Postal Mailings Did Not Arrive on Time
The majority of messages sent through Yodel are delivered via postal mail as postcards. This article discusses some of the possible trouble areas with postal mailing delivery. It's best to understand the steps involved so you can consider the areas that can cause delivery delays.
Your Selected Target Date
The selection you make for the target date when creating your message is key to when other processes and actions are triggered in our system.
Keep in mind that the target date is not a guaranteed delivery date (see our legal disclaimers). Yodel will do all we can to try and make sure all printed and digital message deliveries happen on or near this date, but there are areas outside of our control which can affect the final delivery date.
You use a calendar control to select from available dates that exclude Sundays and U.S. holidays observed by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). These dates are not selectable because mail is not delivered on those days.
Yodel also ensures that there is enough lead time for the remainder of the message processing which includes approvals, pricing confirmation, printing and mailing.
All this must be good at the time you "Finish & Schedule" your message which will kick off the remainder of the steps listed below.
If any step of the process takes longer than expected, the target date may be in jeopardy and need to be adjusted before continuing.
Yodel Review & Approval
In order to maintain quality, to ensure safety and security guidelines are met, and to abide by state and federal legal requirements, Yodel reviews messages before sending.
After your message has been scheduled, the Yodel system will key off your selected target date. Intentionally, we hold off on the review, approval, and pricing confirmation until your target date is approaching.
With regard to planned lead times, Yodel will review your message a little over a week ahead of your target date. Review the approvals for senders and messages documentation for more details on the process.
There should be time for a couple of business days to make any changes if your message is not approved. Once the message passes approval, you'll be notified per your notification preferences.
Final Price Confirmation
Following the approval of your message, Yodel will evaluate your selected audiences against the latest address data, along with your selected print style, and based on current pricing for mailings, we will generate your final price.
You will be notified that the pricing is ready for your confirmation, per your notification preferences.
It is important to review and confirm the pricing as soon as possible so that your target date does not become unavailable. If there is a delay up to this point, your target date may need to be shifted later to the next available date.
Printing
With approval and price confirmation complete, the next step is for Yodel to send your message for printing.
Once it has reached this stage, your message is no longer editable. However, if you contact our support team before the actual printing has begun there may still be a short window where you can cancel a send (review our refund policy). If the printing has started, then the message send will continue and you will be charged.
There can be unforeseen delays at the printing stage. Yodel attempts to keep expectations of required lead times so that this does not become a problem. But with any manual and mechanical processes that involve quality checks, there is a potential for error and delay.
Mailing
The printed postcards will be mailed out through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). As with any mail sent through postal mail, the transit time is not guaranteed.
Your audiences may be geographically dispersed, serviced by more than one post office, and therefore the individual postcards may not all arrive to your audiences' mailboxes on the same day.
Occasionally, it is known and expected that some mailers will be lost in the mail. This is an unavoidable fact that cannot be prevented.
Still Have Concerns?
If you acknowledge the above conditions that can delay delivery but are still concerned about your delivery time on a message that has been sent, please reach out to our service team using our online contact form.