Yodel vs. Royal Mail

As you’re probably aware, we recently changed Vinyl Deli’s delivery partner from Royal Mail to Yodel. Yodel has been our main courier since April.

Today, I want to review this decision and provide you with some context.

Since October 2019, we used Royal Mail but in recent times, their service has led to numerous issues for Vinyl Deli. Here are the key reasons for our switch.

Royally Ridiculous Loss & Damages

Royal Mail’s loss / damage claims process has become unfit for purpose.

When a lost or damaged parcel gets reported, we contact Royal Mail for compensation. While mistakes are inevitable, Royal Mail’s handling of these issues has deteriorated.

In the past, Royal Mail would usually resolve the claim within 2 weeks of us reporting the issues. It almost always ended in us receiving the compensation we applied for to cover our costs to fix the issues. This excludes the 13 working days we’d have to wait to report a parcel as missing, mind you.

Vinyl Deli could live with these timeframes — especially when we were confident we’d eventually receive the compensation. We could move towards fixing the issues ahead of a successful claim.

This changed, and Royal Mail started losing parcels without compensating us or delivering them months late. One subscriber received a parcel 83 days late. During this wait, we still had to replace or compensate our customers meaning we had to absorb additional costs when we should have been insured.

Vinyl Deli customers can’t and won’t accept long waits for issue resolution, and rightly so. We have to fix issues promptly as part of decent customer service. The delays and lack of compensation have cost us thousands of pounds we simply don’t have.

TLDR: Royal Mail wasn’t compensating us for their mistakes, costing us significantly.

Royally Ridiculous Pricing Increases

Given the cost of living crisis and economic pressures, our costs have understandably increased. Therefore I don’t begrudge Royal Mail for raising prices, but I was shocked by the uncommunicated price hike in our March invoices.

When I dug deeper, this price increase was being introduced later in April and was not supposed to be applied in March. We had to absorb this unforeseen cost for services ordered in March and despite numerous emails and attempted calls to our Account Manager, she never addressed this price increase with us.

This isn’t even the best bit (or worst depending on how you want to look at it).

Royal Mail’s Business pricing is dependent on the volume, size and weight of what that business sends. As a small business, we pay more than a larger business. It’s how economies of scale works. That’s totally acceptable.

What isn’t acceptable is being overcharged for services where other businesses with lower volumes receive much cheaper rates than Vinyl Deli — for larger, heavier packages. I am talking about a £2.44 difference per parcel for the services we used. That is huge.

This poor communication and lack of integrity from Royal Mail, combined with being overcharged compared to other businesses, highlighted their inefficiency. Despite multiple requests for a review, our pricing remained unfairly high.

TLDR: Royal Mail increased our costs by 56% without warning, while smaller businesses received better rates for larger parcels.

Reviewing Yodel

I contacted several couriers and within minutes, I fell in love with Yodel. Their team is attentive and quick in responding. It really puts me at ease knowing I can contact them and actually receive a response that isn’t autogenerated.

As I alluded to, I was lucky to get a response from Royal Mail…

However, having spent a few months using Yodel I have discovered a few of their downfalls. Below is a quick synopsis of the good and the bad as I want to be transparent with Vinyl Deli members.

The Good

• Over 70% of parcels are delivered next day (on average)
• When things go wrong, they respond within hours
• Claims are usually concluded within a week
• I have been a huge, constant nag and their teams are always helpful
• They are cheaper than Royal Mail

The Bad

• Inconsistent delivery times, with some parcels taking up to a week
• Slight increase in issues, from ~3 a month with Royal Mail to ~4 with Yodel
• Their brand has a poor reputation which means I get a lot of Yodel hate in emails and survey responses, even when Yodel haven’t done anything wrong in that instance

From the business side, Yodel’s responsiveness and helpfulness have been invaluable. As a result, Vinyl Deli hasn’t had to increase any of its prices — a £3 increase across all memberships was considered due to Royal Mail’s price hike and compensation issues.

Most importantly, switching to Yodel has ensured the longevity of Vinyl Deli. Sticking with Royal Mail might have put us out of business. This decision was about securing a sustainable future for Vinyl Deli. A continued cost increase would have wiped out our margins, while increasing our prices would have reduced the value-for-money members would receive.

Many Vinyl Deli members have praised Yodel, though a few have had issues. We’re always striving to improve our service, and your feedback is crucial. I am putting pressure on Yodel to improve when they fall short.

At the end of the day, both Royal Mail and Yodel are in the delivery business where it’s hard to deliver exceptional service. On the flip side, it’s easy to make mistakes and both couriers do. I find Yodel are much better at helping us resolve issues.

Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s how you put them right that’s most important.

Feel free to email me with any comments or concerns at jordan@vinyldeli.com.

Thanks,
Jordan