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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Pippa Middleton"s party firm hit by Christmas delivery woes

Pippa”s party firm hit by Christmas delivery woes as their courier company are swamped with orders
Pippa Middleton”s company use Yodel who have been hit by festive delays
Parcel firm also delivers for Amazon, Asda and VirginOnline Christmas Day spending to hit 186.4million
Delivery woes: Pippa Middleton
Delivery woes: Pippa Middleton”s party firm have been hit by delays
Pippa Middleton”s party firm have been hit by Christmas delivery woes as their courier company have been swamped with orders.
Party Pieces customers have faced delays as Yodel battle to deliver all parcels in time for Christmas.
The parcel firm is failing to deliver around 15,000 packages out of 1.5million a day because of a huge surge in demand.
Male nanny Nick Mitchell, from Lightwater, Surrey, wrote on Twitter that his order from the Middleton family firm had been delayed.
He asked if they used Yodel, and the Evening Standard reported that they replied: “Yes we do and that is the reason. We have experienced problems with them, too, sadly.”
Pippa helps to edit the company magazine.
The company, the biggest home delivery firm after Royal Mail, told the Financial Times that it is having to make 20 per cent more deliveries than normal around Christmas in some areas.
Yodel is used by retail giants Amazon, Asda and Virgin.
Mr Mitchell said Yodel had failed to leave the parcel in two safe places normally used by Royal Mail, and claimed its delivery driver refused to accept calls until 4pm — leaving him sweating on whether the item he had ordered would arrive in time for Christmas.
Customers have launched an online petition to force firms such as Amazon to ditch Yodel. Channel 4 newsreader Cathy Newman tweeted: “Given up on Amazon completely since they started using Yodel. Awful firm.”
Last minute: Amazon workers pack goods for delivery at a distribution centre in Swansea, South Wales
Last minute: Amazon workers pack goods for delivery at a distribution centre in Swansea, South Wales
Customers who bought presents on the internet weeks ago have branded Yodel”s chaotic delivery service a “disgrace”.
Disgruntled shoppers have taken to Twitter and said it has been impossible “for weeks” to get through to the company”s customer helpline.
Many of Yodel”s clients – which also include Littlewoods, O2 and Currys – have now apologised to customers who ordered products from their websites in time for Christmas Day, offering them a full refund.
Looking for bargains: Christmas Day online spending continues to show double-digit growth
Looking for bargains: Christmas Day online spending continues to show double-digit growth
An email from an Amazon customer relations employee told an online shopper: “We can”t get through to Yodel to find out what has happened to your package. This has been happening a lot with them recently.”
SAINSBURYS CUSTOMERS MAY BE LEFT WITHOUT CHRISTMAS DINNER
Sainsbury”s customers were sweating over the contents of their Christmas dinner today after the supermarket admitted a website glitch led to a number of deliveries being cancelled.
As Sainsbury”s revealed its untimely problems, department store Fortnum & Mason also said hundreds of customers will not receive its world-famous hampers, which cost between 25 and 5,000, after a “severe” IT failure.
Sainsbury”s, the UK”s third biggest grocer, said the affected customers discovered their online delivery slot had gone when they reviewed their festive order.
While some deliveries were re-booked, others could not be altered and Sainsbury”s has been forced to fund a gesture of goodwill to customers who have been left empty handed.
Fortnum, which sends out thousands of hampers stocked with fine food and wines, apologised and said it had taken on more staff and will be delivering orders on Christmas Eve this year in a bid to make up for the failure.
The 300-year-old Piccadilly emporium put the problems down to a combination of a new computer system and a tripling of trade in December.
A user posted on Twitter: “yodel stealing my christmas spirit. been waiting for parcel to be “re-delivered next day since dec 9th.” have called repeatedly. rubbish!”
The company has hired extra staff and vehicles on top of its fleet of 15,000 regular employees, 250 lorries, 1,000 giant trailers and 5,000 vans.
The business has a current annual turnover of 650million and is aiming to reach sales of 1billion within the next five years.
Company boss Jonathan Smith, 52, claimed in a recent interview that the organisation had the “expertise, vehicles and technology” to ensure Christmas operations ran smoothly.
He said: “I want to do everything possible to ensure stock reaches shops and presents arrive on time.”
An employee for a business that uses Yodel to deliver parcels on its behalf tweeted their anger at the “hopeless” company.
However, a spokesman for Yodel said it did not have a backlog and was working to deal with customer service queries.
“Both of our networks are currently clear and there is no backlog,” he said.
“The vast majority of our deliveries run smoothly for our clients and their customers, however where issues do occur we take customer service very seriously and work to resolve them as swiftly as possible.”
Meanwhile, spending online on Christmas Day will burst through a whopping 186.4million, a retail body has forecast, as record number of consumers try and bag an early deal.
The Christmas Day spree is expected to be followed by 367.8million on Boxing Day, the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) has said.
The predictions represent a 12 per cent jump on total spending last year.

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