A Yodel driver broke my £4k gate – why won’t it pay to fix it?

A Yodel driver damaged the gate of my house in June last year while delivering a package.

It is electric, but the automatic opening and closing is disabled on one of the two gates. It’s an old model that doesn’t have a safety stop if something blocks it, and as I have twin toddlers I wanted to avoid accidents.

My father was waiting at my house to receive the package, and the driver ignored instructions to wait for him to come out and open the gates by hand.

He drove through the partially opened gate and hit it, damaging the gate and his van. The gate is now bent and cannot close or lock.

The driver was rude to my father, yelling and telling him he would get in trouble at work.

When he came back to my house the following week to deliver a separate package, he told me how much the incident had bothered him and said he “wouldn’t forget.” I asked him not to be sent to my house anymore.

It was all captured on my CCTV, and when I initially sent this to Yodel, it admitted the driver had damaged my gate, apologized and offered to pay to have it fixed.

As requested, I sent two quotes for the repair in October 2021, estimated at £4,692 and £4456.

When I heard nothing more, I gave chase at the end of November. This time, Yodel informed me that it wouldn’t cover the cost because the gates had ‘prior damage’. I don’t know why it said this.

Yodel didn’t inspect the gates which, while quite old, were in good condition, and the contractors I got the quotes from said Yodel hadn’t spoken to them.

Then it got quiet. We are very disappointed that a company like Yodel does not have a better system for solving such problems. SB, by email

Helen Crane of This is Money replies: How frustrating – you just wanted your package to be delivered safely, but instead this Yodel carrier brought a lot of drama to your front door.

Being a driver is an unenviable job: they are mostly contractors, not employees, and are paid not by the hour, but by the package – meaning they are constantly racing against the clock. That’s why we so often find our packages dumped in bins or left at the door.

With such time constraints, there will clearly be accidents – although if delivery companies treated their employees a little more fairly, there might be fewer.

Unfortunately for you, such an accident happened on your property. Instead of waiting for your father to let him in, he ran through what he assumed was a working electric gate – only to find it was half turned off.

You say that the driver was rude to your father then, and then to you, which made you feel threatened.

Returning to your gate, the incident had rendered it useless. You had the entire incident on camera, so you asked Yodel to pay to fix it. Unfortunately, your experience has revealed that customer service is an area where the parcel company does not deliver.

I feel that sometimes parcel couriers get away with poor service because the majority of their customers can’t vote with their feet and choose another carrier.

When you order a product online, the retailer has a contract with Yodel, Hermes or Royal Mail to get it to you – whether you like it or not.

You’ve had nearly a year of confusion, with Yodel initially claiming it would pay for the repairs, then changing his mind and not explaining why.

You say that Yodel at one point claimed it wasn’t responsible for the incident because the driver was a contractor, not a Yodel employee—a subterfuge in my view since Yodel hired him and was still ultimately responsible for delivering the package.

As the repair cost at least £4,000 you were not satisfied and decided to contact me.

At first, Yodel suggested to me that you had made a mistake, because you were not “responding to requests”. But when I checked with you, you said there had been no “requests” and the last contact you had from Yodel was a legal letter stating that Yodel would not pay the bill.

When I asked to clarify exactly what you needed to do, the £4,692 miraculously landed in your bank account.

A spokesperson said: ‘We have been in contact with’ [the customer] to apologize for the inconvenience and to arrange a refund for repairs.

“We take drivers’ driving behavior very seriously and have taken appropriate measures as this is not in line with the high standards we place on our colleagues.”

You won’t be singing Yodel’s praises anytime soon, but I’m glad the incident has been put to bed.

Hit and miss: this week’s naughty and fun list

Every week I look at the companies that have fallen short when it comes to customer service, and the companies that have done their best.

Touch: With an estimated 350,000 weddings set to take place in the UK before the end of the year, many will be looking for hen party options across the country.

A colleague in the unenviable position of hosting one of these events panicked this week when the chef she hired to cook a meal at the start of the festivities due to illness 48 hours in advance. canceled.

She had booked it through the app yhangrywhich allows diners to select a menu of their choice for their party and have a professional chef come over to prepare it.

With such short notice, the chickens could very well have been eating chicken nuggets.

But within half an hour she was informed that yhangry had arranged for another chef to fill in at no extra cost. When contacted, he even offered to upgrade the menu to something more luxurious for the same price. The Hangry chicken crisis has been averted.

To miss: I’ve written before about Air Passenger Duty – the tax element of an airline ticket that airlines have to refund almost all of their customers in the event that they don’t take a flight.

Reader Jan contacted me recently to tell me she had attempted to recover £26 worth of APD from the airline jet2 after she had to cancel her holiday – but she was told there would be a £25 administration fee.

“Not a lot of money, I know, but this is disgusting behavior from airlines,” she said. “I just wanted to vent my frustration.”

I contacted Jet2 to ask if charging a £25 administration fee on a £26 tax refund would really be appropriate.

I got no answer, but the money was refunded.

A spokesperson said: ‘We have been in contact with’ [the customer] after she cancels her holiday and can confirm that we have refunded the Air Passenger Duty fare. No administration costs have been charged.’