this site since December 30th 2009, so he’s obviously a big fan.

In that time he has made over 40 comments, most of which containing abuse of some form. Let’s have a look at some of the things that Matty, Dan, bigtreewitheyes@talk21.com, the guy who works for HDNL, or rather YODEL, at Newton Abbot, has said:

In response to one customer who complained via this website, Matty (or Dan) commented in January 2010:

What an idiot!

How do you know it was the same driver?

Plenty of rounds have 2, 3, or 4 vans.

By your posting, you sound like a real ignorant prick.

You sound just the sort of ignorant twat that would shout abuse at somebody.

Im surprised anybody delivers to you.

Asshole

Please forgive the spelling too, as this guy’s not the brightest.

In the same month, this bastion of HDNL’s employment directed these comments at me:

My god, you are a petty, misserable excuse of a little man.

Its a bottle of wine, get over it you idiot!

You must be a real joy to live with, if of course, anybody actually does live with you!

Pathetic!

Im sure Laithwaites will be so upet losing an absolute cock of a customer like you!

This post wasn’t even about HDNL, but our Matty/Dan thought he’d offer his opinions anyway.

When this post was added, where another HDNL driver labelled all of their customers morons, Matty/Dan chipped in with this comment:

Morons is abit lite….
Dickheads is a bit better!

So one driver with YODEL brands all of their customers ‘morons’ and Matty/Dan thinks that’s not strong enough, insisting their actually ‘dick heads’.

Matty/Dan got straight to the point with this comment:

Mr Daz shut the fuck up you pathetic piece of toilet scum.

Before following up with the rather polite in comparison:

I take it your a traffic warden!!

Wanker!!

Bullied at school were you?

The HDNL employee then decided that going on a personal offensive was the best option, as his defence of Home Delivery Network wasn’t really cutting much ice with the dissatisfied customers on the site. He went on to add:

You need to do yourself a favour, get your ugly head away from the computer, pull back the curtains, and see some day light.
Theres a whole world out there you know!

Loser.

Matty/Dan then turned his attention to some of the many customers who had posted on the blog, offending them too:

Lisa,
As an employee of hdnl, and knowing the policies as I do, I can honestly say I dont beleive a word you had just typed!

Maybe you had a late delivery and thats why your whining.

Get a grip woman!

After this Matty/Dan was pulled up his comments by a HDNL customer called Kate, whom he set about insulting with a frenzied vigour:

KATE you sound like a horrible person.

As for your rubbish about consulting a solicitor and QC (samething different job) about a non delivered parcel, your making your self look rather silly.

And:

Your address doesnt sound very rural to me!
You are full of crap Kate.

End.

And again:

You dont get it do you Kate.
I bet you have caused a fuss at the depot before, over your unreasonable demands havent you?
I dont get paid to put up with rude, abusive, mouthy, and threatening people like you, and if I have prior experience with a customer behaving like that, I wont take the parcel.
So maybe you should look at your attitude towards people, you obviously see hard working delivery drivers as a bit of scum that you can abuse.
Ive got news for you love!!
And its all bad!!!

Although Matty/Dan did find time to have a swipe at me in the same comment, he can multitask like that:

Mr Daz (wanker) I hate to break it to you, but out of the MILLIONS of parcels delivered every year, a few hundred complaints, whilst regretable, are just a tiny tiny percentage, with alot being made up of pathetic, the world owes me everything, type of people like yourself and bignosekate.

After his sideswipe at me, the Home Delivery Network driver went on the full offensive, abusing me for my job, no less.

Building websires = lonely nerds
You hide away from the world slagging off everybody, and everything.

Your a horrible little man, with no life.

‘losers’ like me ‘flock’ to your pathetic site to have a laugh at the pathetic complaints that people like you make.
It really is very sad.

The only public service I would like to see you involved with, is a flogging in the town square!

Matty/Dan followed this up with another abusive tirade:

I must say, being abused by a loser from behind a computer screen is really hurting my feelings!

I bet you hog the middle lane of the motorway, and refuse to give way to other motorists also.

As I said, a sad man, that feels powerful when hes hidden from the world, either locked in his car, or hidden in his bedroom.

Sad.

There are of course many more comments on this site from Matty/Dan, and other employees of Home Delivery Network (or YODEL, as they are now) but I think this should suffice for the time being. This HDNL driver was also one of the more respectful and polite drivers who have commented on here, as at least he didn’t threaten to ‘knock ya wrag-head off…..u dick’ to someone with an Asian name.

What do you think about Home Delivery Network?

Complaints, Home Delivery Network, Michael Jackson, Rants

Play.com replacement item also arrives damaged

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Last month I ordered two Michael Jackson dolls from Play.com and they both arrived packaged in nothing more than plastic bags, naturally damaged. I complained to Play.com, obviously, and was told by the Play.com complaints team that I needed to wait in for the damaged items to be picked up, and that they couldn’t guarantee that the items would be resent packaged properly.

Billie Jean doll from PlayThe Thriller doll arrived well packaged, in a box, with protection, delivered by our friends at HDNL. Nice job. The Billie Jean doll however arrived packaged in a plastic bag, delivered by Royal Mail, and crushed – again.

I have now sent the following email to Play.com complaining about the state of the replacement item. This dance will continue until they get it right, or until I get tired of complaining… I think we know which one will happen first.

I have just returned from the Post Office after collecting this item, where once again I find that it has been packaged in a plastic bag. This is the second time you have attempted to send this item to me, and the second time that it has arrived damaged.

I initially ordered this and a Thriller doll, both arrived damaged in November. I complained to you, you told me to phone your expensive 0845 number, which I did. The woman on the phone said she couldn’t ensure that the replacements would be sent out packaged correctly, which astounded me. I then waited in for HDNL to collect them, taking a day off to do so.

The Thriller doll arrived in perfect condition, packaged in a large cardboard box (the original box used by Character Options to deliver the dolls to you in the first place) – you know, the sort of box ‘designed’ to ensure these figures arrive undamaged.

The Billie Jean doll however was once again dispatched in a plastic bag, despite there being room for two dolls in the aforementioned cardboard box. The doll has arrived, once again, damaged.

This is not good enough. I want the item I paid for in a condition fit for sale.

I now expect you’ll send me another template auto response requesting that I call your premium rate 0845 number and arrange another pick-up, costing me another day of work

This will not be good enough either. I expect to be compensated for this shoddy service, for my repeated phone calls and for my time waiting in for someone to collect a parcel, twice, that you should have delivered correctly the first time.

I await your automated email with baited breath.

Home Delivery Network

JE James Cycles dumps Home Delivery Network

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As regular visitors to this website have found, a great many people have been experiencing problems over the years with deliveries (or usually the lack of deliveries) from HDNL, or Yodel as they’re now known. Many visitors to this blog have sworn never to use any companies online who choose to employ Home Delivery Network, with even BBC Watchdog featuring them on their recent series.

Cycle fans will be pleased to know however that a cycle business based in Yorkshire, JE James Cycles, has dropped HDNL after using them for just two months. In that time JE James Cycles reported incidents of bikes being lost for long periods, and even bikes going missing (possibly stolen) while being delivered. JE James Cycles noted that an incredible 77 bikes went missing in a single day because of Home Delivery Network, only to turn up 2 weeks later in the corner of a warehouse.

Naturally this isn’t the sort of customer service that JE James Cycles wants to be associated with, and they have now ditched Home Delivery Network in favour of their original courier, APC Overnight.

Andy Lindsay, from JE James Cycles, commented:

We are a small cycle business based in south Yorkshire, we have just opened up a new warehouse in Rotherham mainly to be used with our mail order side of business.

Due to large increase in internet orders we had a few offers from courier companies, and surprisingly HDNL popped up and the contracts manger/regional sales manager sold this company to us superbly.

Their price was great and they offered us the SMS text messaging service which could boost sales with customers finding deliveries much easier to arrange. We used HDNL for two months and that quickly proved to be two months too long.

We were sending roughly 120 consignments out a day with HDNL and in the very short time we used them we had 3 lost/stolen parcels that we had to claim for and in one day 77 of the 120 were lost for 2 weeks, we were told these got accidentally put in the corner of their sorting depot.

Home Delivery Network Van crashedAndy also added that had JE James Cycles been aware of the Watchdog program before it was transmitted they would have liked to have been involved so they could apologise to any of their customers who have been inconvenienced as a result of HDNL.

As an added bonus, Andy also sent us this photo of a Home Delivery Network van reversing into a wall in the icy conditions these last few days. We don’t know who the person’s wall is, or whether there was any damage to the wall, but it’s in Rotherham, near the Wilton Pub.

Is this your wall?

Complaints, Home Delivery Network

Home Delivery Network complaints on BBC Watchdog

38 Comments

Home Delivery Network appeared on BBC Watchdog tonight, with a number of people complaining about their lack of service. Incredibly though, not one of the customers complaining about HDNL mentioned anything about the sort of stuff we’ve seen here on this website, such as the abuse from drivers, threats of physical violence, racist comments or the magical disappearance of parcels… except maybe for the woman who’s boyfriend ordered the laptop that vanished without trace. Tesco even said to the BBC, and is printed on their website:

Tesco customers rightly expect the very best service. We deliver to millions of happy customers every week so we were very sorry to hear about Ms Treacy’s experience and inconvenience. We sent the laptop out just a few hours after she ordered it so we are investigating with YODEL why it wasn’t delivered.

Well Tesco, if the thousands of comments left by angry customers on MrDaz.com are anything to go by, I think the location of that laptop is probably fairly easy to determine. I would indeed investigate with YODEL, formerly HDNL, as to where it ended up.

As most of the complaints aired on Watchdog tonight were fairly mild by comparison, you can read a more forthright and colourful collection of Home Delivery Network’s indiscretions right here on MrDaz.com.